London - President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt punched a hole in the wall of sanctions imposed on Libya over the Lockerbie bombing when he flew into Tripoli yesterday with a team of doctors to examine Col Muammar Gadafy's broken hip.
Col Mubarak's flight, trumpeted by the Libyan media, went ahead only after Egypt obtained special permission from the United Nations committee monitoring the sanctions. But the US and Britain - demanding the hand-over of two Libyan intelligence officers accused of being behind the December 1988 midair explosion that killed 270 people - had little choice but to approve the mercy mission.
"Of course it's a scam," said one diplomat, "but there's simply no way we could have opposed it."