TRIPOLI : Question of Sanctions

Tougher U.N. sanctions against Libya aimed at forcing the renegade North African nation to hand over two suspects in the 1988 terrorist bombing of an American jetliner are scheduled to go into effect Wednesday.

The sanctions include a new freeze on Libya’s financial assets abroad, a ban on spare parts for the country’s oil facilities and new restrictions on domestic air travel. They expand the scope of 19-month-old sanctions, which so far have not persuaded Libya to give up the suspects for trial in America or Scotland.

The United Nations fell short of imposing a total oil embargo on the petroleum-rich nation. In the meantime, defiant Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi has said it’s up to the two suspects to decide whether they want to surrender themselves on charges stemming from the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.