Autumn should be looming for Libya's ageing patriarch. Since seizing power 40 years ago, Muammar Qaddafi has survived wars with neighbouring countries, repeated assassination plots and years of siege under international sanctions, along with much of the world's opprobrium and even ridicule. Yet, as he prepares to celebrate the anniversary on September 1st of the coup against King Idriss that he led as a young army captain back in 1969, this looks more like springtime for Libya's strongman. Flamboyant as ever despite his wrinkled face and rambling speech, he is increasingly fawned upon.
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