LIBYA GETS SEAT ON U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL

Libya gets seat on U.N. Security Council (MSNBC)
U.S. did not try to prevent move, angering mother of Pan Am victim

UNITED NATIONS - Libya won a seat on the powerful U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.

Libya was virtually assured of election because it has been endorsed by the African group along with Burkina Faso and faced no opposition. Vietnam, which was endorsed by the Asian group, also ran unopposed.

All three countries won in the first round of voting, but the battle for seats from Latin America and Eastern Europe went to a second round.

Susan Cohen, of Cape May Court House, N.J., who lost her 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, said the United States should oppose Libya's candidacy for a seat because Libyan leader Moamar Gadhafi was responsible for the attack.

"I feel that the U.S. has totally lost its moral compass," she told The Associated Press. "Gadhafi blew up an American plane."

In 2000 the United States successfully blocked Sudan's bid for a council seat, and Washington's candidate, Mauritius, won. But in 2005, the U.S. backed Nicaragua and Peru won. This year, Washington did not back a candidate against Libya.