Gadhafi cancels Canada stopover

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has canceled plans for a stopover in Canada, but officials say they are still wondering why he wanted to visit the country.

Gadhafi canceled a stop in St. John's, Newfoundland, on his way home from the United Nations in New York, Canwest News Service reported.

Word of the stopover created quite a stir, Canwest said, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordering Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to greet Gadhafi on arrival and give him an earful.

Harper wanted Cannon to express outrage about the hero's welcome Libya gave to the Lockerbie bomber, released from Scotland with terminal cancer.

But St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe isn't buying any of it.

The scolding "could have been done by the prime minister out of Ottawa," he told Canwest. "Assuming (Gadhafi) knows that's coming, will he just open up the door to allow someone to come in and dress him down?"

And with planes able to cross the Atlantic without refueling, a stop to fill up Gadhafi's plane "doesn't seem plausible."

So what was Gadhafi doing planning to stop in Newfoundland? "I wish I knew," O'Keefe said.

The mayor told Canwest rumors from "the street" had Gadhafi reserving an estate in the city to pitch a tent, wanting to start an oil refinery in the province and wanting to rent 70 cars.