Obama Salutes Mideast Longing for Freedom

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday said the Arab revolution across the Middle East and North Africa speaks to a "longing of freedom" that has built up for years and has led to the overturning of tyrants — without perhaps more to fall. He embraced the call for change and compared it to signature moments of American history.

Obama, in a comprehensive address on the Middle East, said that the astonishing ripples across the region show that repression will not work anymore.

He hailed the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and declared that bin Laden's vision of destruction was fading even before U.S. forces shot him dead.

Obama said the "shouts of human dignity are being heard across the region."