The funeral for former Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi was to have taken place Friday, in keeping with Islamic tradition that bodies be buried as soon as possible. But a host of concerns have caused the body to be placed in temporary storage instead — and an inquiry may be launched into how he died.

The dictator was found and killed in his hometown of Sirte Thursday, after eight months of unrest and violence in Libya.

Here are some of the open questions concerning Libya:

Historians have found documents from 1497 that show King James IV paid two shillings for a bag of "fut ballis." Seventy years later, Mary Queen of Scots watched a match. The curator of the Scottish Football Museum says the early game was for the royals but the matches did include heated arguments between players.

Violet snails may be some of the best surfers around, but how the ocean snails develop their little rafts has been a mystery. Biologists have now figured out that the surfing snails ascended from evolutionary relatives on the ocean floor. The surfboard evolved from the snails' egg packet.

President Obama's decision to send 100 U.S. troops into central Africa to help combat a rebel group may have struck many as a surprise, but there's a long precedent for such operations.

U.S. forces have worked collaboratively with numerous militaries around the globe in recent decades, whether to put down insurgencies in places like the Philippines and El Salvador, or to fight the drug trade in Colombia and Mexico.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

ARI SHAPIRO, host: And I'm Ari Shapiro filling in for Steve Inskeep.

The nation's largest private employer will no longer provide a healthcare plan for new part-time employees, according to The New York Times. Walmart is also raising premiums for many full-time staff. The reason is rising costs, according to a company spokesman quoted in the story.

The events in Ohio involving the release of dozens of exotic animals eerily parallel parts of Michael Koryta's latest book: The Ridge. Koryta talks to Ari Shapiro about the challenges of regulating exotic animal ownership.

Oliver Miles, a former British Ambassador to Libya, talks to Renee Montagne about the reaction in Britain, and France to the death of former Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi. What does his death mean for Europe's future role in Libya?

Ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed on Thursday after being captured in his hometown of Sirte. His death marks a spectacular fall from power that began in February when anti-government forces seized the coastal city of Misrata.

For the latest from Libya, Ari Shapiro talks to Vivienne Walt, a correspondent for "Time Magazine," who's based in Tripoli.