Libyan Forces Seize Key Locations in Sirte After Intense Battles

Libyan forces from Misrata said they wrested control of key buildings in Muammar Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte from his supporters, after several days of intense street fighting that left scores dead and ...

Libya NTC forces expect to take Sirte in 48 hours

Smoke is seen rising over the city of Sirte on October 4, 2011, during clashes between anti-Gaddafi fighters and Gaddafi forces.

Forces with Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) now control more than half of Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte and believe they will have the city under their complete control within two days, a local NTC commander told Reuters today.

“More than half of the city is under the control of the rebels,” said the commander, Adel Al-Hasi. “In two days, God willing, Sirte will be free.”

Gaddafi determined to avoid Saddam Hussein’s fate

When Muammar Gaddafi ponders his future from his hideout somewhere in Libya, he will probably recall the fate of another fallen Arab autocrat, Saddam Hussein, pulled bedraggled from a hole in the ground.

With that precedent in mind, Gaddafi will be adamant, say people who know him, about two things: he will not give up the fight against Libya’s new rulers and, if the end comes, he will not allow himself to be captured alive.

“Gaddafi will not stop fighting,” said Fathi Ben Shatwan, who served under the former Libyan leader as minister for energy and industry until five years ago. “He will not stop unless he is stopped.”

Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), almost certainly with help from Western intelligence services, has mounted a manhunt to find Gaddafi that is focusing on the Sahara desert near the borders with Niger and Algeria.

Cameron, Sarkozy hailed in Libya, offer help

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (left), National Transitional Council (NTC) head Mustafa Abdul Jalil (centre) and Prime Minister David Cameron (right) join hands in Benghazi on September 15, 2011.

Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron landed in Libya to a heroes’ welcome yesterday, promising help for the new rulers that French and British air power helped to install and being told the favour may be repaid in business contracts.

Just three weeks after rebels backed by Nato bombers overran the capital, French President Sarkozy and the British prime minister promised in Tripoli to help hunt down Muammar Gaddafi and to hand his frozen assets to his successors.

The forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) later said they had stormed Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte, one of three main urban areas still beyond the interim government’s control.

NTC fighters were facing strong resistance from loyalist fighters, especially snipers, a military spokesman said.

In Benghazi, seat of the uprising which early intervention by French and British jets helped to save from Gaddafi’s army in March, Sarkozy and Cameron were treated to a rowdy welcome on “Freedom Square,” shouting to be heard over a cheering crowd of hundreds — many in the city were unaware of their arrival.

Anti-Gaddafi forces storm desert stronghold

Anti-Gaddafi fighters head to the front line, north of the besieged city of Bani Walid September 16, 2011. Columns of anti-Gaddafi forces sped towards Bani Walid on Friday after their position came under attack and one of their number said they were planning to take the town, one of the last bastions of support for the ousted Libyan leader.

Forces loyal to Libya’s new rulers surged into the desert town of Bani Walid today in a fierce attack on one of the last strongholds still in the hands of Muammar Gaddafi loyalists that could prove a major turning point in the war.

Explosions and gunfire echoed over the hills surrounding the town, which has been under siege for two weeks, with hundreds of die-hard supporters of the country’s fugitive former ruler concentrated around its centre.

Clinton urges Africa to drop Gaddafi, embrace rebels

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today urged African leaders to abandon Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, saying it was time to live up to their pledges to promote democracy across the continent.

Clinton, the first US secretary of state ever to address the 53-member African Union, said unreformed African leaders were themselves at risk from the same tide of democracy sweeping the Middle East, proclaiming “the status quo is broken and the old ways of governing are no longer acceptable.”

“It is true that Gaddafi has played a major role in providing financial support for many African nations and institutions, including the AU,” Clinton said in her speech at the AU’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

“But it has become clear that we are long past the time when he can remain in power.”

Long Libya mission to stretch UK force, says navy chief

An extended military campaign in Libya will be challenging for British naval resources and the government may need to prioritise where its assets are focused, the UK’s navy chief said today.

British aircraft and navy ships are playing a leading role in striking at Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. Britain also has about 10,000 troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the second most after the United States.

Admiral Mark Stanhope said he was “comfortable” within Nato’s new 90-day Libya mission mandate, which runs out at the end of September.

“Beyond that ... we might have to request the government to make some challenging decisions about what priorities they want,” he told reporters at a joint briefing with the head of the US navy in London.

“We have a small scale commitment in Libya ... if we do it for longer than 6 months then we have to reprioritise our forces across the piece — that does not mean we won’t be doing it.”

UK defence chiefs said in May extending the Libya campaign beyond six months would be a challenge for its armed forces.

Libyan rebels face setback after refinery hit

Workers inspect a damaged power generator of the oil refinery which was hit by a grad rocket of the forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi at western Libyan city of Misrata on June 13, 2011.


Libyan rebels faced new obstacles in their campaign to march on Tripoli after shelling from Muammar Gaddafi’s forces damaged an oil refinery in the insurgent stronghold of Misrata, disrupting fuel supply lines.

A Reuters photographer in Misrata joined rebel units as they pushed their front several kilometres west yesterday to the outskirts of Zlitan, a town controlled by Gaddafi’s forces.

Any fighting over Zlitan would bring the rebellion closer to the capital Tripoli, the Libyan leader’s stronghold which lies 200km west of Misrata.

A doctor in a field hospital to the west of Libya’s third largest city said two rebels had been killed and a dozen wounded after the two sides traded heavy artillery fire.

Rebels from Misrata say tribal sensitivities prevent them from attacking Zlitan, and they are instead waiting for local inhabitants to rise up.

Late yesterday, six rockets hit generators at the refinery near Misrata port leaving them heavily damaged. An engineer on site said it was unclear how long it would take to repair.

Nato said it struck an armoured vehicle armed with anti-aircraft guns east of Tripoli today as well as a multiple rocket launcher and another anti-aircraft system.

US helps Libyan rebels, fighting rages in west

Sign of stalemate: A Gaddafi forces tank, destroyed by Nato air strikes, on the road between Ajdabiyah and Brega near the western gate of Ajdabiyah, April 26, 2011, impotent to do much about this rebel appeal to stop the killings.


The United States took steps to throw a financial lifeline to rebels controlling eastern Libya while forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi focused their firepower on pockets of resistance in the west.

Rebels said Gaddafi’s forces fired Russian-made Grad rockets, which rights groups say should not be used in civilian areas, at the rebel-held western towns of Misrata and Zintan following Nato strikes to free Misrata’s port.

Libyan forces pound Misrata as 1,000 evacuated by sea

A chartered ship evacuated nearly 1,000 foreign workers and wounded Libyans from Misrata today as government artillery bombarded the besieged city that has come to symbolise the struggle against Muammar Gaddafi’s rule.

“We wanted to be able to take more people out but it was not possible,” said Jeremy Haslam, who led the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) rescue mission.

“Although the exchange of fire subsided while we were boarding ... we had a very limited time to get the migrants and Libyans on board the ship and then leave.”

A rebel spokesman said bombardments pounded Misrata for a fifth day today after shelling killed 17 people and wounded about 100, mostly civilians, yesterday.

Gbagbo's Capture May Set Ivory Coast's Economy on Long Road to Recovery

Ivory Coast's former president is calling for an end to fighting after he was captured on Monday by forces backing the country's president-elect.

African Union: Gaddafi ‘accepts peace roadmap’

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi (right) in talks with African Union delegation, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma (left), and Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso (second left).

Muammar Gaddafi has accepted a roadmap for ending the civil war in Libya including an immediate ceasefire, the African Union said today, adding that the issue of his stepping down had also been discussed.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who led a delegation of African leaders at talks in Tripoli, earlier called on Nato to stop air strikes on Libyan government targets to “give ceasefire a chance”.
Nato officials were not immediately available for comment.

Rebels have said they will accept nothing less than an end to Gaddafi’s four decades in power, but Libyan officials say he will not quit.

Ramtane Lamamra, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, said the issue had come up in the talks but declined to give details. “There was some discussion on this but I cannot report on this. It has to remain confidential.

“It’s up to the Libyan people to choose their leaders democratically,” Lamara said at a news conference in Tripoli.

Ouattara isolates Gbagbo, seeks Ivorian recovery

Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara sought to assert his grip on power after weeks of fighting, leaving his rival Laurent Gbagbo isolated behind a military cordon in his bunker.

In a sign of how difficult restoring security will be, the United Nations human rights office said today that it found 100 more corpses in western Ivory Coast in the past 24 hours, adding to the 800 dead reported by aid groups last week.

Ouattara said his forces had blockaded Gbagbo in the presidential residence in Abidjan — an ironic twist after Ouattara suffered months in a hotel under siege by Gbagbo’s troops following last November’s disputed presidential election.

In a speech late yesterday, Ouattara said he would seek to restore security and basic public services in the country following fierce fighting between his forces and Gbagbo’s defenders, and would also try to revive the country’s cocoa industry, the world’s largest.

Prisoners held by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, seen here in Abidjan,.A UN MI-24 helicopter flies in Abidjan April 7, 2011. UN peacekeepers have surrounded the “last defenders” of Laurent Gbagbo. Prisoners held by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, seen here in Abidjan

Gbagbo digs in as Abidjan siege intensifies - France Flexing Military Muscles in Libya, Former Colony Ivory Coast

For four long months Ivory Coast's internationally recognized president was confined to a besieged Abidjan hotel, at the mercy of United Nations troops for protection.

Waste in US Afghan aid seen at billions of dollars

File photo of a US. soldier from 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion during an early morning patrol in Zhari district in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on November 22, 2010.


Waste and fraud in US efforts to rebuild Afghanistan while fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban may have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, a special investigator said yesterday.

Arnold Fields, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said the cost of US assistance funding diverted or squandered since 2002 could reach “well into the millions, if not billions, of dollars.”

“There are no controls in place sufficient enough to ensure taxpayers’ money is used for the (intended) purpose,” said Fields, whose independent office was created in 2008 to energize oversight of what US auditors have described as a giant, poorly coordinated aid effort that has sunk some US$56 billion (RM180 billion) into Afghanistan since 2002.

Of that sum, some US$29 billion has gone to building up Afghanistan’s nascent security forces, many of whose members cannot read and are just learning to shoot.

North Korea threatens to launch two retaliatory strikes over further planned artillery drills on disputed island

Tense: South Korean marines patrol on Yeongpyeong Island as the country announced it would stage further artillery drills over the weekend

Stand off: South Korean Navy vessels lie off the disputed island. North Korea has threatened to launch two retaliatory strikes if the drills go ahead

North Korea has again warned its southern neighbour to stop planned artillery drills on disputed islands and said it would launch two retaliatory strikes if it failed to comply.

South Korea has said it plans to carry out a 24-hour live-fire drill on Yeonpyeong Island sometime between Saturday and Tuesday, depending on weather.

Pyongyang, which claims ownership of nearby waters and has said it considers the drills an infringement of its territory, responded to similar firing exercises last month by shelling the tiny island.

Were Afghan schoolgirls who collapsed in classroom the victims of Taliban nerve gas attack?

Blood samples taken from Afghan schoolgirls who collapsed in an apparent mass poisoning showed traces of toxic chemicals found in nerve gas, the Health Ministry said today.

Suspicion has fallen on the Taliban, the hard-line Islamist militia that opposes education for women and prohibited girls from going to school before it was ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Poisonous levels of organophosphates were found in samples taken from girls who became sick in incidents over the last two years, ministry spokesman Dr Ghulam Sakhi Kargar said.

Poisoned: Suspicion has fallen on the Taliban after traces of toxic chemicals found in nerve gas was found in the schoolgirls' blood

Asean wants formal code in disputed South China Sea

The 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) wants to establish a formal code of conduct in the South China Sea to avoid tension around disputed territories, a senior Filipino diplomat said on Friday.

Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Taiwan all stake claims over territory in the South China Sea. All except Brunei have a military presence in the area, and the boundary claims have sparked deadly naval clashes.

“We should start talking about the provisions of a regional code of conduct and this is to ensure that the South China Sea remains a peaceful and stable place where vessels can pass safely,” Erlinda Basilio, foreign affairs undersecretary for policy, told a media forum.

Southeast Asian states have become worried by China’s increasingly aggressive stance on the complex set of disputes. Last week, Chinese naval forces carried out drills in the disputed southern waters amid tension with Washington over security on the Korean peninsula and in the South China Sea.

Profile: Kim Jong-un -On the tracks of 'Kim's successor'

Kim Jong-il reportedly suffered a stroke last year


The only known image of Kim Jong-un shows him as a young boy,third son of Kim Jun-il.

Kim Jong-il's third son, Kim Jong-un, will become North Korea's next leader, according to unconfirmed South Korean media reports. The BBC News website and BBC Monitoring profile this elusive young man.

Kim Jong-un is youngest son of Kim Jong-il and his late third wife Ko Yong-hui.

Born in 1983 or early 1984, the young Kim was initially not thought to be in the frame to take up his father's mantle.

Analysts focused their attention on his half-brother Kim Jong-nam and older full brother Kim Jong-chol.

But speculation that he was in the frame to succeed his father picked up in January, after a report in South Korea's Yonhap news agency suggested that Kim Jong-il had picked him as heir.

China's dilemma on eccentric North Korea

Mr Wen (right) wants to avoid Korean instability at all costs


A war would see a flood of refugees over the North Korea-China border 

At the end of the three-way conference between President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea, Yukio Hatoyama, the Japanese prime minister, and Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, a great many people here must have been hoping to hear Mr Wen criticise North Korea for allegedly torpedoing the South Korean naval ship Cheonan two months ago.

At the very least they would have wanted him to accept publicly that North Korea had been responsible for it, as an international inquiry has maintained. If so, it was one of the most dangerous acts of war in the Korean peninsula in recent years.

Mr Wen refused. He sent his condolences to the families of the 46 South Korean sailors who were killed. He called for restraint. He hinted at the dire consequences of war.