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30 May 2011 11:28

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World: Libya: Can South African president Jacob Zuma pull off a deal?

Our boy is reportedly in Libya to try to broker a power-sharing deal between Gaddafi and the rebels. Will the South African president’s presence get Gaddafi (shown) to budge? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 May 2011 17:37

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World: Obama and Cameron stay firm on NATO in Libya

  • Obama wants patience on Libya: In a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron. President Obama sought to erase any doubt that the NATO action against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi would let up while Gaddafi clings to power through his military. “Gaddafi and his regime need to understand that there will not be a let-up in the pressure that we are applying.” Obama refused to give a timetable for the military action, saying it would be resolved “in a timely fashion,” and stressed the need for “patience.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 May 2011 14:27

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World: Captured Gaddafi soldier claims campaign of rape in Misrata

  • …we shot every one of them in the leg. … Then the officers took the girls upstairs, and we were told to go on the roof [to keep guard] until the officers had finished the rape and then we were told to rape the girls too.
  • A 17-year-old member of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, currently in opposition custody • Describing what he saw as a soldier. Andrew Harding of the BBC News, who wrote this article, makes the point that he isn’t positive whether the young man was telling the truth, considering the vested interest opposition forces might have in coercing him to portray his former colleagues in the worst possible light. That said, his remarks about what’s been happening in Misrata (through an interpreter) are harrowing. He describes being instructed to rape women, on threat of being beaten if they refused. He admits to committing a rape himself, and claims to have received about $8 reward for it. It’s a gruesome read, but worthy of being informed about. These are hardly the first reports of rape to come out of Libya in the midst of its civil war, but this new suggestion takes the brutality to new, horrible levels. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2011 16:14

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World: A little good news coming out of Tripoli

  • 4 journalists freed from their detention by Gaddafi’s military source
  • » At long last: Gaddafi’s authorities have set Nigel Chandler, Manu Brabo, Claire Gillis and James Foley free — and authorities said that they may stay in the country if they wish (though journalistic professionalism aside, one could understand if they didn’t especially want to). Brabo, Gillis and Foley were all captured near Brega on April 5th. As for Chandler, however, who Libyan authorities believed worked with the BBC (they have since said they have no journalist in their employ by that name, and no other organization has claimed him), no location of his detainment is yet known. The four are now under consular care of Tripoli’s South African embassy.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 May 2011 13:05

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World: War crimes prosecutor wants to arrest Gaddafi

  • The evidence showed that Gaddafi relied on his inner circle to implement a systematic policy of suppressing any challenge to his authority.
  • Luis Moreno-Ocampo, an international war crimes court’s chief prosecutor • He wants to have Gaddafi arrested for crimes against humanity – namely firing on unarmed civillians. He went on, talking about how Gaddafi killed people in the streets and in their homes, using people in his family to help him enforce his rule. Moreno-Ocampo has been investigating this since the Libyan revolution was only three weeks old. Now a panel of judges will have to approve this request, though it doesn’t mean that Gaddafi’s arrest will come immediately. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 May 2011 11:45

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World: Muammar Gaddafi’s claim to NATO: “You can’t get me”

  • Where in the world is Muammar Gaddafi? Well … according to an audio clip played on state television, he’s in a place where you can’t get him — he lives in the hearts of millions. Whatever that means. The leader, who hasn’t shown his face in public for a few weeks (after members of his family were killed in an airstrike), is rumored to have been wounded in a NATO airstrike earlier this week. For its part, NATO says it’s not going after him. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 May 2011 11:59

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World: Was Gaddafi wounded in an airstrike? Depends on who you ask

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini says that “Gaddafi was most probably outside Tripoli and probably even wounded.” However, a Libyan official denies this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

11 May 2011 16:40

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World: Libyan opposition forces seize Misrata airport

  • None of Gaddafi’s soldiers found: Today was a strong day for the Libyan opposition, which seized the airport in Misrata, the city that has seen the big share of bloody fighting this last month. Misrata is a tactically important city for the opposition, lying closer to the capitol of Tripoli than does their eastern stronghold, Benghazi. It’s basically been the front line of this civil war, but with reports in recent days of NATO bombings aimed at Gaddafi’s Tripoli compound, could opposition forces gain some ground? source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 May 2011 16:14

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World: NATO airstrikes rock Tripoli during the night

  • Witnesses claim Gaddafi’s compound was the target: Some have cried foul over NATO’s increased bombings against Gaddafi territories, saying that the mandate for civilian protection, but the U.N. resolution authorizing the no-fly zone uses a rather vague phrase in defining the mission. It states: “…to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.” A pro-military force type might read that and say, “well, the civilians are in danger as long as Gaddafi is in power.” We’d likely agree with that. It is a bigger and bloodier mission than expected, however, and that may have consequences in public opinion and diplomacy. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 May 2011 10:06

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World: Alleged Libyan rape victim escapes to Tunisia amid backlash

  • I still do not know what I am going to do. Of course I’d like to see my family.
  • An alleged Libyan rape victim • Revealing to the world that weeks after loudly revealing her brutal plight to a hotel full of journalists, she has left Libya and relocated to Tunisia as a refugee. She escaped, she says, in a military car wearing a head cover that covered everything except one eye. After a “very tiring” trip, she is currently staying at the French embassy in Tunis while she considers her fate. Let’s hope she never has to go back, or if she does, it’s at a time when the culture around her better understands her plight. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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