Analysis: Victory hands new set of problems to Libya rebels

Libya's opposition leader says rebels captured another of Moammar Gadhafi's sons — raising to three the number of the Libyan leader's children in custody.
Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the National Transitional Council, told the Associated Press on Monday that rebels detained al-Saadi Gadhafi on Sunday night along with his brother Seif al-Islam.
Gadhafi's sons and a daughter have all played roles in their father's regime, some in diplomatic or business roles. Al-Saadi and his brothers Mutassim and Khamis all headed military brigades.
The International Criminal Court has confirmed the capture of Seif al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity. Another son, Mohammed, was under house arrest.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan rebels claimed to be in control of most of the Libyan capital on Monday after their lightning advance on Tripoli heralded the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's nearly 42-year regime. Scattered battles erupted, and the mercurial leader's whereabouts remained unknown.
The international community called on Gadhafi to step down and moved ahead with post-war planning as euphoric residents celebrated in the Green Square, the symbolic heart of the Gadhafi regime. Colleagues warned he wouldn't go easily. Two of his sons were captured late Sunday.
"The real moment of victory is when Gadhafi is captured," the head of the opposition's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, said at a news conference in the eastern city of Benghazi.
NATO promised to maintain its air campaign until all pro-Gadhafi forces surrender or return to barracks. NATO warplanes have hit at least 40 targets in and around Tripoli in the past two days — the highest number on a single geographic location since the bombing started more than five months ago, the alliance said.
"We came out today to feel a bit of freedom," Ashraf Halaby, a 30-year-old Tripoli resident, said as he and four of his friends watched several hundred people celebrating at Green Square. "We still don't believe that this is happening."
Revelers flashed the "V'' for victory sign and motorists circled the square's central median honking their horns and waving rebel flags.
The rest of the city, a metropolis of some 2 million people on the Mediterranean coast, was on edge, with most stores shuttered and large areas appeared lifeless, without even a sign of the thousands of rebels now in the city.
Signs of tension emerged between rebels and residents at a gas station in the neighborhood of Gourji, with heated arguments over who should fill up first after rebels cut in line. Rebel leaders urged people to protect public property, and no looting was reported.
The rapid rebel advance into Tripoli in an hours-long blitz showcased the evolution of the opposition fighters who first rose against the regime six months ago, swiftly capturing the eastern part of the vast, oil-rich North African nation but failing to advance westward toward Tripoli even with the help of months of NATO airstrikes.
For months, the rebels — mainly civilian volunteers who took up arms and had little military training — were judged to be big on zeal but short on organization and discipline, but their stunning success in Tripoli showed a high level of planning, coordination and discipline.
The U.S. and other nations have recognized the National Transitional Council as Libya's legitimate government, but the rebel movement consists of Islamists as well as former government insiders and Western-leaning intellectuals, raising concern about whether the factions can unite in a post-Gadhafi Libya.
Abdel-Jalil sought to allay those worries at a news conference in the rebel capital of Benghazi, saying the opposition wanted a nation built on the principles of "freedom, equality and transparency."
In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron said frozen Libyan assets would soon be released to help the country's rebels establish order, saying Gadhafi's regime was "falling apart and in full retreat."
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, who was in Tripoli, warned of pockets of resistance and said as long as Gadhafi remains on the run the "danger is still there."
Clashes broke out early Monday at Gadhafi's longtime command center known as Bab al-Aziziya early Monday when government tanks emerged from the complex and opened fire at rebels trying to get in, according to Abdel-Rahman and a neighbor. An AP reporter at the nearby Rixos Hotel where foreign journalists stay heard gunfire and loud explosions from the direction of the complex.
Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next to the Gadhafi compound, said there appeared to be only a few tanks belonging to the remaining Gadhafi forces that have not fled or surrendered.
"When I climb the stairs and look at it from the roof, I see nothing at Bab al-Aziziya," he said. "NATO has demolished it all and nothing remains."

The Rixos hotel where foreign journalists are staying also remained under the control of Gadhafi forces, with two trucks loaded with anti-aircraft machine guns and pro-regime fighters and snipers posted behind trees. Rebels and Tripoli residents set up checkpoints elsewhere in the city.
Britain's Defense Secretary Liam Fox said resistance was coming mainly from foreign mercenaries, rather than Libyans still loyal to Gadhafi. "There is a certain amount of violence still occurring, we also know that a lot of the resistance from the pro-Gadhafi forces has in fact come from mercenary elements," he told BBC radio.
"It does appear that a lot of the Libyan forces themselves inside Tripoli either stayed at home or put down their arms — and that may bode well for a diminishing level of violence during the transitional period," he said.
The rebels' top diplomat in London, Mahmud Nacua, said opposition forces controlled 95 percent of Tripoli. He vowed "the fighters will turn over every stone to find" Gadhafi and make sure he faced justice.
A rebel field commander said reinforcements were arriving in Tripoli by sea from the north, south and southeast.
"Our fighters are coming from all directions and, God willing, today we will liberate the whole city," the commander, Suleiman Sifaw, told The Associated Press.
State TV broadcast bitter audio pleas by Gadhafi for Libyans to defend his regime as the rebels advanced on Sunday, although the station was off the air by Monday afternoon amid reports that the rebels had seized its main offices.
Opposition fighters captured Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. Another son, Mohammed, was under house arrest.
Abdel-Jalil, the rebel chief, vowed Monday to give Gadhafi a "fair trial with all legal guarantees" when captured.
But Gadhafi's defiant audio messages raised the possibility of a last-ditch fight over the capital, home to 2 million people. Gadhafi, who was not shown, called on supporters to march in the streets of the capital and "purify it" of "the rats."

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim also claimed the regime has "thousands and thousands of fighters" and vowed: "We will fight. We have whole cities on our sides. They are coming en masse to protect Tripoli to join the fight."
Gadhafi's former right-hand man, who defected last week to Italy, said the longtime leader would not go easily.
"I think it's impossible that he'll surrender," Abdel-Salam Jalloud said in an interview broadcast on Italian RAI state radio, adding that "He doesn't have the courage, like Hitler, to kill himself."
Jalloud, who was Gadhafi's closest aide for decades before falling out with the leader in the 1990s, fled Tripoli on Friday, according to rebels.
The startling rebel breakthrough, after a long deadlock in Libya's 6-month-old civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, NATO and anti-Gadhafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from the west swept over 20 miles (30 kilometers) in a matter of hours Sunday, taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose up.
When rebels reached the gates of Tripoli, the special battalion entrusted by Gadhafi with guarding the capital promptly surrendered. The reason: Its commander, whose brother had been executed by Gadhafi years ago, was secretly loyal to the rebellion, a senior rebel official, Fathi al-Baja, told The Associated Press.
On Monday, rebels erected checkpoints on the western approaches to the city, handing out candy to passengers and inquiring about their destination. Cars leaving the city were subjected to more rigorous checks.
President Barack Obama said Libya is "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant" and urged Gadhafi to relinquish power to prevent more bloodshed.
"The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people," Obama said in a statement from Martha's Vineyard, where he's vacationing. He promised to work closely with rebels.
South Africa, which led failed African Union efforts to mediate between the rebels and Gadhafi, refused to offer support to the rebels on Monday, saying it wants to see a unity government put in place as a transitional authority.
The uprising against Gadhafi broke out in mid-February, inspired by successful revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya's neighbors to the east and west respectively. A brutal regime crackdown quickly transformed the protests into an armed rebellion. Rebels seized Libya's east, setting up an internationally recognized transitional government there, and two pockets in the west, the port city of Misrata and the Nafusa mountain range.
Gadhafi clung to the remaining territory, and for months neither side had been able to break the other.
In early August, however, rebels launched an offensive from the Nafusa Mountains, then fought their way down to the Mediterranean coastal plain, backed by NATO airstrikes, and captured the strategic city of Zawiya.
Gadhafi is the Arab world's longest-ruling, most erratic, most grimly fascinating leader — presiding over this North African desert nation with vast oil reserves and just 6 million people.
For years, he was an international pariah blamed for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. After years of denial, Gadhafi's Libya acknowledged responsibility, agreed to pay up to $10 million to relatives of each victim, and the Libyan rule declared he would dismantle his weapons of mass destruction program. That eased him back into the international community.
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Associated Press writers David Stringer in London and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

No U.S. boots on the ground in post-Gaddafi Libya

The United States does not intend to send ground forces into Libya to assist in any international peacekeeping operations following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, the Pentagon said on Monday.
As rebels searched for Gaddafi, whose forces made a last-ditch stand in Tripoli on Monday, the Pentagon knocked down speculation the Libyan leader might have slipped out of the country.
"We do not have any information that he has left the country," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said, without offering further details on his presumed whereabouts.
President Barack Obama previously ruled out sending U.S. ground forces into Libya, trying to limit U.S. exposure to a third conflict as it wrestles with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Lapan said that position still held in any post-Gaddafi era.
"If there is going to be some kind of transitional mission that involves any kind of foreign troops, there wouldn't be U.S. ground troops as part of that," Lapan said.
U.S. surveillance operations over Libya, as part of the NATO mission, were expected to continue in the coming days. Those include use of U.S. Predator drone aircraft, two more of which were deployed to Libya last week.
Lapan rejected the idea that battlefield conditions inside Tripoli were becoming too complex for aerial surveillance to distinguish between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces. If true, that could have complicated NATO air support.
"We still have a pretty good operational picture of where the forces are arrayed on the battlefield," Lapan said.

Gadhafi still in Libya, says U.S.

U.N. officials say they can't reach embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but a Pentagon spokesman says the U.S. doesn't think he has left the country.

Gadhafi still in Libya, says U.S.

U.N. officials say they can't reach embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but a Pentagon spokesman says the U.S. doesn't think he has left the country.

Libya rebels to vote on whether to send Gaddafi son to ICC

Libya's revolutionary council will vote to decide whether or not to send beleaguered strongmanMuammar Gaddafi's captured son to face international justice, its envoy to Paris told AFP.
Mansur Seif al-Nasr, the official representative of Libya's rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) in France, told AFP the movement makes all important decisions by a vote of its national executive council.
Gaddafi's son and former heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, was captured by rebel forces yesterday as the regime's defence of its capital Tripoli crumbled in the face of an insurgent siege and a street revolt within.
Along with his father, Seif has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on suspicion of crimes against humanity, and prosecutors have asked that they be sent to The Hague for trial.
But Nasr said: "The NTC will decide his fate, whether he is to be transfered to the ICC or judged in Libya. It is for the council to decide."
He admitted, however, that neither Seif nor his father could be tried in Libya until the revolutionary council was able to set up a new legal system.
"Once the new courts are set up, there will be air trials, with a defence, observers and the press," he promised.
Nasr confirmed that another of Gaddafi's sons, the eldest, Mohammed, had surrendered to revolutionary forces and was now "under their protection".
Seif al-Islam is accused together with his father of orchestrating a plan to put down the six-month-old Libyan revolt by "any means necessary".
This allegedly led to the murder of hundreds of anti-regime demonstrators and the wounding of hundreds of others when security forces shot at crowds, as well as the arrest and torture of numerous others.
Gaddafi's exact whereabouts are now unclear, but his forces appear to have lost control of the capital and gunbattles are continuing around his fortified compound, where some believe him to be holed up.

Dollar vs. rupee hits record

Dollar as against rupee in the inter-bank market has reached to a record level due to payments made for the import of crude, while dollar during the trading was seen selling at the highest level of Rs87.07.

Forex market dealers said that the rupee against dollar remained under pressure in inter-bank market, as dollar against rupee during the trading was seen at Rs87.05, besides the swelling government borrowing also spurring the increase in the value of dollar.

Forex market dealers said that the payments for crude escalated the demand for dollar. On the other hand, the rupee could further fall under pressure in the backdrop of persisting lackadaisical approach of the foreign investors.

The Hidden Costs of Higher Ed

By NOAH S. BERNSTEIN
OVER the next few weeks, millions of Americans will be heading off to college, and despite the promise of need-blind admissions, more of them than ever will be struggling to pay for it. It’s not just the economy’s fault: even as they publicize lavish financial aid packages, colleges and universities are making it harder for average American families to afford higher education, while making it easier for the wealthy.

In the past, families and students covered their tuition with lump payments at the beginning of each semester. To ease the burden of such large bills — recent data shows that tuition and fees have increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007 — many colleges have instituted monthly payment plans, while charging zero interest. Even many families that could afford to pay an entire semester upfront find such plans appealing.

Though such plans have undoubtedly allowed a greater number of modest-income students to go to college, they can actually end up unintentionally raising tuition costs. While the plans typically don’t charge a fee for payments made by check or direct deposit, they tack on a hefty charge for credit card payments.

Why? Because most institutions outsource the management of their plans to private companies, which have to make a profit. They charge universities a fee for processing credit card payments, and the schools pass those costs on to students and families, amounting to over a thousand dollars or more per year in some cases.

For example, some of the top liberal arts colleges in America, including Williams, Amherst and Wellesley, use a company called Tuition Management Services, where the fee is 2.99 percent for each payment made by credit card. At Amherst, where tuition, room and board cost $53,370, that’s an extra $1,595 if all payments are made by credit card. Even at Swarthmore, which runs its plan in-house, the fee is 2.6 percent, or an extra $1,330 a year.

This hits the middle and working classes particularly hard. Struggling families often face rough patches during which they don’t have enough cash on hand to make such payments, and so have to go to their credit cards — and pay the fees. Meanwhile, wealthy families that can afford to simply write a check upfront each month avoid both credit card fees and interest payments.

To be fair, monthly payment plans intend to help lower-income families afford college. But they have also had the unintentional consequence of creating bonuses for the wealthy and added impediments to the less well-off.

Another way colleges and universities stack the deck is by allowing students or their parents to front the costs of two, three or even four years of school, thereby locking in current tuition prices; some schools even offer discounts for prepayment. Families receiving financial aid are typically excluded from prepayment options.

Of course, only the wealthy can afford to pay even a single year of college upfront, let alone multiple years. And yet, with annual tuition increases running between 4 percent and 10 percent, those who can afford to pay early end up paying significantly less.

Why do colleges and universities, which promote themselves as need-blind, even have programs like this? The original justification was to bolster their revenues quickly, so they could invest them in the stock market. But with the current economic malaise and unreliable financial markets, colleges can no longer depend on consistent or high returns.

Monthly payment plans, and prepayment plans, thus pack a double punch. On one hand, they make it more expensive for struggling families to send their children to college. On the other hand, they make it cheaper for wealthy families to do so. And given how long it takes these days to pay off college debt, these disparities will have ramifications long after students have graduated from college.

Our institutions of higher learning cannot continue to offer their best deals to a privileged few. Our country needs colleges and universities to recruit and cultivate talented young people from diverse backgrounds. To do so, we must ensure that children from working families have the mechanisms not only to obtain college admission and afford to attend without compromising their studies, but also to be free to enter the economy relatively unburdened by debt.

Pockets of resistance as rebels claim Tripoli

The head of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) has announced the end of the Gaddafi era, while sporadic fighting continued across the capital, Tripoli.
aljazeera.ne
Fighting and gun battles erupted in parts of Tripoli on Monday after tanks left Bab al-Azizyah, Muammar Gaddafi's compound, to confront the rebel assault that gained control of much of the capital in a battle overnight.

Many of the streets in the centre of the city - where anti-government supporters had celebrated hours earlier - were abandoned as pockets of pro-Gaddafi resistance and the presence of snipers and artillery fire made the area dangerous.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, who advanced into the city with rebel fighters overnight, said the security situation in the city was "tenuous," despite there being celebrations in the streets.

"There are some Gaddafi forces still putting up a fight," our correspondent said.

"And rebels still have one last push to make towards Bab al-Azizyah," Khodr added, saying that it was unclear when this advance would take place.

Syria's Assad discusses reform

Libyan rebels detained a Libyan state television anchor who brandished a weapon on air

Battle for Tripoli

The 42-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi appeared on the verge of collapse Monday, with rebel supporters making it to the same Tripoli square where regime loyalists had congregated for month.

But in a possible indication that the fight is not over, celebrations in Tripoli's Green Square gave way to tension Monday morning after rebels told CNN that they'd heard Gadhafi army forces were heading their way. CNN could not confirm any movement of Gadhafi forces.

Here are some of the latest developments of the fighting in Tripoli, the latest installment of battles in a months-long uprising in Libya.
A senior State Department official tells CNN that, up until the last minutes before the rebel offensive on Tripoli began, senior Libyan officials close to Moammar Gadhafi were trying to reach out to the U.S. in a desperate attempt to stop the “inevitable.”

In a telephone interview from Cairo Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said that, until Saturday night, six officials with whom the U.S. had previous contact were still trying to reach out to the Obama administration but were taking a “defiant” approach, saying they were ready to negotiate but it would not be about Gadhafi leaving.

“It hinted to us that there’s a sense of desperation,” Feltman, who leads State Department efforts on Libya and who was in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi over the weekend, said, “that they’re trying all channels to reach us, that the balance was tipping on behalf of the rebels or why would these people be so desperate to find us?”

“I think they were looking for a way to find a lifeline, buy time, to prevent what was then becoming inevitable, which was the uprising in Tripoli,” he said.
CNN's Sara Sidner described the scene just outside the capital as rebels regroup before heading back into Tripoli: Rebels are on the outskirts of the capital and there are a lot of men walking around with guns and ammunition. There are pickup trucks with guns welded into them that continue to pour into the area.

"They’re all gathering to do something … we don’t know when its going to happen," Sidner said. "We expect they are going to try to go into the city and do a street-by-street sweep."

Sidner said there is a continuous stream of rebels continuing to come in from the west of the city. She added that rebels know coordination is key during this stage of the battle for Libya.

"A lot of these people don’t know each other," she said, noting many are just regular people. " They want to fight against the regime but they have to do it in a coordinated way."

She added it was unclear where the coordination was coming from but there was clearly some kind of instructions being handed down.

As the battle rages on CNN's Nic Robertson and Paul Armstrong take a look at whether it is too early to celebrate a rebel triumph.

Libya's leader Gadhafi defiant to end

http://news.yahoo.com/video/clips-26349161/libyan-rebels-seize-tripoli-detain-qaddafi-sons-26376864.html
In flowing brown Bedouin robes and black beret, hailed as the "king of kings of Africa," the aging dictator swept up onto the global stage, center front at the United Nations, and delivered an angry, wandering, at times incoherent diatribe against all he detested in the world.
In that first and only appearance before the U.N. General Assembly, in 2009, Moammar Gadhafi rambled on about jet lag and swine flu, about the John F. Kennedy assassination and about moving the U.N. to Libya, the vast desert nation he had ruled for four decades with an iron hand.
As dismayed U.N. delegates streamed out of the great domed hall that autumn day, a fuming Gadhafi declared their Security Council "should be called the 'Terror Council,'" and tore up a copy of the U.N. charter.
The bizarre, 96-minute rant by Libya's "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" may now stand as a fitting denouement to a bizarre life, coming less than two years before Gadhafi's people rose up against him, before some in that U.N. audience turned their warplanes on him, before lieutenants abandoned him one by one, including the very General Assembly president, fellow Libyan Ali Treki, who in 2009 glowingly welcomed his "king" to the New York podium.
As rebels swarmed into Tripoli late Sunday and his son and one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam was arrested, Gadhafi's rule was all but over, even though some loyalists continued to resist.
More than any of the region's autocratic leaders, perhaps, Gadhafi was a man of contrasts.
He was a sponsor of terrorism who condemned the Sept. 11 attacks. He was a brutal dictator who bulldozed a jail wall to free political prisoners. He was an Arab nationalist who derided the Arab League. And in the crowning paradox, he preached people power, only to have his people take to the streets and take up arms in rebellion.
For much of a life marked by tumult, eccentricities and spasms of violence, the only constants were his grip on power — never openly challenged until the last months of his rule — and the hostility of the West, which branded him a terrorist long before Osama bin Laden emerged.
The secret of his success and longevity lay in the vast oil reserves under his North African desert republic, and in his capacity for drastic changes of course when necessary.
One spectacular series of U-turns came in late 2003. After years of denial, Gadhafi's Libya acknowledged responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. Libya agreed to pay up to $10 million to relatives of each of the victims, and declared it would dismantle all of its weapons of mass destruction.
The rewards came fast. Within months, the U.S. lifted economic sanctions and resumed low-level diplomatic ties. The European Union hosted Gadhafi in Brussels. Tony Blair, as British prime minister, visited him in Tripoli, even though Britain had more reason than most to detest and fear him.
Then, in February, amid a series of anti-government uprisings that swept the Arab world, Gadhafi unleashed a vicious crackdown on Libyans who rose up against him. Libyan rebels defied withering fire from government troops and pro-Gadhafi militia to quickly turn a protest movement into a rebellion.
Just days after the uprising against him began, Gadhafi delivered one of his trademark rants on Feb. 22 from his Tripoli compound, which was bombed by U.S. airstrikes in the 1980s and was left unrepaired as an anti-American display.
Pounding a lectern near a sculpture of a golden fist crushing a U.S. warplane, he vowed to hunt down protesters "inch by inch, room by room, home by home, alleyway by alleyway." The televised speech caused a furor that helped fuel the armed rebellion against him and it has been since mocked in popular songs and spoofs across the Arab world.
In March, the U.N. authorized a no-fly zone for Libya and "all necessary measures" to prevent Gadhafi from attacking his own protesting people. NATO airstrikes followed against Libyan military targets and included one attack that killed Gadhafi's youngest son on April 30.
Gadhafi was born in 1942 in the central Libyan desert, the son of a Bedouin father who was once jailed for opposing Libya's Italian colonialists. The young Gadhafi seemed to inherit that rebellious nature, being expelled from high school for leading a demonstration, and disciplined while in the army for organizing revolutionary cells.
In 1969, as a mere 27-year-old captain, he emerged as leader of a group of officers who overthrew King Idris' monarchy. A handsome, dashing figure in uniform and sunglasses, he took undisputed power and became a symbol of anti-Western defiance in a Third World recently liberated from its European colonial rulers.
During the 1970s, Gadhafi embarked on far-reaching reforms.
A U.S. air base was closed. Some 20,000 Italians were expelled in retaliation for the 1911-41 occupation. Businesses were nationalized. Gadhafi proclaimed a "popular revolution" and began imposing "peoples' committees" as local levels of government, topped by a "Peoples' Congress," a kind of parliament. He declared Libya to be a "Jamahiriya" — a word connoting "republic of the masses."
He led a state without a constitution, instead using his own idiosyncratic book of political philosophy — the "Green Book." He took the military's highest rank, colonel, when he came to power and called himself the "Brother Leader" of the revolution.
"He aspired to create an ideal state," said North African analyst Saad Djebbar of Cambridge University. "He ended up without any components of a normal state. The 'people's power' was the most useless system in the world, turning revolutionaries into a force of wealth-accumulators."
Like many dictators intent on ensuring they have no rivals, Gadhafi had no clear system of succession. But he was believed to be grooming his British-educated son, Seif al-Islam, to succeed him. Now that son is under arrest and, like his father, wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands for crimes against humanity during the bloody crackdown on dissenters.
Gadhafi took pleasure in saying out loud what other leaders would only think, frequently berating the Arab League for its inability to act in the Israeli-Palestinian and Iraqi conflicts.
But while he enjoyed speaking out on the world stage, he did not tolerate people speaking out in Libya. His government allowed no organized opposition.
In 1988, he declared he was releasing political detainees and drove a bulldozer through the wall of a Tripoli prison. But in reality his regime remained totalitarian.
Gadhafi did spend oil revenue on building schools, hospitals, irrigation systems and housing on a scale his Mediterranean nation had never seen.
"He did really bring Libya from being one of the most backward and poorest countries in Africa to becoming an oil-rich state with an elaborate infrastructure and with reasonable access by the Libyan population to the essential services they required," said George Joffe of Cambridge University.
But although Libya was producing almost 1.6 million barrels of crude per day before the civil war, about a third of its roughly 6 million people remain in poverty. Gadhafi showered benefits on parts of the country, such as the capital Tripoli. Meanwhile, eastern Libya, ultimately the source of February's rebellion, was allowed to atrophy.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Gadhafi increasingly supported groups deemed terrorist in the West — from the Irish Republican Army to radical Palestinians and militant groups in the Philippines.
A 1984 incident at the Libyan Embassy in London entrenched his regime's image as a lawless one. A gunman inside the embassy opened fire on a demonstration by anti-Gadhafi demonstrators outside, killing a British policewoman.
The heat had been rising, meanwhile, between the Reagan administration and Gadhafi over terrorism. In 1986, Libya was found responsible for a bombing at a Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. troops in which three people died. America struck back by sending warplanes to bomb Libya. About 40 Libyans were killed, including Gadhafi's adopted baby daughter.
In 1988, a Libyan agent planted the bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. The next year, another Libyan set a bomb that blew up a French airliner over Niger in west Africa.
The West was outraged, and years of sanctions followed.
Joffe said Gadhafi's involvement in terrorism was the "major mistake" of his career.
"Whoever was directly responsible for (the 1988 and 1989 attacks), the consequence was that Libya found itself isolated in the international community for almost a decade and, in that isolation, it suffered considerable economic loss."
During the same period, Gadhafi embarked on a series of military adventures in Africa, invading Chad in 1980-89, and supplying arms, training and finance to rebels in Liberia, Uganda and Burkina Faso.
In 2002, Gadhafi looked back on his actions and told a crowd of Libyans in the southern city of Sibha: "In the old days, they called us a rogue state. They were right in accusing us of that. In the old days, we had a revolutionary behavior."
His first outward signal of change came in 1999, when his government handed over for trial two Libyans charged with the Lockerbie bombing. In 2001, a Scottish court convicted one, an intelligence agent, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The other was acquitted.
Libyan officials denied the government was involved. But in August 2003, 20 months later, Libya accepted state responsibility in a letter to the U.N. It had also apologized for the London policewoman's murder, allowing it and Britain to renew diplomatic ties, and the Security Council lifted its sanctions.
A bigger surprise came in December 2003 when Britain's Blair announced that Gadhafi had acknowledged trying to develop weapons of mass destruction but had decided to dismantle the programs under international inspection.
What caused Gadhafi's turnaround is debatable. Some maintained he was afraid his regime would be toppled like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But Djebbar and Joffe both say negotiations on weapons of mass destruction had begun even before 9/11.
Gadhafi wanted sanctions lifted and an end to American hostility to ensure his regime's survival, Joffe said. In 2006 the Bush administration rescinded its designation of Libya as a state sponsor of terrorism.
By early 2011, however, as Tripoli responded violently to anti-government protests, U.S. and other sanctions were being reimposed on Libya's leaders and Gadhafi family members, among them his wife, Safia, and several of their eight children, including sons Hannibal, head of Libya's maritime transport company; Saadi, special forces commander and Libya's soccer federation head, and Mohammed, Libya's Olympic chief.
Gadhafi said he met Safia, then a teenage nursing student, while recuperating from an appendectomy after taking power in 1969. He soon divorced his first wife and remarried. Their only daughter, Aisha, became a lawyer and helped in the defense of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's toppled dictator, in the trial that led to his hanging.
Gadhafi's flamboyance and eccentric lifestyle were always the subject of lampooning in America and elsewhere.
He had a personal escort known as the Amazonian guard — young women said to be martial-arts experts who often carried machine guns and wore military-style uniforms with matching camouflaged headscarves.
A 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable released by the website WikiLeaks cited Gadhafi's heavy reliance on a Ukrainian nurse — described as a "voluptuous blonde" — and his intense dislike of staying on upper floors of buildings, aversion to flying over water, and taste for horse racing and flamenco dancing.
He donned garish military uniforms with braids and huge, fringed epaulettes, or colorful Bedouin robes and African-patterned clothing, along with sunglasses and fly whisks. His hair grew scruffy and he sported a goatee and scraggly mustache.
In his first televised appearance after protests broke out in Libya, he appeared with an umbrella and a cap with earflaps. Four months later, dodging NATO bombs in Tripoli, addressing loyalists by telephone from a hidden location on June 17, Gadhafi sounded defiant still, the old "Brother Leader," but hoarse, agitated, embattled — and perhaps seeing the end.
"We don't care much for life," he declared. "We will not betray the past and the sacrifices, or the future. We will carry out our duty until the end."

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani vows hard action against Khi killers

During a meeting of the Sindh cabinet, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani decided that strict action would be taken against terrorists in Karachi, Geo News reported.

He said that it was the responsibility of the PPP to take this action and if they did not act than someone else would.

The Prime Minister added that action would be taking against those found to be involved in criminal activity regardless of their political affiliations.

According to sources, during the meeting Senior Provincial Minister, Zulfiqar Mirza expressed anger towards Interior Minister Rehman Malik and criticized his trips to Karachi.

Mirza told the interior Minister that it was the responsibility of the provincial government to deal with the security situation in Karachi.

He also told the Interior Minister not to come to Karachi for the next fifteen days and let the provincial government do its job.

Karachi violence 91 killed in six days

Nine more people fell prey to violence and torture in Karachi on Monday including four employees of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) pushing the toll to 91 in six days, Geo News reported.

The fresh firing incident took place in the Garden area where the armed men opened fire at the KWSB office that killed four employees while two others sustained injuries. The two officials named Anwarullah and Chaudhry Altaf, and two clerks Arif Usman and Abdul Qadir were killed in the attack.

Earlier, a body of unidentified man was recovered from the roof of a flat in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block-6 who was later identified as Mohammad Mehtab, police said.

In Zia Colony area of Korangi, 28-year-old Naveed was injured in firing by identified miscreants and succumbed to injuries in hospital.

Two bodies were also recovered from PIB Colony and Landhi 89 while six persons including a political party activist were killed in Orangi Town on Sunday.

According to police, firing in Golimar area of Pak Colony killed 45-year-old Rustam Jan while body of Rizwan was recovered from gunny bag. He was the resident of Garden area.

A man named Saeed was shot dead near Sindh Government Hospital in Korangi while two bodies bearing torture marks were also found from Teen Hatti and Machar Colony who have not been identified yet.

Gaddafi vanishes as rebels advance further

Tanks opened fire at rebels trying to storm Muammar Gaddafi's main compound in Tripoli today, although he appeared to have vanished a day after the lightning advance by his opponents into the city.
The international community meanwhile called on him to step down as euphoric residents celebrated in the Green Square, the symbolic heart of the Gaddafi regime.
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, who was in Tripoli, cautioned that pockets of resistance remained Gaddafi loyalists and that as long as Gaddafi was on the run the "danger is still there."
The clashes broke out at Gaddafi's command centre known as Bab al-Aziziya early today when government tanks emerged from the complex and opened fire at rebels trying to get in.
Tripoli resident Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next door, said there appeared to be only a few tanks belonging to the remaining Gaddafi forces that have not fled or surrendered.
"When I climb the stairs and look at it from the roof, I see nothing at Bab al-Aziziya," he said. "Nato has demolished it all and nothing remains."
State TV broadcast desperate audio pleas by Gaddafi for Libyans to defend his regime. Opposition fighters captured his son and one-time heir apparent, Saif al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. Another son was under house arrest.
"It's over, frizz-head," chanted hundreds of jubilant men and women massed in Green Square late on Sunday, using a mocking nickname of the curly-haired Gaddafi. The revellers fired shots in the air, clapped and waved the rebels' tricolour flag. Some set fire to the green flag of Gaddafi's regime and shot holes in a poster with the leader's image.
But Gaddafi's defiance in a series of angry audio messages raised the possibility of a last-ditch fight over the capital, home to two million people. Gaddafi, who was not shown in the messages, called on his supporters to march in the streets of the capital and "purify it" of "the rats."
Nato officials promised planes would continue to conduct regular patrols over Libya despite the latest rebel successes.
Gaddafi's former right-hand man, who defected last week to Italy, said the leader would not go easily.
"I think it's impossible that he'll surrender," Abdel-Salam Jalloud said, adding that "He doesn't have the courage, like Hitler, to kill himself."
Jalloud, who was Gaddafi's closest aide for decades before falling out with the leader in the 1990s, fled Tripoli on Friday.
The startling rebel breakthrough, after a long deadlock in Libya's six-month-old civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, Nato and anti-Gaddafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from the west swept over 20 miles in a matter of hours on Sunday, taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose up.
When rebels reached the gates of Tripoli, the special battalion entrusted by Gaddafi with guarding the capital promptly surrendered. The reason: Its commander, whose brother had been executed by Gaddafi years ago, was secretly loyal to the rebellion.
President Barack Obama said Libya was "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant" and urged Gaddafi to relinquish power to prevent more bloodshed.
"The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people," he said.
South Africa, which led failed African Union efforts to mediate between the rebels and Gaddafi, refused to offer support to the rebels, saying it wants to see a unity government put in place as a transitional authority. But Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said she did not envision a role for Gaddafi on such a transitional body, saying he had told AU mediators four months ago he was ready to give up leadership.
She also said repeatedly that South Africa has sent no planes to Libya to evacuate Gaddafi, has received no request from him for asylum and is involved in no efforts to extricate him.
The uprising against Gaddafi broke out in mid-February, inspired by successful revolts in Egypt and Tunisia. A brutal regime crackdown quickly transformed the protests into an armed rebellion. Rebels seized Libya's east, setting up an internationally recognised transitional government there, and two pockets in the west, the port city of Misrata and the Nafusa mountain range.
Gaddafi clung to the remaining territory, and for months neither side had been able to break the other.
In early August, however, rebels launched an offensive from the Nafusa Mountains, then fought their way down to the Mediterranean coastal plain, backed by Nato airstrikes, and captured the strategic city of Zawiya.
The rebels' leadership council, based in the eastern city of Benghazi, sent out mobile text messages to Tripoli residents, proclaiming, "Long live Free Libya" and urging them to protect public property. internet service returned to the capital for the first time in six months.
Gaddafi is the Arab world's longest-ruling, most erratic, most grimly fascinating leader - presiding over this North African desert nation with vast oil reserves and just 6 million people. For years, he was an international pariah blamed for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie that killed 270 people.

Libya on the brink

Fighting rages near Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli, after jubilant rebels took control of much of the city. Three of Gadhafi's sons have been detained; Libyan leader's whereabouts are unknown.

Global reactions to Libyan rebels' gains in Tripoli

Libyan rebel fighters poured into Tripoli and on Monday morning controlled most of the capital, though fighting persisted in a few districts. The whereabouts of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were unknown but the rebels held two of his sons, Saif Al-Islam and Mohammed.

Here are reactions to the rebel advance into Tripoli.
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini:
“The only route that Gaddafi should follow is that of giving himself up.”

“The regime should name two authoritative figures that are not stained with blood crimes” to help guide a transition. Asked if one of them could be former Gaddafi number two Abdel Salam Jalloud, now in Italy, Frattini said: “He certainly has all the characteristics to be it. Don’t wait for us to suggest him. He will clarify his position when he believes it opportune. I am convinced that many people will recognize him for an important role in the construction of a new Libya.”

He said it was still possible for Gaddafi to remain in Libya and coexist with a new democratic regime, “but by now events are reducing the margins of a possible mediation.”

UAE political scientist Abdulkhaleq Abdulla:
“The most important thing that happened in Libya on the night of August 22 is not the fall of Gaddafi’s regime but the joining of 5 million people to the procession of freedom.”

“I think the most miserable person on earth after Muammar Gaddafi is Syria’s Bashar al Assad. Gaddafi’s fall will not only make the Libyan people happy, but will also inspire the Syrian people.”

British foreign office minister Alistair Burt:
“The first and most important thing is to make sure that civil order is preserved, that there is food, that there is water, there is power -- all the things that people need to make sure their daily lives go on,”

“The evidence of what has happened in other cities would suggest that when the National Transitional Council has been in charge instead of the Gaddafi regime things have worked perfectly well, perfectly smoothly.”

“(There have been) no major reprisals against those who had previously been supporting the regime and that is what we want to see -- stable order in Tripoli as quickly as possible.”

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri:
“Hamas welcomes the entry by Libyan revolution fighters into the capital Tripoli and congratulates them on this great victory.”

“We hope this will represent a turning point in the history of Libya toward progress and prosperity in implementing the will of the Libyan people.”

Shadi Hamid, research director of Brookings Doha center:
“Arabs needed this, they needed another victory, this changes the whole tone in the region after several months of disappointment. You can see this on Twitter and Facebook that the whole region is watching this very closely.

Asked if the NTC will be able to control the situation, “The NTC is an impressive body. They’ve done an impressively good job governing Benghazi and I think you have very smart people and a leadership that thought post-Gaddafi Libya. They’ve been preparing for several months.

“It’s probably going to be messy, there’s always a risk after the fall of a leader ... But the international community is united in supporting the NTC.

“The question is will the international community be able to provide the funding the NTC is in need of. (Securing the funds) “It has been slow and disappointing but I think now that the NTC is the unquestioned representative of Libya, there’ll be international pressure to release funds. It’s not going to happen overnight, but there’s a realization that the NTC needs funding.

Egyptian presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy:
“I salute the triumph of the Libyan people after a long struggle against Gaddafi’s rule.”

“It is certain that the Arab revolution will continue and will triumph against all tyrants and oppressors. Arab revolutions are completed today by the victory of the Libyan people. Congratulations on your freedom.”

French intellectual Bernard-Henri levy, rebel supporter:
“Gaddafi now controls a lot less than 20 percent of Tripoli. He now controls nothing more than his bunker.”

“These French arms (delivered to the rebels) powerfully contributed to the victory, as did the French pilots. But it was the Libyans themselves, young Libyans who were mocked and insulted for their so-called indiscipline, it was they who took Tripoli last night ...

“The National Transitional Council is capable of managing what it has promised to do, that is to say the transition. These men have always said they had no personal ambition and did not wish to run the country in the long term. They are there to organize the transition ... to help install a new government in a few months, which they want to be a democratic government.”

Libya will go down in history as the anti-Iraq. Iraq was democracy parachuted into a country by a foreign power in a country which hadn’t asked for it. Libya was a rebellion which demanded help from an international coalition led by France, and which will continue now in the reconstruction of the country.

Kuwaiti MP Waleed al-Tabtabaie:
“Mubarak’s departure is a victory for the youth and a loss for Israel, Gaddafi’s departure is a victory for the people and a loss for comedy and Bashar (al-Assad)’s departure will be a victory for Syria and a loss for Iran.”

BREAKING NEWS?Diplomat: Rebels control 95 percent of Tripoli

The Libyan rebels' top diplomat in London says clashes are continuing in Tripoli, but opposition forces control 95 percent of the city.
Mahmud Nacua says there are "still some pockets" of support for Moammar Gadhafi, but rebels are asserting control.
He says they have not yet found Gadhafi but "the fighters will turn over every stone to find him, to arrest him, and to put him in the court."

Chaos in Karachi

EDITORIAL:DAILY TIMES
Another 11 people have lost their lives in incidents of unrelenting violence in Karachi on Sunday, bringing the death toll to more than 80 since violence erupted in Lyari and its neighbouring areas. The recent wave of killings started after five Lyari residents were found dead on Wednesday. The law and order situation in the metropolis has deteriorated to the extent that on Friday night a police party in civvies, travelling in a public bus in Korangi, was attacked by a group of 15 to 20 armed men riding motorcycles. They indiscriminately opened fire on the bus, killing six policemen. Life in the metropolis has become so precarious that even common citizens are becoming victims of the saboteurs’ killing spree and kidnapping has become a common occurrence. Mutilated, badly tortured and even beheaded bodies are being found in different parts of the city on a daily basis and business activities have come to a grinding halt.

Meanwhile, the performance of the government remains conspicuous by its absence and has remained so ever since the Karachi violence started early this year, claiming hundreds of lives so far. People have lost their faith in the government’s capability to deal with the crisis. Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Provincial Home Minister Manzoor Wasan’s assurances to the members of the SITE association did not seem to convince the industrialists as hardly ever have their claims and commitments seen fulfilment. Businessmen have demanded of the government to provide them foolproof security as the activities of the bhatta (money extortion) mafia have increased manifold in the city. Amidst the chaos, different politicians and members of civil society are urging the government to deploy the Pakistan Army to take control of the city’s law and order. However, Prime Minister Gilani has left the matter to the discretion of the provincial government, which has given a free hand to the Rangers now. The decision looks wise, at the moment, as the full potential of the police and the Rangers has not been used so far. However, the need of the hour is to fully empower and support them so that they effectively carry out operations against the criminal gangs. Friday’s attack on the party of plainclothes police on a public van is testament to the institution’s lack of resources. The wisdom behind their decision to travel in plainclothes was questionable to begin with and has, reportedly, also demoralised the policemen who have survived in the attack.

The government has to properly deploy the Rangers and other law enforcement agencies in the city. The military should be the last resort as it could undermine democracy and a military operation in the densely populated city using this blunt weapon could cause incalculable collateral damage. That could further complicate Karachi’s complex issue and afterwards the politicians could have to bear the brunt of a public backlash. At present, people of all ethnicities seem to be involved in the violence. Mainly, the Urdu speaking community, Sindhis, Pashtuns, Baloch and Punjabis constitute the city’s population. Because their issues have not been resolved by their political representatives, ethnic differences and hegemonic attitudes keep them at daggers drawn. It is certainly no secret that different political parties and ethnic groups patronise different land, drug and money extortion mafias and use street criminal gangs as their foot soldiers. There are reports that three of the criminals who attacked the police bus have been arrested. A hundred other alleged assassins have also been rounded up. The government should ensure a fair trial of these criminals without giving them any leeway due to their political affiliations. The city’s peace has to be restored at any cost.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s education minister injured in Buner attack

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Minister for Education, Sardar Hussain Babak, was injured in an ambush on his convoy in Changlai area of Buner, a private TV channel reported on Sunday. The injured minister was rushed to a hospital in Swabi. The vehicle in which Babak was travelling, turned turtle after the attack and the minister and his two security guards were injured. Swabi DPO said no one in the minister’s convoy received bullet wounds. He said the minister and his security guards were injured due to vehicle’s overturning. According to the brother of the injured minister, Shamim Shahid, Babak’s condition was out of danger. He said that one of his cousin was also travelling with Babak when his convoy was attacked by unidentified gunmen.

Shahbaz Sharif: Cheap publicity stunt

thefrontierpost.com

Has the incumbent chief minister of Punjab too to emulate his predecessor remorselessly and play

a cheap publicity stunt to mock at otherwise a very sublime cause? Pervaiz Elahi blew away millions of rupees on a gaudy expensive media campaign under the banner that his image-makers labelled grandly as para likha Punjab. They said it was a motivational drive. But that was just a ruse, a huge lie. Obviously, the well-off or the middle class needed no prodding or a nudging to send their children to schools. The target could only be the downtrodden and the disadvantaged who for their difficult conditions find it hard to put their children to schooling. Yet the full-blast campaign was mounted on the television channels, to which these poor classes had had hardly an access, as well as in the print media, including the English press that by no stretch of imagination could be construed as having even a modicum of readership among the disadvantaged, very many as illiterate as unable to read even an Urdu newspaper. But Elahi was least pushed. He dipped deep in a World Bank loan for the spread of education in the country to fuel this patently lewd campaign that even a witless would easily discern as nothing else but a cheap self-projection drive. And now Shahbaz Sharif is on this game. He is biting into the cash-strapped treasury of Punjab to mount a similar obscene media campaign. Honouring the nation’s talented students is definitely a worthy project. Cash awards for the position-holders in the boards’ examinations is a praiseworthy enterprise too. Recognition of the heads of their institutions with monetary awards and letters of appreciation is worth it, as well. But taking out huge advertisements in the media on the venture is a contemptible squandering of the taxpayer’s precious money, and culpably offensive as Elahi’s was. This takes out his venture indisputably from the realm of a noble cause to throw it abominably in the domain of personal projection, although the Khadam Punjab has mercifully spared his advert from the atrocity of his portrait, which his predecessor had not. His advert had his own and his mentor Pervez Musharraf’s images mounted prominently on it, albeit to the great chagrin of the citizens, aghast at the daylight robbery of a loan-money for building up personality cults instead of spending it on the spread of education it actually was intended for.But such niceties do not occur to the minds that are neither committed to a cause sincerely and dedicatedly nor hold the public money in their trust as a scared treasure not to be misused or misspent. Certainly, Shahbaz cannot be faulted for including other provinces and other regions in his award venture; but the political overtones of his move cannot be overlooked either. But had he been any wiser, he would have won plaudits countrywide and set an example for his counterparts in the rest of the country by concertedly setting upon the sprucing up of the state-run schooling on his domain. It is as rotten as in other provinces and regions. And it is rotting deeper as in them, unchecked and unrelentingly. Refurbishment of this ruined and collapsing schooling system is doubtlessly a very painstaking and arduous job.But had he rolled up his sleeves and taken the plunge, he would have set himself apart from the common rung, showing himself up as a true reformer and nation-builder. But he too has gone for mere cosmetics. He seems thinking that with just a string of daanish schools, he can pull a marvellous feat in school education, which definitely he cannot. It is only by improving and refurbishing the widespread state-run schooling that he can hope for the blossoming and nurturing of the hidden sea of young talent on his domain. His pet daanish schools at best can serve a sprinkling of that surging talent. Then those schools, make no mistake, are ultimately doomed for that junkyard that has seen similar cosmetic ventures over the time going into its sprawling graveyard or surviving on a life-support inefficaciously once their sponsors are gone.In any case, he must understand vote-banks do not grow up from media campaigns. They build up on people’s personal experiences and observations of the efficacy of a government in delivering their basic needs and urgent demands. A better state-run schooling system would win him votes, not any blaring image-projection drive.

Gilani to chair Sindh cabinet meeting sans MQM, ANP today

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will chair a meeting of the Sindh Cabinet on Monday (today) to review the situation in Karachi, in which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP), the leading coalition partners of the government in Sindh, refused to participate, a private TV channel reported on Sunday.
The prime minister will visit Karachi today to hold meetings with the Sindh government on the state of law and order in the city. Gilani was supposed to leave for Karachi on Sunday but his visit was postponed because of bad weather. Meanwhile, a high-level meeting chaired jointly by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah decided on Sunday that there was no need to call in the army in Karachi and the situation would be handled through political strategy by using the civil administration.
The meeting expressed concern over increasing incidents of kidnapping for ransom in the embattled city and decided to take immediate action to retrieve the hostages. The meeting also decided that Pakistan Rangers and police would be given authority to take action indiscriminately, and any miscreants arrested on charges of targeted killing and extortion would be brought on television.
The meeting also decided that hearings would be held in anti-terrorism courts on a daily basis against miscreants, and the implementation of penalties would be ensured. Governor Ebad questioned why the people had been forced to look to institutions other than the police to bring peace to the provincial capital. Chief Minister Shah ordered the law enforcement agencies to launch a crackdown on miscreants enjoying any political patronage. He also said positive talks were underway with the MQM and efforts were in progress to bring the ANP to the negotiating table.
To a question, Shah said the armed forces were already engaged in fulfilling their responsibilities and it would not be fit to call them to Karachi. “The armed forces are our prestigious institution and are already heavily burdened with so many responsibilities,” he added. Political leaders, top security officials and the top brass of the departments concerned attended the meeting. Separately, four different cases were registered against the 21 men accused of attacking a bus carrying police officials in Karachi, while violence continued to plague the city.

Oil prices drop as Libyan rebels sweep into Tripoli

Oil prices dropped sharply on Monday after rebels swept into the heart of Tripoli, raising expectations that Libyan oil exports could resume soon.

As a battle raged at Muammar Gaddafi's complex in the Libyan capital, Brent crude dropped more than $3 to $105.15 a barrel, a fall of 3%, while US crude was down almost a dollar at $81.30, a 1% drop.

Analysts believe Libya could be pumping as much as 1m barrels a day within months. Before the war halted exports, Libya was pumping some 1.6m barrels a day – nearly 2% of global supply. Most of it flowed to European refiners, and tightening supply after Libyan exports stopped in the spring drove Brent crude to a two-year high of $127.02 in April.

The FTSE in London fell more than 35 points in early trading, taking the index briefly through 5000, before turning positive, trading 20 points higher at 5060. France's CAC was up 0.6% while Germany's Dax fell 0.9%. Asian markets were bathed in red, with the Nikkei in Tokyo losing 1%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong falling 1.5% and the Jakarta Composite in Indonesia down 2%. There are growing expectations that Japan will intervene in currency markets to weaken the strong yen.

Investors scrambling for safe haven investments pushed spot gold prices to a new record of $1,894 an ounce.

Markets are eagerly awaiting a speech from US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They will scrutinise his remarks for any hints on how America's central bank will tackle the worsening economic outlook and turmoil in financial markets.

EU, US begin planning for post-Gaddafi Libya

The European Union is actively planning for a Libya without Muammar Gaddafi following the rapid advance of rebel forces over the weekend.

"We seem to be witnessing the last moments of the Gaddafi regime and we call on Gaddafi to step down without further delay and avoid further bloodshed," Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, said on Monday.

"We have post-Gadaffi planning going on ... we do have a number of scenarios that we have worked in terms of our assistance post-Gadaffi," he said.

The EU urged the rebels to act responsibly and protect civilians as they push into the capital Tripoli.

Britain urged the rebel Libyan National Transitional Council to maintain order and not pursue reprisals after rebel fighters swept into the heart of the capital Tripoli on Monday.

Fears surface that rebels aren't ready to lead

Britain, which has played a lead role in international efforts to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, wants to avoid a repeat of the chaos and bloodshed in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

"The first and most important thing is to make sure that civil order is preserved, that there is food, that there is water, there is power -- all the things that people need to make sure their daily lives go on," UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told BBC TV.

"The evidence of what has happened in other cities would suggest that when the National Transitional Council has been in charge instead of the Gaddafi regime things have worked perfectly well, perfectly smoothly," he added.

Western powers have been intensifying planning for post-Gaddafi Libya in recent days in response to a rapid succession of rebel victories around Tripoli, according to officials involved in the talks.

The NATO alliance on Friday authorized formal planning for post-Gaddafi Libya and TNC members were due to meet officials from the United States, Britain, Jordan and United Arab Emirates to discuss "day-after" planning in Dubai this week.

The White House believes that unless transition plans are firmed up quickly, post-Gaddafi Libya may be chaotic and it may be impossible to fulfill the West's promise to protect Libya's people from humanitarian crisis.

Some US and European officials fear Libya's opposition movement is not fully ready to govern. Their hope is that enough of Gaddafi's institutions will remain intact to enable the formation of a transitional government that can maintain a measure of civil order.

Post-Gaddafi planning begins in US, EU and NATO; UK fears post-Saddam type anarchy could break out in Tripoli; Hamas welcomes rebel progress.

International leaders reacted late Sunday and Monday to developments in Libya that saw rebels enter and take control of most of the capital, with some calling on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down voluntarily and others demanding he be tried in the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that Gaddafi's rule was showing signs of collapse and called on the Libyan leader to relinquish power to avoid further casualties.

Clashes near Gadhafi compound in Libyan capital

Clashes broke out early Monday near Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli, a day after rebels poured into the Libyan capital in a stunning advance that met little resistance from the regime's defenders.
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman said government tanks emerged from the complex, known as Bab al-Aziziya, early Monday and opened fire. An Associated Press reporter at the nearby Rixos Hotel where foreign journalists stay could hear gunfire and loud explosions from the direction of the complex.
Tripoli resident Moammar al-Warfali, whose family home is next to Bab al-Aziziya, said tanks rolled out from the compound in the early morning after a group of rebels tried to get in. He said there appeared to be only a few tanks belonging to the remaining Gadhafi forces that have not fled or surrendered.
Bab al-Aziziya, a sprawling compound that long served as the command center for the regime, has been heavily damaged by repeated NATO airstrikes over the past five months, al-Warfali said.
"When I climb the stairs and look at it from the roof, I see nothing at Bab al-Aziziya," he said. "NATO has demolished it all and nothing remains."
The rebels seized control of most of Tripoli in a lightning advance on Sunday, and euphoric residents celebrate in the capital's Greet Square, the symbolic hear of the Gadhafi regime. Gadhafi's defenders quickly melted away as his 42-year rule crumbled, but the leader's whereabouts were unknown and pockets of resistance remained.
Abdel-Rahman, who is in Tripoli with rebel forces, cautioned that Gadhafi troops still pose a threat to rebels, and that as long as Gadhafi remains on the run the "danger is still there."
The startling rebel breakthrough, after a long deadlock in Libya's 6-month-old civil war, was the culmination of a closely coordinated plan by rebels, NATO and anti-Gadhafi residents inside Tripoli, rebel leaders said. Rebel fighters from the west swept over 20 miles (30 kilometers) in a matter of hours Sunday, taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base as residents poured out to cheer them. At the same time, Tripoli residents secretly armed by rebels rose up.
By the early hours of Monday, opposition fighters controlled most of the capital. The seizure of Green Square held profound symbolic value — the plaza was the scene of pro-Gadhafi rallies organized by the regime almost every night, and Gadhafi delivered speeches to his loyalists from the historic Red Fort that overlooks the square. Rebels and Tripoli residents set up checkpoints around the city, though pockets of pro-Gadhafi fighters remained. In one area, AP reporters with the rebels were stopped and told to take a different route because of regime snipers nearby.
President Barack Obama said Libya is "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant" and urged Gadhafi to relinquish power to prevent more bloodshed.
"The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people," Obama said in a statement from Martha's Vineyard, where he's vacationing. He promised to work closely with rebels.

Obama: Libya slipping from grasp of tyrant

President Barack Obama said Sunday night following a day of dramatic developments in Libya that the situation there has reached a "tipping point" and that control of the capital was "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant." He called on Moammar Gadhafi to accept reality and relinquish power.

Obama issued the statement after conducting a conference call with members of his national security team, who had provided him with updates throughout the day.
"The surest way for the bloodshed to end is simple: Moammar Gadhafi and his regime need to recognize that their rule has come to an end," Obama said in a statement issued while on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. "Gadhafi needs to acknowledge the reality that he no longer controls Libya. He needs to relinquish power once and for all."
He had told reporters earlier Sunday that he would not make a statement "until we have full confirmation of what has happened."
Libyan rebels who raced into Tripoli on Sunday met little resistance as Gadhafi's defenders melted away and his 42-year authoritarian rule quickly crumbled. Euphoric fighters celebrated with residents of the capital in Green Square, the symbolic heart of the fading regime. Gadhafi's whereabouts were unknown, though state TV broadcast his bitter pleas for Libyans to defend his regime.
Opposition fighters captured his son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. Another son was in contact with rebels about surrendering, the opposition said.
"Tonight, the momentum against the Gadhafi regime has reached a tipping point. Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant," Obama said in the statement. "The Gadhafi regime is showing signs of collapsing. The people of Libya are showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist of a dictator."
The United States has joined other countries in recognizing the rebel forces, the Transitional National Council, as the legitimate government in Libya.
Obama called on the rebels "at this pivotal and historic time" to demonstrate the leadership needed to steer the country through a transition by respecting the rights of the Libyan people, avoiding civilian casualties, protecting state institutions and pursuing a transition to democracy that is "just and inclusive" for all of the country's people.
"A season of conflict must lead to one of peace," the president said.
Obama said the U.S. would remain in close contact with the TNC and work with its allies and partners around the world to protect the Libyan people and support a peaceful shift to democracy.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta were also kept updated throughout the day, officials said.
For the past two days, senior U.S. diplomats have had intensive discussions with the Libyan opposition, and with European and NATO allies, about the evolving situation. Ivo Daalder, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, and Philip Gordon, the top American diplomat for Europe, have been consulting with their counterparts.
Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, the top American diplomat for the Mideast, returned to Cairo on Sunday after two days in Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital. On Saturday, while in Benghazi, Feltman warned that "the best-case scenario is for Gadhafi to step down now ... that's the best protection for civilians."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Feltman's trip underscored continuing U.S. efforts to encourage the rebels "to maintain broad outreach across all segments of Libyan society and to plan for post-Gadhafi Libya."
Some U.S. lawmakers rushed to claim a rebel victory in the 6-month-old civil war. Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, wrote on Twitter: "Great wishes of hope for people of Libya. You won the civil war; all the best on winning the peace! Bless Libya's patriots."
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., issued a joint statement calling the end of Gadhafi's rule "a victory for the Libyan people and for the broader cause of freedom in the Middle East and throughout the world."
But the GOP senators also criticized Obama's handling of the uprising. For one thing, Obama had limited U.S. military involvement to carrying out the early rounds of airstrikes before pulling back to a support role and refused to send in U.S. ground troops. McCain has said a stronger showing of U.S. air power could have dramatically shortened the conflict.
"Americans can be proud of the role our country has played ... but we regret that this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our airpower," McCain and Graham said.
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Libyans celebrate rebels in Tripoli

President al-Assad: The Solution in Syria Is Political…We Made Security Achievements…There Will be Elections and Review of Constitution

http://www.sana.sy

President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday said that the awareness of the Syrian people have protected the Homeland and foiled the plot seeking to undermine Syria within few weeks.

In a televised interview with the Syrian TV on the current events in Syria and the reform project, President al-Assad assured that the security situation in Syria is better now and that achievements on the security level were made recently.

President al-Assad

added "During the latest weeks, the security situation shifted towards the armed acts, particularly last Friday through attacking the Army, police and security posts, assassination acts and ambushing military and civil vehicles… this may seem dangerous regarding the question on if the security situation is better, but in reality we are capable of dealing with all that and we have made security achievements recently which we have not announced yet in order to ensure their success."

On the Syrian leadership's security dealing with the latest events, President al-Assad said "There is nothing called the security solution or the security alternative… there is only the political solution…even the states that go to wage wars, they go only for a political goal, not for the sake of a military purpose… there is no security alterative, but to be accurate, there is preservation of security." "The solution in Syria is political, but when there are security cases, they must be confronted through the competent institutions…We have chosen the political solution since the very first days of events; otherwise, we wouldn't have headed toward reform as we announced a package of reforms in less than a week after the events began…the political solution can't succeed without preserving security," the President added.

"We are at a transitional stage and we will follow up on the laws...there will be elections and a review of the constitution...the most important thing at this stage is to continue dialogue," said the President, stressing "It is unquestionable that there will be a review of the constitution whether the target is Article 8 or the other political items."

Concerning the applicable measures and the timetable to implement the elections and parties laws, President al-Assad said that during the coming days, a competent committee will be formed for the law of parties, compromising the Interior Minister, a judge and three independent personalities, which will receive the applications for the establishment of the new parties.

The President pointed out that the local administration law will be ready during the coming few days; accordingly the local administration elections will be conducted three months after the issuance of the law. President al-Assad said that the media law is supposed to be issued before the end of Ramadan, and that after Ramadan, a committee to study and review the constitution will be formed which will need a maximum of 6 months.

As for the elections of the People's Assembly, the President said "There have been several opinions ranging between 4 and 8 months after the issuance of the executive instructions of the elections law. The purpose is to allow a chance for the parties to be formed and be able to compete…the time expected for conducting the People's Assembly elections is by next February."

Answering a question on any connection between the decree granting Kurds the Syrian nationality and worries of exploiting this issue in the crisis, President al-Assad said "This issue was first discussed in August, 2002… This is a matter of human state and rights."

President al-Assad indicated that the decree was issued quickly at the beginning of events because it was ready in advance.

"The Kurds are a basic part of the Syrian fabric… As I said few years ago, Syria, without any of its components, can't be the Syria we know and can not be stable," added the President.

President al-Assad pointed out that the key solution to reach the desired results regarding the laws and decrees is through expanding dialogue with the beneficiary sides. Answering a question concerning punishing those who made mistakes over the previous period, President said that everyone who got involved in an offense against a Syrian citizen, whether civilian or military, will be held accountable when proved guilty beyond doubt, adding that there is an independent committee which has all the powers and complete transparency for this issue.

On the West's negative response to the reforms, President al-Assad said that the traditional response of the Western governments has always been "it isn't enough" since they do not want reform in the first place.

"Reform for the colonialist Western countries is to give them all they want and to abandon all your rights…I simply say this will be their unattainable dream whether under these circumstances or under any other circumstances," said the President.

Commenting on the US, Britain, France and Germany's call on him to step down, the President said "this can not be said to a president who is not interested in the position…a president who was not brought by the US or the West, but by the Syrian people…this can not be said to a people who refuse any high commissioner…a people who stand by resistance as one of their principles…this can be said to a president who was made in America and to a submissive people who accept orders from the outside."

President al-Assad said that his country chose not to respond to this "unworthy talk" as he considered it, adding that the respond to countries that are not friendly is that "If you want to go far with your policies, we are ready to go even more far."

The President described Syria's relationship with the West as one of conflict on sovereignty whose persistent goal is to take away the sovereignty of the countries including Syria, stressing "We are committed to our sovereignty without hesitation."

President al-Assad unveiled that Syria has faced continuous threats of military action since the US invasion of Iraq, warning that "any military action against Syria will have much more implications than they can bear for many reasons."

The first one, the President said, has to do with Syria's geo-political position, and the second is related to the "Syrian potentials which they know some of their parts and don't know the other parts whose outcomes they won't be able to endure."

On the economic situation in light of the Western economic pressures on Syria, President al-Assad assured that the economy has started to recover during the past two months, pointing out that concerning the economic embargo imposed on Syria, the alternatives are there in terms of heading eastward.

"On the other hand," said President al-Assad, "it is impossible that Syria might suffer hunger as it has self-sufficiency…the third point is that Syria's geographical position is central for the region's economy," noting that any blockade on Syria will affect a large number of the countries in the region and will reflect on other countries as well.On the Syrian-Turkish relationship, the President said "In general, we always meet with officials from different countries…we take advice…if they have experiences we discuss them, especially the countries which resemble us in terms of society…but when it comes to the decision, we don't allow any country in the world, near or far, to interfere in the Syrian decision."

President al-Assad assumed several possibilities for the Turkish officials' statements, citing that of keenness, saying "in this case we highly appreciate others' keenness on Syria."

"It maybe a kind of concern that any defect in Syria will affect Turkey and this is normal," said President al-Assad, addign that "the third possibility is that the reason behind these statements is acting as the guide or instructor or the role player at the expense of the Syrian issue. This matter is totally rejected from any official anywhere in the world, including Turkey."

On the issue of national media, President al-Assad said that the only ceiling of media is the law and the objectivity, stressing the issue of expanding the channels between the state and the citizens.

At the end of the interview, President al-Assad said "I am assured because the Syrian people have always come out of crises stronger…and it is natural that this crisis as any other crisis will give them more strength."

Syria unrest: Assad says his government will not fall

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said his government is in no danger of falling, despite months of protests.

In an interview on state TV, he said the solution in Syria was a political one, but violence should be dealt with firmly by the security forces.

He said steps were being taken to introduce a multi-party system and elections might be held in February.

Earlier, a UN team arrived in Syria to assess humanitarian needs, as security forces continue to suppress protesters.

On Friday, at least 40 people were reportedly killed across the country.

The US and several EU members have called on Mr Assad to step down.

Syria's protests first erupted in mid-March. The demonstrators are demanding the removal of President Assad, whose family have been in power for 40 years.

Human rights groups believe that about 2,000 people have been killed and thousands arrested since March.

The government has blamed the unrest on "terrorist groups".Secret maps'

In Sunday's interview, Mr Assad warned that any foreign military intervention would backfire on those who carry it out.
Any action against Syria will have greater consequences than they can tolerate," the president said.

"First, because of Syria's geopolitical location and second because of Syrian capabilities."

He also said opponents of the regime were increasingly resorting to violence, carrying out attacks on the military, the police and other security forces.

Mr Assad added that it was US President Barack Obama and other Western leaders who should be standing down because of the blood they had spilled in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and because of their political, economic and social bankruptcy at home.

The interview was Mr Assad's fourth public appearance since the protests began.

It came as a UN delegation has arrived in Syria to assess humanitarian needs.

The team has been told it can visit all trouble spots, but the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says there is some scepticism about how free its movements will be.

Despite recent assurances from the president that the army and police operations against civilians had stopped, activists' accounts and internet video postings indicate nothing much has changed.