Two Canadians are among those killed in a devastating terror attack on a crowded cafe in the historic central square of Marrakech, Morocco on Thursday.

Two Canadians are among those killed in a devastating terror attack on a crowded cafe in the historic central square of Marrakech, Morocco on Thursday.

A statement from the Moroccan government Friday said two Canadians, two French citizens, a citizen of the Netherlands and two Moroccans were among the 15 dead.

According to a report from a Montreal radio station the two Canadians were a married Montreal couple.

As of Friday morning, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it was "aware of news reports that Canadians were wounded in the explosion" but said it had no official confirmation of Canadian casualties.

"Consular officials in Rabat are working closely with local authorities to obtain additional information," said a statement emailed to CTV.ca.

The suspected suicide bombing at the cafe, which is popular with foreigners, was the worst terror attack the North African country has experienced in eight years.

The death toll was originally listed as 16. More than 20 people were wounded.

According to Morocco's state news agency MAP, two of the injured died in hospital.

Moroccan police and authorities were working to restore calm in Marrakech, a major tourist destination for the country.

The attack occurred in the legendary central square Djemaa el-Fna that leads to the city's open air souk, or market. The massive square is packed with snake charmers, magic potion ingredient-sellers and storytellers during the day, and by open-air food stalls at night.

11 rebel fighters have been killed in a Nato air strike in the besieged Libyan port city of Misrata,

11 rebel fighters have been killed in a Nato air strike in the besieged Libyan port city of Misrata, say reports.

A rebel commander and witnesses told reporters a Nato warplane had carried out Wednesday's bombing, but Nato refused to confirm or deny the reports.

A doctor told Reuters news agency seven rebels had also been killed in fire from government forces.

There has been intense fighting over Misrata's strategically crucial port.

Rebel fighters, backed by Nato air strikes, claim they have driven back soldiers loyal to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

The port is a vital lifeline, permitting aid deliveries and refugee evacuations, but they have been interrupted by the fighting - prompting residents to warn that supplies of food and water are dwindling.

bomb attack in the main square in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh has killed at least 14 people and injured 20, some of them foreigners

bomb attack in the main square in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh has killed at least 14 people and injured 20, some of them foreigners, officials say.

The explosion ripped through the Argana cafe in Djemaa el-Fna square, a popular tourist destination.

The interior ministry said evidence now pointed to a bomb attack after initial reports suggested a gas explosion.

Morocco has seen two months of protests against King Mohammed VI amid a tide of uprisings across the region.

The last major terrorist attack in Morocco was in 2003 in the city of Casablanca - 45 people, including a number of suicide bombers, were killed.

'Sounded like a bomb'
Moroccan government spokesman Khalid Naciri told French television that Thursday's casualties involved a number of nationalities but he would not confirm any as yet.

"We worked... on the hypothesis that this could... be accidental. But initial results of the investigation confirm that we are confronted with a true criminal act," he said.

An interior ministry statement added: "Analysis of the early evidence collected at the site... confirms the theory of an attack."


A medical source told AFP news agency that 11 of the dead were foreigners, including five women, but this has not been independently confirmed.

Witnesses described hearing a huge blast that sent debris flying into the air.

Briton Hugo Somersham-Jones told the BBC he was at his Marrakesh home, close to the square, when he heard the explosion.

"It sounded like a bomb. I went outside and saw smoke and got to the cafe and saw falling masonry. I came out to the main square and saw the first floor of the cafe in ruins.

"People had fire extinguishers, trying to put out the fire, and others were pulling people out from the building - it was pretty bad."

Mr Somersham-Jones, a hotel owner who has been running his business in Marrakesh for six years, said the square was the main area where people congregate and that there had been a deadly gas explosion last year.

Portuguese tourist Alexandre Carvalho told the Associated Press news agency that he had seen injured people being carried away.

"I believe the injured were mostly tourists, judging by what they were wearing," he said.

The UK Foreign Office said it was aware of the blast and that consular staff had been deployed to offer assistance to any British nationals.

It advised UK nationals to stay away from the square.

Djemaa el-Fna square is a Unesco World Heritage site and is popular with foreign tourists, particularly Europeans.

Analysts say the blast could have a serious effect on Morocco's important tourism sector.

One French businessman told Reuters: "You can't find a more emblematic target than Djemaa el-Fna square. With this attack and amid the worrying unrest in the region, tourism

Terror reigned in the Syrian city of Daraa on Wednesday as intermittent gunfire rang out overnight and snipers held their positions on rooftops

Terror reigned in the Syrian city of Daraa on Wednesday as intermittent gunfire rang out overnight and snipers held their positions on rooftops, a witness there said.
He said the situation "is worsening day after day" where the country's recent anti-government protests started.
Five people were killed by sniper fire on Tuesday, including a 6-year-old girl, said the witness, who is not being identified for security reasons. But no funerals have taken place, he said, because the cemetery is occupied by security forces.
Half a world away, United Nations Security Council will be briefed Wednesday on the crisis in Syria when it meets in a private session, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations rejected Tuesday a call for an independent investigation into the reported killings of hundreds of demonstrators by government forces.
"Syria has a government, has a state," Bashar Jaafari told reporters at the world body. "We can undertake any investigation by our own selves, with full transparency. We have nothing to hide. We regret what is going on, but you should also acknowledge that this unrest and riots, in some of their aspects, have hidden agendas."

Afghan forces have recaptured at least 65 of the 480 inmates who escaped from the south's largest prison

Afghan forces have recaptured at least 65 of the 480 inmates who escaped from the south's largest prison, the government said on Tuesday.

Prison officials discovered early on Monday morning that the inmates – nearly all of them Taliban militants – were missing from their cells, and then found the tunnel through which they appeared to have made their getaway.

The Taliban said the jailbreak was five months in the making, with diggers starting the tunnel from under a nearby house while they arranged for inmates to get cell keys.

The Kandahar provincial governor's office said that Afghan and international forces are working together to recapture the missing prisoners. It said the troops have already caught 65 and killed two who tried to resist. Authorities have biometric data on each prisoner, the statement added.

The prison break came less than two weeks after the Kandahar police chief was killed by a suicide bomber inside his heavily defended office compound.

"How can we trust or rely on a government that can't protect the police chief inside the police headquarters and can't keep prisoners in the prison?" asked Islamullah Agha Bashir, who sells washing machines and other appliances in Kandahar city. "Last night while we were eating dinner I told my two sons not to go out as much because I am afraid that now when the morale of the Taliban is high, they will attack more."

In Kabul, officials started to piece through the details of the escape and place blame. The justice minister, Habibullah Ghalib, sent a formal letter to President Hamid Karzai acknowledging that it was likely that prison officials or guards acted as accomplices but adding that Afghan and international security forces should have detected the plot.

"The escape of all the prisoners from one tunnel ... shows that collaborators inside the prison somehow provided an opportunity," it said.

However, Ghalib also noted that Afghan police searched the compound from which the tunnel originated about two and a half months before the prison break and he said that Canadian and US forces have been responsible for security improvements to the prison. A full investigation was under way.

Kandahar city has been a major focus of the international troop surge over the past year, with Nato officials saying that establishing security there will be key to securing the region. Last summer, Afghan forces created a ring of checkpoints around the city and started pushing out into Taliban areas on its outskirts in a plan to establish the government's authority before the rise in attacks that usually comes with warmer weather in the spring and summer.

The Taliban have responding by starting off the spring fighting season with a string of attacks apparently designed to undermine trust in the capabilities of the Afghan government. Within the past two weeks, Taliban agents have also launched deadly attacks from inside the defence ministry a shared Afghan-US military base in eastern Laghman province.

The attacks have exposed weaknesses that have also raised doubt over the readiness of the Afghan government to start taking over authority for security parts of the country as planned.

Nato-led coalition forces announced on Tuesday that a key al-Qaida operative in Afghanistan had been killed in an air strike on 13 April in Dangam district of eastern Kunar province.

Nato said Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, was a regional commander in charge of suicide bombings and cash flow. The strike also killed a number of other insurgents, including another al-Qaida leader known as Waqas.

In eastern Paktia province on Tuesday, the provincial governor narrowly escaped an apparent assassination attempt by insurgents. A roadside bomb exploded just behind a vehicle taking Juma Khan Hamdard to his office, said Rohallah Samon, a spokesman.

Hamdard was not hurt, but three policemen who were in a chase vehicle were slightly injured, Samon said.

Rebels and residents of Misrata said bodies lay scattered in the streets of the city

Rebels and residents of Misrata said bodies lay scattered in the streets of the city and medics struggled to cope with the wounded on Monday after some of the bloodiest fighting of a two-month-old siege.

People emerged from homes after daybreak to scenes of devastation after Muammar Gaddafi's forces pulled back from the city under cover of blistering rocket and tank fire, said witnesses contacted by phone.

Medics said more than 20 people were killed in clashes on Sunday and 28 on Saturday

More than 400 prisoners, including members of the Taliban, have escaped a jail in Afghanistan after insurgents tunnelled in to free them.

Kandahar is known as the birthplace of the Taliban 
The majority of the 476 prisoners who fled the 1,200-inmate Sarposa Prison were Taliban militants, according to prison supervisor Ghulam Dastagi Mayar.
It is the second major jailbreak from the prison in Kandahar province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, in three years.
It is supposed to be the most secure jail in the country.
The Taliban, known for exaggerating its successes, claimed that 541 prisoners, including many commanders, had escaped through an extensive tunnel which took months to create.
A Taliban statement said: "Mujahideen started digging a 320-metre tunnel to the prison from the south side, which was completed after a five-month period, by-passing enemy check posts and (the) Kandahar-Kabul main highway leading directly to the political prison."
The provincial governor's spokesperson Zalmay Ayoubi confirmed the jailbreak, saying: "We have the report that hundreds of Taliban managed to escape from the prison."
Waheed Mujhda, a Kabul-based expert on the Taliban, said it would have been impossible to dig the tunnel and free hundreds without collaboration with the guards.
"It is either a case of the jailers being financially motivated and being bribed or a case of them being politically motivated," he said.


The security breach comes just months before the start of a transfer of responsibilities from foreign to Afghan forces as Nato troops begin their withdrawal from the country.
Afghan forces will take over from foreign troops in stages and should be in charge of the whole country by 2014.
In 2008, Taliban insurgents blew open the gate of the prison, allowing up to 1,000 prisoners to escape.
Days later, Taliban fighters took many villages close to Kandahar, sparking fierce fighting with the Afghan army.
The Taliban said the tunnel was completed late on Sunday night and hundreds of insurgents escaped over a four-and-a-half hour period.
"Mujahideen later on sent vehicles to the inmates who were led away to secure destinations," said the statement.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said international troops were on standby to provide assistance.
"We have no involvement at this point," said ISAF spokesman Major Michael Johnson in Kabul.
"If we're asked to assist in any capacity, we would certainly be standing by to do that."

At least three people were killed Thursday when part of a mosque collapsed in Morocco.

At least three people were killed Thursday when part of a mosque collapsed in Morocco.

The mosque in the town of Fes had been undergoing renovation and construction workers were working inside of it when it fell to the ground.

A witness said the building started shaking when suddenly a huge chunk of the roof came down.

Dozens of people helped dig for survivors in the rubble.

Tameen office block, the city's tallest building, with a view across Misrata, was captured after relentless pounding by rebel forces. Numerous snipers were either killed or captured.

Rebels in the besieged city of Misrata have won a significant victory by retaking several key buildings that had been occupied by Muammar Gaddafi's forces for over a month.

The Tameen office block, the city's tallest building, with a view across Misrata, was captured after relentless pounding by rebel forces. Numerous snipers were either killed or captured.

Several other buildings nearby were also cleared, leaving the rebels in control of the northern end of Tripoli Street, the city's main thoroughfare, which Gaddafi's forces have been desperate to capture. The snipers had caused havoc in the city after they were sent in on 19 March, picking off civilians and rebels at will, as well as firing missiles from the roof of the buildings into civilian areas.

On Friday morning, rebel forces were moving freely around the area near the Tameen building, which is littered with abandoned tanks, burnt cars and spent ammunition.

Firefighters were cleaning the streets.

"In this area, all the families had to leave because of the threat of the snipers," said Hadi Tantoun, a journalist and rebel. "Capturing this building was very important."

The snipers had been cut off from the rest of Gaddafi's forces for a week or more, unable to receive supplies. Entering the Tameen building through the pitch-black reception, strewn with debris, it was possible to get a glimpse of how they had been living.

Mattresses and blankets indicated that several snipers had been sleeping in the stairwell on the first floor, relatively safe in the centre of the building. Their cooking pots still stood in the atrium area nearby.

The once-smart offices on the sides of the building, whose tenants were mostly insurance agents, had been trashed by the snipers, with files on the floor and upturned sofas.

In some offices, cabinets had been pushed against windows for protection. Many glass panes had been shattered by rebel fire.

"Every night we attacked them with our RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] and Kalashnikovs," said Abdula Hafid, 24, a member of the "City Centre" rebel cell that finally liberated the building. "They killed a lot of civilians." On higher floors there were empty tins of tuna and tomato paste, blankets, mattresses and sandals, and a few discarded green uniforms.

According to rebel fighters, the few dozen snipers that still occupied the building this week had changed into civilian clothes before trying to escape down Tripoli Street on Thursday, towards their main base in the vegetable market.

A sniper's chair had been placed under a small window, which offered a view down the main street. Dozens of spent bullet shells and cigarettes littered the floor around the chair.

In an office that had belonged to an architect there were graffiti written in green ink – Gaddafi's colour – in Arabic.

It read: "If we survive, we are warning you gays and dogs. We will not forgive anybody from Misrata. We will fuck your daughters and your wives." One of the rebels had already penned a riposte: "Misrata is strong. We will win in the end."

On the top floor, several Gaddafi soldiers had been sleeping on dirty mattresses next to the elevator works. A torn photograph of a woman – a wife of one of the snipers perhaps – lay on the floor.

On the roof there were thousands of spent bullet shells, and numerous discarded cases of anti-tank missiles that had been fired into the city. Up here the snipers would have had a clear view of the city, and everything that moved down below.

They would have seen the destruction in the area nearby – buildings pockmarked by gunfire, featuring gaping holes where shells had struck, blackened by smoke. Glass and tyres and twisted metal on the streets.

At the foot of the building lay the body of a sniper, covered with a blanket. It had been burned. One of the rebels said that if Gaddafi's forces could not get their dead back to base, they set them on fire.

A few civilians ventured cautiously on to Tripoli Street, which housed some of the city's best coffee shops, several banks, and the Italian-built hotel where Mussolini once stayed.

A rebel with a loudhailer warned them not to try to enter any of the shops: "This is not your property. Even if it is government property, it is for all the people". He then cleared the area, saying it was still dangerous.

The rebels had learned their lesson on Thursday night. After taking over the Tameen building, they dropped their guard while celebrating.

Several fighters were killed, prompting scenes of grief at the main hospital, where brothers, fathers and colleagues of the victims wept and swore to avenge them.

Large explosions and the sound of jets over Tripoli Thursday night indicated NATO has likely increased the intensity of its air strikes on Moammar Gadhafi's key command and control military sites.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen, reporting from Libya, heard at least three major explosions.
The alliance has issued a new warning to Libyan civilians to stay away from military areas, foreshadowing plans for attacks on targets seen as strategically significant in stopping the government's attacks against civilians, a NATO military official said Thursday.
The next phase will largely involve increased air strikes on key Gadhafi command, control and communications sites in and around Tripoli, although targets in other areas could be hit as well, said the official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
'Slippery slope' in Libya mission Zawiyah is a ghost town Veteran photojournalist killed in Libya Libya rebels react to Hetherington death
NATO now has the use of armed U.S. Predator drones at its disposal.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates disclosed that the drones saw their first use in Libya Thursday, but poor weather forced them to return.
Unmanned aerial vehicles offer more precise targeting, because their low-flying capability allows for better visibility, "particularly on targets now that have started to dig themselves into defensive positions," Gates said.
The Predators bring "capabilities to the NATO commander that they didn't have before," he said. President Barack Obama approved their use.
Rebels, who have complained that NATO was not being aggressive enough to protect civilians, said Thursday they had gained control of a key border crossing into Tunisia.
The crossing at Wazen, Libya, could prove key to access to the city of Nalut, under siege by Gadhafi's forces for the past month. Thousands have fled the fighting through Wazen to the nearby Tunisian town of Dehiba, where temporary camps have been set up for the displaced.
The Tunisian state-run news agency, TAP, also reported the rebel takeover of Wazen after early morning fighting.
Paris promises made to aid Libya rebels Will NATO jets sway fight for Misrata? UK military in Libya Caught in Libya's crossfire

About 100 forces loyal to Gadhafi, including a high-ranking officer, fled across the border into Tunisia, said Mohammed Ali Abdallah, spokesman for National Front for the Salvation of Libya. He said the rebels detained 14 members of Gadhafi's forces.
TAP reported that 13 Libyan officers have been detained by Tunisian military authorities.
Also Thursday, a third ship chartered by the International Organization for Migration made its way back from the besieged city of Misrata to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in the east.
More than 1,000 rescued migrants were on board, as were the bodies of photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, killed in Misrata on Wednesday, the organization said. The ship also repatriated the body of an Ukrainian doctor.
Several banners were displayed as the Ionian Spirit docked late Thursday in Benghazi.
One read: "We feel for the families of the deceased, your blood was mixed with us in Misrata and with your loss you shared with us the price for freedom." Another said, "US and UK with your loss, you shared with us the price of freedom." Hondros was American and Hetherington had dual British and U.S. citizenship.
Twenty rebel fighters stood in military formation as the vessel arrived.
The reported rebel takeover Thursday of Wazen comes at a time when many are questioning whether a military victory over Gadhafi is possible. France and Italy announced Wednesday that they will send military officers to Libya to advise the rebels.

Tributes have been paid to an award-winning British photographer killed in an apparent mortar attack in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata.

Tim Hetherington, an Oscar-nominated film-maker and conflict photographer, was capturing images of fighting between Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces and Libyan rebels when he was reportedly hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
His American colleague Chris Hondros, 41, was also killed in the attack.
Liverpool-born Mr Hetherington, 41, who worked for Getty Images and lived in New York, had covered conflict zones since the late 1990s.
A number of other journalists, including British photographer Guy Martin, were injured when they were hit by shrapnel.
Mr Martin, a 27-year-old part-time university lecturer from Cornwall, is being treated at a hospital in Misrata, where he is in a critical but stable condition. His family wants him to be medically evacuated but he is not yet well enough to be moved.
Mr Hetherington was a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair magazine and studied at Oxford and Cardiff universities. He had written of the dangerous position he was in on Twitter, saying: "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Gaddafi forces. No sign of Nato."
In a statement issued through the magazine, his family members said: "It is with great sadness we learned that our son and brother, photographer and film-maker Tim Hetherington, was killed in Misrata, Libya, by a rocket-propelled grenade.
"Tim will be remembered for his amazing images and his Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo, which he co-produced with his friend Sebastian Junger. Tim was in Libya to continue his ongoing multimedia project to highlight humanitarian issues during time of war and conflict. He will be forever missed."
Mr Hetherington, who had dual British and American nationality, was best known for his work in Afghanistan and won the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year Award in 2007. His work there led to his creation of the 2010 Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo.

US deploys armed drones over Libya

Armed US Predator drones are carrying out missions over Libya, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.

Mr Gates said their use had been authorised by President Barack Obama and would give "precision capability" to the military operation.

US drones are already used to target militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Libyan rebels have been battling Col Gaddafi's troops since February but have recently made little headway.

"President Obama has said that where we have some unique capabilities, he is willing to use those," Mr Gates told a news conference.

He said two armed, unmanned Predators were being made available to Nato as needed, and marked a "modest contribution" to the military operations.

Mr Gates denied that the drone deployment was evidence of "mission creep" in Libya and said there were still no plans to put US "boots on the ground" in Libya.

"There's no wiggle room in that," he said.

Gen James Cartwright, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the first mission had taken place on Thursday but turned back due to bad weather.

He said the drones - which can fly at a lower altitude than conventional fighter jets - were "uniquely suited for urban areas", providing improved visibility of tanks and other potential targets.

 

Tim Hetherington, a leading British photojournalist, has been killed while covering the fighting in the Libyan city of Misurata, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

Tim Hetherington died from a mortar round while on the front line

Mr Hetherington, who had won a World Press Photo of the Year award for his coverage of Afghanistan and had also made prize-winning film documentaries, was said by friends and colleagues to have died from a mortar round while on the front line.
The photographer, who was on assignment for the news agency Panos, is the first known British casualty of the Libyan conflict.
An American colleague, Chris Hondros, who was working for Getty, was reported to be in a critical condition after sustaining brain injuries in the attack. Two other journalists were said to have been injured in the incident.
One of those injured was reported to be Guy Martin, a British photographer with Panos, who was receiving treatment in hospital last night.
The photographers were among a group caught by mortar fire on Tripoli Street, the main thoroughfare leading into the centre of Misurata, according to reports.

Spanish photographer Guillermo Cervera said: “It was quiet and we were trying to get away and then a mortar landed and we heard explosions.”
A colleague who was with them and was at the hospital confirmed the death on a Facebook page, prompting condolences from other foreign correspondents.
Mr Hetherington, 40, who was from Liverpool but had dual British and American nationality, read English literature at Oxford University before becoming a photographer and film-maker.
He spent eight years in West Africa, covering the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars there, before working in Afghanistan.
His first film, Restrepo, which covered the lives of a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan, which was last year nominated for an Oscar.
Mr Hondros, 41, had been nominated for a Pulitzer prize in 2004 and also lectured and wrote on war in the United States.
Both men lived in New York.
James Golston of ABC-TV News USA, who worked with Mr Hetherinton on Nightline, a documentary about the war in Afghanistan, described him as “one of the bravest photographers and filmmakers I have ever met”.
He said: "During his shooting for the Nightline specials he very seriously broke his leg on a night march out of a very isolated forward operating base that was under attack.
“He had the strength and character to walk for four hours through the night on his shattered ankle without complaint and under fire, enabling that whole team to reach safety.”
Mr Hetherington last year described some of his experiences in Afghanistan as “pretty traumatic events”.
He said: “The thing about the wars in Afghanistan, they've been known as the ghost wars, you know, because not often does one really see the enemy.”
Mr Hetherington, who is reported to have recently married, wrote on his Twitter profile last night, saying: “In besieged Libyan city of Misurata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of Nato.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are offering consular assistance to the family.”

Gaddafi envoy holds talks in Morocco

Morocco hosted a visit by a Libyan deputy foreign minister on Monday, a rare diplomatic link between Muammar Gaddafi's government and one of the staunch allies of the Western coaltion determined to overthrow him.

Morocco has been one of the small number of Arab countries and the only North African state openly involved in talks with Western powers over the Libyan crisis.

State-run 2M television said Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri met Omran Boukraa, the Libyan deputy foreign minister in charge of Arab relations, in Rabat on Monday.

"(Fihri) ... reiterated Morocco's commitment to full respect for Libya's territorial integrity and national unity ... It is within that spirit that Morocco took part in international meetings in Paris, London and recently in Doha," 2M quoted the foreign ministry as saying in a statement.

Foreign ministers of Western powers and Arab states called at a meeting in Doha last week for Gaddafi to leave power. Britain, France and the United States say they will not end their air campaign in Libya until Gaddafi leaves power.

The Moroccan foreign ministry statement said Boukraa had given "detailed accounts of various aspects of the tragic situation that prevails in Libya".

It added: "Morocco considers that ... the solution can not be military. It can only be political, forward-looking and allowing the Libyan people to democratically determine their future."

The ministry did not say how Boukraa had reached Rabat. Travel from Libya is restricted by a no-fly zone imposed by the coalition.

Fihri said the Moroccan government and people were concerned about "the painful and delicate situation of the Moroccan community in Libya". Moroccan authorities have so far brought home only a few thousand of an estimated 100,000 Moroccan expatriates living in Libya.

Memos show oil motive in Iraq war

Government ministers discussed plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves in the months before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, documents have revealed.

The secret papers, obtained by an oil campaigner and published by The Independent, are minutes of meetings between senior oil executives and Labour cabinet members, and highlight for the first time the hollow nature of Western governments' public denials of national self-interest in the decision to invade Iraq.

The documents, which have not been provided to the continuing Chilcot inquiry into Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, appear to contradict statements made by Shell in 2003, just before the invasion, that reports of meetings between the oil giant and Downing Street about Iraqi oil were ''highly inaccurate''.


BP also denied it had any ''strategic interest'' in Iraq, while the then prime minister, Tony Blair, dismissed what he called ''the oil conspiracy theory'' as absurd.

The published papers cover October and November 2002 and show that just five months before the invasion, Baroness Symons, then the British trade minister, told BP that the government believed British energy firms should take a share of Iraq's enormous oil and gas reserves as a reward for Mr Blair's military commitment to US plans for regime change.

The minutes reveal that she also agreed to lobby the Bush administration on behalf of BP because it feared being ''locked out'' of discussions and deals purportedly being thrashed out between the US, France and Russia, and their oil companies.

''Baroness Symons agreed that it would be difficult to justify British companies losing out in Iraq in that way if the UK had itself been a conspicuous supporter of the US government throughout the crisis,'' one minute, from October 2002, said.

The minister pledged to report back before Christmas on her lobbying campaign.

In November the same year the British Foreign Office invited BP to discuss opportunities posed by ''regime change'', describing Iraq as the big oil prospect and noting that ''BP is desperate to go there and anxious that political deals should not deny them the opportunity''.

Another minute quotes Edward Chaplin, the Foreign Office's Middle East director at the time, who noted that Shell and BP could not afford not to have a stake in Iraq for the sake of their long-term futures, adding that ''we were determined to get a fair slice of the action for UK companies in a post-Saddam Iraq''.

Uncovering the documents, obtained under freedom-of-information laws, was the result of five years' work by an oil campaigner, Greg Muttitt, and show that at least five high-level meetings were held on the topic in late 2002.

Mr Muttitt, whose book Fuel on Fire is published next week, said that before the war the British government went to great lengths to deny any interest in Iraq's oil.

''These documents provide the evidence that gives the lie to those claims.''

Since the invasion the 20-year contracts signed have been described as the biggest in the history of the oil industry, covering half of Iraq's reserves.

The Independent said this stake, representing about 60 billion barrels of oil, was bought up by companies including BP and the China National Petroleum Corporation, whose joint consortium alone stands to make £403 million ($623 million) profit per year from the Rumaila field in southern Iraq.

 

British military personnel will be sent to Libya

At least ten senior officers will be sent to Benghazi to try to forge the rebels trying to oust Colonel Muammar Gaddafi into a credible fighting force.
Ministers insisted that deploying the “military liaison advisory team” was not a sign of mission creep, but MPs of all parties said the move showed Britain is being dragged ever deeper into a Libyan civil war.
The announcement came after David Cameron urged Cabinet ministers to draw up new measures to help the rebels break the military deadlock in Libya.
After more than a month of air strikes, the rebels have failed to make significant progress against Col Gaddafi. British commanders have told the Prime Minister that the rebels lack the organisation to challenge the dictator’s forces.
Mr Cameron, who personally led international efforts to launch the Libyan intervention, is said to be becoming “increasingly impatient” and anxious about the stalemate.

 

Migrant train delay causes European diplomatic rift

The Italian and French governments were both trying to defuse an escalating diplomatic row Monday after France refused entry to a train carrying North African migrants from Italy.
Italy complained to France on Sunday after authorities blocked a train with Tunisian migrants from the border city of Ventimiglia entering Menton on the Cote d'Azur. The Tunisians had been issued resident permits by Italy, allowing them to travel freely in many European countries.
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said Monday in Bucharest that France did not want any continuing tensions with Rome regarding the train incident.
Gueant said Rome's decision to give temporary resident permits to more than 25,000 Tunisian migrants arriving in Italy since January had been "heavily contested by many countries in the European Union."
Gadhafi accused of using illegal weapons Inside Libya's rebel movement Gadhafi rallies support in Tripoli 'Rebel rap' in Libya


Some 300 French and Italian protestors from a group named "Train for dignity," were also aboard the train in a show of support for the 60 Tunisians who were hoping to enter France.
Gueant said that although France accepted this decision, there were conditions - namely that the migrants had to prove they could support themselves financially.
Since the mass political unrest started in North Africa and other Arab states in January, a large number people have fled Tunisia and Libya to Europe, where governments have been trying to prevent a refugee crisis.
Italy's coast guard said at least 1,623 migrants landed on the island of Lampedusa over a 24-hour period in mid-March alone.
Italy's foreign minister has estimated that as many as 300,000 Libyans could try to leave and could potentially end up in his country.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said Saturday that it had evacuated nearly 100 people by boat from Misrata in Libya and on Monday the UK Department for International Development (DFID) said that it would help 5,000 migrants trapped by fighting in western Libya.
The DFID said £1.5 million ($2.43 million) would be made available to charter ships to get people out of the rebel-held town of Misrata and transfer them to Benghazi.
Andrew Mitchell, the UK International Development Secretary, said his department would help fund their evacuation in ships chartered by the International Organization for Migration, which says the majority of unauthorized immigrants arriving in Lampedusa are Tunisian.
Italy for its part has issued temporary resident permits to thousands of Tunisian migrants and the country on Sunday said it was angered after trains were stopped at the border for around six hours until traffic resumed later that evening.
However, at a briefing with journalists Monday, a spokesman for the Italian Foreign Minister Maurizio Massari, tried to play down the issue: "The situation was clarified and the incident resolved yesterday (Sunday). On the immigration issue, there is a continuous dialogue taking place between the Interior Ministers of the two countries to deal with the problem. We are working together. There is no tension. We are working together to find steps to take to solve the immigration problem.'
According to a spokesman for the French Interior Ministry the border was never closed but circulation was "temporarily halted in order to avoid any risk of an accident," because of an unauthorized protest in support of the Tunisian migrants.
Claude Gueant insisted that France had respected the Schengen agreements to the letter and a first analysis by the European commission on Monday showed that France's decision to stop the trains was in line with the Schengen rules.
The Schengen agreement allows people to travel between 25 European countries without the need of a passport.

. "Gaddafi is a cunning devil," confided one Whitehall deep throat. "Anything is possible."

Muammar Gaddafi has always flaunted the Great Man-Made River project as one of the many wonders of his 41-year rule – and as one of the wonders of the modern world. The largest and most expensive irrigation project in history, costing a whopping $33bn, it extracts water from beneath the Sahara at a depth of 1,600 to 2,500ft, purifies it and transports it to the Mediterranean coast where most of Libya's 6.5m people live. But are its huge concrete tunnels also coming in handy to keep Libyan tanks and missiles out of sight of Nato air attacks?

Not surprisingly, the Atlantic alliance is reluctant to reveal too much of what it knows about Libyan deployments. It claims to have already destroyed about a third of Gaddafi's military capabilities – though officials in Tripoli insist there is still plenty of lethal hardware left. Nato's biggest public beef is that the regime's armour and rocket launchers are being deliberately positioned in civilian areas next to mosques, schools and hospitals – especially in the besieged coastal city of Misrata – inhibiting air allied attacks for fear of causing "collateral damage". But western intelligence officials have now suggested that the concealment of heavy weapons in the 15ft-wide tunnels is causing them problems – not least because strategic targets like these, which Britain and France would like to hit, fall outside what was agreed by the UN security council to protect Libyan civilians.

Claims of weapons and, according to some reports, gold bullion hidden in the GMMR's tunnels conjures up a Bond villain-type scenario. But there is evidence that Gaddafi has gone underground before. In the mid-1990s facilities built by North Korean workers at Tarhuna, 50 miles south-east of Tripoli, were used to house chemical weapons factories in the side of a mountain and were protected by a thick layer of reinforced concrete. Libya claimed at the time that those tunnels were innocent and formed part of the GMMR.

Earlier this month, the Libyan government warned that Nato attacks on the project could result in a humanitarian disaster, especially in the area between Sirte and Benghazi, where water networks and gas pipelines overlap and many raids have taken place. So there will be alarm in Tripoli at suggestions that Libya's pride could now become a legitimate military target – and perhaps a suspicion that psychological warfare is being waged by Nato. "Gaddafi is a cunning devil," confided one Whitehall deep throat. "Anything is possible."

Fierce fighting kills 17 in Libya

Under intense shelling and sniper fire, rebels in Misrata, their last major foothold in western Libya, fought Muammar Gaddafi's forces in close-quarter battles in the city centre.
Seventeen people were killed, a non-governmental organisation worker and an opposition activist said.
Government troops have been laying siege to the city on Libya's Mediterranean coast for weeks, prompting repeated international warnings of a dire humanitarian situation as well as calls for Nato forces to intensify air strikes on Gaddafi's forces there.
On Sunday government troops who have pushed into the city centre from the outskirts in recent days pounded Misrata with mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, said resident Abdel-Salam.
Rebels fought government forces from an area around a central produce market, regaining a small sliver of territory, said Rida al-Montasser, a local activist. He said a hospital report that he received from a doctor, showed 17 people, including rebels, were killed and 74 others injured. He said Gaddafi forces had fired at the city's hospital on Sunday.
A worker for a foreign NGO who visited the hospital also said 17 bodies were brought in, including that of a girl shot in the head. Other children who had been shot were among the wounded, he said, speaking anonymously because he feared for his safety.
The Nato-led air campaign authorised by the United Nations to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone has failed to stop government shelling that, according to residents and witnesses, has hit Misrata's hospital, the port and residential areas.
The international air strikes have kept rebels from being defeated on the battlefield by the better trained and equipped government forces, but it still has not been enough to turn the tide in the war. In the eastern half of Libya, rebels in control of most of that part of the country since the uprising began on February 15 have been unable to advance westward toward the capital.
The Libyan government has come under sharp international criticism for its assault on Misrata and has been accused by human rights groups of using heavy weapons, including shells, missiles and cluster bombs. Such bombs can cause indiscriminate casualties and have been banned by many countries.
In Tripoli, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim denied the allegations on Sunday, telling a small gathering of foreign diplomats: "Don't believe the lies."

 

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have continued their heavy bombardment of residential areas of Misrata

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have continued their heavy bombardment of residential areas of Misrata amid mounting concern that the army has fired cluster bombs into the besieged rebel stronghold.

At least 100 Soviet-designed Grad rocket rockets were fired into the eastern city today, a rebel spokesman said. "They fired Grads at an industrial area this morning, at least one hundred rockets were fired. No casualties are reported," Abdelbasset Abu Mzereiq told Reuters.

The Grad, which launches multiple rockets from mobile launchers, has been blamed for a number of civilian deaths in recent days. More than 100 of the rockets landed in the city yesterday as pro-Gaddafi forces reached the city centre, the rebels said.

"Witnesses said they saw pro-Gaddafi soldiers on foot in the city centre today. Except for snipers, they usually stay in their tanks and armoured vehicles," the rebel spokesman added.

The intensifying bombardment came as Human Rights Watch reported that four cluster bombs exploded in the city yesterday and on Thursday, and two Libyan residents of Misrata told the Guardian that they suspected the munitions, banned in most countries, were being used. Cluster bombs explode in midair, indiscriminately throwing out dozens of high-explosive bomblets which cause damage and injuries over a large area. The submunitions often fail to explode on impact but detonate when stepped on or picked up.

Pro-Gaddafi authorities said a Red Cross team had arrived in Misrata to assess the situation at the invitation of the government. "The Libyan army took them to a specific place into the city and the Red Cross went to the other side [the one controlled by the opposition]," said government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim.

The team would issue a report on its preliminary findings, he added. The team was invited before the use of cluster bombs was reported.

The worsening seige of the rebel stronghold follows a commitment by the leaders of US, Britain and France to pursue military action until Colonel Gaddafi has been removed from power. In a joint letter yesterday, Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy described the onslaught on Misrata as a "medieval siege … to strangle its population into submission".

The former head of the UK's armed forces, Lord Dannatt, urged the international coalition to seek a fresh UN security council resolution specifically authorising the training and arming of the rebels, warning that a stalemate would create a vacuum likely to be filled by Islamist extremists.

"We want to act within the law, within international agreement and therefore we should be arguing the case to not accept a stalemate, not to put our own boots on the ground, but to properly arm those boots that are on the ground.

"They are Libyan boots. Let the Libyan people have the wherewithal to choose a new government for themselves," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We have got to move this one on, we have got to be innovative about the way we do it. I have thought about it long and hard: go back to New York, get a strengthened UN security council resolution and arm, equip and train the opposition."

The use of cluster bombs had further weakened Gaddafi's position, Dannatt added. "If we thought that Gaddafi had lost the moral right to rule this country a month ago, he has lost it in the last 24 hours, that's for sure."

BRITISH tourist who died after a savage beating by Dubai cops had serious head injuries,

BRITISH tourist who died after a savage beating by Dubai cops had serious head injuries, it emerged yesterday.
Officials had insisted that Lee Brown, 39, choked on his vomit.

But a Dubai police source confirmed Lee's body had a large wound that corresponds with witness reports of his head being smashed on the floor.

Lee, of Ilford, Essex, died on Tuesday after being arrested following a row with a chambermaid.

Horrified prisoners at the notorious Bur Dubai detention centre described seeing cops beat him for two days, then throw him into solitary confinement.

They say he lay there unconscious for three days while guards ignored pleas to get medical help.

One lag told how blood-soaked Lee begged him for help, crying: "I'm going to die", before collapsing unconscious.

Last night his family were consulting lawyers after officials refused to release his body.

Sister-in-law Su said: "We are determined to get answers and justice for Lee."

Foreign Office officials are trying to get four Brits in the detention centre moved amid fears they will face reprisals.

British tourist allegedly beaten to death by prison guards in a Dubai jail was invited to the Arab state by a mystery woman

British tourist allegedly beaten to death by prison guards in a Dubai jail was invited to the Arab state by a mystery woman, it was claimed last night.

Lee Bradley Brown, 39, was on holiday at a £1,000-a-night hotel when he was arrested for assault and swearing and thrown into a filthy cell.

His family have demanded government help and believe the nature of his death is being covered up by the authorities who claim he died of natural causes – even though witnesses saw him being ‘badly beaten’.

The self-employed maintenance worker flew to the Gulf state without telling his family, who don’t know how he was able to afford a luxury suite at the seven-star Burj Al Arab – one of the most expensive hotels in the world.

Yesterday a prison source said Mr Brown, of Dagenham, Essex, had told inmates he had been ‘invited to Dubai’ by an unknown woman.

It emerged last night that the British Government will not conduct an independent investigation into the death – meaning his family may never know the truth.

Instead of sending a pathologist to examine Mr Brown’s body for signs of trauma, the Foreign Office said it would rely on the authorities in Dubai – even though they have claimed there were ‘no signs of torture’ and he died after choking on his own vomit.

A spokesman said: ‘This is a matter for the Dubai local authorities.’

Someone, somewhere has started suplying them with new weapons, better equipment and possibly even training.

International determination to oust Gaddafi is boosting morale among the rebels.

But more significant is that their arsenal is getting a boost too.

Libyan rebels refused to meet defector Musa Kusa yesterday, accusing Colonel Gaddafi’s former foreign minister of having blood on his hands.

In a rebuke for Britain’s policy of cosseting the former intelligence chief, they said he had no role to play in the movement to replace Gaddafi.

Musa Kusa, who is accused of being involved in the Lockerbie bombing and the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, was allowed by ministers to fly to Qatar yesterday for an international summit on Libya.


Rebuffed: Spokesmen for Libyan rebels refused to meet with former foreign minister Musa Kusa at a summit in Qatar, saying he has blood on his hands having been part of Gaddafi's inner circle

Diplomatic officials let him go because they wanted him to talk to Arab leaders about how to oust Gaddafi – even though victims of Lockerbie want to see him put on trial.

But Kusa was snubbed by the Libyan Interim National Council which has emerged as the government in waiting.

Spokesmen for rebels attending the Qatar meeting and those back in Libya made clear they want nothing to do with the former intelligence chief, who was an integral part of Gaddafi’s inner circle until he fled to Britain earlier this month.

Rebel spokesman Mahmoud Shamman said: ‘We did not invite him here. He is not part of our delegation.’

In Benghazi, opposition spokesman Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga said talks with Kusa were ‘not on the agenda’.

British tourist was beaten to death in a Dubai prison cell, it has been claimed.

Lee Bradley Brown was on holiday in the Arab state when he was arrested and thrown in jail.
It is alleged that he was beaten up by a group of police officers and then dragged from his cell.
Mr Bradley Brown was not allowed access to a lawyer or given enough food and water, it was claimed.
The first his family heard about the incident was when his sister received a call from a fellow inmate who contacted her in the UK.
The prisoner had apparently found her number as the next of kin contact in his passport which was left in his cell.
Mr Bradley Brown’s family were formally told about his death on Wednesday.
His sister, who did not want to be named, told The Daily Mail: “It is very difficult at the moment, as you would expect, and his mum is extremely upset.
“We were the ones that first contacted the British embassy in Dubai with concerns after an inmate out there got in touch with us.
“We were told unofficially on Tuesday it was true and the worst was confirmed on Wednesday.
“The inmates we spoke to at the jail are currently waiting to give statements to the police but now they’re in fear for their own lives.”
Mr Bradley Brown, from Dagenham in East London, is understood to have flown alone to Dubai for a holiday where he was staying at the Burj al Arab hotel.
He was arrested on April 6 for alleged assault, intimidating behaviour and using abusive language, it was claimed.
A British embassy spokesman said: “I can confirm the man died in custody and that the embassy is taking the allegations very seriously.
“We are launching an investigation and working with Dubai police.”

 

Loud explosions were reported in the Libyan capital Tripoli

Five Libyan diplomats have been expelled from Germany for intimidating Libyan citizens living there, Berlin says
Nato aircraft have attacked the Libyan cities of al-Aziziya and Sirte, Libyan state-run TV says

Libyan rebels report heavy fighting in central and eastern Misrata, but say they are making progress against government troopsThe newly formed international "contact group" on Libya has called for Muammar Gaddafi to stand down as leader.

It said his continued presence threatened any resolution of the crisis in the country, and that Libyans should be allowed to determine their future.

The call came in a final statement read out by Qatar's crown prince at a summit on Libya in Doha.

Rebels seeking to topple Col Gaddafi made their first high-profile diplomatic appearance at the summit.

The contact group also agreed to continue to provide the rebels with "material support" - a form of words described as ambiguous by the BBC's Jon Leyne - and also to consider channelling funds to them.

Earlier, delegates were told by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that more than half of Libya's population of six million might eventually require humanitarian aid.

Ahead of the meeting, the French and British foreign ministers said Nato should be doing more to support Western-led military operations against Col Gaddafi's forces amid suggestions that there were insufficient aircraft being deployed.

The "contact group" was formed at an international ministerial conference in London on 29 March and includes European powers, the US, allies from the Middle East and a number of international organisations.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has signalled that the UK is stepping up its help for Libyan rebels

Foreign Secretary William Hague has signalled that the UK is stepping up its help for Libyan rebels after international talks on the crisis.
Amid speculation that opposition forces could be provided with British body armour as well as communications equipment, Mr Hague stressed the Government was only handing over "non-lethal" supplies.
But he appeared to give tacit support to more hawkish members of the Nato-led alliance, insisting that the UN resolutions allowed for people to be given "the means to defend the civilian population" under "certain circumstances".
The comments came at a press conference in Doha after the first meeting of the international Contact Group on Libya.
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini told journalists: "We have to protect civilians. Since we cannot make air strikes - air to ground - in the streets, in the squares, in the cities, in the populated areas, either we make it possible for these people to defend themselves or we withdraw from our obligations to support defending the population of Libya.
"That is why it is institutionally but also, I think, morally justified, since (Muammar) Gaddafi's change in tactics. He is hiding tanks in streets exactly to make impossible Nato air strikes to destroy tanks."
Qatar prime minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Althani echoed the view that it is permitted to provide Libyans with "certain equipment to defend themselves".
Mr Hague said that reading of the UN resolutions was "consistent with our own interpretation".
"We understand the resolutions to mean that the arms embargo applies to the whole of Libya," he said. "But that in certain circumstances it is possible, consistent with those resolutions, to provide people with the means to defend the civilian population."
However, Mr Hague added: "The UK is not engaged in providing any arms but we are engaged in providing non-lethal assistance."

Typhoon, patrolling with a RAF Tornado GR4, hit two Libyan T72 main battle tanks with laser-guided Paveway II bombs

Typhoon, patrolling with a RAF Tornado GR4, hit two Libyan T72 main battle tanks with laser-guided Paveway II bombs near the besieged city of Misurata.
Air Vice Marshal Phil Osborn said that the Tornado attacked a third tank with a Paveway IV bomb - taking to eight the number tanks hit by RAF aircraft yesterday.
It is the first time the Typhoon - formerly known as the Eurofighter - has fired its weapons in anger in the ground attack role since entering service with the RAF.
AVM Osborn rejected reports that the RAF had insufficient Typhoon pilots trained in the ground attack role to mount operations in Libya.
The Typhoon was originally introduced as an air defence fighter and a recent National Audit Office report disclosed that only eight pilots had so far received ground attack operations.

Families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing have accused the British government of "betrayal" after it allowed Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister, to leave the UK

Families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing have accused the British government of "betrayal" after it allowed Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister, to leave the UK to attend an international conference.

Koussa, who defected to Britain at the end of last month, was en route to Doha in Qatar on Tuesday, where an international conference on the future of Libya is to be held with representatives from the Benghazi-based opposition.

He is expected to return to the UK after the conference, but is free to travel as he pleases.

Brian Flynn, the brother of JP Flynn, who died in the 1988 attack and now organises the Victims of Pan Am 103 Incorporated campaign group in New York, said the UK authorities had "crossed a line" by allowing Koussa to attend the conference and thereby suggest he is a peace negotiator rather than, as they believe, a key instigator of the bombing.

"I think the British are being played by him … he has convinced them he can be valuable in this process, but he is not the suave diplomat in the suit sitting on the sidelines, he is one of the key guys who mastermined [the bombing of] Pan Am flight 103," Flynn said.

"He is a stated enemy of the British government. Our feeling is that the British government gave a nod to Lockerbie by questioning him two days before this conference, but that feels disingenuous. The Scottish and American prosecutors on Lockerbie are being betrayed by the politicians and the diplomats. Cameron has been good on Libya, but this sounds an awful lot like Tony Blair is back in charge."

Flynn's organisation, the largest victims' group in the US, seeks to discover the truth behind the bombing and win justice for those who died. He said the families believed the decision to allow Koussa to travel to the meeting in Qatar was part of a British strategy to encourage other defectors to flee to Britain from Gaddafi's regime, as there was no way either the rebels or the regime would trust him as an intermediary.

"He blatantly betrayed the Libyan regime and for more than 25 years he betrayed the Libyan people, so why is this the guy we are sending [to the talks]?" said Flynn.

Koussa is said to be travelling to Doha in order to establish whether he has a role to play in the rebel movement along with other senior defectors from the Gaddafi regime – perhaps by brokering a deal between Tripoli and Benghazi.

It is believed he has links with some leading rebel figures, including the opposition leader, Mahmoud Jibril.

It is understood Koussa spent a week being debriefed by MI6 at a safehouse before being allowed to go free. He was questioned by Dumfries and Galloway police about the 1988 bombing, in which 270 people died, though was he was not a suspect.

William Hague, the foreign secretary, had insisted that Koussa would not be given immunity from prosecution.

He was helped to defect by MI6 after leaving Tripoli for Tunisia on what was initially described as a private visit.

The hope in Whitehall is that Koussa's lenient treatment by the UK authorities will send a positive signal to other would-be Libyan defectors.

On Monday Koussa made his first public statement since leaving Libya 12 days ago. "I ask everybody to avoid taking Libya into civil war," he told the BBC. "This would lead to so much blood and Libya would be a new Somalia. More than that, we refuse to divide Libya. The unity of Libya is essential to any solution and settlement."

Violent protests continued to roil Syria on Sunday as human rights activists reported that President Bashar al-Assad was using soldiers and tanks for the first time against demonstrators and sealing off the port city of Baniyas.

Violent protests continued to roil Syria on Sunday as human rights activists reported that President Bashar al-Assad was using soldiers and tanks for the first time against demonstrators and sealing off the port city of Baniyas.


A day after the Interior Ministry warned that the regime’s leaders were losing patience with the nearly month-long revolt, four people were killed in the seaport north of Tartous as security forces and rooftop snipers opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators outside the Al-Rahman mosque, according to human rights workers who have been in touch with residents. Others reported that the military had ringed the city.

“I spoke to someone telling me he saw tanks going to the city,” said Nadim Houry, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division.

SANA, the state-run news agency, reported Sunday that a soldier was killed in an “ambush” that afternoon while traveling the highway between Latakia and Baniyas. The agency said an “armed group” attacked from east of the highway.

It has been difficult to obtain independent confirmation of events in Syria. The government has made it difficult for news organizations to enter the country. And late Sunday, electricity was cut off in Baniyas after earlier outages of Internet and mobile telephone service.

Razon Zaitonah, a human rights lawyer who is in hiding in Damascus, said the appearance of tanks and military could suggest that Assad’s regime is willing to take even more extreme measures to put down the revolt.

Pockets of anti-government rebellion have spread across the country since about a dozen young people were arrested last month for anti-government graffiti in the impoverished southern city of Daraa. At least 37 demonstrators have been killed in protests after Friday’s midday prayers and the funeral services that followed.

SANA also said that funeral services were held Sunday for four members of the police and security services who had been killed in violent clashes Friday. The agency previously reported that 19 officers had been killed.


Syrian leaders continued to blame the revolt on “infiltrators” and a “U.S.-Israeli plot” to destabilize the nation, according to SANA.

SANA’s Web site also carried a report suggesting that work was underway to rewrite the hated 49-year-old emergency decree, perhaps to replace it with a new terrorism law.

Estimates of the number of demonstrators killed since the insurrection began March 16 have varied from 130, according to Human Rights Watch, to about 200, according to the Syria National Organization for Human Rights.

deepening unrest in Yemen are imposing negative impacts on people's lives and hard hitting key economic sectors and small businesses.

While major economic sectors were affected by the fall in foreign trade and the growing fears of investors, small businesses were directly hit by the escalating pro and anti-government protests, especially the sit-ins.

Hundreds of thousands of pro and anti-government protesters have been staying in tents pitched along key shopping streets in downtown cities including the capital Sanaa for more than a month, forcing some retail markets to close down and others to relocate. The businesses which remain open have complained of a remarkable decrease in their sales among fears that the escalating unrest would have further impacts.

"Now Yemen is experiencing an acute gas shortage and if this continues many shops will inevitably be closed down," said Abdul Karim Kasim, a cafeteria owner in the Zubairy Street.

"The shortage made the price of gas three times higher than that before the crisis, and the soaring prices will directly affect the poorest groups," he added.

Clothes shopkeeper Abdullah al Duba'e in the Jamal Street said the pro-government sit-ins in Tahrir Square and the anti- government sit-in outside Sanaa University blocked the key shopping streets and affected the business badly.

"As you see, there are no people here. We used to see this street very crowded and the customers came every hour, but now the situation has changed," Abdullah said.

"And if you look around, you would see some stores closed down and others relocated. Regrettably Jamal Street resembled a ghost town," he said.

Some vendors are also facing extra taxes imposed on them and " bullies" who are exploiting the unrest.

"Besides shrinking trade due to the unrest, we see taxes increasing," said Wazeer al Selwi, a qat seller, "Furthermore, bullies of those who attack the anti-government protesters come to us many times a day to get money and we have to give them that."

The unrest has already paralyzed the financial sector in Yemen, particularly the Islamic banks, which said all their activities were almost ceased.

"The situation is too bad because we do nothing these days," said Tariq Hamoud, head of the studies section at the Tadhamon International Islamic Bank.

"Due to the unrest here, Yemen's banks were seen as high-risk institutions by external institutions and if a bank wants to open a credit, it should pay 100 percent insurance," he said.

"Locally, the people are now in favor of cash and drawing their money in large amounts in U.S. dollars, and this is affecting the operations of banks in Yemen," he said.

When it comes to individuals, the impacts were mainly manifested in traffic jams because of the sit-inners' tents on main roads.

"The sit-inners closed roads, forcing people to redirect and spend more time to reach workplaces and other destinations," said citizen Abdullah al Sawadi.

A student also complained that the bus and taxi fares increased because the drivers were forced to redirect routes.

"Now the sit-in outside Sanaa University even forced the suspension of the second semester," said Asad Abdul Karim, a first- year student at the commerce college.

Tens of thousands of people have been holding a sit-in outside Sanaa University, calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who rejected on Friday a GCC proposal for tackling the political crisis.

The proposal called for the resignation of Saleh and transfer of power to his deputy in return for immunity and guarantees that he and his regime will not be prosecuted. It also proposed to form a national unity government led by the opposition and draw up a new constitution ahead of holding elections.

"We appreciate the interest of regional and international countries in Yemen's stability amid the current crisis, but we will not accept any offer except the one clearly calling for an immediate exit of president Saleh," they said in a statement.

"The problem is not with how to transfer power. However, it is all about to whom power would be handed," said Tariq al Shami, chairman of Saba and information director of the ruling party General People's Congress.

The Yemeni Ministry of Trade and Industry and the General Investment Authority declined to comment on the situation and strongly refused to give specific information, including numbers or percentages about the losses the country's economy amid the escalation of unrest.

South Africa’s embassy staff and their families who had been trapped in the embassy and the ambassador’s residence in Abidjan by the civil war, escaped to Accra

South Africa’s embassy staff and their families who had been trapped in the embassy and the ambassador’s residence in Abidjan by the civil war, escaped to Accra, Ghana, where they were waiting to fly home yesterday.

Ambassador Zodwa Lallie and the others had been stuck in the two buildings opposite each other in the Cocody suburb since last week as the final battle for the control of Ivory Coast raged at the nearby presidential residence.

The forces of Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised president, first assaulted and then laid siege to the presidential residence where former president Laurent Gbagbo and his guard are making a last-ditch stand.

Clayson Monyela, spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said the embassy staff and their families had been evacuated from the embassy to Abidjan airport on Friday and from there to Accra in neighbouring Ghana on Saturday.

He had indicated earlier that they would fly home yesterday but they were still in Accra at midday and it was not clear if they left later in the day.

They were to fly home in the South African Air Force C130 Hercules transport aircraft which had been been waiting for them at Accra airport since last Sunday and which collected them in Abidjan on Saturday and flew them to Accra.

The embassy staff had been unable to get from the embassy to Abidjan airport until Friday because of the fighting in the streets between Gbagbo’s and Ouattara’s forces which intensified as Ouattara’s men closed in on Gbagbo’s residence.

It was not clear yesterday how the staff got from the embassy to the airport. In the end the drive to the airport had gone off without incident.

Joey Rothkegel was reunited with her husband, deputy ambassador Wolf Rothkegel, in Accra. They had been separated the week before last because she was trapped in a city hotel when her flight out of Ivory Coast was cancelled.

Ahmed Nazif, who served as Egypt's prime minister until his government was rocked by a revolt in January, was detained today on suspicion of corruption

Ahmed Nazif, who served as Egypt's prime minister until his government was rocked by a revolt in January, was detained today on suspicion of corruption, judicial sources said.

The sources said Nazif, who Mubarak sacked along with his cabinet on January 28 in an effort to placate the growing protest movement, was remanded in custody for 15 days.

Nazif was suspected of "illicit gain and graft", the sources said.

The decision was announced after the public prosecutor said Mubarak himself and his two sons would be questioned about complaints they were connected with violence during the protests that left about 800 people dead.

They would also face questioning over allegations of corruption.

A law has come into force in France which makes it an offence for a Muslim woman to conceal her face behind a veil when in public.

Anyone caught breaking the law will be liable to a fine of 150 euros (£133, $217) and a citizenship course.

People forcing women to wear the veil face a much larger fine and a prison sentence of up to two years.

France is the first country in Europe to publicly ban a form of dress some Muslims regard as a religious duty.

Under the law, any woman - French or foreign - walking on the street or in a park in France and wearing a face-concealing veil such as the niqab or burqa can be stopped by police and given a fine.

It is a small fine maybe but symbolically this is a huge change.

The French government says the face-covering veil undermines the basic standards required for living in a shared society and also relegates its wearers to an inferior status incompatible with French notions of equality.

And most people in France, including most Muslims, would agree.

Opposition in the form of a handful of protests by Islamists and libertarians are unlikely to make much of an impression.

What is more open to question is whether an out-and-out legal ban was necessary when, on most estimates, only 2,000 or so women in France actually wear the niqab or burqa.

Critics of French President Nicolas Sarkozy say it suits him to play up the Muslim question because he is an unpopular president in need of an easy vote-winner.

Are you in France? What is your reaction to the ban? Does a face-covering veil undermine the basic the standards required for living in a shared society, as the French government claims?  send us your comments

Libya: Col Gaddafi 'Accepts Roadmap To Peace'

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has agreed to a peace plan proposed by the African Union aimed at ending the conflict in Libya.
A communique was announced after a five-strong AU delegation led by South African president Jacob Zuma held talks with representatives of the regime in Tripoli.
The plan is due to be presented to rebel leadership in Benghazi today, although the South African leader will not be travelling with other delegates to the stronghold.
Four key points are outlined in the communique, including an "immediate cessation of all hostilities" and a "transitional period towards reform".
The other main strands of the plan are "the facilitation of diligent delivery of humanitarian aid" and "the protection of foreign nationals".
We agreed that the future leadership of the country should be left up to the Libyan people. It is not up to outside forces.
Ramtane Lamamra, African Union commissioner for peace and security
It also outlined an agreement for the "deployment of an effective monitroing mechanism for ceasfire", but it was not clear whether this would involve African Union troops.
The AU's commissioner for peace and security, Ramtane Lamamra was asked whether the question of Gaddafi's leadership was raised at the talks.

Egyptian prosecutors summoned former President Hosni Mubarak for questioning and arrested former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on Sunday,

Egyptian prosecutors summoned former President Hosni Mubarak for questioning and arrested former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on Sunday, following protests by demonstrators demanding legal accountability for the country's fallen officials.

Both moves appeared aimed at mollifying growing public frustration over the sluggish pace with which Egypt's new military leadership has prosecuted former regime officials for alleged financial misdeeds.

The prosecutors' action points to the lingering power of the youth-led protest movement. Nearly two months after Mr. Mubarak yielded power to a high military council, the protesters have shown they are still capable not only of convening in large numbers, but also of wresting further political concessions from the military government.

Mr. Mubarak also chose Sunday to make his first comments to the Egyptian public. In a message recorded Saturday and aired Sunday on the pan-Arab Al Arabiya satellite station, the former ruler pledged to cooperate with prosecutors. He also denied that he or his family have held any bank accounts or "assets" abroad.

"I cannot remain silent in the face of the continual campaigns of defamation and false accusations that aim at ruining the reputation and integrity of my family and me," the former president said in the message. "I have felt great pain—and still do—due to the unfair campaigns and unjust accusations to which my family and I have been exposed."

Some protest leaders said they considered the speech an act of defiance by a leader who had stylized himself as a father figure to the Egyptian people.

The speech will do little to assure protesters that the military is making a sincere effort to hold former officials accountable, said Shadi Al Ghazali Harb, a leader in the Revolutionary Youth Coalition, whose members led the three weeks of protests that ousted Mr. Mubarak.

"There's a widespread sense of frustration from the arrogant manner in which he was speaking to us," he said. "We all think that probably he got enough time to mobilize his money and his cash and assets during these past two months for him to be sure that nothing will be held on him, especially abroad," Mr. Al Ghazali Harb added. "That was all under the cover of the military."

The Swiss government said it froze Mr. Mubarak's assets on Feb. 11, the day he stepped down. Egypt's General Prosecutor's Office asked foreign embassies to freeze Mr. Mubarak's assets abroad ten days later.

In one of the largest rallies since Mr. Mubarak stepped down in February, thousands of demonstrators filled Cairo's Tahrir Square Friday to demand former officials be held accountable for perceived widespread corruption. Military police and security officialsforcefully dispersed the crowd at about 3 a.m. on Saturday morning in a confrontation that killed at least one person, according to wire reports. But on Sunday, demonstrators remained in the square.

The violence marked a low point in relations between the protesters, led by young activists, and the armed forces, who have governed Egypt since Mr. Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11.

A lawyer from the General Prosecutor's Office said the attorney general sent a request Sunday morning to the Ministry of Interior asking that Mr. Mubarak and his sons, Gamal and Alaa, be called to Cairo for questioning.

The former president is believed to have been staying at his home in the resort city of Sharm El Sheikh since he was toppled from power following 18 days of often violent street protests.

The lawyer said it was up to the Ministry of Interior to decide when to summon Mr. Mubarak. The former president is under investigation for allegations of misappropriation of public funds and for allegedly taking kickbacks on deals to import weapons. Prosecutors also will investigate his involvement in violence against protesters during the unrest that led to his ouster, the lawyer said. According to Egypt's Ministry of Health, some 384 people died during the uprising at the hands of police officers, thugs hired by regime officials, and military police.

The lawyer from the prosecutor's office said Mr. Nazif, who was arrested Sunday afternoon, will be detained for questioning for 15 days in connection with a deal to import license plates at marked-up rates from a German company. Mr. Nazif hasn't commented publicly on the allegations.

The Political Leader And His Social Background, Muammar Gaddafi, The Libyan Leader

Top British diplomats and MI6 officers have spent nearly two weeks questioning Libya’s former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa in the hope that they can unlock the secrets of Colonel Gaddafi’s war strategy and end his hated regime.

But a crucial insight into the Libyan leader’s mindset has already been provided by Koussa – the top-flight Gaddafi aide who defected to Britain – in a 226-page study of the dictator written more than 30 years ago.

The Mail on Sunday has uncovered a university dissertation – titled The Political Leader And His Social Background, Muammar Gaddafi, The Libyan Leader – written by Koussa when he was studying at Michigan State University in the United States in the Seventies. The document has been buried in the college archive until now.
For his dissertation, part of a master’s degree course in sociology, Koussa conducted a series of interviews with Gaddafi, and his work reveals vital clues about the source of the dictator’s hatred of the West and in particular the British, linking this animosity to a previously unknown visit to London at height of the swinging Sixties.

Gaddafi, who was sent to England in 1966 to complete his military training, claims that during his four-month stay in England he was insulted by British Army officers whom he accused of ‘oppressing’ him for days.

Further secret National Archive reports, also uncovered by The Mail on Sunday, show that by the time Gaddafi came to power in 1969 the British Government considered him mad, moronic, messianic and a genuine threat to the security of the region.

These papers also reveal how Gaddafi’s table manners during a state occasion caused acute embarrassment – as he drank the water from a finger bowl because he didn’t know what it was for – and that the dictator was once a sex symbol in Sri Lanka.

Koussa’s interviews with Gaddafi took place in 1977 and 1978. Koussa was unknown to the Libyan leader and had to rely on wealthy family connections to secure privileged access to him in order to complete his dissertation.

These first meetings between Gaddafi and Koussa are believed to have taken place when Koussa travelled to the dictator’s palace in Tripoli, but they laid the foundation for their future relationship. Koussa became ambassador in London in 1979 and went on to become Libya’s most senior intelligence officer. He was often referred to as Gaddafi’s ‘fingernail-puller-in-chief’.

Gaddafi graduated from his Libyan army school in August 1965 and the following April was sent to London to finish his military training. Britain had maintained close ties with Libya’s pro-Western leader, King Idris, after independence in 1951.

In the dissertation, Koussa wrote that Gaddafi told him about his arrival in the UK and described his encounter with a customs officer who accidentally pricked his finger on the young Libyan’s sewing kit.

Gaddafi said to him: ‘To begin with, I remember the customs officer who started to search my bag. A needle pricked his finger. I had brought the needle with me because it is important for every soldier.’

After a night in a hotel, Gaddafi and fellow Libyan officers were dispatched to an unnamed British military training camp.

Gaddafi told Koussa: ‘We met a British major of Norwegian origin. He represented to us the typical ugly British colonialist. He asked many questions concerning our national feelings.

'His dress had been startling...he was a sex symbol for the Sri Lankan girls'

‘It was obvious that he hated the Arabs and wanted to know our reactions. He emphasised the ugly territorial tendencies.’

Gaddafi said he found the questioning – about Arab nationalism, Libyan oil and Palestine – so offensive that he pretended he couldn’t speak English. ‘For days, we sustained oppression and insults, until we were about to leave. Then we moved to another school where we met some Arab brothers from Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iraq and we formed a solid group.’

Gaddafi not only objected to the British soldiers who had been given the job of training the Libyan officers, but he also found the British culture unpalatable. Gaddafi told Koussa that he shunned London nightlife and all that the swinging Sixties had to offer. Describing a trip to the West End, Gaddafi said: ‘I put on my Al-Jird [Arab robes] and went to Piccadilly. I was prompted by a feeling of challenge and a desire to assert myself. But I did not explore the cultural life in London.

‘We preferred spending the vacation in the countryside. We became self-absorbed and introverted in the face of Western civilization, which conflicts with our values.’

The Prime Minister is “actively engaged” in a reassessment of Britain’s military capabilities and planned reductions in equipment and manpower, sources have disclosed.

The rethink has raised hopes that some of the cuts to military aircraft and ships in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) could be postponed or even reversed. Insiders said it was not too late for a change of mind on the decision to cut the number of RAF Tornados and scrap surveillance planes. Some Royal Navy frigates could also be spared, or have their retirement delayed.
In the first sign of compromise on defence cuts, Mr Cameron has ordered the Treasury to give the Ministry of Defence a reprieve on its overspent 2011-12 budget. The £800 million climbdown will spare the Armed Forces further cuts this year. Senior government figures admitted that the Libyan conflict has raised questions about the wisdom of cuts that will leave Britain facing a “dip” in its military capabilities for several years.
“The debate is live. The Prime Minister is very much part of it. There’s a lot of objective thinking going on,” said a senior defence source.
Ministers remain adamant that there is no scope for a formal reopening of the defence review. Its fundamental analysis of Britain’s place in the world and the threats the nation faces is not being questioned.

Palestinians: Hamas commander, 2 bodyguards killed in IDF Gaza strike

Gaza sources say Palestinian death toll rises to 17 in retaliatory strikes since a rocket fired from the Hamas-ruled territory struck an Israeli school bus on Thursday.

An Israeli air strike on a vehicle on Saturday killed a Hamas commander in the southern Gaza Strip and two of his bodyguards, Palestinian medics said.

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman's office confirmed that IAF jets attacked three top Hamas officials in the Gaza strip, as well as a smuggling tunnel and a truck carrying ammunition.

Massive protests calling for the ouster of Syria’s authoritarian president turned deadly again Friday

Massive protests calling for the ouster of Syria’s authoritarian president turned deadly again Friday, with witnesses and human rights workers reporting the deaths of as many as three dozen protesters across the country and the government saying for the first time that members of its security forces had also been killed.
As the uprising demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad entered its fourth week, protesters took to the streets after Friday noon prayers chanting, “God, freedom, Syria!” in the volatile southern city of Daraa, the capital, Damascus, and the cities of Latakia, Tartous, Homs and Harasta, according to a human rights activist in Damascus who has been in touch with other activists around Syria.

In several of those areas, violent clashes broke out between demonstrators and security forces, with the worst violence occurring in Daraa, where the protests originated last month. At least 25 people were killed in the city and demonstrators had turned the Omari Mosque into a hospital, rights activists said.

“The situation there is disastrous,” the activist in Damascus said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Bloodbath aboard Clyde sub as officer shot dead

A SUBMARINE crewman killed one of his officers and seriously injured another when he turned his rifle on them during what was supposed to be a routine change of guards on the Clyde-based vessel.
Police were called to HMS Astute in Southampton after the sailor used his SA80 weapon to fire six shots at officers and civic dignitaries before he was tackled by the leader of the city council and over-powered by fellow crew members.

Last night the crewman was being held on suspicion of murder as Ministry of Defence officials and Navy officers told the officer's relatives of his death.

The shooting prompted calls for a full investigation by the Ministry of Defence into the "cursed" sub, which infamously ran aground off Skye in October.

It was on a five-day visit to Southampton when the gunman opened fire. The incident happened just after a group of Scouts had left the vessel following a tour.

The leader of Southampton city council, Royston Smith, described last night how he helped wrestle the gun from the man. He said the shooting began when a crewman carrying an automatic rifle appeared at a doorway of the control room: "Two shots were fired, straight after that he entered the control room and began shooting into the control room.

"I sort of raced towards him – I guess I'm lucky he didn't hit me – and I pushed him against a wall. We wrestled to try and take the gun away from him. He did fire the gun again while I had a hold of it. I had a strange feeling, and I wasn't sure if I'd been hit. Thankfully I wasn't.

250 people, including women and children, were missing on Wednesday after their boat capsized off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa

250 people, including women and children, were missing on Wednesday after their boat capsized off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa in the worst shipwreck since scores of immigrants began traveling to Italy following the unrest in North Africa.

Italian Police and Coast Guard officers carried an injured refugee onto the Italian island of Lampedusa after a boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsized on Wednesday.
The vessel, which capsized in the pre-dawn dark, had been carrying immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, including at least one pregnant woman. The capsized vessel was among the first to try to reach Lampedusa from Libya since fighting began there last month. About 22,000 immigrants have arrived on the island since January, most f them from Tunisia.

The shipwreck was an alarming sign of the challenges facing Italy as it contends with a wave of immigrants leaving North Africa. Aid officials called on Wednesday for a swifter response in boat rescues and better coordination between Mediterranean countries in distinguishing between “economic immigrants” seeking work in Europe and refugees seeking asylum.

After interviewing survivors on Lampedusa, Italian officials and the International Organization for Migration estimated that more than 250 people were missing.

By Wednesday afternoon, an Italian patrol boat and a fishing boat had rescued 51 people and brought them to Lampedusa, but coast guard officials feared many more were still at sea, as rough weather hampered rescue efforts.

“We are still looking for at the least 150 people in the sea, but we fear there could be even more than that,” said Cmdr. Valerio Alessandro, a spokesman for the Italian port authorities. He later revised that number to 250, and said that about 20 bodies had been seen in the water.

According to the International Organization for Migration, the boat left Libya carrying migrants and asylum seekers from Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Chad and Sudan. The group said that an estimated 40 women and five children were on board, and that only two women had survived.

Early Wednesday morning, an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat reached the stricken vessel after those aboard had sought help from the Maltese maritime authorities with a satellite phone, Commander Alessandro said.

Libyan rebels were pushed back from the central port of Brega by heavy fire from forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi

Libyan rebels were pushed back from the central port of Brega by heavy fire from forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi as the opposition prepared to export crude oil for the first time since the conflict began six weeks ago.

Rebels retreated from Brega after capturing part of it yesterday, the Associated Press reported. Regime forces fired rockets and artillery at the rebels today, sending many of them back to the city of Ajdabiya, the AP reported.

The oil tanker Equator, which can carry 1 million barrels, arrived at the Marsa al Hariga terminal near the port of Tobruk in opposition-controlled eastern Libya at about 2 p.m. time local time, according to AISLive Ltd. ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Libya’s conflict, which began with an uprising aimed at ending Qaddafi’s 42-year rule, has threatened to grind to a stalemate. The rebels, largely disorganized, have been unable to advance without help from NATO airstrikes.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization reported that the strikes by the U.S. and allies have destroyed nearly a third of Qaddafi’s heavy weapons, according to AP. The alliance said that Qaddafi’s forces attacking rebel-held Misrata have moved tanks and heavy weapons into city areas where NATO won’t strike them because of the risk of civilian casualties, AP said.



Oil slipped from its highest level in more than 30 months as China boosted interest rates to restrain inflation, spurring speculation that demand may decline. Oil for May delivery dropped 22 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $108.25 a barrel at 2:17 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded as high as $108.78 a barrel yesterday, the highest price since Sept. 24, 2008. Futures have risen 25 percent in the past year.

Libyan rebels have “raised concerns about the lack of funds, as well as issues relating to the marketing and sale of oil and gas in Libya,” Abdul Ilah al-Khatib, the United Nations special envoy to Libya, told the UN Security Council yesterday, according to a statement on the Council’s website.

The European Union’s embargo on Libyan oil and gas exports only targets the Qaddafi regime, Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters in Brussels today. Mann said the 27-nation bloc had “no issue” with commercial dealings in Libyan gas and oil as long as the revenue didn’t reach Qaddafi and his supporters. The United Nations imposed sanctions on Libya which the EU adopted and expanded.

Treasury Department announced Monday it would lift financial sanctions against Moussa Koussa. Qaddafi's ex-foreign minister

The Obama administration, looking to lure more of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's henchmen away from the regime, has agreed to unfreeze the assets of a prominent Libyan official who defected last week. 

The Treasury Department announced Monday it would lift financial sanctions against Moussa Koussa. Qaddafi's ex-foreign minister had fled to Britain to escape the fighting between the regime and rebel forces backed by the United States and NATO, marking a significant defection from Qaddafi's inner circle. 

The United States is now taking a delicate approach with Koussa. 

The ex-minister is suspected of having blood on his hands as a long-time adviser to Qaddafi, and U.S. officials want to interrogate him about possible terrorist activities. But the administration also wants to convince other wavering Qaddafi officials that it's in their self-interest to defect.