Al Jazeera journalist Samer Allawi held in Israeli prison ,Libya News

Al Jazeera journalist held in Israeli prison

Samer Allawi, network's Kabul bureau chief, held in prison since August 10 after being detained in occupied West Bank.

Allawi was arrested when he was crossing the border between Jordan and the occupied West Bank

Samer Allawi, Al Jazeera Arabic's Kabul bureau chief, has been brought before an Israeli military court, almost a week after he was arrested by Israeli officials when he tried to cross the border between Jordan and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli authorities extended his detention by seven days and charged him with being a member of Hamas on Tuesday.

Allawi was arrested on August 10 at the end of a three-week holiday in his home town of Sabastia near Nablus.
The Israeli authorities originally informed Allawi's family that he would be held for four days for questioning, saying that it was a "security-related arrest".

Last Thursday, the authorities told Al Jazeera that Allawi's detention would be extended.
He is currently in Israeli state custody in a prison camp at Petah Tikva detention centre.

Salim Waqim, Allawi's lawyer, told Al Jazeera that his client was interrogated about his work and management of Al Jazeera's Kabul bureau, his personal financial information, and his relationships with colleagues, friends, family and relatives.

Israeli authorities took his computer login information and during his interrogation Allawi was accused of being a member of Hamas and having contact with its military leadership, Waqim said.

Majed Khadr, output manager at Al Jazeera said that Allawi told his lawyer that he would be charged with transferring money and orders from Afghanistan to the occupied West Bank if he refused to act as an informant.
However, Allawi continued to refuse to cooporate with the authorities interrogating him.

Local human rights and press freedom groups have released statements condemning Allawi's arrest.
Mohamed Abdel Dayam, the Middle East and North Africa programme co-ordinator at the New York-based CPJ said: "Israel must clarify why it continues to hold Samer Allawi.

"Our concern for Allawi's well-being and his legal rights is amplified with every passing day he is held without due process."

Yemeni leader vows to return home soon,Libya News

Yemeni leader vows to return home soon,Libya News

Ali Abdullah Saleh says he will return soon during broadcast from Saudi Arabia where he is recovering from attack.

Steet protests calling for the ousting of President Ali Abdullah Saleh have continued for months in Yemen [Reuters]

Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president recovering in Saudi Arabia from wounds sustained in an attack on his palace in June, has vowed to return home soon.

Saleh, who appeared in good shape compared with previous appearances, spoke on Tuesday in a televised address.
The president renewed his calls for early presidential elections, telling supporters: "See you soon in the capital Sanaa."

He also blasted the opposition, saying they were made up of the "leftovers of Marxists, the Taliban and the imamate," Yemen's ousted monarchist rulers.

Parliament's Common Forum opposition is due to meet on Wednesday to elect an umbrella "national council" aimed at taking over power in the absence of the president.

The United States and Saleh's Saudi hosts have pressured him to remain in Saudi Arabia, fearing his return to Yemen could spark a civil war.

Saleh said he was willing to transfer power to his vice-president if the opposition pulls armed tribal fighters from the streets and the opposition ends its street rallies, the Associated Press news agency reported.


Fierce clashes


Saleh's address came as fierce clashes overnight between tribesmen and Yemen troops left 23 tribesmen dead, according to a tribal source.

"Twenty-three of our fighters were killed in fierce overnight clashes with the Republican Guard," said the source from the Bakil tribe, adding that the worst fighting was concentrated in the area of Sheheb Arhab.

The trouble began last week after the elite Republican Guard, which is led by Saleh's son, Ahmed, installed a checkpoint that allegedly harassed residents of the area that is considered the northeastern gate to Sanaa.

The source said troops chased tribesmen to their villages after few skirmishes, adding that the Republican Guard and the army had recently deployed reinforcements in Arhab, which lies 40km outside Sanaa.

Tribal sources claimed that the army was planning a war against the Bakil tribe, Yemen's largest confederation of smaller tribes.

But officials have claimed that gunmen belonging to the opposition were plotting to take control of a nearby army base and the Sanaa airport.

Dozens were allegedly killed in clashes that erupted in late July between armed tribesmen and the army at the nearby Samaa camp, which the defence ministry claimed gunmen wanted to control in order to seize the international airport.

Deputy information minister Abdo al-Janadi accused Mansur al-Hanaq, a former member of the influential opposition Islamist Al-Islah (Reform) party, of being behind the attack.

A military official said "these armed criminal elements aimed to control the Samaa camp in an attempt to take over Sanaa International airport as part of their plan to overthrow the constitutional legitimacy and seize power by force," according to defence ministry website 26sep.net.

The Republican Guard has been fighting tribes in various regions of Yemen as several of the heavily armed tribesmen sided with protesters demanding the ousting of Saleh since January.

Saleh, in power since 1978, has come under intense pressure from street protesters demanding his resignation and has remained in Saudi Arabia for nearly two months after his palace was attacked.

Libyan rebels tighten grip around Tripoli,Libya News

Libyan rebels tighten grip around Tripoli,Libya News

Libyan rebels tighten grip around Tripoli

Opposition says its forces have reached Al-Heisha and captured two towns on supply roads in campaign to isolate capital.

Libyan opposition forces have pushed further to isolate Tripoli, moving toward a western town that links the capital and Sirte -- Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's hometown and a stronghold for his military.
"The scouting teams of the revolutionaries reached the outskirts of Al-Heisha after expelling Gaddafi forces," the rebel military command said in a statement early on Wednesday.
It was just the latest in a series of battlefield operations to isolate the capital.Al-Heisha lies roughly 70km south of Misurata and 250km from Tripoli, near two key crossroads that link loyalist-held territory in the west with that in the oil-rich Sirte basin.
In addition to gaining a foothold in Az-Zawiyah, rebels said they had taken two towns near Tripoli on key supply roads Gharyan, 80 km south of the capital and Surman, less than 16 km west of Az-Zawiyah.

"Gharyan is fully in the hands of the revolutionaries," a rebel spokesman, Abdulrahman, said by telephone. "Gaddafi has been isolated. He has been cut off from the outside world."

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim acknowledged in remarks broadcast on state television that rebel fighters were in Gharyan. "There are still armed gangs inside the city. We are able to drive them out," he said.
But while rebels controlled most of Az-Zawiyah, Gaddafi forces shelled the city, wounding several civilians.
Funerals were held for 23 others who rebels said were killed the previous day.

Nuri el-Bouaisi, an oil production engineer in the city, said rebels had cut off pipelines that transport gasoline and diesel fuel to Tripoli.
"We shut down all four pipelines to Tripoli," El-Bouaisi said, whose claim could not be verified.


NTC-Gaddafi talks denied

Meanwhile, a UN envoy has arrived in neighbouring Tunisia, where sources say rebels and representatives of the government are in talks on the island resort of Djerba.
The envoy, Abdul Ilah al-Khatib, told the Reuters news agency he would meet "Libyan personalities residing in Tunisia" to discuss the conflict.

Talks could signal the endgame of a battle that has drawn in the NATO alliance and emerged as one of the deadliest confrontations in the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world.


But spokesman Farhan Haq said the United Nations had "no concrete information" on any talks in Tunisia and that its Libya envoy, al-Khatib, was not taking part in any such talks.
The reports of rebel-government talks also sparked a swift denial from Gaddafi's government. His spokesman dismissed reports of negotiations about the Libyan leader's future as part of a "media war" against him."The leader is here in Libya, fighting for the freedom of our nation. He will not leave Libya," spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said.


Abdul Hafez Ghoga, vice chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), also denied that such talks were under way.



Gaddafi forces on Sunday fired a scud missile near Brega on the main frontline in the east of the country; the first use of the weapon since the uprising against his rule began six months ago, according to a US military official said.
Although no one was hurt in the attack and the missiles are considered unreliable weapons, Richard Weitz, director of the Centre for Political and Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute, told Al Jazeera the use of scuds could signal Gaddafi's determination to fight.

French plane fires on military vehicle in libya , libya news

French plane fires on military vehicle in libya , libya news

A French plane has fired the first shots in Libya as enforcement of the UN-mandated no-fly zone begins.

The UK prime minister later confirmed British planes were also in action, while US media reports said the US had fired its first Cruise missiles.
The action came hours after Western and Arab leaders met in Paris to agree how to enforce the UN resolution.
It allows "all necessary measures" to protect civilians from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
'Stop the bombardment' The French plane fired the first shot in Libya at 1645 GMT and destroyed its target, according to a military spokesman.
French planes also flew reconnaissance missions over "all Libyan territory", French military sources said earlier.
Around 20 French aircraft were involved in Saturday's operation, the Reuters news agency reports.

French jets "destroyed a number of tanks and armoured vehicles", a defence ministry official told Reuters, adding that he could not immediately confirm the number.

Other air forces and navies are expected to join the French.
The US would use its "unique capabilities" to reinforce the no-fly zone, said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, warning that further delays would put more civilians at risk. However, Mrs Clinton said again that the US would not deploy ground troops in Libya.
A naval blockade is also being put in place, said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. France is sending its Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier to the Libyan coast, a military spokesman said.
In other developments:

• Italy has offered the use of seven of its military bases which already house US, Nato and Italian forces
• Canada says its fighter jets have now reached the region but will need two days to prepare for any missions

Earlier, pro-Gaddafi forces had attacked the rebel stronghold of Benghazi - although the Libyan government denied launching any assault.
The international community was intervening to stop the "murderous madness" of Col Gaddafi, Mr Sarkozy said.
"In Libya, the civilian population, which is demanding nothing more than the right to choose their own destiny, is in mortal danger," he warned. "It is our duty to respond to their anguished appeal."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Libya's claims to have implemented a ceasefire were "troubling", the AFP news agency reported.
The lack of confidence was so great that he did not trust what the Libyan leadership was saying, Mr Ban added.
Russia regretted the decision by Western powers to take military action, a foreign ministry spokesman said. Russia abstained from the UN vote on the Libya resolution, but did not use its veto.
The rebels' leader had earlier appealed to the international community to stop the bombardment by pro-Gaddafi forces.

A jet also appears to have been shot down over Benghazi. A rebel spokesman was quoted as saying the downed jet was a rebel plane.
Reports from Benghazi suggest hundreds of cars packed with people were fleeing eastwards as fighting spread.
The United Nations refugee agency says it is preparing to receive 200,000 people fleeing the fighting, amid reports of hundreds of cars full of people heading for the Egyptian border, while others are attempting to flee on foot.
The first families had arrived at the Egyptian border, extremely frightened and traumatised, saying some of their homes have been completely flattened said UNHCR spokeswoman Elizabeth Tan.
However, the BBC's Ben Brown, who is at the border, says so far there are a handful of families, in addition to the migrant workers who have been there since the crisis started.

Saif al-Islam |Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Saif al-Islam |Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Saif al-Islam |Saif al-Islam Gaddafi

Said al-Islam has played a large role in Libyan politics while never holding an official position within the state [AFP]

Described last year by the New York Times as "the Western-friendly face of Libya and symbol of its hopes for reform and openness," Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, 38, is a fluent English speaker with a PhD from the London School of Economics.

The second of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's seven sons, Saif al-Islam was given the task of defending his father's government in a televised address early on Monday after the worst unrest of the elder Gaddafi's four-decade rule.

In his address, he accused exiles of fomenting violence and promised a dialogue leading toward reforms.
Widely seen as belonging to a camp that aims to open Libya's economy, Saif al-Islam helped lead talks with Western governments that in the past 10 years saw Libya renounce nuclear weapons and end decades of isolation as a foe of the West, paving the way for large-scale investment in its oil sector.

Accused of money laundering by The Daily Telegraph in two articles published in 1995 (one of which focused on the alleged operation flooding "the Iranian economy with fake Iranian currency", Saif al-Islam sued the UK newspaper for libel, prompting the Telegraph to issue an apology in 2002 for the "falsity of the allegations" levelled against him.

 

Saif al-Islam has clashed publicly with the ruling elite over proposals for reforms. Some analysts believe his conservative opponents have the backing of his brothers Mutassim, a national security adviser, and Khamis, a senior military leader. In December, he took the unusual step of denying a family feud with his brothers.

In 2008, the AP reported that Saif al-Islam announced that he was leaving politics, and that he'd given, "no explanation for his decision", only dismissing reports of a rift between himself and his father.
He made his announcement via a televised statement, in which also called for political reforms, he said, "I have decided not to intervene in state affairs," he said in the speech, broadcast on state television. "In the past, I used to intervene (in politics) due to the absence of institutions."
He said he would not succeed his father as the country's leader, adding that the reigns of power were "not a farm to inherit".

His turf war with conservatives has escalated in the past few months, with many Libya-watchers seeing signs of his influence being held in check. Twenty journalists working for al Ghad, a media group which had been linked to him, were briefly arrested. The head of the group stepped down and its flagship newspaper stopped printing.

Much of his influence was wielded through his position as the head of a charity. Late last year the charity said it was withdrawing from politics and his post of chairman was being made into an honorary role.

Muammar Gaddafi |Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafi |Gaddafi Muammar Gaddafi |Gaddafi

Gaddafi is known as much for his eccentric clothing and female bodyguards as for his repressive rule [EPA]

In power since 1969, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is the longest-serving leader in both Africa and the Arab world.

He led a bloodless coup toppling King Idris at the age of 27, and has since maintained tight control of his oil-rich country by clamping down on dissidents. The ongoing bloody uprising poses the most serious domestic challenge to his rule.

Among his many eccentricities, Gaddafi is known to sleep in a Bedouin tent guarded by dozens of female bodyguards on trips abroad.

Gaddafi was born in 1942 in the coastal area of Sirte to nomadic parents. He went to Benghazi University to study geography, but dropped out to join the army.
After seizing power, he laid out a pan-Arab, anti-imperialist philosophy, blended with aspects of Islam. While he permitted private control over small companies, the government controlled the larger ones.
He was an admirer of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and his Arab socialist and nationalist ideology.

He tried without success to merge Libya, Egypt and Syria into a federation. A similar attempt to join Libya and Tunisia ended in acrimony.

Crushing dissident
In 1977 he changed the country's name to the Great Socialist Popular Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah (State of the Masses) and allowed people to air their views at people's congresses.
However, critics dismissed his leadership as a military dictatorship, accusing him of repressing civil society and ruthlessly crushing dissident.
To this day, the media remains under strict government control.
The regime has imprisoned hundreds of people for violating the law and sentenced some to death, according to Human Rights Watch.

At the UN General Assembly in 2009, Gaddafi accused the body of being a terrorism group like al-Qaeda [EPA]

"Gaddafi, gradually as he took power, he used force and he used brutality," Mohammed al-Abdalla, the deputy secretary-general of the National front for Salvation of Libya, tells Al Jazeera.
"In the 1970s against students, when he publicly hung  students who were marching, demonstrating, demanding rights in Benghazi and in Tripoli and many other squares, and his opposition members abroad in the 1980s, including here in London and other places in Europe and in in Arab Middle East.
"He executed, in probably the most brutal massacre that we saw, 1,200 prisoners in the Abu Salim prison who were unarmed, They were already in jail, he executed them in less than three hours."

Mohammed al-Abdalla, the deputy secretary-general of the National front for Salvation of Libya
Gaddafi played a prominent role in organising Arab opposition to the 1978 Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.

Later shunned by a number of Arab states on the basis of his extreme views on how to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict among others, Gaddafi's foreign policy shifted from an Arab focus to an African focus.
His vision of a United States of Africa resulted in the foundation of the African Union.

Lockerbie bombing
In the West, Gaddafi is strongly associated with "terrorism", accused of supporting armed groups including FARC in Colombia and the IRA in Northern Ireland.

Libya’s alleged involvement in the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub in which two American soldiers were killed prompted US air attacks on Tripoli and Benghazi, killing 35 Libyans, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter. Ronald Reagan, the then US president, called him a "mad dog".

The 1988 bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in Scotland is possibly the most well known and controversial international incident in which Gaddafi has been involved.

For many years, Gaddafi denied involvement, resulting in UN sanctions and Libya’s status as a pariah state. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was convicted for planting the bomb. Gaddafi's regime formally accepted responsibility for the attack in 2003 and paid compensation to the families of those who died.

Also in 2003, Gaddafi broke Libya's isolation from the West by relinquishing his entire inventory of weapons of mass destruction.

In September 2004, George Bush, the US president at the time, formally ended a US trade embargo as a result of Gaddafi's scrapping of the arms programme and taking responsibility for Lockerbie.
The normalisation of relations with Western powers has allowed the Libyan economy to grow and the oil industry in particular has benefited.


However, Gaddafi and Lockerbie came back into the spotlight in 2009, when al-Megrahi was released and returned to Libya. The hero’s welcome al-Megrahi received from Gaddafi on his return was condemned by the the US and the UK, among others.

In September 2009, Gaddafi visited the US for the first time for his his first appearance at the UN General Assembly.

His speech was supposed to be 15 minutes, but exceeded an hour and a half. He tore up a copy of the UN charter, accused the Security Council of being a terrorism body similar to al-Qaeda, and demanded $ 7.7 trillion in compensation to be paid to Africa from its past colonial rulers.

During a visit to Italy in August 2010, Gaddafi's invitation to hundreds of young women to convert to Islam overshadowed the two-day trip, which was intended to cement the growing ties between Tripoli and Rome.

libya photos | libya photography | libya photographs | pictures of libya

libya photos | libya photography | libya photographs | pictures of libya

Chavez denounces international community's double standards and rejects intervention in Libya

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rejects intervention in Libya and criticizes media coverage of major global news The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, lamented on Friday the situation in Libya and denounced the media manipulation and double standards of the international community is quick to condemn the government of Muammar Al Gaddafi, and say nothing about human rights violations in countries like Afghanistan or Iraq. He is also a vote for peace and condemned violence. "Those who condemn Libya immediately to make exits with the bombing of the State of Israel on Fallujah, and thousands and thousands of deaths including children, women, families, they remain silent with the bombing and the massacres in Iraq, Afghanistan, they have no morals then to condemn anyone," said the head of state who made a vow because Libya will find its way through peaceful means. "We condemn the violence, imperialism, interventionism," he added. He recalled that as now standing accused Gaddafi, in 2002, he was himself briefly overthrown by a coup, and accusers said he too was a "murderer" of his people. "And the sentence immediately condemned me as an equal to me: "The murderer Chavez ordered to massacre the unarmed people,"said Chavez, who on April 11, 2002 was accused by the media and some countries of perpetrating a slaughter in Yaguna bridge in the center of the capital Caracas, where they found two marches for and against management. After rigorous research demonstrated that day in buildings near the scene acted snipers, some of them foreign. Chavez, who reiterated the friendship that links with Gaddafi, said he can not say it supports "or I support or applaud any decision made by a friend of mine anywhere in the world. No”. No." "We do support the Government of Libya, Libya's independence, we want peace for Libya, peace for all peoples of the world and we must vigorously oppose the claims for intervention," he said. He reiterated his Government's commitment to world peace and feelings of the Arab peoples. "Everybody knows our position in favor of life, everyone knows our struggle for peace, as everyone knows we love all people, as we love and want the Arab people as these people (...) we want," he added. He highlighted the work of journalists from teleSUR who travelled to the North African country. The head of state explained that since the uprisings began in North Africa and Middle East, his Venezuelan government has chosen to maintain a "prudent silence." "We have kept a prudent silence because firstly there is much misinformation, not only in the case of Libya, in the same case in Egypt were very wise I said to Nicholas, Nicholas caution, because we are accustomed to handling global media" .

Libya: weapons depot blasts kill 19

Explosions minutes apart at a Libyan military weapons depot killed 19 people and wounded dozens more outside the main rebel-held city of Benghazi on Friday, doctors said.

A Libyan military weapons depot burns outside the main rebel-held city of Benghazi Photo: AP

 

 

Residents living up to 10 kilometres (six miles) from the main weapons warehouse southeast of Benghazi, said windows shook and an inferno lit up the night sky, as ambulances raced to bring the casualties to hospital.

The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, although most local residents ruled out an air strike by forces loyal to Libyan leader Col Gaddafi in an intensifying battle with eastern rebels fighting for his ouster.

Resident Abdallah Bubakr told AFP rebels turned up at the military base, demanding weapons to take to the front at Raslanuf, an oil town further west that rebels later on Friday claimed to have captured from Gaddafi's forces.

"Two cars rode up with people at the place and said they wanted weapons to take to Raslanuf. They entered the store and just after they left Rajma, there was the first explosion, followed five minutes later by another," he said.

"The first explosion was mild and the second big," he added.

Libya: LSE feared 'embarrassing' Gaddafi's son over donation

The London School of Economics faced fresh criticism last night after it emerged academics refused to return a £1.5m donation to Libya for fear of causing “personal embarrassment” to Col Gaddafi’s son.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi addresses the country on state television Photo: AFP

Leaked documents show that the university's ruling council was warned against accepting the donation from a charity run by Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi because of controversy over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

The disclosure comes just 24 hours after Sir Howard Davies resigned as the university's director after accepting that its reputation had been damaged by a decision to take the money.

The Daily Telegraph has also learned that Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, made a personal contribution to Saif Gaddafi's thesis when he was studying at the LSE. Mr Blair gave him an interview in which he described how corrupt states can be made more transparent.

There was growing pressure last night for the whole of the university’s ruling council to step down.

Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP for Harlow who is demanding a government inquiry into the donations, told the Telegraph: “The only way the LSE can restore its name is for the entire council to resign.

Gaddafi's tanks fired on residential areas

Libya: Fierce battle for Zawiyah amid claims Gaddafi's tanks fired on residential areas

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has sent in new forces towards the western town of Zawiyah after Libyan rebels repelled an attack by his soldiers on Saturday.

  Protesters opposed to leader Muammar Gaddafi on a tank of Libyan army defectors, in the city of Zawiyah Photo: REUTERS

Gaddafi's forces were driven out of central Zawiyah on Saturday morning, but returned with reinforcements.

They also were reported to have erected road blocks preventing entry to the town.

Youssef Shagan, spokesman for the rebels, said that Gaddafi's forces had earlier been defeated.

"They entered Zawiyah at six in the morning with heavy forces, hundreds of soldiers with tanks. Our people fought back ... We have won for now and civilians are gathering in the square."

Mr Shagan said that earlier on Saturday, Gaddafi forces had fired high explosive rounds in the centre of the town, 30 miles west of the capital Tripoli, and rebel forces had captured two tanks.

Who is Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafi |Gaddafi

Gaddafi is known as much for his eccentric clothing and female bodyguards as for his repressive rule [EPA]

In power since 1969, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is the longest-serving leader in both Africa and the Arab world.

He led a bloodless coup toppling King Idris at the age of 27, and has since maintained tight control of his oil-rich country by clamping down on dissidents. The ongoing bloody uprising poses the most serious domestic challenge to his rule.

Among his many eccentricities, Gaddafi is known to sleep in a Bedouin tent guarded by dozens of female bodyguards on trips abroad.

Gaddafi was born in 1942 in the coastal area of Sirte to nomadic parents. He went to Benghazi University to study geography, but dropped out to join the army.
After seizing power, he laid out a pan-Arab, anti-imperialist philosophy, blended with aspects of Islam. While he permitted private control over small companies, the government controlled the larger ones.
He was an admirer of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and his Arab socialist and nationalist ideology.

He tried without success to merge Libya, Egypt and Syria into a federation. A similar attempt to join Libya and Tunisia ended in acrimony.

Crushing dissident
In 1977 he changed the country's name to the Great Socialist Popular Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah (State of the Masses) and allowed people to air their views at people's congresses.
However, critics dismissed his leadership as a military dictatorship, accusing him of repressing civil society and ruthlessly crushing dissident.
To this day, the media remains under strict government control.
The regime has imprisoned hundreds of people for violating the law and sentenced some to death, according to Human Rights Watch.

At the UN General Assembly in 2009, Gaddafi accused the body of being a terrorism group like al-Qaeda [EPA]

"Gaddafi, gradually as he took power, he used force and he used brutality," Mohammed al-Abdalla, the deputy secretary-general of the National front for Salvation of Libya, tells Al Jazeera.
"In the 1970s against students, when he publicly hung  students who were marching, demonstrating, demanding rights in Benghazi and in Tripoli and many other squares, and his opposition members abroad in the 1980s, including here in London and other places in Europe and in in Arab Middle East.
"He executed, in probably the most brutal massacre that we saw, 1,200 prisoners in the Abu Salim prison who were unarmed, They were already in jail, he executed them in less than three hours."

Mohammed al-Abdalla, the deputy secretary-general of the National front for Salvation of Libya
Gaddafi played a prominent role in organising Arab opposition to the 1978 Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.

Later shunned by a number of Arab states on the basis of his extreme views on how to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict among others, Gaddafi's foreign policy shifted from an Arab focus to an African focus.
His vision of a United States of Africa resulted in the foundation of the African Union.

Lockerbie bombing
In the West, Gaddafi is strongly associated with "terrorism", accused of supporting armed groups including FARC in Colombia and the IRA in Northern Ireland.

Libya’s alleged involvement in the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub in which two American soldiers were killed prompted US air attacks on Tripoli and Benghazi, killing 35 Libyans, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter. Ronald Reagan, the then US president, called him a "mad dog".

The 1988 bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in Scotland is possibly the most well known and controversial international incident in which Gaddafi has been involved.

For many years, Gaddafi denied involvement, resulting in UN sanctions and Libya’s status as a pariah state. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was convicted for planting the bomb. Gaddafi's regime formally accepted responsibility for the attack in 2003 and paid compensation to the families of those who died.

Also in 2003, Gaddafi broke Libya's isolation from the West by relinquishing his entire inventory of weapons of mass destruction.

In September 2004, George Bush, the US president at the time, formally ended a US trade embargo as a result of Gaddafi's scrapping of the arms programme and taking responsibility for Lockerbie.
The normalisation of relations with Western powers has allowed the Libyan economy to grow and the oil industry in particular has benefited.


However, Gaddafi and Lockerbie came back into the spotlight in 2009, when al-Megrahi was released and returned to Libya. The hero’s welcome al-Megrahi received from Gaddafi on his return was condemned by the the US and the UK, among others.

In September 2009, Gaddafi visited the US for the first time for his his first appearance at the UN General Assembly.

His speech was supposed to be 15 minutes, but exceeded an hour and a half. He tore up a copy of the UN charter, accused the Security Council of being a terrorism body similar to al-Qaeda, and demanded $ 7.7 trillion in compensation to be paid to Africa from its past colonial rulers.

During a visit to Italy in August 2010, Gaddafi's invitation to hundreds of young women to convert to Islam overshadowed the two-day trip, which was intended to cement the growing ties between Tripoli and Rome.

Fresh violence rages in Libya

Fresh violence rages in Libya 

Libyan forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi are waging a bloody operation to keep him in power, with residents reporting gunfire in parts of the capital Tripoli and other cities, while other citizens, including the country's former ambassador to India, are saying that warplanes were used to "bomb" protesters.

Nearly 300 people are reported to have been killed in continuing violence in the capital and across the North African country as demonstrations enter their second week.

Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has warned that the widespread attacks against civilians "amount to crimes against humanity", and called for an international investigation in possible human rights violations.

LIVE BLOG

Witnesses in Tripoli told Al Jazeera that fighter jets had bombed portions of the city in fresh attacks on Monday night. The bombing focused on ammunition depots and control centres around the capital.
Helicopter gunships were also used, they said, to fire on the streets in order to scare demonstrators away.

Several witnesses said that "mercenaries" were firing on civilians in the city, while pro-Gaddafi forces warned people not to leave their homes via loudspeakers mounted on cars.
Residents of the Tajura neighbourhood, east of Tripoli, said that dead bodies are still lying on the streets from earlier violence. At least 61 people were killed in the capital on Monday, witnesses told Al Jazeeera.

'Indiscriminate bombing'
Protests in the oil-rich African country, which Gaddafi has ruled for 41 years, began on February 14, but picked up momentum after a brutal government crackdown following a "Day of Rage" on February 17. Demonstrators say they have now taken control of several important towns, including the city of Benghazi, which saw days of bloody clashes between protesters and government forces.
There has been a heavy government crackdown on protests, however, and demonstrators at a huge anti-government march in the capital on Monday afternoon said they came under attack from fighter jets and security forces using live ammunition.

"What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead," Adel Mohamed Saleh said in a live broadcast.
"Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car, they will hit you."
Ali al-Essawi, who resigned as Libyan ambassador to India, also told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that fighter jets had been used by the government to bomb civilians.

He said live fire was being used against protesters, and that foreigners had been hired to fight on behalf of the government. The former ambassador called the violence "a massacre", and called on the UN to block Libyan airspace in order to "protect the people".

'Genocide'
The country's state broadcaster quoted Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, and widely seen as his political heir, as saying that armed forces had "bombarded arms depots situated far from populated areas". He denied that air strikes had taken place in Tripoli and Benghazi.
The government says that it is battling "dens of terrorists".
Earlier, Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said Gaddafi had started a "genocide against the Libyan people".

During Monday's protests, gunfire was heard across the capital, with protesters seen attacking police stations and government buildings, including the offices of the state broadcaster.
Witnesses told the AFP news agency that there had been a "massacre" in Tajura district, with gunmen seen firing "indiscriminately".
In Fashlum district, helicopters were seen landing with what witnesses described as "mercenaries" disembarking and attacking those on the street.

Mohammed Abdul-Malek, a London-based opposition activist who has been in touch with residents, said that snipers have taken positions on roofs in an apparent bid to stop people joining the protests.
Several witnesses who spoke to the Associated Press news agency said that pro-Gaddafi gunmen were firing from moving cars at both people and buildings.

State television on Tuesday dismissed allegations that security forces were killing protesters as "lies and rumours".


Benghazi situation dire
Benghazi, Libya's second city, which had been the focal point of violence in recent days, has now been taken over by anti-government protesters, after military units deserted their posts and joined the demonstrators.
Doctors there, however, say that they are running short of medical supplies.
Dr Ahmed, at the city's main hospital, told Al Jazeera that they were running short of medical supplies, medication and blood.

He said that the violence in Benghazi had left "bodies that are divided in three, four parts. Only legs, and only hands,".
While no casualties had been reported in the city on Tuesday, he estimated the number of people killed in Benghazi alone over the last five days to be near 300.

He also said that when military forces who had defected from Gaddafi's government entered an army base, they found evidence of soldiers having been executed, reportedly for refusing to fire on civilians.
The runway at the city's airport has been destroyed, according to the Egyptian foreign minister, and planes can therefore not land there.

Possible 'crimes against humanity'
According to the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR), protesters are also in control of Sirte, Tobruk in the east, as well as Misrata, Khoms, Tarhounah, Zenten, Al-Zawiya and Zouara.
On Sunday, the US-based rights group Human Rights Watch said that at least 233 people were killed in the violence. Added to that are at least 61 people who died on Monday, which brings the toll since violence began on February 17 to at least 294.

Pillay, the UN's human rights chief, called on Tuesday for an international investigation into the violence in the country, saying that it was possible that "crimes against humanity" had been perpetrated by the Libyan government.
In a statement, Pillay called for an immediate halt to human rights violations, and denounced the use of machine guns, snipers and military warplanes against civilians.

Evacuations
Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell, a major oil company, said on Tuesday that all of its expatriate employees and their dependents living in Libya have now been relocated.
Emirates airlines and British Airways suspended all flights to Tripoli on Tuesday, citing the violence in the country, even as Italy, France, Turkey, Greece and several other countries were preparing to send aircraft to evacuate their nationals from the country.

Two Turkish ships that were sent to evacuate citizens were not allowed to dock at Tripoli, and one of them then sailed to Benghazi in an attempt to dock there, Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Istanbul, reported.
 
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's became the second agency in as many days to downgrade Libya on Tuesday, as it cut the country's rating from A- to BBB+.

Libyan pilots and diplomats defect

Libyan pilots and diplomats defect 

The pilots claimed to have defected after refusing to follow orders to attack civilians protesting in Libya [AFP]

Two Libyan air force jets landed in Malta on Monday and their pilots have asked for political asylum.
The pilots claimed to have defected after refusing to follow orders to attack civilians protesting in Benghazi in Libya.

The pilots, who said they were colonels in the Libyan air force, were being questioned by authorities in an attempt to verify their identities.
Meanwhile, a group of Libyan army officers have issued a statement urging fellow soldiers to "join the people" and help remove Muammar Gaddafi.

The officers urged the rest of the Libyan army to march to Tripoli.

Diplomats side with protesters
Libya's ambassadors at several stations, including the US and the UN, have said that they are siding with protesters and have called for Gaddafi to quit.
Ali Aujali, the Libyan ambassador to the United States, called for the Libyan leader's resignation, telling the Associated Press news agency on Monday night that Gaddafi must step down and give Libyans a chance "to make their future".

He said he was not resigning, as he worked for the Libyan people.
On Tuesday, Ali el-Essawi, Libya's ambassador to India who has resigned in protest against the violence used against demonstrators, told Al Jazeera that warplanes had been used to bomb civilians, and that government forces, including "foreigners" were "killing Libyans". He described the violence as a "massacre", and called for the UN to declare a no-fly zone over Libya.

"Now [the UN security council] needs to prove that they believe in human rights ... and to prove to us that they really have these principles in their hearts," he said.

Late on Monday, A.H. Elimam, Libya's ambassador to Bangladesh, resigned to protest against the killing of his family members by government soldiers.

Earlier on Monday, diplomats at Libya's mission to the United Nations sided with the revolt against their country's leader and called on the Libyan army to help overthrow "the tyrant Muammar Gaddafi."

In a statement issued as protests erupted across Libya, the mission's deputy chief and other staff said they were serving the Libyan people, demanded "the removal of the regime immediately" and urged other Libyan embassies to follow suit.

Gaddafi was waging a bloody battle to hang on to power as the revolt against his 41-year rule reached the capital, Tripoli.
The statement issued in New York said hundreds had died in the first five days of the uprising.

A spokesman for the UN mission, Dia al-Hotmani, said the statement had been issued by deputy permanent representative Ibrahim Dabbashi and other staff.

Abdurrahman Shalgham, Libya's ambassador to the UN, was not present at the press conference, but told the Al-Hayat newspaper that all of the diplomats the country's UN mission supported the statement "excluding me". He said that he was in touch with the Gaddafi government and was trying "to persuade them to stop these acts".

Hotmani said that at a meeting on Monday at the mission's New York offices, staff  "expressed our sense of concern about the genocide going on in Libya".

"We are not seeing any reaction from the international community," he added.

"The tyrant Muammar Gaddafi has asserted clearly, through his sons the level of ignorance he and his children have, and how much he despises Libya and the Libyan people," the Arabic language statement said.

It condemned Gaddafi's use of "African mercenaries" to try to put down the rebellion and said it expected "an unprecedented massacre in Tripoli."

'Cut the snake's head'
The statement called on "the officers and soldiers of the Libyan army wherever they are and whatever their rank is ... to organise themselves and move towards Tripoli and cut the snake's head."

It appealed to the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone over Libyan cities to prevent mercenaries and weapons being shipped in.

It also urged guards at Libya's oil installations to protect them from any sabotage "by the coward tyrant," and urged countries to prevent Gaddafi from fleeing there and to be on the lookout for any money smuggling.

Dabbashi and his colleagues called on The Hague-based International Criminal Court to start an immediate inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity they said Gaddafi and his sons and followers had committed.

They called on employees of Libyan embassies all over the world to "stand with their people", especially the mission at the UN European headquarters in Geneva, which they said should seek action by the UN Human Rights Council there.
On Tuesday, the country's embassy in Australia cut its ties with Gaddafi, Musbah Allafi, the Libyan ambassasdor, said.
The embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, also cut ties with Gaddafi's government, with ambassador Bubaker al-Mansori telling AFP: "We are not loyal to him, we loyal to the Libyan people."

It was not immediately clear how many other Libyan embassies were likely to heed the call, although the country's ambassador in India, Ali al-Essawi, said he was resigning in protest at the violent crackdown in his homeland.

Libya's ambassadors to the European Union, Arab League and Indonesia have also resigned, while the embassy in Japan was shut on Tuesday.

Gaddafi 'losing grip' over Libya

 Gaddafi 'losing grip' over Libya

Most of Libya is out of control of the government, and Muammar Gaddafi's grip on power may soon be confined only to the capital, Tripoli, Libya's former interior minister has said.
General Abdul Fatteh Younis told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he had called upon Gaddafi to end his resistance to the uprising, although he does not expect him to do so.
The embattled Libyan regime passed out guns to civilian supporters, set up checkpoints and sent out armed patrols, witnesses said in Tripoli.

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Some of Libya's security forces reportedly have given up the fight. Footage believed to be filmed on Friday showed soldiers joining the protesters.
The footage showed demonstrators carrying them on their shoulders in the city of Az Zawiyah after having defected -- a scene activists said is being repeated across the country.
Al Jazeera, however, is unable to independently verify the content of the video, which was obtained via social networking websites.
Our correspondent in Libya reported on Friday that army commanders in the east who had defected had told her that military commanders in the country's west were also beginning to turn against Gaddafi.
They warned, however, that the Khamis Brigade, an army special forces brigade that is loyal to the Gaddafi family and is equipped with sophisticated weapons, is currently still fighting anti-government forces.
Our correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, said that despite the gains, people are anxious about what Gaddafi might do next and also because his loyalists were still at large.

Interim government
Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil, Libya's former justice minister, has led the formation of an interim government based in the eastern city of Benghazi, the online edition of the Quryna newspaper reported on Saturday.
Quryna quoted him as saying that Muammar Gaddafi "alone" bore responsibility "for the crimes that have occurred" in Libya and that his tribe, Gaddadfa, were forgiven.
"Abud Ajleil insisted on the unity of the homeland's territory, and that Libya is free and its capital is Tripoli," Quryna quoted him as saying in a telephone conversation.
Abu Yousef, a resident from the town of Tajoura, told Al Jazeera that live ammunition was being used against anti-government protesters.

The latest on who is in control of main towns along Libya's Mediterranean coast - View Libya in a larger map

"Security forces are also searching houses in the area and killing those who they accuse of being against the government," he said.
Anti-government protesters have attacked black Africans in Libya, mistaking them for mercenaries.

"The situation is very dangerous. Every day there are more than a hundred who die, every day there are shootings. The most dangerous situation is for foreigners like us and also us black people. Because Gaddafi brought soldiers from Chad from Niger. They are black and tey are killing Arabs," Seidou Boubaker Jallou told Al Jazeera.
Jallou and his friend, both from Mali, fled by night to the Tunisian border. They said the roads out of the West are still in the hands of those loyal to Gaddafi.
Zawiya, a town 120 km from the Tunisian border, is now in the hands of the people. Egyptians who arrived at the border described a bloody massacre on Thursday which left many dead.
"I was in Zawiya's martyrs square. There was a group of army men in the square who attacked the protesters. It was a very fierce confrontation. They were shooting using heavy weaponry. There were at least 15 to 20 dead and I had footage of what happened but the Libyan authorities on the Tunisian border took even my phone. Gaddafi wants to commit a crime with the absence of any media," Ahmed, an Egyptian, told Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri.

'Civil war'
Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's son, said people in "three-quarters of the country are living in peace".

In an interview on Al-Arabiya television, Seif said that the protesters are being manipulated and that the situation had "opened the doors to a civil war".
He denied that African mercenaries had been recruited to attack the protesters in a crackdown that the United Nations say has killed at least 1,000 people.

"Show us the mercenaries, show us the women and children who were killed," he said. "These reports about mercenaries are lies." The protests were being led by "small groups, armed groups," according to Seif al-Islam.

"Those provoking these people are terrorists," he added, echoing his father who in a televised address last week blamed al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden for manipulating the country's youth with drugs.

The eastern region of the oil-rich North African nation is now believed to be largely free of Gaddafi control since the popular uprising began on February 14 with protests in the city of Benghazi.

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from the town of Al-Baida in eastern Libya, said that while many parts of the country's east is no longer government controlled, local residents do not want to separate from the rest of Libya.

"They still want a united Libya, and want Tripoli to remain its capital," she said.
Our correspondent added that many in the country's east have felt abandoned by the Gaddafi government, despite the vast oil wealth located in the region.
The crackdown has sparked international condemnation. The United States said it was moving ahead with sanctions against the regime.

Barack Obama, the US president,  issued an executive order, seizing assets and blocking any property in the United States belonging to Gaddafi or his four sons.

The European Union also agreed to impose an arms embargo, asset freezes and travel bans on Libya.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said on Friday that decisive action by the Security Council against the crackdown must be taken, warning that any delay would add to the growing death toll which he said now came to over 1,000.
The official death toll in the violence remains unclear. Francois Zimeray, France's top human rights official, has said that it could be as high as 2,000.

Ban's call, as well as an emotional speech by the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations, prompted the council to order a special meeting on Saturday to consider a sanctions resolution against Gaddafi.