Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 7:24:00 PM CEST
A Vision of a Democratic Libya
The Libyan opposition's Transitional National Council has released a two-page political platform, called "A Vision of a Democratic Libya."
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 7:15:00 PM CEST
President's Assad's speech on Wednesday will include "immediate reforms on corruption within the government" according to an official.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 5:56:00 PM CEST
NATO is to delay its takeover of the Libya operation.
NATO will now take control of the Libya operation at 0600 GMT on Thursday – 24 hours later than first announced.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 5:11:00 PM CEST
Syrian cabinet resigns amid unrest
Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, has accepted the resignation of the country's government, following two weeks of anti-government protests that have gripped Syria.
"President Assad accepts the government's resignation," an announcement on state television said on Tuesday.
Naji al-Otari, the resigning premier, has been chosen by Assad as caretaker prime minister.
The government has little power in Syria, where power is concentrated in the hand of Assad, his family and the security apparatus. Otari has been prime minister since 2003.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 4:48:00 PM CEST
Operation Unified Protector (was Odyssey Dawn) explained (Day 10)
The situation hasn’t changed much since yesterday. Coalition aircraft are more or less continuosly pounding loyalist around Sirte and Sabha, which yesterday early morning were (probably) “visited” by 2 B-1Bs from Ellsworth AFB which crossed the Atlantic ocean on their way to the Libyan airspace. The pair of “Bone” (from “B-one”) were initially accompanied by another flight consisting of 2 B-1, acting as spares, and were supported by various tankers along the way. If the Global Power “show of force” was worth the effort (in terms of fuel, flight hours, involved crews and, above all, required tanker force) is hard to say.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 2:20:00 PM CEST
Document - Libya: detainees, disappeared and missing
He is in their (the forces of Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi) hands and we have no idea where he is being held and what kind of treatment he is being subjected to. We are very worried that he is being tortured and if we speak about his case they may further punish him, and that the safety of his wife and children in Tripoli may be endangered.
Relatives of a man arrested from his home in Tripoli, in the late afternoon of 22 February 2011, in front of his wife and children.
Many people have been subjected to enforced disappearance1 by forces loyal to Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi since the current unrest began in Libya in mid-February 2011, including dozens who were arrested and detained in eastern Libya and are believed to have been transferred to the Tripoli area that are controlled by al-Gaddafi forces. These detainees and disappeared persons are at grave risk of torture and other serious human rights abuses. The true number is impossible to calculate as the authorities in Tripoli generally do not divulge information about people they are detaining and because many areas of the country are not accessible for independent reporting; indeed, a number of Libyan and international journalists have been detained and ill-treated for seeking to report from areas in which al-Gaddafi forces have carried out arrests and attacks against civilians, and some are also still missing and unaccounted for having been detained by al-Gaddafi forces. Other journalists who have been released as a result of international pressure, including journalists from the BBC and The New York Times, have reported that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated. Some were subjected to mock executions.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 1:29:00 PM CEST
Libya: special forces poised to swoop in - SAS 'Smash' squads on the ground in Libya to mark targets for coalition jets
Officials from the Foreign Office were locked in frantic efforts to locate the remaining UK nationals thought to be oil workers marooned in remote desert compounds in the south of the troubled country.
On Saturday, following days of criticism over the Government's handling of the crisis, members of the special forces, who had been in Libya for almost a week, pressed the button and rolled out a text-book extraction of 150 people – a third of them British.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 1:05:00 PM CEST
Libyan Rape Claim Woman Now 'The Accused'
A Libyan woman who rushed into a Tripoli hotel in an attempt to tell foreign journalists her story of rape is now facing possible criminal charges herself, a government spokesman says.
"I heard that the attorney-general brought her in for questioning because she is now not just the accuser, she is the accused. There is a case against her," Moussa Ibrahim told journalist in Tripoli.
A visibly distressed Ms al Obeidi had gone to the Tripoli hotel, where the media is based, shouting that she had been raped and tortured over two days after being picked up at a checkpoint in the capital.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 12:42:00 PM CEST
Yemeni regime loses grip on four provinces
As Yemen searches for a solution to the current political crisis, many restive areas in the poverty-stricken country have broken away from the central government and are being governed by local armed groups. The regime has lost its grip on many provinces such as Saada, Jawf, Abyan and Shabwa.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 12:23:00 PM CEST
Syrien: Rücktritt von Regierung erwartet
Unter dem Druck der Protestbewegung soll die syrische Regierung von Ministerpräsident Nadschi Otri noch heute zurücktreten. Innerhalb von 24 Stunden solle dann eine neue Regierung ernannt werden, sagte ein hochrangiger Regierungsvertreter in Damaskus der Nachrichtenagentur AFP.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 12:11:00 PM CEST
AFP: Official Syrian Source: The Syrian government will submit its resignation today
Watching Syrian TV live coverage of pro-regime demos all over
1:40pm Syria GMT+2
Austria is advising its citizens against nonessential travel to Syria due to what it calls a high security risk linked to the ongoing unrest in the country. Syria has seen more than a week of demonstrations.
Austria's Foreign Ministry warned against travel to the southern city of Daraa and its surroundings, and strongly advised travelers to stay away from demonstrations, larger gatherings and scenes of police and military action.
Two Reuters television journalists have been missing in Syria since Saturday night, when they were due to return to Lebanon.
update2: Beirut-based producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji had been expected to cross into Lebanon by road at approximately 1830 GMT on Saturday, where they had arranged for a taxi to pick them up from the border.
The last known contact was at 1722 GMT, when Baltaji sent a phone message to a colleague in Beirut in which he said: "We will leave now."
Syria Live Blog - March 28 update: Video: Tens of thousands of Syrians rally for Assad [ccn] Live updates on Syria’s uprising [nowlebanon.com]
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 29, 2011 at 10:38:00 AM CEST
Gaddafi must face a war crime trial not exile, insists Cameron
David Cameron will tell world leaders they must put Colonel Gaddafi on trial and back Libyan rebels at a crisis conference in London today.
The Prime Minister will reject a plan by Italy and Germany to let the tyrant go into exile and dodge war crimes charges.
MI6 officials and the SAS are in close contact with Libyan opposition leaders as the 'endgame' for Gaddafi's regime is plotted, senior officials confirmed last night.
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