Category Archives: Main

April 2, 2011

At least 13 people are reported to have been killed when a coalition plane flying over Libya fired on a rebel convoy between Brega and Ajdabiya on Friday, the rebels say. Doctors at a hospital in Ajdabiya told the BBC that three medical students were among the dead. Nato said it was looking into the incident but that it was very difficult to verify details about what happened. The attack came after rebels reportedly fired an anti-aircraft gun. Meanwhile, Libya’s government rejected a rebel ceasefire offer. Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim dismissed the idea as “mad”.  Troops loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi would never withdraw from the rebel-held cities they were besieging, he said. He also condemned recent coalition air strikes as “a crime against humanity” and said there had been civilian casualties in one attack on Thursday.  The rebels were on their way to Brega when they fired into the air with an anti-aircraft gun, the BBC’s Nick Springate reported from the scene of the attack.

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April 1, 2011

A Palestinian engineer has appeared in an Israeli court after being captured in Ukraine and jailed in Israel. No charges were laid, but the court extended Dirar Abu Sisi’s detention. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Mr Abu Sisi was “a Hamas man” who has provided “valuable information”. Mr Abu Sisi accuses Israel of “kidnapping him for no reason”. He also denies any knowledge about a captive Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip – amid media speculation to that effect. Sgt Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas-linked militants in June 2006.

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March 31, 2011

Forces loyal to the president-elect of Ivory Coat, Alassane Ouattara, are pressing on the main city of Abidjan from several directions. Their offensive threatens to make a battleground of the city, the last stronghold of presidential rival Laurent Gbagbo. Mr Gbagbo’s army chief earlier sought refuge with South Africa’s ambassador. The UN says Mr Gbagbo lost last year’s election to Mr Ouattara, but he has so far refused to cede power.

Armed supporters of Mr Gbagbo have been patrolling districts of the city, setting up roadblocks. The BBC’s Valerie Bony in Abidjan says there is fighting around the national television centre in a residential part of the city. She says an informed source had told her that the head of the military police, Edouard Kassarate, had defected to the Ouattara side and had gone to the Hotel de Golf, Mr Ouattara’s headquarters in Abidjan, which had been besieged by Mr Gbagbo’s forces.

Ivory Coast rebels seize capital and march on Abidjan

March 31, 2011

Rebels forces fighting to install Ivory Coast’s democratically elected president are preparing to advance on the country’s largest city, Abidjan, after seizing a key port and the official capital overnight. Power seems to be slipping away from the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, after troops loyal to his rival, Alassane Ouattara, swept south, taking the official capital, Yamoussoukro, and the port of San Pedro late on Wednesday. Residents and combatants from both sides said opposition troops are in control and it is now largely calm apart from some sporadic shooting. Now attention turns to Abidjan, where the mood is tense ahead of a possible rebel assault. Ouattara’s prime minister, Guillaume Soro, told French radio that Gbagbo has just hours to leave power peacefully.

In a further sign of Gbagbo’s weakening position, the Army Chief of Staff sought refuge last night at the home of the South African ambassador to Ivory Coast. Gen. Phillippe Mangou, his wife and five children arrived at the ambassador’s home in Abidjan on Wednesday night, according to the South African foreign ministry. South Africa says it is consulting with unnamed parties in Ivory Coast, West African regional leaders, the African Union and the U.N. on Mangou’s move. Ouattara’s New Forces, renamed the Republic Forces (FRCI), have made huge gains in the past two days, seizing swaths of territory in the centre, east and west. Seydou Ouattara, a military spokesman, told Reuters: “We have taken the port of San Pedro. Gbagbo’s forces have all left. We are in full control.”

One San Pedro resident, who declined to be named, said: “Shooting started at around 9pm, then we saw the rebels’ vehicles drive into the town. Everyone’s staying indoors, but we’re still hearing a lot of gunfire.” Witnesses saw soldiers taking off their uniforms and throwing guns and ammunition into ditches as they fled from the rebel army. Others say some soldiers simply switched sides and joined the Republican Forces. Earlier, residents of Yamoussoukro said they braced themselves for conflict before sporadic gunfire erupted. Serge Kipre, who runs a small clothing store in the city, said: “The night before, we were all calling each other to make sure nobody went outside. In the morning, I saw loads of police with balaclavas and Kalashnikovs racing across town. The market closed, shops shuttered. Everybody seemed on edge.”

March 31, 2011

Libya’s foreign minister Moussa Koussa, one of Col Gaddafi’s closest aides, has arrived in London and told officials he is quitting, the Foreign Office says. It said Mr Koussa had indicated he was no longer willing to represent the Libyan leader’s regime internationally. The FCO added it wanted to “encourage those around Gaddafi to abandon him and embrace a better future for Libya”. A Libyan government spokesman earlier insisted Mr Koussa had been travelling abroad on a diplomatic mission. The development came on the same day the UK took steps to expel five Libyan diplomats. Foreign Secretary William Hague told MPs the five, who include the military attache, “could pose a threat” to UK security.

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Cuts protesters claim police tricked them into mass arrest

March 28, 2011

Campaigners for the tax-avoidance protest group UK Uncut have claimed senior police officers “tricked” them into a mass arrest after a peaceful protest inside Fortnum & Mason’s in London on Saturday. Activists say they were given repeated assurances by a chief inspector from the Metropolitan police that they would be shown to safety after the protest, which she described as non-violent and sensible. However, when protesters left the luxury Piccadilly store on police instruction, they were kettled, handcuffed and taken into custody. Their claims are backed up by footage, obtained by the Guardian, showing that, rather than being asked to leave, the protesters inside the luxury food retailer were told they were being kept inside for their own safety.

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March 27, 2011

A Syrian government adviser has confirmed to Al Jazeera that the country’s emergency law is to be lifted. Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, told Al Jazeera’s Cal Perry in the capital, Damascus, on Sunday that the law would “absolutely” be lifted, but failed to give a timetable. The repeal of the emergency law, in place since the 1963 coup that brought the Baath Party to power, has been a key demand of protesters who have taken to the streets in recent days to demand greater political freedoms. The emergency law imposes restrictions on public gatherings and movement and authorises the arrest of “suspects or persons who threaten security”. It also authorises the interrogation of any individual and the surveillance of personal communication as well as official control of the content of newspapers and other media before publication. The state also announced a series of reforms, including the release of detainees and plans to form new laws on the media and licensing political parties.

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March 28, 2011

Coalition air raids have hit the town of Sirte, Col Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown and the next target of rebel forces advancing westwards. A Libyan government spokesman said three Libyan civilians had been killed in the city’s port. Heavy explosions were also heard in the capital, Tripoli, late on Sunday. The raids came as Nato took full command of the whole military operation in Libya, intended to enforce a UN resolution to protect civilians. Foreign correspondents in Sirte said they heard several loud explosions in the city as aircraft flew overhead.

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Trafalgar has much in common with Tahrir

March 25, 2011

This Saturday, one iconic square, Trafalgar, is to be turned into another, Tahrir – where Egyptians transfixed the world when, with collective determination, they overthrew a powerful regime. British protesters’ call to transform Trafalgar acknowledges that the struggles in the Middle East and those gathering momentum in Britain share a profound connection. Both are movements of the disempowered many against the small groups of wealthy elites who run our world, often in charmed collusion. In rebellious Wisconsin, those protesting Governor Scott Walker’s attempted crushing of unions also carried placards exhorting themselves to “Walk Like an Egyptian”. Western elites are, instead, stressing the differences between east and west as they scramble to morph their longstanding support of north African dictatorships into sudden solidarity with rebels. This revisionist view holds that the uprisings are mainly about the desire of young people in the Middle East to live in western-style democracies. President Barack Obama claims that the Arab world can be inspired by a globalising nation like Brazil working in partnership with the US. For Time magazine, the Middle Eastern protests manifest “the modernising imperative” (code for “westernisation”).

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March 26, 2011

Demonstrations in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and elsewhere were met with force as security forces struggled to contain unrest that had begun in the southern city of Deraa a week ago. Thousands once again joined funeral processions in Deraa on Friday, chanting: “Deraa people are hungry, we want freedom.” Hundreds took to the streets in the cities of Homs, Hama, Tel and Latakia and in towns surrounding Deraa, with smaller protests in the major cities of Damascus and Aleppo, which are more firmly under the watch of security forces. Troops reportedly opened fire in some cases. There were reports that at least 23 people had been killed, some of them in Damascus, hitherto unaffected; the reports could not be independently verified. Amnesty International put the death toll around Deraa in the past week at 55 at least.

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March 23, 2011

A top EU diplomat says the police in Bahrain have had a “difficult task” dealing with opposition protesters and in such situations “accidents happen”. Robert Cooper, special adviser to EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton, was briefing Euro MPs about his fact-finding visit to Bahrain last weekend. Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim king called in Saudi and Emirati forces last week to help quell Shia-led demonstrations. The harsh crackdown has claimed several lives and dozens are reported missing. Mr Cooper, a veteran British diplomat, said that “the exceptional nature of recent events is part of the problem, because… it’s not easy dealing with large demonstrations in which there may be violence. “It’s a difficult task for the policemen, it’s not something we always get right in Western countries, and accidents happen.

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