US moves warships closer to Libya, freezes assets

The United States began moving warships and aircraft closer to Libya yesterday and froze US$30 billion (RM90.15 billion) in Libyan assets, ramping up pressure on leader Muammar Gaddafi after calling on him to step aside.

Gaddafi is “slaughtering his own people,” unfit to lead and “disconnected from reality,” the US envoy to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said at the White House in the hardest-hitting US denunciation yet of the Libyan leader.

News of the military preparations and the tougher US rhetoric follow days of criticism of the Obama administration by Republican lawmakers, conservative commentators and others for its initially cautious response to the turmoil in Libya.

The administration has defended its response, saying it had been reluctant to take any steps that could endanger US citizens in the North African country. Washington imposed sanctions on Libya on Friday just hours after a plane carrying some of the last Americans flew out of the capital Tripoli.

In addition to repositioning military units and freezing Gaddafi’s assets, Washington was also working with allies on imposing a possible “no-fly” zone over the country.



Rice said the United States was waiting to see how the Libyan opposition, which has seized large swaths of the oil-producing country, would coalesce. It is premature to talk about military assistance to them, she said.

The repositioned US ships could be used for humanitarian and rescue missions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Geneva, where she told the UN Human Rights Council it was “time for Gaddafi to go — now.”

“There is not any pending military action involving US naval vessels,” she said after the Pentagon announced it was moving warships and air force units closer to Libya.

US oil prices, which have risen due to the turmoil in Libya and unrest elsewhere in the region, did not respond to the news, trading down 80 cents at US$97 (RM295.85) a barrel.

‘MILITARY ACTION ONE OPTION’

“We are moving ships closer to Libya in case they are needed,” said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman. Aircraft were also being moved nearer, he said.

The Obama administration has said military action is one option it is looking at, although many analysts say the United States is highly unlikely to launch a ground invasion or air strikes because of the volatile situation on the ground.

The Pentagon gave no details of the forces being moved but its announcement was likely aimed at sending a signal to Gaddafi and his government that the United States was matching its sharper rhetoric of recent days with action.

It was not immediately clear what ships the US Navy has in the Mediterranean but it does have two aircraft carriers further southeast in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

The United States has a major base in Naples, Italy, home to its Mediterranean headquarters, as well as in Rota, Spain.

US planes bombed Libya in 1986, killing more than 40 people including Gaddafi’s adopted baby daughter, in response to a Berlin bombing blamed on Libya that killed three people in a Berlin disco used by US servicemen.

US authorities are also putting the financial squeeze on Gaddafi to pressure him to go.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order freezing Libyan assets on Friday. A US Treasury Department official said yesterday that about US$30 billion of Libyan assets in the United States have been blocked from access by Gaddafi and his family.

David Cohen, acting Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the sum was the largest ever blocked.

Rice said the United States was talking to Nato allies about military options but so far the focus had been on contingency planning.

One option on the table is the no-fly zone, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

A no-fly zone would stop Gaddafi using warplanes or helicopters to attack rebels who have seized large parts of the country, although it is far from clear how big a role the Libyan air force has played in the crisis so far.

Military aircraft circled a town in rebel-held eastern Libya yesterday, a security official said, adding that an earlier report they bombed an arms dump was incorrect.

Clinton: US reaching out to Libyans amid uprising

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday the United States was reaching out to Libyan opposition groups seeking to oust longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Clinton spoke shortly before leaving for Geneva, where she will meet with European allies and envoys from Arab and African countries in hopes of agreeing on a common response to the rebellion that threatens to end Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks about her meeting with Brazil’s Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota at the State Department in Washington, February 23, 2011.

The trip comes a day after the UN Security Council unanimously imposed a travel ban and froze the assets of Gaddafi and his family.

“We are reaching out to many different Libyans in the east as the revolution moves westward there as well,” Clinton said, referring to opposition groups. “... It is too soon to see how this is going to play out.”

A spokesman for the new National Libyan Council, which formed in the eastern city of Benghazi after it was taken by anti-Gaddafi forces, said his group did not want foreign intervention.

As Gaddafi opponents made gains near the capital city Tripoli, Clinton said the UN resolution was a message to Gaddafi and those around him that they “will be held accountable for the actions that are being taken and have been taken against Libyan people.”

Clinton said the United States was not negotiating with Gaddafi.

“We want him to leave and we want him to end his regime and call off the mercenaries and troops who remain loyal to him,” she said. “How he manages that is up to him.”

US officials say Clinton’s trip to Geneva is aimed at coordinating the international response to Libya’s crisis, with Washington insisting that the world “speak with one voice” on stemming the violence and bringing Gaddafi to justice.

The resolution adopted by the 15-nation UN council also called for the immediate referral of the deadly crackdown to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for investigation and possible prosecution of anyone responsible for killing civilians.

The Obama administration has been criticized by rights groups and others for moving too slowly on Libya, the latest country hit by spreading turmoil and anti-government protests across the Middle East and North Africa. But White House officials said fears for the safety of Americans in the country had tempered Washington’s response to the turmoil.

Washington announced a series of sanctions against Libya on Friday after a chartered ferry and a plane carrying Americans and other evacuees left Libya.

Senior US officials, speaking to reporters aboard Clinton’s plane, said she would seek to win international approval for “lockstep” enforcement of economic and diplomatic sanctions targeting Gaddafi and his inner circle.

“Nobody overestimates Gaddafi’s rationality in our government,” an official said, adding that others around Gaddafi might start to reconsider their options.

“We are seeking the levers at our disposal to influence those individuals and not just somebody of questionable rationality.”

Washington is considering steps including sanctions and a “no-fly” zone to try to stop Gaddafi’s suppression of anti-government protests, which diplomats estimate has killed about 2,000 people in two weeks of violence.

While Western governments are trying to ratchet up pressure, it remains unclear how long Gaddafi, with some thousands of loyalists, might hold out against rebel forces comprised of youthful gunmen and mutinous soldiers.

Obama welcomes Bahrain cabinet reshuffle

US President Barack Obama toasts before a dinner for the National Governor’s Association at the White House in Washington, February 27, 2011.

President Barack Obama welcomed yesterday a move by Bahrain’s government to reshuffle its cabinet and urged it to respect human rights.

“I welcome the announcement by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa about making important changes to the cabinet and restating his commitment to reform,” Obama said in a statement.

The king reshuffled the cabinet in a further attempt to appease the Shi’ite opposition that has staged days of protests against the Sunni-led government, government sources said.






The ministers of housing, health and cabinet affairs were among those sacked, said three government officials who did not wish to be named, adding they had not received official confirmation yet of who was being replaced.

Bahrain saw the worst unrest since the 1990s last week when seven people were killed in protests by its majority Shi’ites who have complained of discrimination by the government, which is a close ally of the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Thousands of protesters still occupy Pearl Square in central Manama, demanding the resignation of the cabinet and a new constitution under which the government is elected. — Reuters

Now even Gaddafi's 'voluptuous' nurse deserts him as world turns up the diplomatic pressure

* Libyan leader forfeits his right to govern because of human rights abuses, claims Hillary Clinton
* Tyrant's son seen on video urging supporters to fight 'until the last bullet'
* Rebels parade captured mercenaries at gunpoint
* British Prime Minister David Cameron threatens UK military action within in Libya if killings continue
* Defiant or 'delusional'? Gaddafi insists 'All my people love me'

A nurse who has been at Moammar Gaddafi’s side for nine years is planning to flee Libya - as the nation descends further into violence and world leader call for him to relinquish power immediately.

The tyrant is said to be deeply attached to Halyna Kolotnytska, a 38-year-old Ukrainian he describes as ‘voluptuous’.

She travels everywhere with him, as only she ‘knows his routine’. There is even some suggestion that the pair are lovers.

Preparing to flee: Halyna Kolotnytska, seen in an undated photo with Moammar Gaddaf, is a 38-year-old Ukrainian he describes as 'voluptuous'

Unusual claims: Gaddafi has said he is protected by a 200-strong team of 'virgin bodyguards', and told BBC's Jeremy Bowen and Sunday times' Christine Amanpour at the weekend that 'All my people are with me'

Loyal companion: Ms Kolotnytska has been Gaddafi's nurse for nine years. The dictator claims she is the only one who knows his routine - and there have been suggestions that they are lovers

Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya quoted her daughter Tetyana as saying her mother had said she was not in danger but planned to return home in the near future.

Tetyana said: ‘She spoke in a calm voice, asked us not to worry, said she would be home soon. ‘[Gaddafi] is employing Ukrainian women as nurses. He doesn’t trust Libyan women with that.’

He may not trust them as nurses but Gaddafi is known for his eccentric employment of Libyan female bodyguards - he claims to have a 200-strong security team of virgins.

The often young girls have a variety of uniforms and follow him on official visits - recently to France and Italy.

The news of Ms Kolotnytska's 'defection' came on the day U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton implored the world to hold Moammar Gaddafi's regime to account for gross atrocities in his crisis-torn country.

She said that the Libyan leader must leave power 'now, without further violence or delay' as she addressed a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today.

The worst atrocities included reports that soldiers had been executed for refusing to turn their guns on their fellow citizens, she said, with the clear hint that he should stand trial for war crimes.

And British Prime Minister David Cameron became the first world leader to threaten Gaddafi with military action, promising a no-fly zone and arms shipments to his enemies.

Mr Cameron even suggested he could send British troops into Libya as a peacekeeping force to stop Gaddafi’s henchmen massacring democracy campaigners.

At a National Security Council meeting, he ordered military chiefs to draw up plans for the no-fly zone.

If Gaddafi turned his air force on the rebels, RAF warplanes would be able to intervene.

Despite spiralling violence and news of rebals taking major strongholds throughout the country, Gaddafi himself insists his people are still behind him.

Speaking with the BBC's Jeremy Bowen and the Sunday Times' Christine Amanpour, Gaddafi also claimed there were 'no demonstrations at all in the streets' of Libya.

When told that Bowen had indeed witnessed demonstrations in the streets, Gaddafi said: 'They are not against us. No-one is against us. Against us for what? Because I'm not a president. They love me. All my people are with me, they love me all. They will die to protect me, my people.'

After viewing the interview, U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Gaddafi was clearly 'delusional' and 'unfit to lead'.

Mrs Clinton made her plea for the international community to speak with a single voice at the session of the UN Human Rights Council after the EU heeded her call to impose sanctions in a bid to oust the increasingly maniacal leader.

She said: 'We have seen Colonel Gaddafi's security forces open fire on peaceful protesters. They have used heavy weapons on unarmed civilians. Mercenaries and thugs have been turned loose to attack demonstrators.'

She added: 'The result of these human rights abuses is that they have lost the legitimacy to govern.'

Her assessment to the 47-nation body came amid a series of meetings Mrs Clinton held with foreign policy chiefs from Russia, top European powers and Australia.

As the leaders shuffled in and out of conferences in a form of speed diplomacy, they urged concerted efforts to press Gaddafi to halt the violence that has wracked his country and resign after 42 years in control of Libya.

The European Union issued travel bans and an asset freeze against senior Libyan officials, and an arms embargo on the country.

Germany went further, proposing a 60-day economic embargo to prevent Gaddafi's regime from using oil and other revenues to repress his people.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's call essentially amounted to an economic embargo and was perhaps the toughest proposal yet aimed at Gadhafi.

He spoke as doubts emerged about the feasibility of another plan being mulled by international leaders, a no-fly zone that would prevent him from launching aerial attacks.

He said: 'We must do everything so this murder ends. We must do everything to ensure that no money is going into the hands of the Libyan dictator's family, that they don't have any opportunity to hire new foreign soldiers to repress their people with.'

Mr Westerwelle said he was only speaking for Germany, but insisted that his call had found some support from other countries. Italy's foreign minister said his country was looking to find a new source for the oil supplies that had been coming from Libya.

Mrs Clinton said the U.S. was considering further sanctions.

She said: 'Nothing is off the table so long as the Libyan government continues to threaten and kill Libyan citizens.'

But the proposal for a possible no-fly zone over the country appeared to divide nations.

Russia's foreign minister said he had no talks with Mrs Clinton about the proposal. Sergey Lavrov said: 'Absolutely not. It was not mentioned by anyone.'

And in Paris, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said a no-fly zone needed U.N. support 'which is far from being obtained today'. He also questioned whether NATO should get involved in a civil war in a North African country.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy, whose bases would be the most logical place from which to monitor the no-fly zone, said the issue was under discussion but said the logistics would be difficult.

After meeting Mrs Clinton, he said: 'We should discuss all the consequences.'

 Gaddafi's bedroom: A Libyan rebel stands in the damaged and vandalised bedroom that was used by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and his family at the terminal of the airport in Benghazi

 Battle: An armed protester proclaims victory yesterday as he stands on top of a captured tank in Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses the 16th session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva

Thailand to further probe killing of Reuters journalist

Thai investigators said today they were still trying to establish who killed Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto last year after reversing preliminary findings that a soldier probably fired the fatal bullet.

Muramoto (picture), a 43-year-old Japanese national, was killed by a high-velocity bullet wound to the chest while covering clashes between anti-government “red shirt” protesters and troops in Bangkok’s old quarter on April 10 last year.





Witness accounts in a preliminary state investigation said he was shot from the direction of troops, but authorities now say the type of bullet was inconsistent with those used by soldiers.

Thai investigators have concluded the fatal bullet was of 7.62 mm calibre and that soldiers were armed with M-16 rifles that fire 5.56 mm bullets, the director-general of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Tharit Pengdit, told a news conference.

“The bullet that shot Muramoto was 7.62 mm not M-16 that was used by the authorities,” Tharit said. “It could be an AK-47 or something similar ... but exactly who shot him I can’t answer at this point. We need more investigation.”

Television footage showed troops opening fire in the direction of hundreds of protesters, while soldiers came under attack from grenades. Mysterious black-clad gunmen were filmed moving among the demonstrators.

“Of course, the bullet came from the direction of the troops, but we don’t know who fired it because the troops were also surrounded by red-shirt protesters,” said Tharit of the bullet that killed Muramoto.

A preliminary version of the DSI report seen by Reuters in December quoted a witness as saying he saw “a flash from a gun barrel of a soldier”, then watched Muramoto fall after he was shot in the chest while filming the troops.

The DSI also acknowledged on November 16 a soldier may have fired the fatal shot, but said it was too early to conclude the case. The DSI’s report was sent to police for further investigation.

“The apparent contradiction between the preliminary investigation and these reports makes full transparency about the process and the findings imperative,” said Stephen J. Adler, Editor-in-Chief of Reuters News.

Tharit defended the DSI’s investigation. “The reason we submitted a finding earlier to police that Muramoto was likely shot by a soldier was because that was what the witness said. The witness also didn’t see where the bullet was exactly shot from.”

The latest DSI statement will likely rekindle debate over how exactly Muramoto was killed and the identity of mysterious black-clad gunmen filmed moving among the demonstrators or firing from above in sniper positions on the night the journalist died.

It also raises questions over the weapons used by the soldiers. Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said troops deployed in Bangkok on April 10 were armed with US-made M-16 and Israeli-made Tavor rifles, but red shirt witnesses reported the presence of other types of weapons.

A law firm representing the red shirts and their figurehead, fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, issued a report on January 31 quoting from an unspecified number of unidentified officers in Thailand’s military who said the black-clad gunmen were members of the military.

The government says the shadowy gunmen were terrorists who were allied with the red shirts and responsible for most of the deaths during the clashes.

The Bangkok Post yesterday said “the army chief of staff paid the DSI head a visit to complain about an initial department finding” that blamed soldiers for the journalist’s death.

At least 91 people were killed in violence last April and May in Bangkok after the red shirt protesters occupied parts of the capital, and more than 1,800 were wounded. The military fought street battles with gunmen among the red shirts during the crisis, turning parts of central Bangkok into combat zones.

The military has repeatedly insisted that soldiers were not responsible for any of the deaths and injuries during the violence, a claim most independent observers consider implausible.

Gaddafi's son 'caught on video urging loyalists to sacrifice themselves until the last bullet'

Colonel Gaddafi's son has been caught on video brandishing a semi-automatic rifle in the air and urging paramilitaries to sacrifice themselves until 'the last bullet'.

The chilling footage, shot in Tripoli at the weekend, makes a mockery of London School of Economics-educated Saif Al-Islam's claims he can reform Libya following 42 years of rule by his tyrant father.

Rather than looking like a moderate reformer, the 38-year-old looks like a 'rabble-rousing gangster', according to a pro-democracy protester who leaked the video after recording it on his mobile phone.

 Defiant: Video footage apparently shows Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam brandishing a rifle and calling on supporters to fight 'to the last bull

 'Gangster': The footage, filmed secretly on a mobile phone, was taken near Green Square in Tripoli

'Moderate': Saif has claimed Tripoli was peaceful in TV interviews and the scale of the violence was exaggerated

Over the weekend, Saif gave a TV interview in which he said: 'Everything is calm. Everything is peaceful.

'The point is there's a big gap between reality and the media reports.'

The second son of the dictator appeared relaxed as he spoke about reforms for ensuring a peaceful future.

But the unauthorised video paints a very different picture. It shows Saif standing on the roof of a 4x4, dressed in a black bomber jacket and holding the rifle in his left hand.

Addressing armed supporters near Green Square, in the centre of Tripoli, he shouts: 'Brothers, God willing keep the spirits high.

'Rumours are emanating from enemy forces saying that the police fled. Today we'll show them that the police are with Libya.

'We have the means, the equipment, the weapons, we're fine. It's your homeland. Don't lose it.

'Those against you are nothing - they're b******s.'

Towards the end of his address, Saif swings his gun in the air and urges them to 'fight until the last minute, until the last bullet'.

A source who helped to get the video out of Libya said Saif's men were like gangsters.

They said: 'Saif pretends to be an intellectual and a moderate, but he is a rabble-rousing thug just like his father.'

Saif has been considered Gaddafi's heir apparent since declaring in 2002 that Libya's future was: 'First thing democracy, second thing democracy, third thing democracy.'

He completed a doctorate at the LSE in 2008. He met former Labour trade minister Peter Mandelson at a Corfu villa the week before it was announced that the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi would be released from a Scottish prison.

Prince Andrew has also invited Saif as a guest to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle and the two men have also met in Tripoli.

He also regularly boasts that Tony Blair is a 'good friend' and they have met when Mr Blair was Prime Minister.

Last Friday, Saif told journalists in Tripoli: 'If you hear fireworks, don't mistake it for shooting.'

 Defiant: A rebel stands in the vandalised former bedroom used by Colonel Gaddafi at Benghazi airport

 Clashes: Soldiers from the elite Khamis Brigade - led by Gaddafi's youngest son Khamis, check vehicles near Zawiya

Libya: more bloodshed in battle for Misrata-Libya: fighting continues in key towns -Britain urges Libya to end violence - Sanctions to hit Libya include asset freeze, passport ban and no arms sales

World raises pressure on Libya, battles for key towns

Anti-government rebels carry ammunition in a base for training and recruiting rebels for the army in Benghazi on February 28, 2011

Foreign powers accelerated efforts to help oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday as rebels fought government forces trying to take back strategic coastal cities on either side of the capital Tripoli.

Gaddafi’s forces have been trying for days to push back a revolt that has won over large parts of the military, ended his control over eastern Libya and is fending off government assaults in western cities near Tripoli.

It is difficult for reporters to move around western Libya and reports of fighting were hard to verify independently.



But witnesses in both Misrata, a city of a half a million people 200km to the east of Tripoli, and Zawiyah, a strategic refinery town 50km to the west, said government forces were mounting or preparing attacks.

“An aircraft was shot down this morning while it was firing on the local radio station. Protesters captured its crew,” a witness in Misrata, Mohamed, told Reuters by telephone.

“Fighting to control the military air base started last night and is still going on. Gaddafi’s forces control only a small part of the base. Protesters control a large part of this base where there is ammunition.”

A Libyan government source denied the report.

A resident of Zawiyah, called Ibrahim, told Reuters by telephone: “We are expecting attacks at any moment by brigades belonging to (Gaddafi’s son) Khamis. They are on the outskirts of the town, about 5-7km away. They are in large numbers.”

In the capital, Gaddafi’s last stronghold, a Reuters reporter saw about 400 people protesting in a square in the Tajoura district, an area already partly outside his control.

Soon after, men in sports utility vehicles pulled up and fired into the air.

SANCTIONS

Foreign governments are increasing the pressure on Gaddafi to leave in the hope of ending fighting that has claimed at least 1,000 lives and restoring order to a country that accounts for 2 per cent of the world’s oil production.

The UN Security Council on Saturday slapped sanctions on Gaddafi and other Libyan officials, imposed an arms embargo and froze Libyan assets.

European Union governments approved their sanctions against Gaddafi in Brussels yesterday, implementing the UN resolution sooner than expected.

The Pentagon said it was repositioning US naval and air forces around Libya “to provide options and flexibility”. The US Sixth Fleet operates out of Italy.

In The Hague, the International Criminal Court prosecutor said he would finish a preliminary examination of the violence within days, after which he could open a full inquiry — a step mandated by the Council that could have taken months.

France proposed an emergency summit of EU leaders for Thursday, EU diplomats said.

In an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Gaddafi was using “mercenaries and thugs” to repress his people and that he must step down immediately.

“Gaddafi and those around him must be held accountable for these acts, which violate international legal obligations and common decency,” Clinton said, adding that nothing was off the table as the international community considers its next steps.

However, in Washington, a White House spokesman declined to rule out that Gaddafi could be helped to go into exile.

A US official in Geneva said a central aim of sanctions was to “send a message not only to Gaddafi ... but to the people around Gaddafi, who are the ones we’re really seeking to influence”.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said after meeting Clinton that he was proposing a 60-day freeze on money transfers to Libya, and believed other countries were open to the idea.

“We must do everything to ensure that no money is going into the hands of the Libyan dictator’s family, and that they have no opportunity to hire new foreign soldiers to repress their people,” he said.

But there was less support among foreign ministers in Geneva for proposals to stop Gaddafi attacking rebels from the air.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he was asking his military staff to work on the idea with allies. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, asked in Geneva if he had discussed a no-fly zone in his meeting with Clinton, retorted:

“Absolutely not. It was not mentioned by anyone.”

RESENTMENT

Revolutions in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt have helped to ignite resentment of four decades of often bloody political repression under Gaddafi as well as his failure to use Libya’s oil wealth to tackle widespread poverty and lack of opportunity.

The 68-year-old leader has vowed to fight to the death, but a spokesman struck a new, conciliatory tone yesterday.

Mussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that government forces had fired on civilians, but said this was because they were not trained to deal with civilian unrest.

He said the government was still in control of Zawiyah, even though reporters who were taken there at the weekend saw a town centre under rebel control.

“What you saw was only the centre,” he said. “We allowed, we let these people with their guns to stand there. Zawiyah has not fallen. The government could have easily killed them and has not done so, because the government has not been bloody.”

In the eastern city of Benghazi, opponents of Gaddafi said they had formed a National Libyan Council to be the “face” of the revolution. They said they wanted no foreign intervention.

A senior government source said the government was sending a envoy to Benghazi yesterday night to deliver food, medicine and medical equipment.

Regional experts expect rebels eventually to take the capital and kill or capture Gaddafi, but add that he has the firepower to foment chaos or civil war — a prospect he and his sons have warned of.

OIL

Opposition forces are largely in control of Libya’s oil facilities, which are mostly located in the east.

Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, told Reuters Insider TV in Paris that industry reports suggested Libya’s oil output had been halved as expatriate workers pulled out.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimated in a note to clients that Libya was losing about 1.2 million barrels per day, or 75 per cent of its pre-revolt output, and said the unrest could mean Libyan supplies were unavailable for months.

Industry sources said actual shipments were at a standstill.

Benchmark Brent oil futures were slightly lower at just under US$112 (RM341) a barrel.

Wealthy states have sent planes and ships to bring home expatriate workers but many more, from poorer countries, are stranded. Thousands of Egyptians have been streaming into Tunisia, complaining that Cairo has done nothing to help them.

The United Nations refugee agency said on Sunday nearly 100,000 people have fled violence in Libya in the past week in a growing humanitarian crisis.

World govts send planes, ships for Libya evacuation

Governments around the world scrambled today to send planes and ships to evacuate their citizens from turmoil in Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi has vowed to crush a revolt against his 41-year rule.

Fears for the safety of foreigners were heightened after a Turkish worker was shot dead as he climbed a crane at a building site near the capital Tripoli, according to Turkish officials.

Turkey, with 25,000 citizens in Libya, is mounting the biggest evacuation operation in its history, and 21 other governments have asked Ankara for help getting their nationals out, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference.

European Union states are evacuating some 10,000 EU citizens from Libya, a spokesman for the EU executive said during a European Commission news briefing.




The US State Department said a chartered ferry with room for about 600 passengers was due to leave Tripoli shortly for Malta. “We’re asking all US citizens to head out to the ferry pier,” spokeswoman Megan Mattson told Reuters.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos as foreigners tried to escape the violence. Italy said estimates that at 1,000 people had been killed in the uprising were credible.

“The time at the airport turned into a nightmare, fights began to break out. Everyone is frantic,” said Adil Yasar, a Turk who arrived in Istanbul late on Tuesday, adding he and other evacuees had gone without food and water for two days.

Some 3,000 Turks who found sanctuary in a soccer stadium in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the uprising began, set sail for home escorted by a Turkish navy frigate, while two French military planes brought 402 French nationals back to Paris.

“We are very happy it’s over,” one passenger said after arriving at Paris’s Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport.

“It was very sudden. Five days ago, we felt really secure. One would not have said that the situation was going to degenerate so quickly.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has warned Gaddafi’s government against taking “cruel steps” to crush the uprising, and called on all sides to ensure the security of foreigners.

Nationals of Lebanon, Syria and Germany, as well as Turkey, have joined thousands of Tunisians leaving Libya by its western land border, the International Organisation for Migration said.

The IOM is trying to find new evacuation routes from Libya, which has an estimated 1.5 million foreign nationals, including people working there and those passing through.

Libya borders Tunisia and Egypt, both of which have ousted long-time rulers in the past few weeks.

Britain said yesterday it planned to send a charter plane to Libya to bring out Britons and was dispatching a Royal Navy frigate to waters off Libya in case it was needed.

Germany urged all its citizens to leave the country, and Chancellor Angela Merkel described as ‘very frightening’ Gaddafi’s words that he was ready to die ‘a martyr’.

With eastern regions breaking free of Gaddafi’s rule and deadly unrest hitting the capital Tripoli, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Japan, Russia and Saudi Arabia also sent or were planning to send planes for their nationals.

Turkish construction company TAV was trying to arrange the evacuation of its 3,000 Thai and Vietnamese employees.

A Dutch military plane evacuated 82 people from Libya late yesterday, repatriating 32 Dutch citizens and 50 people from other countries, including Belgium, Britain and the United States, the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.

Brazil was sending a ship to pick up 180 workers and their families and take them to Malta, its foreign ministry said.

A Ukrainian Il-76 military cargo plane was on its way to Tripoli to pick up 170 Ukrainians, including doctors, pilots and engineers who are working on contracts there.

Greek passenger ships headed to Libya to collect Europeans and 15,000 Chinese and bring them back via the island of Crete.

Croatia has evacuated 145 of its citizens and was trying to bring out another 140 Croat workers, its foreign minister said.

Amid increasing chaos, and resignations by top Libyan officials protesting against Gaddafi’s crackdown, some flights had difficulty getting clearance to land or depart.

A Bosnian and Serbian planes were awaiting permission from authorities in Tripoli to bring their citizens home, officials of both countries said.

Obama breaks silence, condemns Libya crackdown

Obama speaks about Libya while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton listens in the White House in Washington yesterday, February 23, 201


US President Barack Obama yesterday condemned the “unacceptable” bloodshed in Libya and said he would work with other countries to hold Muammar Gaddafi’s government accountable.

In his first public comments on Gaddafi’s efforts to crush a popular revolt that erupted alongside uprisings elsewhere in the region, Obama said his administration was looking at “the full range of options that we have to respond to this crisis.”

“The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and it is unacceptable,” he said. “This violence must stop.”

While Obama did not say what actions Washington might take against the oil-producing North African country, US officials said earlier that sanctions and freezing assets, including those belonging to Gaddafi, were possible.

Still, analysts say US options to influence events in Libya are limited, unlike in Egypt and Bahrain where Washington was able to bring pressure as a long-time ally and benefactor.

Obama, the first US president to shake hands with Gaddafi, has faced criticism in some quarters for not speaking out sooner. But officials say the US response has been tempered to ensure Americans in Libya can be safely evacuated.



“We are doing everything we can to protect American citizens. It is my highest priority,” Obama said.

He spoke as a chartered ferry prepared to evacuate Americans and other foreigners from Libya to the island of Malta in the Mediterranean. High seas were delaying the ferry’s departure, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

“Citizens are safe on board. It will leave when the weather permits,” he said in a Twitter message.

The US government estimates there are several thousand Americans living in Libya. Most hold dual citizenship, and about 600 carry US passports only.

While the United States was treading cautiously on the issue of sanctions, European Union governments edged towards measures against Libya, agreeing to explore possible travel restrictions, an arms embargo and asset freezes.

“Sanctions are almost inevitable at this point but it is going to take time, particularly at the United Nations which is not the fastest-moving organisation,” said John Norris of the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington.

US sanctions alone would not have much impact because American exports to Libya were only US$665 million (RM1,995 million) in 2010, while US aid amounted to less than US$1 million.

Obama said it was “imperative that the nations and peoples of the world speak with one voice” on the crisis, which helped push the price of US crude oil to a 28-month high of US$100 a barrel yesterday.

“This is not simply a concern of the United States. The entire world is watching and we will co-ordinate our assistance and accountability measures with the international community,” Obama said.

The United States has been estranged from Libya for most of the past 40 years, largely because of Gaddafi’s support for attacks such as the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

Washington began to improve ties after Gaddafi agreed in late 2003 to give up the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and Libya accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing.

Some US lawmakers pressed the White House to work with allies to enforce a “no-fly” zone over Libya as the United States did in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurds from Saddam Hussein’s security forces.

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not rule out the idea but Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said he was not aware of any talks within the military about a no-fly zone.

David Schenker, a former Pentagon official now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank, said the United States would likely agree to enforcing a no-fly zone only if other Nato nations took part.

“The longer that this goes on, the more people will clamour for it,” Schenker said

Foreign rescue teams join search for NZ quake survivors

Members of the Japan Disaster Relief Team for New Zealand Earthquake line up as they board their flight to New Zealand by government aircraft at Narita international airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, February 23, 2011

Hundreds of foreign rescuers will join exhausted New Zealand teams tomorrow in an increasingly desperate search of quake-shattered buildings in central Christchurch as time runs out to find survivors buried under rubble.

Officials have abandoned hope of finding anyone alive in the collapsed Canterbury Television (CTV) building in the city centre, including foreign students at a third-floor language school, with a grader moving in to clear debris.




Police warned about the possible collapse of a 26-story hotel unleashing a “domino” effect on surrounding building.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said the quake-prone city now faced hard decisions on rebuilding its heart.

“We are not going to walk away from this place,” Parker told New Zealand television. “We may have to level entire blocks in some places.”

The Director of New Zealand’s Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, John Hamilton, has said rescue teams have a window of only two or three days to find people after yesterday’s 6.3-magnitude earthquake.

Seventy-five people have been confirmed dead, but that toll was expected to rise with more than 300 people missing in the country’s second-biggest city. Up to 100 of those were thought to be in the CTV building, police said.

Much of the city remained without power and water, and hundreds of people queued for water supplies brought in.

It was New Zealand’s most deadly natural disaster for 80 years, and one estimate said the damage could cost US$12 billion.

To avoid more deaths and curb crime, police and the military placed an overnight curfew on the central business district, with soldiers patrolling in armoured personnel carriers as aftershocks rattled the unstable centre.

Authorities also placed an exclusion zone around the hotel, which teetered near collapse, threatening nearby buildings.

“If the Hotel Grand Chancellor falls, and three engineers say it is a significant risk, that will be dramatic, a domino effect in the central city of other unstable buildings. It will be a major disaster,” said police Superintendent Dave Cliff.

Rescue teams had to perform amputations to free some of the 120 survivors pulled from the wreckage of the tremor, which was the second strong quake to hit the historic tourist city in five months.

But there were moments of elation. A woman, Ann Bodkin, was rescued from a destroyed finance company building after a day trapped under a desk.

Cliff said as many as 100 bodies could be under the television building, while scores more could lie beneath the city’s shattered cathedral and other nearby buildings.

A national state of emergency has been declared. It is the country’s worst natural disaster since a 1931 quake in the North Island city of Napier which killed 256.

Christchurch Hospital received an influx of injured residents, with broken limbs, crush injuries and lacerations.

Thousands of people were facing a second night in emergency shelters in local schools, community halls and at a racecourse. Pope Benedict sent a message of support for survivors and rescuers from the Vatican.

“My thoughts turn especially to the people there who are being severely tested by this tragedy,” he said. “I also ask you to join me in praying for all who have lost their lives.”

Rescuers from the United States, Britain, Taiwan and Japan will arrive in New Zealand tomorrow, with the first of 148 Australian specialists already on the streets.

Indications of the big economic impact of the quake are starting to emerge. J.P. Morgan estimated insured losses could be US$12 billion, according to a source who had seen a research note.

When asked about possible costs, Prime minister John Key told reporters: “No one’s in a position to actually assess that.” He said he hoped Christchurch could still host rugby World Cup matches later this year as planned.

Key said the country could afford to rebuild Christchurch, but reinsurance risk would probably worsen.

The disaster fuelled talk that the central bank might cut interest rates in coming weeks to shore up confidence in the already-fragile national economy, but the bank did not mention monetary policy today when it commented on the quake.

Seeing the quake as a further blow to the economy, Standard Chartered bank is revising down its 2011 GDP growth forecast for New Zealand to 1.4 per cent and 2.7 per cent for 2012 – from 2.0 per cent and 3.0 per cent respectively, because of a double-dip in the housing market, tightening budget and sluggish local demand.

Saudi king back home, orders US$37b in handouts

Saudi King Abdullah returned home today after a three-month medical absence and unveiled benefits for Saudis worth some US$37 billion (RM112.80 billion) in an apparent bid to insulate the world’s top oil exporter from an Arab protest wave.

The king (picture), who had been convalescing in Morocco after back surgery in New York in November, stood as he descended from the plane in a special lift. He then took to a wheelchair.






Hundreds of men in white robes performed a traditional Bedouin sword dance on carpets laid out at Riyadh airport for the return of the monarch, thought to be 87.

Abdullah left his ailing octogenarian half-brother, Crown Prince Sultan, in charge during his absence.

Before Abdullah arrived, state media announced an action plan to help lower- and middle-income people among the 18 million Saudi nationals. It includes pay rises to offset inflation, unemployment benefits and affordable family housing.

Saudi Arabia has so far escaped popular protests against poverty, corruption and oppression that have raged across the Arab world, toppling entrenched leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and even spreading to Bahrain, linked to the kingdom by a causeway.

Significantly, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa was among the princes thronging the tarmac when Abdullah flew in.

King Hamad freed about 250 political prisoners today and has offered dialogue with protesters, mostly from Bahrain’s Shi’ite majority, who demand more say in the Sunni-ruled island.

Riyadh would be worried if unrest in Bahrain, where seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week, spread to its own disgruntled Shi’ite minority in the oil-rich east.

Hundreds of people have backed a Facebook call for a Saudi “day of rage” on March 11 to demand an elected ruler, greater freedom for women and the release of political prisoners.

Saudi stability is of global concern. A key US ally, the top OPEC producer holds more than a fifth of world oil reserves.

The king announced no political reforms such as municipal council polls demanded by opposition groups. Saudi Arabia has no elected parliament or parties and allows little public dissent.

Some Saudis were critical. “We want rights, not gifts,” said Fahad Aldhafeeri in one typical message on Twitter.

Saudi analysts said the king might soon reshuffle his Cabinet to inject fresh blood and revive stalled reforms.

“They are under pressure. They have to do something. We know Saudi Arabia is surrounded by revolutions of various types, and not just in poor countries, but in some such as Libya which are rich,” said Mai Yamani, at London’s Chatham House think tank.

“Basically what the king is doing is good, but it’s an old message of using oil money to buy the silence, subservience and submission of the people,” she said. “The new generation of revolution is surrounding them from everywhere.”

Saudi Arabia holds more than US$400 billion in net foreign assets, but faces social pressures such as housing shortages and high youth unemployment in a fast-growing population.

“Housing and job creation for Saudis are two structural challenges this country is facing,” said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi, who put the total value of the king’s measures at 140 billion riyals (RM112.80 billion).

G20-member Saudi Arabia has outlined spending of 580 billion riyals for 2011 in its third consecutive record budget.

EFG-Hermes put the extra benefit package at 100 billion riyals, saying it could rally a stock market that lost 4 per cent in the past week on unrest in Bahrain and elsewhere.

Hopes of finding Kiwi quake survivors fade

Rescue workers prepare a stretcher to retrieve a body from the rubble of CTV building today, February 24, 2011

International rescuers intensified their search for earthquake survivors in New Zealand today despite fading hopes of finding any more people alive and fears that a damaged 26-storey tower could collapse nearby at any time.

Specialist teams from quake-prone countries such as Japan and the United States used sniffer dogs and listening devices to search for signs of life, two days after a strong tremor struck the tourist city of Christchurch, killing at least 76 people in the country’s deadliest natural disaster for 80 years.

Rescue teams rushed today to a small church after it was believed that a woman’s voice had been heard — apparently the first sign in more than 15 hours that people might still be alive — but it turned out to be another false hope.

“Right now we do not have any active contact with any person or any indication of signs of life at any location we are working at,” fire rescue co-ordinator Jim Stuart Black said.

“We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”



Hopes are fading by the hour, but there was renewed activity today at the scene of what was feared to be the deadliest single collapse — a six-storey building where up to 100 people, including 11 Japanese students, are believed to be trapped.

A newly arrived Japanese rescue team headed straight for the site. Around 30 of them, in orange and blue overalls, gathered at the smouldering ruin for a morning briefing before heading into the pile of broken masonry, which had housed an English-language school on its third floor.

The team had three sniffer dogs. As they met, other rescuers carried out more bodies from the rubble and officials brought additional body bags to the scene.

“We have a big team and we are determined to help,” Kai Jinnai told Reuters.

“It is up the New Zealand fire service how long we are here, but while we are here we are going to do our very best.”

Operations at the so-called CTV building, which also housed a local broadcaster, faced the risk that a nearby 26-storey hotel tower could topple at any moment and bring other buildings down. The Grand Chancellor Hotel is already leaning badly.

Rescue teams had worked through a second night under floodlights, but reported finding only bodies. Still, they hoped for a miracle, along with distraught onlookers awaiting news of family and friends still trapped in rubble.

“Miracles happen and we’re keeping that in the forefront of our minds. That sort of things drives you and pushes you on,” rescue official Keith Norton said.

The last rescue was of a woman, Ann Bodkin, from a finance company building mid-afternoon yesterday.

Around 2,500 people had been injured, 164 seriously.

Rescue operations have focussed on the city’s central business district, which bore the brunt of the force 6.3 quake that struck early afternoon Tuesday when streets and shops were filled with lunchtime crowds.

There are fears that a collapse of the 26-storey Grand Chancellor, one of the city’s tallest buildings, might trigger a domino-effect and further hamper rescue efforts.

“It’s incredibly dangerous... if it hits the ground it will create a significant shock wave,” local mayor Bob Parker said.

The city has been shaken by more than 100 aftershocks, bringing down more debris. Roads are buckled and large pools of water have welled up from broken pipes and sewers.

In places, roads had collapsed into a milky, sand-coloured lake beneath the surface, the result of Christchurch’s sandy foundations mixing with subterranean water under the force of the quake. Officials call it “liquefaction” of the ground.

Investment bank J.P. Morgan estimates the quake could cost insurers US$12 billion (RM36 billion), while catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide Estimates says the insurance industry faces claims of NZ$5 billion (RM11.5 billion) to NZ$11.5 billion.

Key said yesterday the estimates could neither be backed up or dismissed, but said the country could afford to rebuild the city although it would impact on near term economic growth.

Authorities said the arrival of more rescue specialists from Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and the United States would allow an expanded, intense search of three square km of the central city which is littered with flattened buildings.

More than 1,000 workers are expected to comb though shattered Christchurch buildings today.

A national state of emergency has been declared and the central city has been under curfew with soldiers patrolling in armoured personnel carriers.

Thousands of people spent a second night in emergency shelters set up in local schools, sports grounds, and at a race course. Fresh water supplies were being distributed from schools and portable toilets set up as services were disrupted.

World grapples for response as battles divide Libya

Protesters chant anti-government slogans while holding a Libyan flag in a square in Benghazi yesterday, February 23, 2011

World leaders condemned Mummar Gaddafi’s bloody crackdown on a revolt that has split Libya, but took little action to halt the bloodshed from the latest upheaval reshaping the Arab world.

US President Barack Obama made his first public comments, condemning as “outrageous” and “unacceptable” attacks on protesters that have killed hundreds in 10 days and helped drive oil prices to levels that threaten global economic recovery.

Yet, there seemed little cohesion and urgency in a global response, even as Washington and Brussels spoke of possible sanctions against a man whose 41 years in power have been marked by idiosyncratic defiance of the West.

“It is imperative that the nations and peoples of the world speak with one voice,” Obama said. “The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous.”



The oil exports which Gaddafi used to help end his isolation in the past decade have given him means to resist the fate of his immediate neighbours, the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, who were brought down by popular unrest in the past few weeks.

As many as 1,000 people may have been killed in Libya, the Italian foreign minister said. Unconfirmed reports speak of troops and African mercenaries firing on demonstrators in the desert nation pumping nearly two percent of world oil output.

Gaddafi’s defiance has been backed by deeds, with the deployment of aircraft on bombing runs.

Yet eastern areas, where much of the oil is concentrated, have slipped from his control and with security forces defecting to join the protesters, it was unclear just how long Gaddafi could hang onto power.

In cities like Benghazi and Tobruk, troops and police have either withdrawn or have joined with diffuse and disparate opposition groups to start providing some order and services.

That wave may have reached as far west as Misrata, a city some 200km east of Tripoli where a statement which purported to be from lawyers and judges said “honest” military officers had helped remove agents of the “oppressive regime.”

In Tripoli, which remains largely closed to foreign media, locals said streets were calm after days of sporadic violence but fear gripped people’s households.

“I haven’t heard gun shots, unlike in the last few days,” said one resident living close to Green Square in the city centre which is a focus for gatherings.

Marwan Mohammed, a Tunisian crossing the border home after leaving Tripoli, said: “Lots of people are afraid to leave their homes in Tripoli and pro-Gaddafi gunmen are roaming around threatening any people who gather in groups.”

Oil wealth has made Libya an important investor in Western economies, as well as the sponsor of a host of projects in Africa and elsewhere, winning Gaddafi potential allies in forums like the United Nations.

Differences among world powers over how to proceed, some driven by concern not to jeopardise the safety of foreigners caught up in the trouble, appear to limit prospects for immediate international action.

The Security Council agreed a statement on Tuesday calling for an end to violence. But diplomats said a formal resolution requiring UN action was not immediately likely.

France and Germany have pushed EU states to consider sanctions and have won agreement to look into the matter. Some governments, including Italy, warn of economic problems if oil and gas supplies are disrupted.

Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya with a mixture of populism and tight control since taking power in a military coup in 1969, has promised to “cleanse Libya house by house” to crush the revolt.

He has deployed troops to the west of the capital to stop the revolt that started in the east from spreading. In the east, many soldiers have withdrawn from active service.

In Benghazi, cradle of the uprising and home to tribes long hostile to Gaddafi, thousands filled the streets, lighting fireworks and waving the red, black and green flag of the king Colonel Gaddafi overthrew in 1969.

“We have been suffering for 41 years,” said 45-year-old Hamida Muftah. “Gaddafi has killed people ... We are a very rich country, but most of the people are poorer than poor.”

A medical official said some 320 had died in Benghazi alone since protests against oppression and poverty began last week.

Libya’s Quryna newspaper quoted a military source as saying a bomber crew bailed out and left their aircraft to crash rather than bomb Benghazi. Earlier in the week, two pilots flew their jets to Malta to avoid, they said, attacking their own people.

The newspaper said rebels in Benghazi started their own publication with the slogan “We don’t surrender, we either win or die” — the last words of anti-Italian independence leader Omar al-Mukhtar before his execution by the Italian authorities.

Gaddafi’s children have spoken up in his defence and accused foreign media of misreporting the week’s events in Libya.

“Libyans are the victims of the biggest joke,” his son Saif al-Islam told state TV. Gaddafi’s daughter Aisha appeared on state television, denying a report she tried to flee to Malta.

An estimated 1.5 million foreign nationals are working or travelling in Libya and a third of the population of seven million are immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos as people tried to leave. “It’s a Biblical exodus,” said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

Countries with strong business ties to Libya scrambled to evacuate thousands of citizens. A Turkish worker was shot dead at a building site near the capital, Turkish officials said.

A British oil worker said 300 people were stranded at a camp in the east of Libya, where he said local people had looted oil installations. He told the BBC: “We are living every day in fear of our lives as the local people are armed.

Despair in New Zealand as earthquake death toll is expected to hit nearly 400

* Death toll at 75 but hope is fading fast for 300 missing
* Search called off at TV station and school showing 'no signs of life'
* Race against time to free people trapped in the rubble
* Briton and Irish citizen confirmed killed in the disaster
* Deadliest New Zealand natural disaster for 80 years

Hope is fading fast for hundreds of people who are still missing, feared dead in Christchurch as searches in the city are called off.

Families, friends and colleagues are being told to prepare for the worst as they are told the chances of finding their loved ones alive are extremely low.

A few experienced joy and relief as people were pulled from the wreckage with bleary eyes but barely a scratch on them, but those scenes are not expected to be repeated as time goes by.

At least 75 people have now known to have died but there are still around 300 people missing under deep piles of rubble and huge chunks of concrete.

Razed to the ground: The Canterbury TV building today, where police now say there is no hope

Rubble: An aerial of the site where the Canterbury TV building has collapsed

Rescuers called off a search at Canterbury TV station and a language school where about 25 people are missing, feared dead.

Elsewhere, rescue workers were inching their way through the ruins of a chapel in central Christchurch early today after 'signs of human life' were located.

The identity of the person believed trapped in the rubble was not immediately revealed but officials said they were hoping they would have a successful rescue as the day proceeded.

The signs that someone was alive came from the wreckage of the Holy Cross Chapel, close to the ruined city cathedral.

Even as rescue crews began working on the chapel's wreckage another aftershock - the 19th in 12 hours - occurred, causing work to stop temporarily.

Work at several sites during the night failed to find any survivors.

The city's tallest hotel suffered severe structural damage in the quake and a surrounding area has been cleared over fears that it could topple at any moment.

Marking the desperation now felt in New Zealand, John Hamilton, the director of the country's Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, said people only had a window of a couple of days to be given a reasonable prospect of survival.

Some seriously injured victims trapped deep in rubble of some of the city's most iconic buildings had to have limbs amputated before they could be freed.

The Canterbury television building, reduced to a pile of debris and twisted metal, was initially the focus for relief efforts amid estimates 100 people were trapped inside.

Teenagers Lizzy and Kent Manning were among those waiting on the sodden grass outside, desperate for news of their mother.

Despite the utter devastation before them and warnings that chances of survival of those trapped were slim, the pair were determined to stay hopeful.

With tears pouring down her face, Lizzy, 18, insisted: 'My mum is superwoman, she'd do anything' but at that very moment, a police official came over and started: 'I have some horrible news...'

The pair were told their mother Donna, a TV presenter, could not have survived and that everyone trapped was now believed to be dead.

The Manning siblings, their heartbreak etched on their faces, bowed their heads and wept as their father Jonathan rushed over to wrap them in his arms.

The family became the face of the tragedy in New Zealand today as, across the country, relatives were struggling to absorb the same, devastating news.

Between 80 and more than 100 are believed to be stuck in the single building after the catastrophic earthquake ripped through the picture postcard city on Monday.

Rescuers were forced to call off attempts to save them because the structure was so badly damaged. Police say they are '100 per cent certain' no one left inside could have survived.

Police operations commander, Inspector Dave Lawry, said: 'We don't believe this site is now survivable' and warned the building's tower is now also in danger of collapse.

'At a certain point, I'm not going to risk my staff [searching] for people who I believe have no chance of survivability. That's the end of it.'

He added: 'My heart goes out to those families... knowing that some of their children have probably been killed in this incident. We will do the very best for your people that we can.'

It is not known exactly how many people were inside the building, but they included up to 10 Japanese students at a language school and 15 staff from a TV station.

Canterbury TV chairman Nick Smith said 15 of his employees who worked inside were missing.

'We're working on the assumption that everyone we haven't managed to contact was in the building, and that would number probably 15,' he said.

He said staff who managed to get out described a scene that was 'like out of a horror movie' and broke down when recounting their ordeal.

'[They've] lost a lot of friends, a lot of colleagues, a lot of talent and a lot of lifelong relationships,' Mr Smith said.

Officials say the death toll stands at 75 but emergency workers believe it could climb as high as 300 once the rubble is cleared.

It has now been confirmed a Briton and an Irish citizen are among the victims.

The Briton, who has yet to be named, had lived in Northern Ireland and had an Irish wife. The Irishman has been named as Eoin McKenna, originally from Monaghan.

Some 120 people were rescued overnight but hundreds remain unaccounted for as exhausted rescue workers, using thermal cameras, continued to hunt for signs of life.

There are fears weakened buildings that are so far still standing - including the 27-floor Hotel Grand Chancellor - are also on the brink of collapse.

Police Superintendent Russell Gibson, speaking on Radio New Zealand, said there were scenes of 'absolute carnage' in the city centre.

'There are bodies littering the streets. They're trapped in cars, crushed under rubble and where they are clearly deceased our focus unfortunately at this time has turned to the living.'

Amid the tragedy of death and serious injury, there were remarkable stories of people being pulled from the rubble without a scratch more than 24 hours after the quake.

Ann Bodkin, who had been stuck in the twisted metal and concrete remains of the Pyne Gould Guinness building, was brought out and reunited with her husband this morning.

As she was carried to safety, grey drizzle gave way to sunshine. Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said: 'They got Ann out of the building and God turned on the lights.'

However, Mr Parker warned people to prepare for further heartbreak as hopes of more rescues dwindled. 'We need to harden ourselves for what we are going to hear,' he said.

'We are getting people out alive so keep your hopes up, but it is going to be a hard day. I think as the news begins to unfold today we will have a clearer picture and it is not going to be a happy picture.'

One construction manager described using sledgehammers and chainsaws to cut into the Pyne Gould building from the roof, hacking down through layers of sandwiched offices.

The team found horrific scenes of bodies crushed under concrete slabs. One seriously injured man who was trapped died as he was talking to rescuers, Fred Haering said.

Another victim's leg was pinned by concrete. To save him from certain death, he was given drugs to deaden the pain and his leg amputated with the hacksaw.

Mr Haering said: 'It's a necessity of the game. How are you gonna get out?'

Blood-covered survivors stumbled in a daze through the rubble-strewn streets.

There were reports that a baby was lifted from its dead mother's arms after the woman was struck by rubble from a collapsed building.

Mall worker Tom Brittenden said: 'There was a lady outside we tried to free with a child. A big bit of concrete or brick had fallen on her and she was holding her child. She was gone.'

The trapped continuously called for help - many with extraordinary calm. Australian Anne Voss was stuck in the Pyne Gould office block yesterday.

Speaking on her mobile phone, she told how she was 'sort of squashed' under her desk with an injured hand and said she thought another 30 were also trapped inside.

'I can't see,' she said. 'I can hear the others calling out for help but I don't have contact with them because I can't move.

'I rang my kids to say goodbye. It was absolutely horrible. My daughter was crying and I was crying because I honestly thought that was it. You know, you want to tell them you love them don't you?'

She added: 'I'm not going to give up. I'm going to stay awake but it's dark and horrible in here.'

Fears had been growing for her safety after her phone battery died but miraculously, she too was apparently rescued today.

Her first words to her son after emerging into the daylight were: 'I'm sure someone's watching over me', according to the Herald Sun.

Her son Robert only found out his mother was alive when he arrived in Christchurch from Melbourne and believes the desk saved her life.

'It would definitely be over. We are just overjoyed and amazed, as well as concerned for the other people as well. She seems as happy as she could be,' he said.

Christchurch, said to be more English than England, has a population of 340,000 and is New Zealand's second largest city after Auckland.

Known as the Garden City, it welcomes many thousands of Britons every year, many of them visiting relatives who have emigrated there.

The quake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter Scale, brought the spire of the South Island city's stone cathedral crashing to the ground.

Canadian Carole Young wept as she told how she and her husband Ross had a narrow escape from death as debris rained down around them while they were on a tour of the cathedral.

'The way it was all coming down as we fled...it reminded me of 9/11,' said Mrs Young. 'It was all tumbling down around us. We know that people died in there so someone was looking after us.'

Office blocks collapsed, roads buckled and cars were crushed. It also caused 30million tons of ice to break from New Zealand's biggest glacier, the Tasman, causing a tsunami with waves of up to 12ft.

The tremor - an aftershock from a quake last year - struck at 12.51pm, right in the middle of a busy lunchtime, at a depth of only three miles - its shallow nature provoking greater devastation.

The epicentre was under the harbour at Lyttelton, seven miles from Christchurch, as office workers were enjoying their lunch break in the city square which is dominated by the cathedral.

Briton Barnaby Luck said: 'Everything started shaking and it became more and more violent - it was like someone had got hold of the building and was shaking it and swinging it back and forwards.

Another UK citizen, Alec Allen, was playing tennis when the quake struck. 'There was a deep rumble like thunder then everything was shaking and people were screaming,' he said.

'I looked at the court and all of this mud just seeped up through the ground. The court started breaking up and flooding with water and mud coming through the earth.'

Many buildings collapsed because they had been weakened by a massive 7.1 scale tremor last September, which caused less devastation because it was at a much greater depth.

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key said: 'We may be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day. People are just sitting on the side of the road, their heads in their hands.

'This is a community that is absolutely in agony. There are no words that can spare our pain. We are witnessing a violent and ruthless act of nature.'

Police have warned that anyone entering a cordon they have set up around the city centre without authority will be arrested after several arrests overnight for looting.

Hundreds spent last night huddled in emergency centres amid warnings of more aftershocks which could bring down more buildings. Power lines were down, leaving homes in darkness.

Householders were told not to take showers or flush lavatories because the city's water supply, sewage works and gas lines had been destroyed.

Experts predict insurance losses could reach $12billion, making the earthquake costliest natural disaster since Hurricane Ike in 2008.

 Team effort: Rescue workers carry out Ann Bodkin from the Pyne Gould Guinness building

 Rubble: An aerial of the site where the Canterbury TV building has collapsed.Razed to the ground: The Canterbury TV building today, where police now say there is no hope

 Kent Manning and sister Lizzy, with their father, after being told there is no hope for their mother

 Relief: Two men celebrating this morning after being pulled from a destroyed building

 Cramped: Survivors and people left homeless in a disaster shelter

 Sheer force: A buckled rail line after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake ripped through Christchurch

 Destroyed: Murray and Kelly James look at their ruined house in central Christchurch

 In ruins: Rescue workers search rubble near the Canterbury TV building

 Sobering: As night fell on Wednesday, the TV building was little more than a mound of rubble

 Crushed: A huge rock fell on buildings in Sumner

 Reminiscent of 9/11: Rescue workers outside the collapsed CTV building

 Devastation: A firefighter checks rubble near the collapsed CTV building

 A rescue worker looking for signs of life in the rubble of the CTV building (left) and (right) a cracked road

 The side of the Timeball Station was destroyed by the quake

 Pulled from the rubble: Rescue workers help a woman from a ruined building today

Moment the earthquake hit: Extraordinary image of dust rising from Christchurch taken seconds after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck three miles below the city