Above is an update of Eman al-Obeidy, the woman who burst into the foreign press dining room on Saturday telling of her gang rape by Qaddafi's men.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Armed groups clash in south Yemen town - Yemen leader Saleh is negotiating his exit: aides
An explosion at a munitions factory in southern Yemen killed more than 100 people, mostly local residents, after a group of unknown gunman had seized control of the site from the Yemeni military, according to witnesses ...
Japan raps nuclear operator over radiation mistake
Mistaken radiation readings given out by the operator of Japan’s cripp8
led nuclear plant were “absolutely unforgivable,” the government’s chief spokesman said today, as work to prevent a catastrophic meltdown faced fresh hurdles.
Engineers have been battling to control the six-reactor Fukushima complex since it was damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that also left more than 27,000 people dead or missing across Japan’s devastated northeast.
Fires, explosions, and radiation leaks have repeatedly forced them to suspend work, including yesterday when radiation levels spiked to 100,000 times above normal. Tokyo Electric Power Co, the plant operator, had earlier said it was 10 million times the normal.
“On one hand, I do think the workers at the site are getting quite tired,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference. “But these radiation tests are being used for making various decisions on safety and therefore these mistakes are absolutely unforgivable.”
A partial meltdown of fuel rods inside the reactor vessel was responsible for the high levels of radiation at reactor No. 2, Edano said.
“The airborne radiation is mainly contained within the reactor building. We must make sure this water does not seep out into the soil or out to sea,” Edano said.
The spike in radiation levels forced a suspension of work over the weekend at the reactor, with experts warning that Japan faced a long fight to contain the world’s most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years.
“This is far beyond what one nation can handle - it needs to be bumped up to the UN Security Council,” said Najmedin Meshkati, of the University of Southern California. “In my humble opinion, this is more important than the Libya no fly zone.”
Tokyo Electric has conceded it faces a protracted and uncertain operation to contain the overheating fuel rods and avert a meltdown.
“Regrettably, we don’t have a concrete schedule at the moment to enable us to say in how many months or years (the crisis will be over),” TEPCO vice-president Sakae Muto said in the latest of round-the-clock briefings the company holds.
He also apologised over the mistaken radiation reading.
SEA RADIATION DROPS SHARPLY
Murray Jennex, a nuclear power plant expert and associate professor at San Diego State University, said “there’s not really a plan B” other than to dry out the plant, get power restored and start cooling it down.
“What we’re now in is a long slog period with lots of small, unsexy steps that have to be taken to pull the whole thing together,” he said by telephone.
The good news, he said, was that the reactor cores appeared to be cooling down.
There was good news as well about the radiation levels in the sea just offshore the plant, which skyrocketed yesterday to 1,850 times normal. Those had come down sharply, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a news conference today.
Though experts said radiation in the Pacific waters will quickly dissipate, the levels at the site are clearly dangerous, and the 450 or so engineers there have won admiration and sympathy around the world for their bravery and sense of duty.
Last week, two workers at Fukushima were injured with radiation burns to their legs after water seeped over their shoes, and yesterday engineers had to abandon reactor No. 2 after the new reading.
Beyond the evacuation zone around Fukushima, traces of radiation have turned up in tap water in Tokyo 240km to the south.
Japanese officials and international nuclear experts have generally said the levels away from the plant are not dangerous for humans, who anyway face higher radiation doses on a daily basis from natural substances, X-rays or plane flights.
In downtown Tokyo, a Reuters reading today morning showed ambient radiation of 0.20 microsieverts per hour, well within the global average of naturally occurring background radiation of 0.17-0.39 microsieverts per hour. In Yamagata, a town about 110km northwest of the stricken plant, the reading was just 0.15.
CHERNOBYL ECHOES
One long-term solution may be to entomb the Fukushima reactors in sand and concrete as happened at Chernobyl, Ukraine, after the 1986 disaster that was the world’s worst.
The Japan crisis has prompted a reassessment of nuclear power across the world. It had its most direct political impact yet in foreign politics in Germany at the weekend.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats lost control of Germany’s most prosperous state, Baden-Wuerttemberg, as anti-nuclear sentiment benefited her opponents in a regional vote.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has kept a low profile during the crisis, but may face awkward questions after Kyodo news agency said his visit to the region the day after the disaster delayed Tokyo Electric’s response to the unfolding situation. Edano today denied that was the case.
The nuclear crisis has compounded Japan’s agony after the magnitude 9.0 quake and massive tsunami devastated its northeast coast, turning whole towns into apocalyptic-looking landscapes of mud and debris.
Residents there have been repeatedly rattled by aftershocks from the strongest earthquake in Japanese history, including a magnitude 6.5 tremor today that triggered a tsunami warning.
The latest death toll was 10,804 people, with 16,244 still missing 17 days after the disaster. About a quarter of a million people are living in shelters.
Damage could top US$300 billion (RM909 billion), making it the world’s costliest natural disaster.
Latest helicopter footage of Fukushima, zoom-in on ruined reactors - Japan radiation spike report 'mistaken' - Japan's government critical of nuclear plant owners - Japan Nuclear crisis: Nuke plant radiation 10 million times high - Radiation risk forces nuclear reactor evacuation
Highly radioactive water has leaked from a reactor at Japan's crippled nuclear complex, the plant's operator said on Monday, while environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of ...
Highly radioactive water leaks from Japanese nuclear plant
Highly radioactive water has leaked from a reactor at Japan’s crippled nuclear complex, the plant’s operator said today, while environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone.
Reflecting growing unease about efforts to control the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi complex, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) had appealed to French companies for help, the Kyodo news agency said.
The plant, 240km north of Tokyo, was damaged in a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 28,000 people dead or missing across northeastern Japan.
Fires, explosions and radiation leaks have repeatedly forced engineers to suspend efforts to stabilise the plant, including yesterday when radiation levels spiked to 100,000 times above normal in water inside reactor No. 2.
A partial meltdown of fuel rods inside the reactor vessel was responsible for the high levels, although Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the radiation had mainly been contained in the reactor building.
But TEPCO later said radiation above 1,000 millisieverts per hour had been found in water in underground concrete tunnels that extend beyond the reactor.
That is the same as the level discovered yesterday. The US Environmental Protection Agency says a single dose of 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause haemorrhaging.
TEPCO officials said the tunnels did not flow into the sea but the possibility of radioactive water seeping into the ground could not be ruled out.
The nuclear crisis has compounded Japan’s agony after the magnitude 9.0 quake and huge tsunami devastated its northeast coast, turning whole towns into apocalyptic landscapes of mud and debris.
About a quarter of a million people are living in shelters and damage could top US$300 billion, (RM909 billion) making it the world’s costliest natural disaster.
The suffering may not be over.
Greenpeace said its experts had confirmed radiation levels of up to 10 microsieverts per hour in the village of Iitate, 40 km northwest of the plant. It called for the extension of a 20-km evacuation zone.
“It is clearly not safe for people to remain in Iitate, especially children and pregnant women, when it could mean receiving the maximum allowed annual dose of radiation in only a few days,” Greenpeace said in a statement.
More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from an area within 20km of the plant and another 130,000 people within a zone extending a further 10km are recommended to stay indoors. They have been encouraged to leave.
Beyond the evacuation zone, traces of radiation have turned up in tap water in Tokyo and as far away as Iceland.
Japanese officials and international experts have generally said the levels away from the plant were not dangerous for people, who anyway face higher radiation doses on a daily basis from natural substances, X-rays or flights.
But Greenpeace urged the government to acknowledge the danger and “stop choosing politics over science”.
Nuclear safety agency deputy Hidehiko Nishiyama said the environmental group’s measurement was not reliable and hardly any people were still living in that area. A Greenpeace nuclear expert later defended the reliability of their findings.
CALL FOR HELP
At the weekend, the spike in radiation forced a suspension of work at the reactor, with experts warning that Japan faced a long fight to contain the world’s most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years.
“This is far beyond what one nation can handle — it needs to be bumped up to the UN Security Council,” said Najmedin Meshkati, of the University of Southern California.
TEPCO, which has conceded it faces a protracted and uncertain operation to contain the crisis, sought outside help from French firms including Electricite de France SA and Areva SA, a French government minister said.
A spokesman for state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva said the company was studying the request.
Murray Jennex, a nuclear power plant expert and associate professor at San Diego State University, said “there’s not really a plan B” other than to dry out the plant, get power restored and start cooling it down.
“What we’re now in is a long slog period with lots of small, unsexy steps that have to be taken to pull the whole thing together,” he said by telephone. The good news, he said, was that the reactor cores appeared to be cooling down.
There was good news as well about the radiation levels in the sea just off the plant, which skyrocketed yesterday to 1,850 times normal. Those had come down sharply, the nuclear safety agency said the next day.
Though experts said radiation in the Pacific would quickly dissipate, the levels at the site are clearly dangerous, and the 450 or so engineers there have won admiration and sympathy around the world for their bravery and sense of duty.
Last week, two workers at Fukushima were injured with radiation burns after water seeped over their shoes, and yesterday, engineers had to abandon reactor No. 2 after the new reading.
The world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 has prompted a reassessment of nuclear power across the world. It had its most direct political impact yet in foreign politics in Germany at the weekend.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats lost control of Germany’s most prosperous state, Baden-Wuerttemberg, as anti-nuclear sentiment benefited her opponents in a regional vote.
Residents of the northeast have been rattled by aftershocks from the strongest earthquake in Japanese history, including a magnitude 6.5 tremor today that triggered a tsunami warning.
“I lived through World War Two, when there was nothing to eat and no clothes to wear. I’ll live through this,” said Mitsuharu Watanobe, sitting cross-legged on a blanket in an evacuation centre in Fukushima city.
“But the scary thing is the radiation. There is a gap between what the newspapers write and what the government is saying. I want the government to tell the truth more.”
The latest death toll was 11,004 people, with 17,339 people missing 17 days after the disaster.
Libyan rebels rain missiles on retreating Gaddafi troops as their march west closes in on dictator's home town
* Rebels pictured firing missiles at Gaddafi forces near Bin Jawad
* Opposition forces 60 miles from dictator's home town Sirte
* Government announces ceasefire in Misrata
* RAF Tornados bomb ammunition dumps this morning
* Russia says air strikes go beyond UN mandate
* Around 1,500 migrants land in Italy in first wave of refugees
Dramatic images today showed the rebel advance up the coast of Libya, as opposition forces closed in on Colonel Gaddafi's hometown.
The rebels have fought their way to within 60 miles of Sirte, where the dictator was born, and were locked in a battle with government forces near the town of Bin Jawad.
The images show opposition forces firing missiles at government troops as smoke billows across the battlefield.
They have made a lightning advance west from their stronghold in Benghazi over the past few days, aided by international air strikes, and have now recovered all the territory lost in a pre-no-fly-zone retreat earlier this month.
In the west, Gaddafi's forces announced a cease fire in the town of Misrata this afternoon. The dictator's forces have been shelling the rebel-held city over the past days, but have also been hit hard by international air strikes.
RAF Tornados bombed ammunition dumps in the Sabah region early this morning, using Storm Shadow missiles to blow up bunkers housing ammunition intended for the forces attacking Misrata
The MoD's Major General John Lorimer said: 'Following the retreat of Colonel Gaddafi's forces from most of the coastal towns east of Sirte, RAF Tornados have joined other coalition aircraft patrolling over Misrata where, despite significant losses as a result of air strikes, the regime continues to mount attacks on the town.
He spoke after the Russian government accused the international coalition of going beyond its UN mandate and taking sides in a civil war.
Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov said: 'We consider that intervention by the coalition in what is essentially an internal civil war is not sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council resolution.'
Meanwhile, the rebel advance in the east is meeting stiffening resistance as it approaches Sirte.
'Sirte will not be easy to take,' said General Hamdi Hassi, a rebel commander at Bin Jawwad. 'Now because of NATO strikes on (the government's) heavy weapons, we're almost fighting with the same weapons, only we have Grad rockets now and they don't.'
Libya's rebels have recovered hundreds of miles of flat, uninhabited territory at record speeds after Gaddafi's forces were forced to pull back by international air strikes.
Hassi said there was fighting now just outside the small hamlet of Nafouliya, 60 miles from Sirte, and scouting parties had found the road ahead to be heavily mined.
He added that the current rebel strategy was to combine military assault with an attempt to win over some of the local tribes loyal to Gaddafi over to their side.
'There's Gaddafi and then there's circles around him of supporters, each circle is slowly peeling off and disappearing,' Hassi said. 'If they rise up it would make our job easier.'
Sirte will not be easy to take,' said General Hamdi Hassi, a rebel commander at Bin Jawwad. 'Now because of NATO strikes on (the government's) heavy weapons, we're almost fighting with the same weapons, only we have Grad rockets now and they don't.'
Libya's rebels have recovered hundreds of miles of flat, uninhabited territory at record speeds after Gaddafi's forces were forced to pull back by international air strikes.
Hassi said there was fighting now just outside the small hamlet of Nafouliya, 60 miles from Sirte, and scouting parties had found the road ahead to be heavily mined.
He added that the current rebel strategy was to combine military assault with an attempt to win over some of the local tribes loyal to Gaddafi over to their side.
'There's Gaddafi and then there's circles around him of supporters, each circle is slowly peeling off and disappearing,' Hassi said. 'If they rise up it would make our job easier.'
Witnesses in Sirte reported there had been air strikes on Sunday night before and again early on Monday morning, but the town was quiet, and dozens of fighters loyal to Gaddafi could be seen roaming the streets.
Moving quickly westward, the advance retraced their steps in the first rebel march toward the capital.
But this time, the world's most powerful air forces have eased the way by pounding Gaddafi's military assets for the past week.
As the fighting continued the first wave of refugees from Libya arrived in Italy. Three boats carrying around 1,000 migrants docked in Siciliy and hundreds more are said to be on their way.
'There are no more controls on the Libyan coast now. Thousands are leaving,' a 26-year-old Eritrean woman rescued from one of the boats said.
Sirte is strategically located about halfway between the rebel-held east and the Gaddafi-controlled west along the Mediterranean coast. It is a centre of support for Gaddafi and is expected to be difficult for rebels to take.
West of Sirte is the embattled city of Misrata, the sole place in rebel hands in the country's west. Residents reported fighting between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists who fired from tanks on residential areas.
Rida al-Montasser, of the media committee of Misrata, said that nine young men were killed and 23 others wounded when Gaddafi brigades shelled their position in the northwestern part of the city on Sunday night. He also said that the port was bombed.
The Libyan state news agency also reported that there had been air strikes against the southern town of Sabha, which remains strongly loyal to Gaddafi and is a major transit point for ethnic Tuareg fighters from Mali and Niger fighting for the government.
JANA said the strikes destroyed a number of houses, though past strikes on Sabha, 385 miles south of Tripoli, targeted the airport and the flow of foreign fighters reinforcing the regime.
The rebels took back two key oil complexes along the coastal highway and promised to quickly restart Libya's stalled oil exports, prompting a slight drop in the soaring price of crude oil to around $105 a barrel.
In Washington, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he could not offer a timetable for how long the Libya operation could last, as the Obama administration tried to bolster its case for bringing the United States into another war in the Muslim world.
The U.N. Security Council authorised the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Gaddafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after nearly 42 years in power. The air strikes have crippled Gaddafi's forces, allowing rebels to advance less than two weeks after they had seemed at the brink of defeat.
The assault on Sirte, where most civilians are believed to support Gaddafi, however, potentially represents an expansion of the international mission to being more directly involved with regime change.
'This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,' Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in the capital, Tripoli. 'They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.'
Turkey, meanwhile, has confirmed that even as rebel forces advance on Sirte it has been working with the government and the opposition to set up a ceasefire.
'We are one of the very few countries that are speaking to both sides,' Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal said, without confirming whether Turkey had offered to act as mediator.
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also told reporters his country will take over the running of the airport in Benghazi to facilitate the transport of humanitarian aid to Libya. He did not say when, however.
Tripoli was also hit with air strikes again last night , with at least four explosions and heavy anti-aircraft gunfire reverberating through the capital.
Libyan state TV claimed in a news flash that both 'civilian and military areas' in Tripoli had been hit by the 'crusader, colonialist aggressors'.
Some suspect Gaddafi is withdrawing his forces from the east of the country to stage a last stand in the west. It was reported that government military vehicles were fleeing Sirte as the pro-democracy army threatened to bear down.
The Gaddafi regime on Saturday acknowledged the air strikes had forced its troops to retreat and accused international forces of choosing sides.
'This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,' Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in the capital, Tripoli.
'They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.'
Gaddafi himself remained elusive at the weekend, with a government spokesman suggesting he is moving around Libya to keep his location secret. However, a video shown on state TV claimed to show a car carrying Gaddafi surrounded by adoring crowds.
A spokesman said: 'He is leading the battle. He is leading the nation forward from anywhere in the country.
'He has many offices, many places around Libya. I assure you he is leading the nation at this very moment and he is in continuous communication with everyone around the country.'
One resident in Misrata said 115 people had been killed in the city in a week and that snipers were still shooting people from rooftops.
* Opposition forces 60 miles from dictator's home town Sirte
* Government announces ceasefire in Misrata
* RAF Tornados bomb ammunition dumps this morning
* Russia says air strikes go beyond UN mandate
* Around 1,500 migrants land in Italy in first wave of refugees
Dramatic images today showed the rebel advance up the coast of Libya, as opposition forces closed in on Colonel Gaddafi's hometown.
The rebels have fought their way to within 60 miles of Sirte, where the dictator was born, and were locked in a battle with government forces near the town of Bin Jawad.
The images show opposition forces firing missiles at government troops as smoke billows across the battlefield.
They have made a lightning advance west from their stronghold in Benghazi over the past few days, aided by international air strikes, and have now recovered all the territory lost in a pre-no-fly-zone retreat earlier this month.
In the west, Gaddafi's forces announced a cease fire in the town of Misrata this afternoon. The dictator's forces have been shelling the rebel-held city over the past days, but have also been hit hard by international air strikes.
RAF Tornados bombed ammunition dumps in the Sabah region early this morning, using Storm Shadow missiles to blow up bunkers housing ammunition intended for the forces attacking Misrata
Re-taken: Rebels celebrate in the town of Ras Lanuf. They said they would push on soon towards Gaddafi's stronghold of Sirte
The MoD's Major General John Lorimer said: 'Following the retreat of Colonel Gaddafi's forces from most of the coastal towns east of Sirte, RAF Tornados have joined other coalition aircraft patrolling over Misrata where, despite significant losses as a result of air strikes, the regime continues to mount attacks on the town.
He spoke after the Russian government accused the international coalition of going beyond its UN mandate and taking sides in a civil war.
Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov said: 'We consider that intervention by the coalition in what is essentially an internal civil war is not sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council resolution.'
Meanwhile, the rebel advance in the east is meeting stiffening resistance as it approaches Sirte.
'Sirte will not be easy to take,' said General Hamdi Hassi, a rebel commander at Bin Jawwad. 'Now because of NATO strikes on (the government's) heavy weapons, we're almost fighting with the same weapons, only we have Grad rockets now and they don't.'
Libya's rebels have recovered hundreds of miles of flat, uninhabited territory at record speeds after Gaddafi's forces were forced to pull back by international air strikes.
Hassi said there was fighting now just outside the small hamlet of Nafouliya, 60 miles from Sirte, and scouting parties had found the road ahead to be heavily mined.
He added that the current rebel strategy was to combine military assault with an attempt to win over some of the local tribes loyal to Gaddafi over to their side.
'There's Gaddafi and then there's circles around him of supporters, each circle is slowly peeling off and disappearing,' Hassi said. 'If they rise up it would make our job easier.'
Sirte will not be easy to take,' said General Hamdi Hassi, a rebel commander at Bin Jawwad. 'Now because of NATO strikes on (the government's) heavy weapons, we're almost fighting with the same weapons, only we have Grad rockets now and they don't.'
Libya's rebels have recovered hundreds of miles of flat, uninhabited territory at record speeds after Gaddafi's forces were forced to pull back by international air strikes.
Hassi said there was fighting now just outside the small hamlet of Nafouliya, 60 miles from Sirte, and scouting parties had found the road ahead to be heavily mined.
He added that the current rebel strategy was to combine military assault with an attempt to win over some of the local tribes loyal to Gaddafi over to their side.
'There's Gaddafi and then there's circles around him of supporters, each circle is slowly peeling off and disappearing,' Hassi said. 'If they rise up it would make our job easier.'
Witnesses in Sirte reported there had been air strikes on Sunday night before and again early on Monday morning, but the town was quiet, and dozens of fighters loyal to Gaddafi could be seen roaming the streets.
Moving quickly westward, the advance retraced their steps in the first rebel march toward the capital.
But this time, the world's most powerful air forces have eased the way by pounding Gaddafi's military assets for the past week.
As the fighting continued the first wave of refugees from Libya arrived in Italy. Three boats carrying around 1,000 migrants docked in Siciliy and hundreds more are said to be on their way.
'There are no more controls on the Libyan coast now. Thousands are leaving,' a 26-year-old Eritrean woman rescued from one of the boats said.
Sirte is strategically located about halfway between the rebel-held east and the Gaddafi-controlled west along the Mediterranean coast. It is a centre of support for Gaddafi and is expected to be difficult for rebels to take.
West of Sirte is the embattled city of Misrata, the sole place in rebel hands in the country's west. Residents reported fighting between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists who fired from tanks on residential areas.
Rida al-Montasser, of the media committee of Misrata, said that nine young men were killed and 23 others wounded when Gaddafi brigades shelled their position in the northwestern part of the city on Sunday night. He also said that the port was bombed.
The Libyan state news agency also reported that there had been air strikes against the southern town of Sabha, which remains strongly loyal to Gaddafi and is a major transit point for ethnic Tuareg fighters from Mali and Niger fighting for the government.
JANA said the strikes destroyed a number of houses, though past strikes on Sabha, 385 miles south of Tripoli, targeted the airport and the flow of foreign fighters reinforcing the regime.
The rebels took back two key oil complexes along the coastal highway and promised to quickly restart Libya's stalled oil exports, prompting a slight drop in the soaring price of crude oil to around $105 a barrel.
In Washington, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he could not offer a timetable for how long the Libya operation could last, as the Obama administration tried to bolster its case for bringing the United States into another war in the Muslim world.
The U.N. Security Council authorised the operation to protect Libyan civilians after Gaddafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after nearly 42 years in power. The air strikes have crippled Gaddafi's forces, allowing rebels to advance less than two weeks after they had seemed at the brink of defeat.
The assault on Sirte, where most civilians are believed to support Gaddafi, however, potentially represents an expansion of the international mission to being more directly involved with regime change.
'This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,' Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in the capital, Tripoli. 'They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.'
Turkey, meanwhile, has confirmed that even as rebel forces advance on Sirte it has been working with the government and the opposition to set up a ceasefire.
'We are one of the very few countries that are speaking to both sides,' Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal said, without confirming whether Turkey had offered to act as mediator.
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also told reporters his country will take over the running of the airport in Benghazi to facilitate the transport of humanitarian aid to Libya. He did not say when, however.
Tripoli was also hit with air strikes again last night , with at least four explosions and heavy anti-aircraft gunfire reverberating through the capital.
Libyan state TV claimed in a news flash that both 'civilian and military areas' in Tripoli had been hit by the 'crusader, colonialist aggressors'.
Some suspect Gaddafi is withdrawing his forces from the east of the country to stage a last stand in the west. It was reported that government military vehicles were fleeing Sirte as the pro-democracy army threatened to bear down.
The Gaddafi regime on Saturday acknowledged the air strikes had forced its troops to retreat and accused international forces of choosing sides.
'This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,' Khaled Kaim, the deputy foreign minister, said in the capital, Tripoli.
'They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.'
Gaddafi himself remained elusive at the weekend, with a government spokesman suggesting he is moving around Libya to keep his location secret. However, a video shown on state TV claimed to show a car carrying Gaddafi surrounded by adoring crowds.
A spokesman said: 'He is leading the battle. He is leading the nation forward from anywhere in the country.
'He has many offices, many places around Libya. I assure you he is leading the nation at this very moment and he is in continuous communication with everyone around the country.'
One resident in Misrata said 115 people had been killed in the city in a week and that snipers were still shooting people from rooftops.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Remains of Gaddafi’s force smoulders near Benghazi
Muammar Gaddafi’s wrecked tanks and other army vehicles smouldered on a strategic road in east Libya today after Western powers launched air strikes that galvanised embattled rebels.
Rebels who had been driven back to their stronghold of Benghazi by the Libyan leader’s air, sea and land offensive in the past two weeks were returning in 4x4 pick-ups to the town of Ajdabiyah, the hard fought over gateway to the east.
The road the rebels drove was a scene of devastation. This correspondent counted at least 14 corpses, though the scale of the bombardment made identifying bodies difficult.
“This is all France ... Today we came through and saw the road open,” said rebel fighter Tahir Sassi, surveying one area where blackened vehicles lined the road and lamp posts were cut in two or bent over.
About 14 tanks, 20 armoured personnel carriers, two trucks with multiple rocket launchers and dozens of pick-ups — all destroyed — were visible, indicating the strength of the force sent to retake Benghazi from rebels.
One tank was a blackened wreck with its turret blown off. Another tank, a tank transporter and armoured personnel carriers smouldered. A few hundred metres (yards) ahead, munitions were still exploding as flames licked around vehicles and stores.
Rebels had pleaded for military intervention as they were were pushed back and after Gaddafi vowed “no mercy, no pity” as he advanced towards Benghazi where the interim rebel National Libyan Council has its headquarters.
France led the calls for intervention and its planes were the first into Libyan airspace to launch raids, before US and British warships and submarines fired Tomahawk missiles overnight against air defences.
‘NO MORE RETREAT’
“Gaddafi is like a chicken and the coalition is plucking his feathers so he can’t fly. The revolutionaries will slit his neck,” said Fathi Bin Saud, a 52-year-old rebel carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher and surveying the wreckage.
“There is no more retreat, we are going forward from now on,” he said. “Not all of this is the coalition. We did some of it as well. They encourage us. We were fighting even before they came. This has raised our morale.”
Rebels, who have mainly relied on 4x4 pickups with machine guns, were heavily outgunned by Gaddafi before the West acted.
They reached the town of Bin Jawad about 525km east of Tripoli before being driven back to Ajdabiyah, more than 700km from the capital.
Battle debris on the road out of Benghazi showed Gaddafi’s forces had nearly breached the inner parts of the city. Near Tarria village about 20km south of Benghazi on the highway to Ajdabiyah, locals said they had advanced up the road early yesterday and were only beaten back by the first foreign air strikes after fighting reached the suburbs.
Civilians and fighters clambered on the ruined tanks, taking photos and picking through the pockets of the dead.
Mohamed Joma, who said he was a pharmacist, said the planes had struck about 4 am that morning.
“Look, the tanks were pointing to Benghazi. They wanted to go to Benghazi. They did not escape,” he said.
Some of the bodies on the road were charred, others were already covered with blankets. Some were alongside vehicles and one lay inside a destroyed ambulance, with no sign of those who would have attended him.
Flesh and blood was smeared on the ground at one spot, where there were bandages scattered on the floor.
Gaddafi’s forces about 20km south of Benghazi appeared to have been taken by surprise by one air strike on their camp.
Enough bedding and clothes for hundreds of men littered the area for 200m on either side of the road, along with boots, body armour, cigarettes and cassette tapes.
“Tell the West to destroy Gaddafi slowly, piece by piece by piece, the way he did to us for 40 years,” said Jamal al-Majbouri, who owns a farm nearby.
Freedom Tower rises above Ground Zero to take its place on the New York skyline
Almost a decade after the world watched helplessly as two of New York's most iconic landmarks were reduced to rubble, a new future has risen from the ashes at Ground Zero.
One World Trade Center, aka the Freedom Tower, has finally joined the Manhattan skyline, standing defiantly over the site of the worst terrorist atrocity to befall American soil.
Its steel frame now stands at 58 stories tall and is starting to inch above many of the skyscrapers that ring the site - with a new floor being added every week.
The black-granite fountains and reflecting pools that mark the footprints of the fallen twin towers are almost finished.
The memorial plaza won't be complete when it opens on Sept. 11, 2011, and a tour of the site last week makes clear that work around it will continue for years.
Mud is still plentiful at ground level, and for now the site is dominated by the same concrete-grey shades that blanketed lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.
But the agency that owned the trade center and has spent nearly a decade rebuilding it is aiming to deliver a memorial experience on 9/11/11 that closes one chapter and ushers in a new experience, where ground zero again becomes part of the city's everyday fabric.
'We want people to be able to see that downtown does have this incredible future to it,' said Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 'The work will not be done on that day. What we hope will be done is the sense of frustration.'
For now, the complexity and scale of the construction is evident in every corner.
Workers labor around the clock. During the busiest shifts, around 2,800 people — mostly men — labour amid tangles and ravines of steel. In one steel cavern that will become a transit hub concourse, showers of orange sparks fly as welders install trusses weighing up to 50 tons.
From the top of One World Trade, the view is spectacular, as it was from the twin towers, even though the building stands at 680 feet, less than halfway to its planned 1,776-foot height.
Visitors to the upper floors can see the grand sweep of the Hudson River and New York Harbor, dotted with container ships, all the way to Sandy Hook at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore. People at ground level can now see the tower, too, from a growing number of places in the city and across the river in New Jersey.
A huge portion of the reconstruction of the trade center is taking place below ground. The underground halls that house the memorial are cavernous, and in their unfinished state look like some unexplored temple in an Indiana Jones movie.
The huge boxes that hold the waterfall pits visible from the surface are somehow suspended from the ceiling, held up by pillars that don't seem big enough to support the blocks' massive weight.
A maze of tunnels, catwalks and narrow, temporary staircases connect the various underground levels.
To rebuild, work crews needed to excavate nearly 100 feet down below, but rather than reroute service and demolish the tunnel, they merely propped it up on huge pilings and dug beneath it. The tracks, still encased in their old concrete tube, now sit suspended in mid-air as work takes place below, above and on either side.
Ward said he hoped people will be able to see in six months that, despite the ongoing construction, the site's days as a disaster zone are ending.
'It will be a place where you meet a friend for lunch. Where you meet a date. Where you race across the plaza and beneath the trees to get out of the rain,' he said. 'We want New Yorkers to make their own narrative there.'
One World Trade Center, aka the Freedom Tower, has finally joined the Manhattan skyline, standing defiantly over the site of the worst terrorist atrocity to befall American soil.
Its steel frame now stands at 58 stories tall and is starting to inch above many of the skyscrapers that ring the site - with a new floor being added every week.
Imposing: Growing at a floor a week, Freedom Tower is fast becoming a feature on New York's skyline
Defiant: Its steel frame, already clad in glass on lower floors, now stands 58 stories tall and is starting to inch above many of the skyscrapers that ring the site
The black-granite fountains and reflecting pools that mark the footprints of the fallen twin towers are almost finished.
The memorial plaza won't be complete when it opens on Sept. 11, 2011, and a tour of the site last week makes clear that work around it will continue for years.
Mud is still plentiful at ground level, and for now the site is dominated by the same concrete-grey shades that blanketed lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.
But the agency that owned the trade center and has spent nearly a decade rebuilding it is aiming to deliver a memorial experience on 9/11/11 that closes one chapter and ushers in a new experience, where ground zero again becomes part of the city's everyday fabric.
'We want people to be able to see that downtown does have this incredible future to it,' said Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 'The work will not be done on that day. What we hope will be done is the sense of frustration.'
For now, the complexity and scale of the construction is evident in every corner.
Workers labor around the clock. During the busiest shifts, around 2,800 people — mostly men — labour amid tangles and ravines of steel. In one steel cavern that will become a transit hub concourse, showers of orange sparks fly as welders install trusses weighing up to 50 tons.
From the top of One World Trade, the view is spectacular, as it was from the twin towers, even though the building stands at 680 feet, less than halfway to its planned 1,776-foot height.
Visitors to the upper floors can see the grand sweep of the Hudson River and New York Harbor, dotted with container ships, all the way to Sandy Hook at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore. People at ground level can now see the tower, too, from a growing number of places in the city and across the river in New Jersey.
A huge portion of the reconstruction of the trade center is taking place below ground. The underground halls that house the memorial are cavernous, and in their unfinished state look like some unexplored temple in an Indiana Jones movie.
The huge boxes that hold the waterfall pits visible from the surface are somehow suspended from the ceiling, held up by pillars that don't seem big enough to support the blocks' massive weight.
A maze of tunnels, catwalks and narrow, temporary staircases connect the various underground levels.
To rebuild, work crews needed to excavate nearly 100 feet down below, but rather than reroute service and demolish the tunnel, they merely propped it up on huge pilings and dug beneath it. The tracks, still encased in their old concrete tube, now sit suspended in mid-air as work takes place below, above and on either side.
Ward said he hoped people will be able to see in six months that, despite the ongoing construction, the site's days as a disaster zone are ending.
'It will be a place where you meet a friend for lunch. Where you meet a date. Where you race across the plaza and beneath the trees to get out of the rain,' he said. 'We want New Yorkers to make their own narrative there.'
Imposing: Growing at a floor a week, Freedom Tower is fast becoming a feature on New York's skyline
Defiant: Its steel frame, already clad in glass on lower floors, now stands 58 stories tall and is starting to inch above many of the skyscrapers that ring the site
Don't look down: The mammoth black-granite fountains and reflecting pools that mark the footprints of the fallen twin towers are largely finished
On top of the world: Ironworkers align steel columns high in the sky
The Twin Towers moments after being hit by the planes on 9/11 and the immediate aftermath with diggers trying to clear the area after the columns came down
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