| Gaddafi bunker bombed at his hometown Posted: 26 Aug 2011 03:34 PM PDT 
Tripoli: British warplanes have bombed a bunker in Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, as rebel fighters grouped on Friday for another push on one of the last major regime holdouts east of Tripoli. As insurgent leaders moved into Tripoli to begin a political transition, the African Union called for that process to be "inclusive," while the UN human rights chief warned against assassinating Gaddafi, whose whereabouts are unknown and who has a $1.7 million rebel price on his head. "At around midnight, a formation of Tornado GR4s... fired a salvo of Storm Shadow precision-guided missiles against a large headquarters bunker in Gaddafi's home town of Sirte," the defence ministry said in London. Speculation that Gaddafi might have found refuge in the town, which lies 360km east of Tripoli, has not been confirmed. Nato said on Friday that its planes had hit 29 armed vehicles and a "command and control node" in the vicinity of Sirte. Libyan rebels control 95 percent of the capital Tripoli, a local military chief told AFP Friday. "We control 95 percent of Tripoli," said Abdel Nagib Mlegta, head of operations for the liberation of Tripoli. "There are just a few pockets of resistance," in the neighbourhoods of Salah al-Din and Abu Slim, he said. Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi killed more than 150 prisoners in a "mass murder" as they fled the rebel takeover of Tripoli, a rebel military chief told AFP on Friday, "There were instances of revenge in the last few hours before the fall of the regime," said Abdel Nagib Mlegta, head of operations for the takeover of the capital. On Thursday, the National Transitional Council (NTC) moved many of its top people from their Benghazi base, just days after rebel fighters overran Tripoli, going on to capture Gaddafi's headquarters and vast swathes of the capital. Ali Tarhuni, a NTC official, said their leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, would arrive as soon as the security situation permitted. "I declare the beginning and assumption of the executive committee's work in Tripoli," Tarhuni, the executive committee's vice chairman and minister of oil and economics, said. "Long live democratic and constitutional Libya and glory to our martyrs," he said, announcing the holders of key posts in a new provisional government. He called on forces loyal to Gaddafi to lay down their arms, and promised they would be treated lawfully. "Put your weapons down and go home. We will not take revenge. Between us and between you is the law. I promise you will be safe." In Geneva, the UN human rights chief warned against bounty hunters who may be seeking to kill Gaddafi, saying assassinations are "not within the rule of law." "That applies to Gaddafi as well as everybody else," said spokesman Rupert Colville in a response to a question about the reward for Khadafi, dead or alive. Colville said the "best solution" would be to capture Gaddafi alive and follow through on an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. He also called on "all people in positions of authority, including field commanders in Libya, to take action to ensure that no crimes or acts of revenge are committed." In that vein, a senior African Union official said that with the conflict about to end, the body should support efforts for an inclusive transition in Libya. "Now more than ever, we have to make efforts to ensure an inclusive and consensual transition to lead us to elections that will allow the Libyan people to freely choose their leaders," AU Commission chief Jean Ping said at the start of a meeting in Addis Ababa. —AFP |
| Slain Punjab governor's son abducted in Pakistan Posted: 26 Aug 2011 03:33 PM PDT 
LAHORE, PAKISTAN: The son of former Pakistani governor Salman Taseer, who was killed in January for opposing controversial Islamic blasphemy laws, was abducted by gunmen in Lahore on Friday, police said. Shahbaz Taseer, who had been given police protection, was abducted from a wealthy neighbourhood of Lahore, the capital of the eastern province of Punjab and considered one of Pakistan's more liberal cities, while on his way to work. "Four men in a car intercepted Shahbaz Taseer's car in Lahore's upmarket Gulberg area," police emergency official Syed Mumtaz told AFP. "They overpowered him at gunpoint and forcibly put him in their car and sped away," he said. Two other police officials confirmed the information. The official said police were searching for the car but there was no indication of who may have been behind the abduction. Provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah said the Punjab government had provided Taseer with a police escort after his father was killed "but he did not ask them to accompany today". "It was his routine. Sometimes he would go with guards, sometimes not," he told Geo television. "The gunmen were young, wearing jeans, they came on a motorbike and in a vehicle." He said it was too early to say who the abductors were. "It is a sensitive issue and any statement at this stage would be premature. We will come to know when the investigations proceed," he said. Salman Taseer was killed by a bodyguard outside an Islamabad coffee shop for criticising the blasphemy law, which provides for the death penalty. It was the highest-profile political killing in Pakistan in more than three years. Police officials said Taseer's family had been repeatedly threatened to withdraw the murder case against the police bodyguard accused of his killing. Senior police investigation officer Razzaq Cheema said that Shahbaz, 27, was on his way to his office from his home when "some people on motorbikes and a land cruiser intercepted him near an intersection and abducted him." "Later they threw out their rifle which is now with the police. We have called Shahbaz's guard for interrogation," Cheema told Geo television. US-based Human Rights Watch confirmed the abduction. Its Pakistan director Ali Dayan said the federal and provincial governments "must ensure that the younger Taseer is recovered speedily and his abductors are held accountable". "This family has suffered too much already and given the security threats directed towards them in the aftermath of governor Taseer's death, this kidnapping underscores the failing writ of the state and its inability to provide security even to those known to be at high risk," he said. Taseer's murder was followed two months later by the assassination of another vocal opponent of the law, minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian in Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's cabinet. Gilani's government backtracked on amending the blasphemy law in December after a number of popular protests despite criticism from rights groups who say it is often abused to settle personal scores. But Islamabad, weakened by rampant corruption, an economic crisis and a wave of suicide bombings, allowed imams and fundamentalist leaders to court public opinion with calls for the slaying of supporters of amending the law. Salman Taseer had set up consultancy firms and a brokerage house, and invested lucratively in telecommunications, a newspaper, insurance and real estate. Shahbaz is one of the directors of the Media Times private limited, which publishes two newspapers and runs a television channel. |
| Hurricane Irene "extremely dangerous": Obama Posted: 26 Aug 2011 03:32 PM PDT 
President Obama has warned Americans to take Hurricane Irene seriously and urged them to obey orders to evacuate from the path of what is likely to be an "extremely dangerous and costly" storm. MASSACHUSETTS: President Barack Obama on Friday warned Americans to take Hurricane Irene seriously and urged them to obey orders to evacuate from the path of what is likely to be an "extremely dangerous and costly" storm. "All indications point to this being a historic hurricane," Obama said in a statement to reporters from the farm where he is vacationing on an island off the Boston coast. Fifty-five million people are potentially in Hurricane Irene's path, from the Carolinas to Cape Cod on the U.S. East Coast, and tens of thousands are evacuating as cities including New York brace for the powerful storm to hit. "I cannot stress this highly enough. If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now. Don't wait. Don't delay," Obama said. Obama and his family will leave Martha's Vineyard on Saturday, well before Irene is projected to scour its way this far north on the New England coast. But the vacation had already been marked by natural disaster, after the island felt an earthquake in Virginia on Tuesday that shook Washington and New York. Obama has held regular conference calls with aides on the storm, in a determined effort to learn from the mistakes of his predecessor George W. Bush, who was slammed for an ineffectual response after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans in 2005. "All of us have to take this storm seriously ... If you are given an evacuation order, please follow it," Obama said. |
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