Three Libyan leaders face arrest for war crimes

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that he will seek three arrest warrants for crimes against humanity in Libya.

Moreno-Ocamp said the crimes such as the murder and persecution of civilians were still being carried out by Moamer Kadhafi's regime. He did not name the targets of the warrants.

The prosecutor added that he was also investigating the deaths of dozens of sub-Saharan Africans in the rebel capital of Benghazi by an "angry mob" who believed they were mercenaries for Kadhafi.

Saudi police: al-Qaida member surrenders

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia says an al-Qaida member on the kingdom's most wanted list called from abroad and turned himself in.

Interior Ministry's spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said in a statement Wednesday that Khaled Hathal Abdullah al-Atifi al-Qahtani contacted the security authorities from an undisclosed country and expressed his wish to come home.

Al-Turki did not say when al-Qahtani was brought back to the kingdom, but many from the group fled to Yemen after a crackdown.

Al-Qahtani was reunited with his family and his surrender will be taken into consideration while looking into his case, Al-Turki said.

Al-Qahtani is apparently the first al-Qaida operative to surrender after its leader Osama bin Laden was killed on Monday.

Libya: man who tried to hijack Italian plane overpowered

The Teleghraph

A man who tried to hijack a Paris-Rome flight on Sunday night and take it to Libya was overpowered by cabin crew during the flight and arrested when the plane arrived in Rome, officials said.

A statement from Alitalia airlines said the man had assaulted a flight attendant "and asked that the plane be taken to Tripoli".

Other attendants on flight AZ329 then overpowered the man, who was "clearly agitated" and the captain radioed police, who arrested the man when the plane landed, the statement said.

Italian media reports quoting police sources said the man was armed with what appeared to be a small knife.

The flight attendant was taken to a first aid station at Rome airport for treatment of minor injuries. No other injuries were reported
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Air strike flattens building in Gaddafi compound

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – NATO forces flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound early on Monday, in what his officials said was a failed attempt on the Libyan leader's life.

NATO said the attack was on a communications headquarters used to coordinate attacks on civilians. A Libyan spokesman said Gaddafi was unharmed and state television showed pictures of him meeting people in a tent, which it said were taken on Monday.

Firefighters were still working to extinguish flames in part of the ruined building a few hours after the attack, when foreign journalists were taken to the scene in Tripoli.

A press official, who asked not to be identified, said 45 people were hurt in the strike, 15 of them seriously, and some were still missing. That could not be independently confirmed.

Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said the Libyan government would not be cowed by such attacks.

"The bombing which targeted Muammar Gaddafi's office today ... will only scare children. It's impossible that it will make us afraid or give up or raise the white flag," he was quoted as saying by the Jana state news agency.

"You, NATO, are waging a losing battle because you are backed by traitors and spies. History has proved that no state can rely on them to win."

Libyan authorities have contacted Russia, China, Italy, Turkey and other countries to complain about the strike on Gaddafi's compound, a government statement said.

The compound has been hit before, but NATO forces appear to have stepped up the pace of strikes in Tripoli in recent days. A target nearby, which the government called a car park but which appeared to cover a bunker, was hit two days ago.

NATO said it was maintaining a "high operational tempo."

Italy said its warplanes would join British and French aircraft in carrying out bombing of Libya. Geographically the closest major NATO member state to Libya, Italy had until Monday provided bases for the operation and support aircraft only.

AU DIPLOMACY; MISRATA BOMBARDED

The attack on the compound coincided with a fresh flurry of diplomacy by countries seeking a way out of the Libyan conflict.

The African Union was holding separate talks on Monday with Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi and rebel representatives in Addis Ababa to discuss a peace plan.

The rebel representatives -- former ambassadors to South Africa and Uganda -- and Obeidi were meeting separately with representatives of the United Nations and the European Union.

"This will be the first time that they (rebels) are attending a meeting here. We will meet both sides one after the other," Ramtane Lamamra, AU commissioner for peace and security, told Reuters.

The rebels rebuffed an earlier AU peace plan because it did not entail Gaddafi's departure, while the United States, Britain and France say there can be no political solution until the Libyan leader leaves power.

The African Union does not have a good track record in brokering peace deals, having failed recently to end conflicts or disputes in Somalia, Madagascar and Ivory Coast.

The talks brought no relief for people in the besieged western city of Misrata, where residents reported intense bombardment in the early hours of Monday which tailed off when NATO planes flew over.

The weekend saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the two-month siege in Misrata despite an announcement by Gaddafi's forces on Friday that they were pulling back.

Medics said more than 20 people were killed on Sunday and 28 on Saturday. A rebel spokesman put the death toll even higher. Three corpses were charred beyond recognition and one child was killed, but many of the shells fell on waste ground.

Residents said Gaddafi's forces had been pushed away from Tripoli Street, center of the recent battles, to the outskirts of the city, from where they were shelling occasionally when NATO planes were not around.

"Bodies of Gaddafi's troops are everywhere in the streets and in the buildings. We can't tell how many. Some have been there for days," said Mohammed Ibrahim, a resident whose cousin was killed at the weekend. He was speaking by phone.

A rebel spokesman, Sami, said the humanitarian situation was worsening rapidly.

"It is indescribable. The hospital is very small. It is full of wounded people, most of them are in critical condition," he said by phone. "The quantity of food available in the city is also decreasing. The state of the city is deteriorating because it has been under siege for about two months."

A government spokesman in Tripoli said the army was still carrying out its plan to withdraw from the city, but had fired back when retreating troops were attacked.

"As our army was withdrawing from Misrata it came under attack by the rebels. The army fought back but continued its withdrawal from the city," Mussa Ibrahim told reporters.

The government says it will leave it to local tribes to resolve the situation in Misrata. Rebels say the announcement may be part of a ruse to mask troop movements or stir violence between rebels and locals in nearby towns.

MOUNTAIN BATTLES

Out of view of international media, Gaddafi's forces have been pounding rebel Berber towns in Libya's remote Western Mountains with artillery.

The capture of a crossing on the Tunisian border by rebels has let refugees flee in cars or on foot along rocky paths, swelling refugee numbers in southern Tunisia to 30,000.

"Our town is under constant bombardment by Gaddafi's troops. They are using all means. Everyone is fleeing," said one refugee, Imad, bringing his family out of the mountains.

Rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told a news conference in Kuwait the Gulf state had agreed to give 50 million Kuwaiti dinars ($177 million) to his rebel council to help pay workers in the eastern part of the country under its control.

The rebels have been seeking international recognition as well as material support from the west and the Arab world.

Hampered by their lack of firepower, equipment and training, they have been unable to advance from eastern Libya. Fighting with Gaddafi's troops has swung back and forth along the coast road between the towns of Ajdabiyah and Brega.

Abdel Jalil also said the rebels had received weapons from "friends and allies," but did not name them.

(Additional reporting by Guy Desmond and Maher Nazeh in Tripoli, Alexander Dziadosz in Benghazi and Sami Aboudi in Cairo; writing by Andrew Roche; editing by Maria Golovnina)

American Politics of Destruction - Donald Trump says Barack Obama wasn't qualified for Ivy League

Real estate mogul Donald Trump suggested in an interview on Monday that President Barack Obama had been a poor
student who did not deserve to be admitted to the Ivy League universities he attended.

Mr Trump, who is mulling a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, offered no proof for his claim but said he would continue to press the matter as he has the legitimacy of the president's birth certificate.

"I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" Mr Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records."

Mr Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York in 1983 with a degree in political science after transferring from Occidental College in California. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude 1991 and was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

Mr Obama's 2008 campaign did not release his college transcripts, and in his bestselling memoir, "Dreams From My Father," Mr Obama indicated he hadn't always been an academic star. Mr Trump told the AP that Mr Obama's refusal to release his college grades were part of a pattern of concealing information about himself.

"I have friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything and they can't get into Harvard," Mr Trump said. "We don't know a thing about this guy. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered about our president."

Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for Mr Obama's re-election campaign, declined to comment.

Mr Trump has shaped himself as an ultraconservative candidate, reversing some positions he once held. He now would make abortion illegal, opposes gay marriage and gun control. He advocates repeal of Mr Obama's health care overhaul that became law last year. He wants to cut foreign aid, is highly critical of China's trade and monetary policies and wants to end the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But he has got the most political traction by latching onto the "birther" movement: those who believe claims initiated by the far-right that Mr Obama was born outside the United States – despite the release of official birth records in Hawaii and other evidence. The U.S. Constitution requires that presidential candidates be "natural-born" U.S. citizens.

Of late, Mr Trump has appeared in interviews on all the major American cable television networks, pushing relentlessly his message that Mr Obama needs to prove he was born in the United States. He points to his rising poll numbers as proof that Americans like what he is saying on that deeply divisive issue.

"I have more people that are excited about the fact that I reinvigorated this whole issue," Mr Trump said, adding "the last guy (Obama) wants to run against is Donald Trump."

Mr Trump is scheduled to travel to the early primary states of New Hampshire and Nevada this week and said he will make a final decision about a presidential bid by June.


The Donald’s fortunes rise as he voices Obama 'birther' suspicions

By Rachel Ray, Washington

Donald Trump was described in the media as 'Poor Donald' almost exactly two years ago as the ratings for his show 'The Celebrity Apprentice' sank concurrently with his real estate empire.

By September 2010, there was no improvement- the show failed to capture even five million viewers against rerun competition.

But since February, ratings have steadily climbed- coinciding with The Donald’s “birther” suspicions about the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate.

By the end of March, Mr Trump flat out told Fox News he was "really concerned" about Obama's citizenship, adding "I'm starting to wonder myself whether or not [Obama] was born in this country."

And in the April 4th week ratings analysis, The Celebrity Apprentice numbers had jumped 15 percent in the adult 18-49 group and 22 percent in total viewers since the same time in 2010.

GOP wise man Karl Rove went on Fox too on Saturday to denounce Trump’s birther talk and label him a “joke” candidate. The Donald may be bad news for the Republicans but things are looking up at NBC.

Obama: US launches military action against Libya

BRASILIA, Brazil – President Barack Obama authorized limited military action against Libya Saturday, saying Moammar Gadhafi's continued assault on his own people left the U.S. and its international partners with no other choice. The Pentagon said 112 cruise missiles were launched from US and UK ships and subs, hitting 20 targets.

Obama said military action was not his first choice.

"This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought," Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."

A senior military official said the U.S. launched air defenses Saturday with strikes along the Libyan coast that were launched by Navy vessels in the Mediterranean. The official said the assault would unfold in stages and target air defense installations around Tripoli, the capital, and a coastal area south of Benghazi, the rebel stronghold.

Obama declared once again that the United States would not send ground forces to Libya, though he said he is "deeply aware" of the risks of taking any military action.

Earlier in the day, Obama warned that the international community was prepared to act with urgency.

"Our consensus was strong, and our resolve is clear. The people of Libya must be protected, and in the absence of an immediate end to the violence against civilians our coalition is prepared to act, and to act with urgency," Obama said.

Top officials from the U.S., Europe and the Arab world meeting in Paris, where they announced Saturday immediate military action to protect civilians caught in combat between Gadhafi's forces and rebel fighters. American ships and aircraft were poised for action but weren't participating in the initial French air missions.

As the military action was announced, French fighter jets swooped over Benghazi, the opposition stronghold that was stormed by Libyan government forces earlier Saturday, in defiance of a proclaimed ceasefire
France, Britain and the United States had warned Gadhafi Friday that they would resort to military means if he ignored the U.N. resolution demanding a cease-fire.

The United States has a host of forces and ships in the area, including submarines, destroyers, amphibious assault and landing ships.

The U.S. intended to limit its involvement — at least in the initial stages — to helping protect French and other air missions by taking out Libyan air defenses, but depending on the response could launch additional attacks in support of allied forces, a U.S. official said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of military operations.

Moammar Gadhafi's forces close in on Libyan

AJDABIYA, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi's forces closed in on Libyan rebels in the east and shelled holdouts in the last western opposition stronghold Wednesday as the rebels voiced anger and frustration at the West for not coming to their aid.

Charred vehicles and bullet-riddled pickup trucks were piled on the side of the road leading from the strategic eastern cities of Brega to Ajdabiya and an Associated Press Television News cameraman counted at least three bodies, evidence of fierce fighting as the Libyan leader intensified his efforts to retake control of the country he has ruled with an iron fist for more than four decades.

The rebels lashed out at the West as the latest international effort to impose a no-fly zone over Libya faltered. Supporters in the U.N. Security Council were trying to push through a resolution to impose such a move along with other measures aimed at preventing Gadhafi from bombing his people, but Russia and Germany have expressed doubts.

"People are fed up. They are waiting impatiently for an international move," said Saadoun al-Misrati, a rebel spokesman in the city of Misrata, the last rebel-held city in the west, which came under heavy shelling Wednesday.

"What Gadhafi is doing, he is exploiting delays by international community. People are very angry that no action is being taken against Gadhafi's weaponry."

Pro-Gadhafi forces had largely gained control of Ajdabiya after two days of relentless shelling, but they acknowledged they still faced pockets of resistance in the city of 140,000 people.

Habib al-Obeidi, a doctor at Jalaa Hospital in Benghazi, said that a colleague in Ajdabiya had told him 25 people were killed when pro-Gadhafi forces opened fire on civilian cars fleeing the city. That report could not be independently confirmed.

The breakdown in rebel defenses in Ajdabiya threatened to open the gateway to the long stretch of eastern Libya that has been in the control of the opposition, including Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and and the de facto capital of the opposition.

The AP and other journalists were taken by the government from Brega to the western edge of Ajdabiya, but the convoy was then turned away because the commander said there were still pockets of resistance.

More than a dozen tanks were stationed at the arches marking the entrance to the city and a large green flag had been used to cover up the pre-Gadhafi banner that has been adopted by the rebels. Anti-Gadhafi graffiti also had been painted over.

Some buildings had bullet holes, and a bloodstained green army jacket was left on the ground along with discarded ammunition boxes.

The rebels also claimed a small victory, hijacking a Libyan tanker ship that was transporting fuel from Greece to Gadhafi's regime. Opposition spokesman Mustafa Gheriani said fighters seized the ship on Tuesday off the Mediterranean coast and that it was carrying about 25,000 tons of fuel for Gadhafi.

The tanker, Anwaar Afriqya, was visible Wednesday in Tobruk's harbor. According to online shipping records, the Libyan-owned vessel departed several days ago from a Greek refinery port and had been due to arrive Tuesday in the western oil port of Zawiya.

Gheriani also claimed the rebels were still fighting on the outskirts of Ajdabiya and attacking regime forces with warplanes, although he was not more specific about the aircraft and that could not be verified.

Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, warned the rebels the regime was closing in on them and urged them to leave the country.

"We don't want to kill, we don't want revenge, but you, traitors, mercenaries, you have committed crimes against the Libyan people: leave, go in peace to Egypt," he said in an interview with Lyon, France-based EuroNews television. "Military operations are over. Within 48 hours everything will be finished. Our forces are almost in Benghazi. Whatever the decision, it will be too late."

Gheriani said rebels in Benghazi would be ready for an attack.

"A large percentage of Benghazi's population is armed. Can Gadhafi bomb the city? Sure he can. Can he go in? I don't think so," he told The Associated Press. "Also, I think it is too far for his supply lines."

Gheriani said anti-aircraft equipment has been deployed, and the army mobilized, although he didn't know where. There have been few signs in recent days of the rebels digging in defensive preparations on the city's outskirts.

An activist hiding out in Ajdabiya said rebel holdouts in the city were expecting reinforcements from Benghazi to arrive and help them regroup. He said that the shelling stopped at about 2 p.m. but clashes continued on the southern and eastern fringes of the city.

"We are optimistic," Abdel-Bari Zwei said by cell phone as he headed to a nearby mosque for night prayers. "Yes, the families left but the youths and the men are still here."

The city's loss would be a major setback to the rebels, who less than two weeks ago were poised to march on Tripoli, the capital, and had appeared capable of sweeping Gadhafi out of power, inspired by successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. But the regime's better armed and organized military has reversed the tide.

Gadhafi's forces also launched an attack on Misrata — which for days has been under a punishing blockade, its population running out of supplies. The barrage came a day after the government recaptured the last rebel-held city west of Tripoli, solidifying his control over the coastline from the capital to the Tunisian border.

"There is coordinated shelling by Gadhafi's brigades firing artillery and machine guns from three different city entrances," al-Misrati said, speaking by satellite phone.

Momammed Ali, an opposition activist based in Dubai, said he was in contact with people in Misrata and water, electricity and cell phone service had been cut off. At least eight people were killed and 11 injured in the attack, he said, although the toll could not be confirmed.