Tag: Gaddafi

TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi warned the West against military intervention in Libya, describing any such act as "clear aggression", a government spokesman quoted him as saying on Saturday.
"This is injustice, this is clear aggression," the spokesman, Mussa Ibrahim, quoted Gaddafi as saying in a letter addressed to France, Britain and the United Nations. "You will regret it if you take a step towards interfering in our internal affairs."
He also quoted Gaddafi as

TOBRUK - Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafi said his forces would fight a "decisive battle" on Thursday, as Washington added its voice to efforts at the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone. Gaddafi's latest comments came after his forces pressed rebels in the west and threatened their eastern bastion of Benghazi, despite calls from UN chief Ban Ki-moon for an immediate ceasefire. "The battle starts today (Wednesday) at Misrata and tomorrow, that will be the decisive battle,"

TRIPOLI - All hope for change was crushed for a young Libyan businessman when he saw police kill two protesters outside his shop in central Tripoli. "This is terrible. This is bad," he said, looking around nervously in an outdoor cafe overlooking Algeria square, the site of recent clashes between opponents and supporters of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
"Gaddafi is old. Young people use the Internet. They want change," he said, speaking anonymously for fear of being identified

CAIRO - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has told Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi he should name a president with popular support as a way to end his country's crisis, an Arab television network reported on Monday. Erdogan told Al Arabiya television in an interview he expected Gaddafi to take "positive steps in this direction". "We want a halt to the fighting by both of the sides, both in the east and west of Libya," Erdogan said. Gaddafi has been Libya's leader for four decades

MOSCOW - President Dmitry Medvedev banned Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family from Russia and from carrying out financial transactions in the country, the Kremlin said on Monday. The Kremlin chief added Gaddafi and his family to a list of banned people from Russia in a decree signed on March 10. Russia has strictly opposed military invention in Libya, and has warned world powers against meddling in the affairs of the north African country.
The Kremlin has not ruled out

BREGA/AJDABIYAH - Muammar Gaddafi's troops seized the strategic Libyan oil town of Brega on Sunday forcing rebels to retreat under a heavy bombardment while world powers considered imposing a no-fly zone.
Losing Brega and its refinery further limits rebel access to fuel after the insurgents were pushed out of Ras Lanuf on Sunday, another major oil terminal some 100 km to the west along the coast road where all of Libya's important towns are located.
"Brega has been cleansed

LONDON - Charlie Sheen or Muammar Gaddafi? Once thought to have nothing in common, the longtime Hollywood bad boy and embattled Libyan leader have not only topped the headlines this week, but popular culture blogs, news websites, media outlets and social networking sites. The Web has been abuzz with comparisons of both these colorful characters over who offers the better entertainment value for their outlandish quotes and in Gaddafi's case, his unabashed fashion sense.
A British

NEW YORK - Moamer Gaddafi regime has demanded that the UN Security Council suspend sanctions taken against the Libyan leader over his crackdown on opposition protests. Only "a modicum" of force has been used against opposition demonstrators and the government was "taken aback" by the sanctions, Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa said in a letter sent to the UN Security Council on Friday. The regime called for the travel ban and assets freeze ordered against Kadhafi and his entourage

TRIPOLI - Muammar Gaddafi's forces battled rebels on several fronts in Libya on Friday and unrest erupted in the capital when gunmen fired to break up crowds shouting "Gaddafi is the enemy of God" while 17 protesters were killed in Benghazi.
Vowing "victory or death", eastern-based rebels pressed home a westwards push with an attack on the oil town of Ras Lanuf, which lies on a strategic coastal road, claiming to have taken its airport. In the west, security forces loyal to

Singer Nelly Furtado said that she will give away $1 million she received to perform in Italy for the family of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Libyan leader has been condemned for using violence to quell a popular uprising, with the death toll from nearly two weeks of fighting estimated by diplomats at about 2,000.
Furtado, a Canadian singer whose hits include "I'm Like a Bird" and "Promiscuous," used the website Twitter to disclose her plans for the $1 million. "In 2007, I

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions against Moamer Gaddafi in a new bid to halt the bloodshed in Libya while ordering a crimes against humanity investigation into his crackdown on opponents. A vote by the 15-nation body at a solemn Saturday night meeting called for a travel ban and assets freeze against Gaddafi and his family and associates and an arms embargo against Libya, where the UN says more than 1,000 people have been killed.
The council united

WASHINGTON - US Persident Barack Obama has called on Moamer Gaddafi to "leave now," declaring that the Libyan leader had lost his right to rule after attacking his own people to put down a popular uprising. Obama's most direct demand yet that Gaddafi step down was made in a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to coordinate their response to the crisis, the White House said.
"The president stated that when a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass

TRIPOLI - Terrified residents on Saturday braced for bloody battles in an eerily quiet Tripoli after Moamer Gaddafi's forces prepared to defend the city from a rebellion controlling much of the rest of the country.
UN Security Council envoys embarked on tough negotiations over how to sanction the Libyan leader for his deadly offensive on opposition protesters. The escalating revolt to overthrow Gaddafi, which a Libyan diplomat to the UN said has killed thousands, has seen

GODOLLO - NATO and the EU piled pressure on Moamer Gaddafi's regime on Friday, joining forces to rescue foreigners stranded in Libya while EU governments prepared to take part in a possible no-fly zone. As the European Union prepared sanctions against Tripoli, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen met with EU defence ministers in Godollo, Hungary, to discuss the vast evacuation effort under way in the strife-torn country.
Rasmussen also convened a separate emergency meeting of the

BENGHAZI - Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi launched a fierce counterattack on Thursday on rebels holding towns near the capital and the US did not rule out military action in response to the Libyan crackdown. The opposition were already in control of major centres in the east, including the regional capital Benghazi, and reports that the towns of Misrata and Zuara in the west had also fallen brought the tide of rebellion closer to Gaddafi's power base.
Gunbattles in Zawiyah, an

TOBRUK - Moamer Gaddafi's regime has lost vast swathes of Libya's east to an insurrection, it emerged on Wednesday, as the West prepared for a mass exodus from a "bloodbath" in the north African country.
As condemnation of the brutal crackdown grew and foreigners fled the oil-rich country, Gaddafi appeared to be increasingly isolated after reports that hundreds of civilians were killed in the backlash by his forces.
Gaddafi opponents appeared firmly in control of Libya's

MILAN - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday said he feared an immigrant exodus on a biblical scale if Moamer Gaddafi is ousted, predicting up to 300,000 Libyans could try to flee their country. Italy is already grappling with a mass influx of immigrants from Tunisia since the fall of its veteran ruler but Frattini said that would be nothing compared to the number of immigrants that could flee neighbouring Libya. "There would be an exodus of biblical proportions, a