Friday 21 October 2011

CNN News - Greek lawmakers pass new austerity law despite protests, Oct 21, 2011

"Police clash with masked demonstrators in Athens on October 20, where tens of thousands of protesters rallied.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Greek lawmakers pass new austerity measures despite protests
Clashes break out in Athens between different groups of protesters and police
One protester dies after cardiac arrest, hospital officials say
European Union leaders worry that Greek debt threatens the euro
Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Greek lawmakers voted to approve a new round of tough budget-cutting measures Thursday, despite a second day of angry protests in which one demonstrator died.
Tens of thousands rallied outside the parliament building as lawmakers debated the unpopular measures, aimed at bringing down the country's huge national debt.
After a peaceful start, violent clashes broke out between anarchist rioters and the police, and between the anarchists and some union demonstrators who wanted to keep the protest calm."

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CNN News - Gadhafi: Enigma in life and death, Oct 21, 2011

Questions surround the circumstances of the death of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, pictured here in March.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Moammar Gadhafi was in a convoy heading out of Sirte that was hit by NATO
Gadhafi survived and hid in a drainage pipe
He was alive when he was captured, say anti-Gadhafi fighters
A human rights investigator says his brutal end is a blemish on Libya's first day of freedom
(CNN) -- In the end, enigma swirled around Moammar Gadhafi in death just as it had in life, the grisly details of his demise still emerging.
Libya's new leaders said he was caught in a crossfire although several cell phone videos seemed to contradict that report. Based on NATO officials, journalists, human rights monitors and witnesses, here is an account of how the strongman's last day transpired.
Revolutionary fighters had cornered Gadhafi loyalists in the District 2 area of Sirte. There had been rumors that he was holed up in the city of his birth but speculation also held that he had fled to the desert."

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WN News - Gadhafi put on display in shopping center freezer, Oct 21, 2011

"(10-21) 14:55 PDT MISRATA, Libya (AP) --

Moammar Gadhafi's blood-streaked body was on display in a commercial freezer at a shopping center Friday as Libyan authorities argued about what to do with his remains and questions deepened over official accounts of the longtime dictator's death. New video emerged of his violent, chaotic last moments, showing fighters beating him as they drag "

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Alexander Language Schools Franchise

WASHINGTON POST - In Libya, a dead Gaddafi proves troublesome, Oct 21, 2011

Libyans prepare to bury Gaddafi amid calls to investigate his death

View Photo Gallery — Ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi was killed and more than a dozen pro-Gaddafi fighters were captured in Sirte.

By Mary Beth Sheridan, Updated: Friday, October 21, 7:58 PM

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan authorities on Friday prepared to bury slain former leader Moammar Gaddafi amid calls for an investigation into the circumstances of his death, which came after he begged for his life and scolded the enraged revolutionary fighters holding him, according to new video footage.

The emergence of dramatic new videos challenged the official account that Gaddafi was treated fairly by his captors when he was seized Thursday but that he was later killed in a “crossfire” between revolutionary fighters and armed loyalists.

LA TIMES - Libya rejoices at Moammar Kadafi's death, Oct 21, 2011

"By Jeffrey Fleishman and Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times
October 21, 2011, 1:04 a.m.
Reporting from Tripoli, Libya, and Beirut— The spectacle of Moammar Kadafi's capture at the mouth of a drain pipe and death in the custody of those he long oppressed thrilled Libyans but left a sense of unease about the nation's ability to emerge from his violent legacy.

Kadafi's death Thursday in his hometown, the coastal city of Surt, spared Libyans the prospect that the only leader most had ever known would continue exhorting die-hard followers to fight. Few believed that, two months after he had been chased from his capital, Kadafi was in a position to make a comeback. But he remained a charismatic figure capable of instigating guerrilla war."

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NY TIMES - U.S. Troops to Leave Iraq by Year’s End, Obama Says, Oct 21, 2011

"WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that the last American soldier would leave Iraq by the end of the year, bringing to an end a nearly nine-year military engagement that cost the lives of 4,400 troops and more than $1 trillion, divided the American public, and came to define America’s role in the world."

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TIMES OF INDIA - Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam held: Report, Oct 19, 2011

"CAIRO: Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's second son Seif al-Islam was captured Friday in Libya's Zeltin city, 160 km east of the Libyan capital, Egypt's Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

A field commander of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) told Al-Arabiya satellite channel over phone that Seif al-Islam had been captured in the south of the city and was now receiving medical treatment, Xinhua quoted the report as saying on Friday evening.

Photos and a video of his detention will be made public within hours, said commander Ali el-Shawesh.

Shawesh, h"

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NZ HERALD - Gaddafi's body stored in shopping centre freezer, Oct 21, 2011

Libyan children celebrate the death of Muammar Gaddafi. Photo / AP

"Muammar Gaddafi's blood-streaked body was stashed in a commercial freezer at a shopping centre Friday as Libyans waited in line outside for a chance to see him and authorities tried to figure out where to bury the longtime dictator.

The makeshift provisions for the corpse reflected the disorganization and confusion that has surrounded Gaddafi's death. Accounts of how he died after being captured by revolutionary fighters remained contradictory, and the top UN rights official raised concerns he was shot to death in custody.

His burial had been planned for Friday, in accordance with Islamic traditions calling for quick interment. But the interim government delayed it, saying the circumstances of his death still had to be determined. Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam also said authorities are "debating right now what the best place is to bury him."

An AP correspondent saw the body at the shopping center in the coastal city of Misrata, home of the fighters who killed the ousted leader a day earlier in his hometown of Sirte."

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REUTERS - Gaddafi, in meat locker, still divides Libya, Oct 21, 2011

"By Rania El Gamal
MISRATA, Libya | Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:28pm EDT
(Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's body lay in an old meat store on Friday as arguments over a burial, and his killing after being captured, dogged efforts by Libya's new leaders to make a formal start on a new era of democracy.

With a bullet wound visible through the familiar curly hair, the corpse seen by Reuters in Misrata bore other marks of the violent end to a violent life, still being broadcast to the world a day later on looping snatches of gory cellphone video.

The interim prime minister offered a tale of "crossfire" to explain the fallen strongman's death after he was dragged, still alive, from a storm drain in his home town of Sirte. But seeing him being beaten, while demanding legal rights, to the sound of gunfire, many assume he was simply summarily shot."

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CHINA News - Clinton views Haqqni network threat to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Oct 21, 2011

PAKISTAN-ISLAMABAD-HILLARY CLINTON-DIPLOMACY

"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) arrives with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar (L) for a joint press conference after their talks in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, on Oct.21, 2011. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday described the Taliban-linked Haqqani network a serious threat to both Afghanistan and Pakistan and urged Islamabad to take action against the "safe heavens" of all such groups on its soil.

"With respect to the Haqqanis, we both agreed that terrorism coming from any source is a threat to all of us. We expressed very clearly our concerns about 'safe heavens' on both sides of the border," Clinton told a joint news conference along with her Pakistani counterpart after their talks.

"We reasserted our commitment to doing more on the Afghan side of the border to try to eliminate 'safe heavens' that fuel insurgency and attacks inside Pakistan. And we asked very specifically for greater cooperation from Pakistani side to squeeze the Haqqani network and other terrorists because we know trying to eliminate terrorists on one side not going to work,"she said."

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THE GUARDIAN - Muammar Gaddafi's 'trophy' body on show in Misrata meat store, Oct 21, 2011

Muammar Gaddafi ‘trophy’ body on show in Misrata meat store

"
Libyans take photos of Gaddafi's body in Misrata, where a guard let small groups in to a meat store to view the dead dictator. Photograph: Balkis Press/Abaca/PA Images
Bloodied, wearing just a pair of khaki trousers, and dumped on a cheap mattress, Muammar Gaddafi's body has become a gruesome tourist attraction and a macabre symbol of the new Libya's problems.

Hundreds of ordinary Libyans queued up outside a refrigerated meat store in Misrata, where the dead dictator was being stored as a trophy. A guard allowed small groups into the room to celebrate next to Gaddafi's body. They posed for photos, flashing victory signs, and burst into jubilant cries of "God is great.""

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CNN News - Gadhafi's demise and the Arab Spring, Oct 21, 2011

"

The next chapter in the Arab Spring
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Scholar says 2011 "is to the Arabs what 1989 was to the communist world"
U.N. resolutions, NATA sorties helped in Libya but are unlikely elsewhere
The power of the state remains formidable in a majority of Arab countries
The overthrow of three leaders doesn't change the dilemmas that Arab world faces
(CNN) -- Three gone (Gadhafi, Mubarak, Ben Ali), two holding on in the face of daily protests (al-Assad, Saleh), two more (Kings Abdullah of Jordan and Mohammed of Morocco) trying to stay ahead of the curve of protest: After 10 months of the Arab Spring, the region is still in the throes of a heady and unpredictable transformation.
Moammar Gadhafi's demise, after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, means that three rulers in power collectively for 95 years are gone. Scholar and author Fouad Ajami, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, says that 2011 "is to the Arabs what 1989 was to the communist world. The Arabs are now coming into ownership of their own history and we have to celebrate.""

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CBS News - NATO to end Libya operations by Oct. 31, Oct 21, 2011

Anger in the Arab World

In this photo taken on a government-organized tour a view of a destroyed building after it was hit during a NATO airstrike in Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

(AP)

BRUSSELS - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday that the alliance had agreed to end its seven-month campaign in Libya on Oct. 31.

"We have taken a preliminary decision to end Operation Unified Protector on Oct. 31," Fogh Rasmussen said after a meeting of the alliance's governing body, the North Atlantic Council. "We will take a formal decision early next week."

Diplomat said NATO air patrols are set to continue over Libya in the next 10 days as a precautionary measure to ensure the stability of the new regime. They will gradually be reduced in coming days if there are no further outbreaks of violence.

Rasmussen hailed the success of the operation which started on March 19 with a series of U.S.-led attacks designed to suppress Muammar Qaddafi's formidable air defenses, including missile and radar networks. Libya's former rebels killed Qaddafi on Thursday, and officials had said they expected the aerial operation to end very soon.

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