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Won’t leave my country: Gaddafi
SA law firm may defend Gaddafi
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Missing Pakistan scribe found dead
5 types of militant groups operate from Pak: US
US withdraws Musharraf’s security
Indian Navy gets Russian teeth
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Won’t leave my country: Gaddafi
Tripoli, May 31 But new questions emerged over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gaddafi amounted to a “time bomb.” Within hours of Zuma’s departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital. Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African “roadmap” for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gaddafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed. The talks produced no breakthrough, with Gaddafi’s refusal to quit, a condition the rebels and NATO have set as a pre-condition for any ceasefire, still the sticking point. “Col Gaddafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue,” Zuma’s office said in a statement. “He emphasised that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties.” Zuma also said Gaddafi’s personal safety “is a concern”, a reference to NATO strikes which have repeatedly hit the Libyan leader’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound and other locations used by the Libyan leader and his family. Now in its fourth month, Libya’s conflict is deadlocked on the ground, with anti-Gaddafi rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance towards Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be firmly entrenched. Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya’s third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km south of Tripoli, towards the border with Tunisia. Western powers have said they expect Gaddafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll. Meanwhile, Gaddafi says his forces are fighting armed criminal gangs and Al-Qaida militants, and has described the NATO intervention as an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya’s plentiful oil reserves. — Reuters
SA law firm may defend Gaddafi
Johannesburg, May 31 According to The Times newspaper, Libyan officials entered into a “mandate agreement” with Langa Attorneys to provide legal advice and services to Gaddafi and other top leaders three weeks ago. “The deal will include defending the Libyan government officials in the event that they are hauled before the International Criminal Court (in The Hague) on charges of human rights abuses,” a source told the newspaper. The firm had been asked to assemble a team of international law experts to put together Gaddafi’s defence strategy if he quits, says the report. The ICC’s chief prosecutor has sought an arrest warrant for Gaddafi, accusing the Libyan leader of having ordered his forces to gun down civilians in their homes, at funerals and outside mosques. — AFP
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Missing Pakistan scribe found dead
Islamabad, May 31
Two days before he went missing, Shahzad had written an article in which he contended that Al-Qaida attacked a naval airbase in Karachi after failed talks with the navy to release some arrested naval personnel who had terror links. Shahzad, 40, was the Pakistan bureau chief for Asia Times Online and a correspondent for Italian news agency Adnkronos International. Shahzad, the author of "Inside Al-Qaida and Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11", had alleged the attack was mainly in response to an internal clampdown on Al-Qaida affiliates within the Pakistan navy. He was reported missing on Sunday evening shortly after he left his home in Islamabad for a television station to record a programme. Reports earlier in the day said a body had been found near Shahzad's car at Sarai Alamghir near Jhelum town, about 200 km from Lahore. After police informed Shahzad's family, a relative went to the site and identified his body. An autopsy report stated that there were marks of torture on Shahzad's torso and face, Geo News channel reported. The channel beamed a black and white photo of the journalist's face with visible injuries. An Islamabad Police spokesman too confirmed that Shahzad's body had been found in a canal. — PTI
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Belgrade, May 31 Serbia's war crimes court rejected an appeal from his lawyer that poor health should stop the former general's extradition to the UN tribunal in The Hague, where ex-Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic is already on trial. "Ratko Mladic has been extradited," Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic told reporters on Tuesday evening. "That means he is in the plane en route to The Hague tribunal." Mladic was indicted by the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 15 years ago for genocide in the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. — Reuters
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5 types of militant groups operate from Pak: US
Washington, May 31 India and Kashmir-oriented militants, especially the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Harakat ul-Mujahadeen (HuM), are based in both the Punjab province and in Pakistan-held Kashmir, the independent Congressional Research Service said in its latest report to US lawmakers. The report said within Pakistan the densely populated Punjab province is home to numerous Islamist militant groups with global and regional jihadist aspirations. Perhaps most notable among these is the LeT, a US-designated terrorist group with longstanding ties to the ISI, and blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attack, it said Islamist militant groups operating in and from Pakistani territory are of five broad types — Globally oriented militants, Afghanistan-oriented militants, India and Kashmir-oriented militants, Sectarian militants, and domestically oriented ones. Globally oriented militants are especially Al-Qaida and its primarily Uzbek affiliates, operating out of the FATA and in the megacity of Karachi, it said. The Afghanistan-oriented militants, included the ‘Quetta shura’ of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, believed to operate from the Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta, as well as Karachi, the report said. — PTI
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US withdraws Musharraf’s security
Islamabad, May 31 The US administration withdrew 67-year-old Musharraf’s security and protocol after a UN commission’s report on former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination blamed the military ruler for failing to provide her adequate security. Musharraf is treated like an ordinary citizen who has to join queues at the immigration counter in airports and undergo a thorough body search at the departure lounge, The News daily quoted diplomatic sources in Washington as saying. On the other hand, Britain and the UAE have increased his security cover. The reason for enhancing Musharraf’s security in these two countries is the threats he has been receiving after the killing of bin Laden, according to his spokesman. Musharraf, who has been living in self-exile outside Pakistan since 2009, is usually based in London and frequently travels to Dubai. — PTI
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Indian Navy gets Russian teeth Moscow, May 31 The Russian MiG Aircraft Corporation has delivered the second batch of five MiG-29K fighter jets to the Navy, to add to its four, for which it has raised the new “Black Panthers” squadron. India along with Russia, the manufacturer of the naval fighter, are the only countries to have acquired these fighters, which will be deployed on the INS Vikramaditya (former Gorshkov) aircraft carrier, under re-fit in Russia. The newly acquired Russian carrier-operated MiGs are considered to be far superior to Indian Navy’s current Sea Harrier jump jets. Under the Gorshkov aircraft deal inked between the two countries in 2004, Russia is to supply 12 single-seater MiG-29K fighters and four two-seater MiG-29KUB trainer-cum-combat jets. According to a MiG release first of four MiG-29Ks and MiG-29KUBs delivered to India have been formally inducted by the Indian Navy’s “Black Panthers” squadron in February 2010. MiG Corporation has also delivered flight simulator and other technical equipment to the Indian Navy. In March 2010, Russia and India signed another $1.5 billion contract on the supplies of 29 additional MiG-29K Fulcrum-D carrier-based fighter jets and the deliveries are scheduled to commence next year, about the time Moscow is expected to deliver retrofitted Gorshkov aircraft carrier after serious delays. — PTI
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