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Wrangling in Libya over war announcement
Misrata/Jordan, Oct 22
Muammar Gaddafi's body lay still unburied as Libya's new men of power wrangled over its fate and a formal announcement the war was over, a move the outgoing premier said on Saturday should mean free elections in the middle of next year.

Libyan men and children queue up to have a look at the corpse of Muammar Gaddafi outside a cold store in a vegetable market on the outskirts of Misrata. — AFP

Gaddafi stashed away $200 billion
Washington: Slain Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi secretly salted away an estimated staggering $ 200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed.

Wrangling in Libya over war announcement
n Nation’s first election likely within eight months, says rebel PM
n Removing weapons from Libyan streets a priority

The corpse of Muammar Gaddafi

Misrata/Jordan, Oct 22
Muammar Gaddafi's body lay still unburied as Libya's new men of power wrangled over its fate and a formal announcement the war was over, a move the outgoing premier said on Saturday should mean free elections in the middle of next year.

Mahmoud Jibril, an expatriate academic who has been prime minister in the Western-backed rebel government, confirmed he was stepping down and that the coming days would be a critical test of how the new leadership and Libya's six million people could handle their freedom after 42 years at Gaddafi's whim.

Libyans should be allowed to vote within eight months to elect a national council that would draft a new constitution and form an interim government, Jibril said today as he prepared to step down.

After the death of Muammar Gaddafi this week, the priority was to remove weapons from Libyan streets, restore stability and order and begin a process of national reconciliation, Jibril said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.

"The first election should take place within a period of eight months, maximum, to constitute a national congress of Libya, some sort of parliament," he said.

"This national congress would have two tasks -- draft a constitution, on which we would have a referendum, and the second to form an interim government to last until the first presidential elections are held," said Jibril.

The National Transitional Council (NTC) that led the fight against Gaddafi has said it plans to declare the full "liberation" of Libya on Sunday after the killing of Gaddafi by fighters who overran his home town Sirte.

Jibril, an expatriate academic who strikes a modern, Western-friendly image, told Reuters on Saturday that he planned to step down "today", a move he had planned to make once the country was under full government control.

In Misrata, the once besieged city whose rebel fighters are pushing claims for a big stake in a "reborn", oil-rich Libya, they guarded the market cold store where, for a second day, the curious and the relieved filed in to view the fallen strongman, whose surprise capture and killing in his home town of Sirte on Thursday sparked joy -- and renewed jockeying for influence.

Gaddafi's surviving family, in exile, have asked that his body, and that of his son Mo'tassim, be handed over to tribal kinsmen from Sirte. Officials with the National Transitional Council (NTC) said they were trying to arrange a secret resting place that would avoid loyalist supporters making it a shrine.

In Benghazi, Libya's second city and seat of the revolt in February, leaders were preparing a formal declaration on Sunday that the whole country was "liberated", a move that starts the clock ticking on a plan to install a transitional government, draft a constitution and institute full democracy by 2013.

The announcement has been expected, and delayed, since Thursday, amid arguments over whether Benghazi or the capital Tripoli, captured in August, should have the honour. — Reuters

Gaddafi stashed away $200 billion

Washington: Slain Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi secretly salted away an estimated staggering $ 200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed. The Libyan dictator, who faced an ignominious but gruesome death, had hidden huge amounts of cash, gold reserves and investments and the amount is double that the Western governments previously had suspected, the Los Angeles Times reported.

It claimed that Western officials have struggled all year not only to identify Gaddafi's money, but also to convince countries such as India, China and Russia to seize Libyan investments as required by the UN Security Council resolutions. If the value proves accurate, the paper said, Gaddafi will go down in the history as the most rapacious as well as one of the most bizarre leaders of the world on a scale with the late Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire or the late Phillipino president Ferdinand Marcos.

The newspaper said that US was stunned last spring when it stumbled upon $ 37 billion in his accounts and investments in the US. which was quickly moved to freeze them. — PTI

UNSC calls on Yemeni President to step down

Sanaa, October 22
Yemeni government forces and opposition fighters battled in the capital with mortars and automatic weapons on Saturday, a day after the UN Security Council urged the president to sign a deal requiring him to step down in exchange for immunity. Yemen said on Saturday it was ready to "deal positively" with the UN resolution, which also condemned the Yemeni government's crackdown on protesters demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh end his 33 years in office.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which has been trying to mediate an end to the political crisis in Yemen, welcomed the resolution. Medics and witnesses said dozens of people were wounded in the clashes in the capital Sanaa. Rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and automatic weapons were used in the Soufan and al-Nahda neighbourhoods in the north of the city, where members of a breakaway military force opposed to Saleh and tribal fighters are based. — Reuters

Saudi Crown Prince Sultan dies
Interior Minister Prince Nayef likely successor

Dubai, October 22
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Sultan has died, the royal court said today, opening the way for interior minister and reputed conservative Prince Nayef to become the likely heir apparent of the world's top oil exporter.

Prince Sultan, whose age was officially given as 80 and who died in New York of colon cancer early on Saturday Saudi time, had been a central figure in Saudi decision-making since becoming defence minister in 1962 and was made crown prince in 2005.

Saudi analysts predicted an orderly transition at a time when much of the rest of the Middle East is in turmoil as populations have risen up against their autocratic leaders.

Sultan's health had declined in recent years and he spent long periods outside the kingdom for medical treatment. A 2009 US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks described him as "to all intents and purposes incapacitated".

The country's ruler, King Abdullah, is now likely to summon an untested Allegiance Council of the ruling al-Saud family to approve his preferred heir.

Most analysts believe that is likely to be Prince Nayef, who was appointed second-deputy prime minister in 2009, a position usually given to the man who is third-in-line to rule.

"The succession will be orderly," said Asaad al-Shamlan, a professor of political science in Riyadh. "The point of reference will be the ruling of the Allegiance Council. It seems to me most likely Nayef will be chosen," he said. — Reuters

Would stand by Pakistan if attacked: Karzai

Islamabad, Oct 22
After being critical of Pakistan over its links with the Taliban militants, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has now said his country would stand by Islamabad in the event of hostilities with any nation, including the United States or India.

"God forbid, if at any time there is a war between Pakistan and America, then we will be with Pakistan," Karzai said in an interview with Pakistan's Geo News, excerpts of which were aired by the channel this afternoon.

Asked specifically if Afghanistan would back Pakistan if it was attacked by India, Karzai replied: “Anybody that attacks Pakistan, Afghanistan will stand with Pakistan. Afghanistan will be a brother of Pakistan. Afghanistan will never betray a brother.”

Karzai's comments came against the backdrop of increased tensions between Pakistan and the US on the issue of tackling terrorist groups like the Haqqani network, which use bases in Pakistan's tribal belt to carry out attacks on US and allied forces in Afghanistan. — PTI

Pakistan gets seat in UN Security Council

United Nations, Oct 22
Pakistan has been elected to the powerful UN Security Council as a non-permanent member for a two-year-term beginning on January 1, 2012, putting it in the club of 10 nations which currently includes India.

Pakistan won 129 votes in the 193-member General Assembly. Pakistan was vying for the seat against Kyrgyzstan in the Asia-Pacific category. There were no abstention.

To win a seat in the UN Security Council, a country must receive the support of at least 129 members.

Pakistan was one of the nine countries vying for five non-permanent seats on the Security Council that will fall vacant on December 31, 2011.

Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon said, "It is a great day for the subcontinent. We have an opportunity to bring things together. The Indian Ocean is important. Africa, Asia, we are going to work together. — PTI