Chemical weapons from the Muammar Gaddafi era have been found in Libya and the new government has sought international help in securing them, National Transitional Council Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril has said.
Buckling under global pressure, Muammar Gaddafi on Friday announced a ceasefire and halted all military operations, hours after the United Nations authorised a no-fly zone over Libya and United States and allies readied plans for a military action which France said could come 'within hours.'
Libya's anti-government protesters took control of several cities in the north African country and reached capital Tripoli for the first time amid reports that its leader Muammar Gaddafi has fled the country.
The death of Libya's former strongman Muammar Gaddafi marks an "historic transition" for the North African country, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday, as he urged Libyans to lay down their arms and unite in this "time of rebuilding."
More than a week after coalition forces led by United States launched a military operation in crisis-struck Libya, the cost to US taxpayers has already reached a whopping $600 million (about Rs 27,000 crore), as per Pentagon estimates, ABC reported.
More than 110 Tomahawk missiles from US and British ships and submarines hit about 20 Libyan air and missile defense targets, Vice Admiral William Gortney, director of the joint staff, told reporters at Pentagon
Hammered by Muammar Gaddafi's tanks, heavy guns and rockets, rebel forces were in panicky retreat in east Libya on Wednesday, fleeing from the oil towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega prompting United States and its allies to mull arming the ragtag fighters.
Rediff.com talked to some members of the Muslim community in India to gauge their reaction to the air-strikes on Libya.
In the first phase of evacuation of Keralite nurses from strife-torn Libya, 50 of them are expected to be moved to Tunisia by road on Thursday as per the plan worked out by the ministry of external affairs.
The two hijackers had hand grenades and had threatened to explode them.
Vayalar Ravi, who is also the Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, was at the terminal 2 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport to receive the Indians evacuated from the Libyan capital Tripoli.
Pro-Gaddafi forces were locked in a fierce battle with rebels in Libya's east to reclaim the lost territory as the regime scrambled hard to quell fresh protests in Tripoli, amid reports that at least 49 people were killed in the fighting and explosions in a military arms depot.
Two Indians have been abducted in Sirte in war-devastated Libya even as two other nationals remain in the custody of Islamic militants.
Relief writ large on their faces, 44 Indian nurses working in strife-torn Libya arrived in Kochi on Tuesday morning from Dubai even as four others are bound for different destinations in the country.
A passenger flight has crashed in Libya, killing all 105 people on board, says a BBC report.
Scenes of human misery and horror in strife-torn Libya have come to light as a band of migrant plumbers from this coastal district of Orissa returned to their village to recount their harrowing ordeal. Kendrapara, known for its human resources, has seen its skilled population, including plumbers, migrating to the Middle-East over the years to eke out a better living.
A passenger flight from has crashed in Libya, killing 104 people on board, news reports say. A child has survived the crash, another report said
The United States-led military coalition on Sunday hit Libyan defence targets with cruise missiles and launched air attacks as Muammar Gaddafi vowed to open his arms depots to the people to retaliate against the Western 'aggression.'
The first batch of 44 Keralite nurses, stranded in strife torn Libya, would arrive in India on Tuesday. The nurses, working in various hospitals in Libya, had reached Tunisia, from where they will be reaching Dubai to take the scheduled flight to Kochi and arrive Tuesday morning, chief executive officer of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs department P Sudeep said.
Fallen Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi may have emptied the country's estimated gold reserves worth $10 billion and will use it to buy protection and wage a guerrilla war, the nation's former chief banker has said.
The leaders of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa grouping on Thursday collectively voiced their opposition to the use of force in Libya and pitched for a central role for the United Nations and regional organisations in resolving the matter.Reflecting on the situation in the Middle East and north African countries at the BRICS Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh observed that there was a "shift of power towards ordinary citizens".
As forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continue to push the rebels from their positions, cracks seem to be appearing in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation over military strategy in Libya, with major NATO alliance partner France demanding that the punishing raids should be carried out to finish strongman's tanks and heavy artillery.
United States President Barack Obama on Friday asked Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to immediately shun attacking civilians, stop his troops from advancing on Benghazi and pull them back from other cities, warning that a United Nations resolution will be enforced through "military action".
Defying global pressure to stop attacks on civilians, Muammar Gaddafi's fighter jets on Thursday carried out fresh strikes on the rebel-held oil terminal town of Brega in eastern Libya, a day after clashes between the two sides left at least 14 people dead in the region. The warplanes swooped down on the town on Thursday morning, according to eyewitnesses. The Libyan army, backed by mercenaries, continued its efforts to penetrate the rebel-held eastern parts of the country.
United States President Barack Obama has approved the use of armed Predator drones in Libya against forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, in an effort to provide "precision capabilities" to international coalition forces in the North African state, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.
Maintaining that most Indians have been evacuated from strife-torn Libya, the government on Tuesday said the pull-out operation will continue "till each and every one of our citizens, desirous of returning, is brought back safely".
In assessing Muammar Gadaffi's continuIng defiance of the international pressure to force him to quit, the following facts have to be kept in mind, says B Raman.
Maintaining that most of the Indians have been evacuated from strife-torn Libya, the government said the pull-out operation will continue "till each and every one of our citizens, desirous of returning, is brought back safely."
Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie has flown down to Libya to help aid agencies bring in supplies to the country.
Anti-US protests against an American-produced film which allegedly insults Prophet Mohammed, took a violent turn in the Middle East as the US embassy in Cairo was attacked and its consulate at Benghazi in Libya was set on fire, killing one American consular official.
India on Thursday said it expects an "impartial" investigation by the International Criminal Court into war crimes committed during the Libyan conflict that punishes both Muammar Gaddafi's troops as well as opposition forces responsible for violence and killings during the uprising.
Libyans from all walks of life gave Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi a rapturous welcome on his return to his native Libya late Thursday night, even as the survivors and relatives of those killed condemned his release and clamoured for justice.
Fifty-eight Indian nurses from Libya are on their way back home, the government said today while making a fresh appeal to all the Indians in the strife-torn nation to leave in view of deterioration in situation with a promise to make all arrangements for evacuation.
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously voted to bring to an end the authorised international military action in Libya on October 31, following the death of Muammar Gaddafi that brought an end to the bloody conflict in the country. The resolution passed on Thursday said that the liberation of the North African country after Gaddafi's death offers better prospects for a "democratic, peaceful and prosperous future".
Launching a major evacuation drive, India has brought back over 530 of its nationals from strife-torn Libya by two special Air India planes, even as 88 others crossed over by road to Tunisia from the North African nation facing large-scale protests against the Gaddafi regime.
The Obama administration has rationalised India's abstention on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 last month, calling for a no-fly zone in strife-torn Libya, as based on part misinformation and part going along with its Brazil, Russia, and China partners.
Indian Oil Corporation and its partner Oil India Ltd have won an oil block in Libya in the first ever joint foray in oil and gas exploration overseas.
India, along with four other members of the United Nations Security Council, abstained from voting on a resolution that approves a no-fly zone over Libya and authorises "all necessary measures" for protecting civilians there from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces. Ten of the 15-member body voted in favour of the resolution, but five nations -- China, Russia (which have veto power) and non-permanent members India, Germany and Brazil -- abstained from voting.
Nirupama Rao, India's new ambassador to the United States, has defended India's stand on Libya and Syria, which stands in stark contrast to that of the US and its allies in the NATO. In the interaction that followed her keynote address at the third Brookings-FICCI Strategic Dialogue on US-India Relations, Rao said, "Let me say that we deeply value the consultations that we had with the United States on issues related to the Arab Spring and the upheavals that we have seen".
A disturbing new evidence of the barbarity of Libyan despot Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime in East Libya has emerged. Seven prisoners were rescued by the opposition movement after they were found buried alive.
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