Loud explosions and anti-aircraft fire rang across the Libyan capital for the third night in running as coalition bombers and missiles struck targets, including Muammar Gaddafi's Tripoli compound and a big naval base on the outskirts of the city.
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".
"All my people love me," embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said, adding that his people would die to protect him. Sixty-eight-year-old Gaddafi facing a popular uprising and mounting global pressure to step down, also flatly denied there have been demonstrations against him. His comments came even as protesters took control of towns in eastern parts of the north African country and closed in on Libyan capital Tripoli.
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.
Nearly a third of 18,000 Indians, stuck in strife-torn Libya, would have been evacuated by Tuesday through air and sea.
A third batch of 67 Indians arrived in Mumbai from Libya early on Monday morning. So far, over 550 Indians have returned from strife-torn Libya on special Air India flights, but thousands continue to remain stranded.
Two Special Air India flights to Tripoli will operate from Saturday over the next 10 days and two Naval warships including amphibious vessel INS Jalashwa will also set sail to bring back thousands of Indian nationals stranded in strife-torn Libya.Evacuation through sea will begin from Sunday with one of the chartered ships, Scotia Prince, with a capacity to accommodate 1,200 persons set to reach Benghazi port in Libya. An estimated 18,000 Indian nationals live in Libya.
The Indian Navy has decided to despatch three naval warships including its largest amphibious vessel INS Jalashwa to evacuate its citizens stranded in trouble-torn Libya.
"Let me assure the nation that all Indians are safe and all those Indians who are willing to be evacuated will be evacuated safely and without any expenditure incurred by them," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said.
With the situation in Libya remaining volatile, government on Tuesday said it was putting in place plans for possible evacuation of Indians whose number is around 18,000.
Making his first public appearance since the launch of coalition air strikes on his forces, a defiant Muammar Gaddafi pledged victory and said he was ready to die as a "martyr" in Libya. "In the short term, we'll beat them, in the long term, we'll beat them," thundered Gaddafi, who slammed the West, calling the attack an "unjust aggression".
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."
India on Tuesday said one of its nationals in Libya has died in a road accident and not in firing as claimed by the family of the deceased.
Britain, Scotland and Libya connived to free the Lockerbie bomber responsible for the death of 270 people, a media report claimed on Sunday, even as such allegations were rejected that the decision to release him was based on medical advice from doctors paid by Tripoli.
It was an emotional homecoming for the people who hugged their loved ones amid tears as they emerged from Nedumbassery airport at 10.30 am.
A video clip showing Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi stepping off the plane which brought him home from his Scottish prison two weeks ago will be projected onto a giant screen in Tripoli's Green Square during the two-hour spectacular, the Times reports.
A group of Indian nurses, who were evacuated from Libya by the government, arrived in Kochi in the early hours of Friday morning.
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.
Top seed Veselin Topalov's winning spree was halted by GM Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia in the World Chess Championship.
National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly and GM Dibyendu Barua also bowed out of the World Chess Championship.
Kasimdzhanov, playing black, easily split points with the second seed in the first game of the World chess championship final.
The Uzbekistan Grandmaster will meet Michael Adams of England in the final of the World chess championship.
Top seed GM Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria drew his first game against GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan in the semi-final of the World Chess championship.
Rustam Kasmidzhanov and Vladimir Akopian also entered the quarter-finals in the World chess championship.\n\n
The top seeded Grandmaster recorded his fifth straight victory in the World chess championship.
IM Neelotpal Das also continued with his good form and held GM Ashot Anastesian for the second time in the World Chess championship.
The Indian Grandmaster played a draw against highly regarded Ukranian in the first game of the second round in the World Chess Championship.\n\n
But Libya still remains on the US list of states that sponsor terrorism, which means Washington cannot open an embassy in Tripoli.
The 23-year-old becomes India's 11 Grandmaster.
After Nigeria, Libya has invited Indian oil firms to operate its old refineries after investing in their revamp and has offered New Delhi rights to explore oil in the country.
Panathinaikos secured a Champions League qualifying spot by beating PAOK Salonica 2-0 on Sunday to extend their lead in the Super League playoffs to a eight points with two matches left.
The British GM pulled off a scintillating victory over Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan to tie the World chess final 2.5-2.5.
GM Michael Adams made it to the finals of the World Chess Championship with a 2.5-1.5 win over GM Teimour Radjabov.
The Uzbekistan Grandmaster beat Michael Adams of England 1.5-0.5 in the tie-breaker to win the title.
Stephan El Shaarawy took a small step towards refuelling his career at Monaco when the AC Milan loanee came off the bench to rescue a late 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League's second round of group matches on Thursday.
British PM Theresa May said the threat level in the country will remain at critical and that 1,000 army troops have been deployed to boost security.
Reji Joseph, an IT engineer in the Al Diwan software company for Technical Consultancies and IT Ltd had been abducted along with three other Libyan colleagues on March 31.
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