Koine posted:

Sounds like another reporter, though getting involved in the news has been kind of against the Guardian's code for a long time, I think.

JSARSOM posted:

The SARS Volta posted:

Those bodyguards aren't women

The SARS Volta posted:

Those bodyguards aren't women

Hipster_Doofus posted:

Umm, who's driving?

thiswayliesmadness posted:

edit: Is that pink thing on the wheel a troll doll?

Hipster_Doofus posted:

God knows I was wondering but I figured I'd leave it to someone wittier than I am to bring it up.

Mr. Grinch posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Gaddafi_International_Prize_for_Human_Rights

I'm not sure what to make of this. Please tell me this is a joke

Hipster_Doofus posted:

God knows I was wondering but I figured I'd leave it to someone wittier than I am to bring it up.

thiswayliesmadness posted:

edit: Is that pink thing on the wheel a troll doll?

Slantedfloors posted:

I'm pretty sure the (current, at least) Amazonian brigade is entirely for show. They only seem to be around him in canned photo ops, never when he's out in the open.

quote:

Good morning. It is Friday, which has become a significant day for protests in the Arab world since the uprisings, which started in Tunisia, began. Here is a summary of the latest developments:

• Gaddafi's opponents have called for protests in Tripoli after Friday prayers today. The Libyan capital is one of the few remaining Gaddafi strongholds. But there has been a wave of arrests, killings and disappearances in Tripoli in an attempt to crackdown on government opponents, the Associated Press reports.

• There has been an airstrike on the eastern town of Ajdabiya this morning, rebel fighters said. They said it missed the military base that was its target.

• A 13-year old shepherd was killed by Gaddafi's militia on the outskirts of Brega on Wednesday, a day of intense fighting in the eastern oil town, according to Human Rights Watch. His relatives told the group he was not involved in the fighting and was herding sheep when he was killed. Funerals have been taking place for the victims of Wednesday's fighting. Rebel forces in the east are bracing themselves for more attacks after airstrikes were reported on each of the last two days.

• Barack Obama has, for the first time in public, called for Gaddafi to leave Libya. He said: "Muammar Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave." The US president has only expressed such sentiments in written statements previously. Obama would not commit to a no-fly zone.

•The director of the London School of Economics, Sir Howard Davies, has resigned over the university's links with Libya. Sir Howard Davies resigned after fresh revelations that the institution had been involved in a deal worth £2.2m to train hundreds of young Libyans to become part of the country's future elite.

• Protests are gathering in Egypt's Tahrir Square despite the resignation yesterday of the Hosni Mubarak-appointed prime minister Ahmed Shafiq. Shafiq's replacement Essam Sharaf is seen as a reformer and his appointment was welcomed by protesters. A big demonstration is expected after Friday prayers.

quote:

News of a fresh airstrike in the eastern town of Ajdabiyah is breaking on Reuters. This is the third day in a row the town has reportedly been bombed by jets. The target appears to have been the military base held by rebels but it missed its target, according to rebel volunteers guarding the facility:

quote:

We were sat here, heard the jet, then the explosion and the earth shook. They fell outside the walls," said Hassan Faraj, who was guarding an ammunitions store at the Haniyeh base.
Another volunteer guard, Aziz Saleh, said two rockets had been fired. They had landed just outside the walls of the base, he said.

quote:

There have been reports of further bombings by Libyan government warplanes in eastern Libya. The BBC's Kevin Connolly in the rebel-held city of Benghazi says: "Libya is a vast country, so it is often hard to know from one town to know what is happening in the next. Col Gaddafi has used air power in this conflict, although he has so far used it sporadically and in a fairly limited and ineffective way."

quote:

The Associated Press reports that there is a climate of fear in Tripoli, ahead of a planned protest after Friday prayers:

quote:

Bodies of people who vanished have been dumped in the street. Gunmen in SUVs have descended on homes in the night to drag away suspected protesters, identified by video footage of protests that militiamen have pored through to spot faces. Other militiamen have searched hospitals for wounded to take away.

Last Friday, the residents of Fashloum, Tajoura and Souq al-Jomaa witnessed the price anti-Gadhafi protesters pay, when militiamen opened fire on demonstrators.

In Fashloum, worshippers emerged from the Al-Baz mosque and young men in the crowd began to march and chant, "Freedom to Libya." Within moments, the barrage of gunfire from militiamen erupted, said a brother of the slain 56-year-old protester.

"My brother was hit with a bullet right in the heart. In minutes he lost all his blood," he said, showing a mobile phone video clip of his brother's body, with a hole in the chest.
While rushing to Tripoli's central hospital, he found militia stationed in front of the building.

The number of deaths across Tripoli last Friday is not confirmed. The brother gave the names of six people from Fashloum who were killed. He said other bodies of slain protesters that day were seen being loaded into cars by militiamen and have not been seen since.

quote:

Residents of the Libyan capital have told the Associated Press that calls for new anti-government protests after Friday prayers at noon local time (1000 GMT) are being passed by word of mouth. Friday could provide a test of Col Gaddafi's grip on power. Last week, anti-government protesters in Tripoli came under heavy gunfire after Friday prayers. Witnesses told the BBC that several people were killed.

quote:

LibyaFeb17.com tweeted on Thursday evening: "A thought: For some of Tripoli's youth, this will be their last night. May God have mercy on all our martyrs in #Libya #feb17"

quote:

On a government-hosted tour of Tripoli, Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reported that there were no signs of the kind of protests that have been seen across the rest of the country, though the city was struggling with the mass exodus of many migrants who work in the service and business sectors. As for demonstrations, there were none, save for a small government-sponsored pro-Gaddafi one near Green Square.

quote:

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has denied allegations that the Libyan air force has attacked anti-government protesters in the capital, Tripoli. But in an interview with Sky News, he acknowledged that the security forces were targeting potential rebel ringleaders. He said the current crisis was - as he put it - no time to risk the country or tolerate subversives, and that everything was legitimate if it was for the security of the country.

quote:

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son, has been speaking to Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught in Tripoli. An excerpt from the interview:

quote:

It's a joke, please. We are not kids, stop calling us ... we have no money outside. [...] Give me a single evidence that we- show me our bank accounts [you allege that we have abroad]. Show me. [...]

"The west, we know them very well. When you are strong, they run after you. They are like, you know, they are like cats. If you are weak, they want to be like tigers. We know this game... we know them for a long time. The West, the Americans, the NATO ... we don't pay attention to them.

"Please, come on. We know the organised media campaign against Libya. This country will survive. I know they want to split the country. They want to just destroy it. They want to control its assets, it's a very rich country. Small population. This will not happen. So we are telling those people: be happy. This will never happen. Because the Libyan people are so united. And please, wait for surprises."

Wondering what those surprises are? Tune in to Talk to Al Jazeera today at 1530GMT.

quote:

Libyan TV is showing pictures of what they are calling "hallucinogenic" drugs discovered and seized in the last two days, BBC Monitoring reports. They interviewed a depot worker who explained how four trucks loaded with pills had been labelled as transporting building materials and cosmetics. The white packs of pills wrapped in plastic had name such as "Cobradol", "Foxdol" and "Tanol-X". Libyan TV reported on Thursday that 37 million pills were seized at the port of al-Khums. A studio commentator said: "This was only 10% of what has been smuggled."

quote:

200 mg Tamol-X is listed as containing the active ingredient Acetaminophen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory used to treat pain and swelling. Common side effects may include: nausea, drowsiness, headache and stomach irritation. Read more

quote:

Libyan authorities have blocked foreign journalists from leaving their hotel in Tripoli to report on expected protests, Reuters reports:

quote:

When journalists including Reuters reporters tried to walk out of the gates of the main media hotel, to the south of Tripoli city centre, security guards blocked their way.

A Libyan government spokesman said journalists were being kept in the Rixos hotel because their presence could trigger violence from what he described as affiliates of al Qaida.

"These are exceptional circumstances. I know you're going to talk about it and twist it the way you want," said the spokesman Mussa Ibrahim. "We are preparing to pay this price of preventing you guys from reporting to avoid turning Tripoli into Baghdad."

Xandu posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAXxL-MtYEk

From right after Brega was bombed.

quote:

Gaddafi loyalists have set up checkpoints in Tripoli ahead of planned anti-government protests after Friday prayers, the Associated Press reports. With journalists also being prevented from leaving their hotel, it all points to a very oppressive atmosphere in the capital. From AP:

quote:

Internet services, which have been spotty throughout Libya's upheaval, appeared to be halted completely in Tripoli on Friday, as well as in Benghazi, the opposition's stronghold in the east. The extent of the cut-off was not clear.

Several hours before prayers, streets were eerily empty, with few residents out. Security forces, however, began to take up positions.
In Tajoura, an eastern district of the capital where protests a week ago were attacked, police set up two checkpoints on the main highway leading to downtown. They stopped cars to search them, check drivers' ID and ask where they were going or coming from. Another police car was set up not far from the district's main Murad Agha Mosque.

quote:

One of Al Jazeera's producers in Libya, Tristan Redman, just tweeted this:

Sand storm blowing in #ajdabiyah and braygah. Little chance of gaddafi air strikes in these conditions #libya

quote:

Hannah Allam of McClatchy Newspapers tweets: "Just spoke to @nancyayoussef in #libya. sources say Gadhafi forces launched ground offensive on w side of Zawiya now. gunfire in bkrgrd"

quote:

BBC Monitoring reports that three Dutch marines captured by Libyan forces while trying to rescue a Dutch national and another European have been shown on Libyan state television. The video report showed the Dutch crew and footage of their helicopter.

quote:

An update from Tahrir Square where a demonstration is taking place but could it be the last?

Al-Jazeera's Rawya Rageh has tweeted:

quote:

#BREAKING Friday prayers cleric in #Tahrir says 'Today we call off our sit-in and rebuild #Egypt' #Jan25

She adds that he welcomed the new prime minister to the square but warned "'we are not giving you a blank checque'.

@usini, in the comments section, thinks Essam Sharaf's appointment could be a significant turning point for Egypt:

quote:

So Sharaf intends to attend the demonstations. I wonder if he may throw his hat into the ring as a potential presidential candidate or candidate for PM in the next few weeks?
It is a sign of the progress that has been made in Egypt that we are starting to look at politicians as potential candidates and in normal political terms.
It does seem that there is now no going back, and that the military council was not just a coup by any other name as some people suggested a couple of weeks ago.

quote:

The Dutch marine helicopter crew, captured on Sunday while trying to evacuate two European nationals from Sirte, a Gaddafi stronghold, have been paraded on Libyan state TV, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports. Libyan state TV also showed pictures of the helicopter and accused the three captured men of being "in violation of international law"

quote:

Battles are raging between Gaddafi's forces and and rebels in the eastern oil port of Ras Lanuf, 660 km east (410 miles) of Tripoli, according to al-Jazeera.
It also reported fighting between Gaddafi loyalists and rebels in Zawiyah, 50 km (31 miles) west of Tripoli. It did not give further details

quote:

Fierce battles are raging in Misurata from about an hour ago, mainly in the south of the city.

quote:

The Guardian's Harriet Sherwood is at the Tunisia-Libya border, where there has been an "abrupt drop" in the number of people crossing into Tunisia.

Harriet has been speaking to the UK international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, who told her the drop off in numbers is such that it is likely to be an "artificial decline". Mitchell said satellite images obtained by the UN OCHA showed people being held in Libya some 15km from the border.

Harriet said as she drove to the border there were "thousands of people", almost entirely male, flooding past her towards the transit camp, some 3km away. She said conditions at the camp are good, with hundreds of white tents lined up alongside modern medical facilities.

An Associated Press report says the number of people crossing the Libyan border has suddenly dropped because it is now being manned by heavily armed forces loyal to Gaddafi, according to officials.

Brown Moses posted:

The Dutch soldiers are being paraded about on State TV:

Brown Moses posted:

The Dutch soldiers are being paraded about on State TV:

quote:

In a historic moment, Egypt's new prime minister Essam Sharaf has been addressing protesters in Tahrir Square. In a short speech, he told them he would do all he can "to realise their demands":

quote:

You have achieved a great task and the bigger objective is to rebuild Egypt.

He also said the security "should work for the good of the people". He got a rapturous reception from people in the square and was forced to keep stopping in order to make himself heard.

quote:

The new Egyptian prime minister was carried to and from the stage on the shoulders of people in Tahrir Square. Perhaps even more remarkable than the scenes of Sharaf addressing the demonstration was the fact that he was flanked by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including Khairat el Shater, the deputy chairman of the group that was until recently banned in Egypt. Shater was only released from prison yesterday, on the authorisation of the supreme council of armed forces, after serving four years of a seven year sentence. He was freed on medical grounds.

quote:

Yemen rebels say army fired rockets on protesters:

(Reuters) - Shi'ite Muslim rebels in northern Yemen said the military fired rockets at their anti-government protests on Friday and killed two, as protests spread and intensify across the impoverished Arab Nation.

quote:

Several hundred people are staging an anti-government demonstration in Tajura, which is on the outskirsts of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, Reuters reports, citing a witness.
Our correspondent Peter Beaumont was prevented from reaching the suburb by a checkpoint manned by tanks.

Protesters chanted "Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" when they left a mosque after Friday prayers the witness told Reuters. There was no sign of any security forces at the protest, said the witness.

A tweet from BBC World says:

quote:

BBC Arabic reporter in #Tripoli suburb: protestors are burning the Libyan flag

quote:

More than a 1,000 protesters are streaming out of the Murad Agha mosque in Tajura, Tripoli, chanting "the people want to bring the regime down" reports the Associated Press.

quote:

A reporter in Tajoura says that the suburb is surrounded by security forces, but so far they have not moved against the protestors. The reporter says the protest is peaceful, but people are very angry. One person said that some activists were "kidnapped" yesterday.

quote:

The BBC's Wyre Davis in Tajoura says that despite considerable pressure to stop people reaching the district, hundreds of protesters have poured onto the streets. He says this suburb is key to the success or failure of the uprising. It has already been the scene of many anti-government rallies.

quote:

BBC Arabic's Feras Kellani from Tajoura reports that security forces are using tear gas to disperse protesters.

quote:

Peter Beaumont in Tripoli reports that "dozens and dozens" of police cars flooded the capital after Friday prayers in an attempt to head off hundreds of demonstrators. Journalists were forced away from the scene, he says, and at least one man who spoke to journalists was seen being taken away by police.

quote:

Clashes have been taking place on the outskirts of the strategically important oil port of Ras Lanuf, which was held by rebels until Sunday, reports Reuters:

quote:

"Clashes have started. We're outside Ras Lanuf, about 10km (6 miles) to 15 km away. Right now it's heavy weapons fire. Infantry will be coming later," said Bashir Warshafani, an armed volunteer member of the rebel force making his way to the front.

Nagi Mathkoor, another rebel volunteer speaking from the rebel-held town of Brega, said: "There are clashes between the uprising and Gaddafi's forces on the outskirts of Ras Lanuf."

quote:

Ras Lanuf and Brega are the two oil towns between Sirte, which is firmly held by Gaddafi and between Benghazi, which is in rebel hands. Both those towns [Ras Lanuf and Brega] have strategic importance, Martin says.

quote:

The rebels were successful in ousting a Gaddafi rearguard in Brega which lasted around 24 hours. Those forces that withdrew from that town yesterday morning have regrouped in Ras Lanuf and fighting has resumed within the last hour or so between the rebels and Gaddafi loyalists in Ras Lanuf.

It appears to be quite intensive. We are seeing a lot of trucks head down the highway filled with weapons and men on their way to the frontline, a lot of ambulances heading there as well. It's a bit far away to get an assessment for ourselves but, just from the sense of people on the move, it does appear to be a significant battle.

quote:

The Associated Press has details of fighting in Zawiyah, near Tripoli, and Misurata, a Mediterranean port city. A resident in Zawiyah said that a large force from a brigade led by one of Gaddafi's sons led a new attack on the city – the closest opposition-held conurbation to Tripoli – this morning.

quote:

The troops from the Khamis Brigade named after the son attacked Zawiyah's western side, firing mortars and then engaging in battles of heavy machine guns and automatic weapons with armed residents and allied army units, said the resident.

"Our men are fighting back the force, which is big," the resident said. Zawiyah, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, has beaten back several assaults the past week.

Throughout the night and into the early hours Friday, pro-Gaddafi forces also fired mortars and anti-aircraft guns at the outskirts of opposition-held Misurata, Libya's third largest city located just east of Tripoli, a doctor in the city said. He said it appeared to be an intimidation tactic, causing no casualties.