A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed Wednesday to fight on “until victory or martyrdom,” as rebel fighters tried to end scattered attacks by regime loyalists in the nervous capital.
The rebels say they have now taken control of nearly all of Tripoli, but sporadic gunfire could still be heard Wednesday, and Gadhafi loyalists fired shells and assault rifles at fighters who had captured the Libyan leader’s personal compound one day… Continue reading
Survivors of the massacre of 69 people at a youth camp on a Norwegian island on Saturday revisited the scene of the killings to grieve their lost friends.
Up to 1,000 survivors and relatives were expected on Utoya island, accompanied by police and medical staff, to face the painful memories of the shooting spree by a right-wing extremist.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said he too would visit… Continue reading
An Egyptian army officer and two security personnel were killed during an Israeli raid on militants along the Egyptian Israeli border, an Egyptian army official told Reuters Thursday.
The army officer was a border guard and the two men were from the Central Security force, the official said. The three were killed as the Israeli military chased militants along the border of Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Taba in… Continue reading
Egypt said Saturday it would recall its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths of at least three Egyptian troops killed in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants who had launched a deadly attack on Israel from Egyptian soil.
The decision sharply escalated tensions between the neighboring countries, whose landmark 1979 peace treaty is being tested by the… Continue reading
Turkish warplanes backed by heavy artillery struck Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq overnight, the military said on Saturday, a third consecutive night of raids.
The Turkish air strikes are the first against rebels in the mountains of northern Iraq in more than a year and mark a stark escalation of the 27-year-old conflict after the collapse of efforts to find a negotiated settlement.
The raids also follow… Continue reading
At least 20,000 people gathered Saturday to support an anti-corruption social activist who has galvanized much of India against the government with his hunger strike, amid signs from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of compromise to end the impasse.
Anna Hazare, a 74-year-old self-styled Gandhian activist lay on a stage on his fourth day of fasting at an open ground in… Continue reading
Syrian forces fired heavy machineguns at a residential district in the central city of Homs Saturday after protests against President Bashar al-Assad, who faces growing world isolation for his repression of five months of popular unrest.
Residents said military helicopters flew over the city in the early hours, where electricity and landline telephones were cut Friday following demonstrations in which crowds had waved shoes in a sign of contempt… Continue reading
With police nowhere to be seen, the Muslims of Dudley Road armed themselves with bricks and stones, clubs and cricket bats to fend off carloads of marauding gangs.
Their vigilante stand in Birmingham’s west end saved a humble row of family-run shops and a red-brick mosque from the looters’ grasp — but at a terrible cost.
A carload of… Continue reading
British Prime Minister David Cameron will face pressure Thursday to soften his austerity plans, toughen up policing and do more to help inner-city communities after days of riots and looting laid bare deep social tensions in a depressed economy.
With the public seething over the looting of anything from sweets to televisions, Cameron has so far dismissed the rioters as… Continue reading
Britain’s cities were largely quiet early Thursday after days of rioting and looting that drew thousands of extra police officers onto the streets and a stern warning from Prime Minister David Cameron that order would be restored by whatever means necessary.
Tensions remained high even in the absence of any major incidents, and Cameron has recalled Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate on the riots later… Continue reading