Ramani
Kesi ya uhalifu wa kivita iliyodumu kwa miaka mitatu wa aliyekuwa Rais wa Liberia Charles Taylor imefika mwisho ili majaji huko Hague waweze kujadili uamuzi wa mwisho.
Katika siku ya mwisho, mwendesha mashtaka alisema Bw Taylor ana akili ambaye alikuwa akitumai kuilaghai mahakama inayosikiliza kesi za Sierra Leone inayoungwa mkono na Umoja wa Mataifa.
Upande wa utetezi umesema kuwa kesi hiyo imeendeshwa kisiasa.
Bw Taylor amekana kuhusika na mashtak 11, ikiwemo mauaji, ubakaji na kutumia watoto kuwa maaskari wakati wa vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe nchini Sierra leone.
Bw Taylor ni aliyekuwa kiongozi wa kwanza barani Afrika kukabiliwa na kesi kama hii ya kimataifa.
Anatuhumiwa kwa kuwapa silaha na kuwaongoza waasi wa Revolutionary United Front (RUF) wakati wa harakati za ugaidi kwa kipindi cha miaka 10 uliofanywa kwa kiwango kikubwa dhidi ya raia.
RUF ilivuma kwa sifa zake mbaya za kukata viungo vya mwili vya raia, na kutumia ubakaji na mauaji kutishia watu.
Ndege za UN zapigwa marufuku Ivory Coast
Majeshi ya usalama ya Umoja wa Mataifa
Serikali yenye utata ya Rais Laurent Gbagbo imepiga marufuku ndege za majeshi ya usalama ya Umoja wa Mataifa na Ufaransa kupita kwenye anga ya nchi hiyo, au kutua Ivory Coast.
Tamko hilo limetolewa huku Alassane Ouattara, anayetambulika na Umoja wa Mataifa kama mshindi wa uchaguzi uliofanyika mwezi Novemba, alipokwenda kwenye mkutano nchini Ethiopia juu ya mgogoro huo.
BBC imefahamishwa kuwa Umoja wa Afrika AU, unatarajia kutoa wito kwa Bw Ouattara kuongoza serikali ya umoja.
Bw Gbagbo amekataa kuhudhuria mkutano huo wa AU.
Mwandishi wa BBC Uduak Amimo aliyopo katika mkutano huo kwenye mji mkuu wa Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, alisema haijfahamika wazi iwapo mpango huo uliopendekezwa wa serikali ya umoja wa kitaifa utabakiza nafasi ya Bw Gbagbo, lakini bila shaka utahusisha baadhi ya wanaomtii kiongozi huyo.
Kundi la wakuu watano wa nchi za Afrika wamekuwa wakijaribu kutatua pingamizi la kisiasa huku kukitolewa onyo la nchi hiyo kurejea kwenye vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe.
Uchaguzi wa mwaka jana uliochukua muda mrefu ulitakiwa kuunganisha upya nchi hiyo- ambayo ilikuwa moja ya nchi tajiri Afrika Magharibi- iliyogawanyika tangu vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe vya mwaka 2002.
Tume ya uchaguzi inayoungwa mkono na Umoja wa Mataifa imesema Bw Ouattara alishinda uchaguzi wa Rais mwezi Novemba, lakini baraza la katiba lilibatilisha matokeo hayo, kwa madai ya kufanyika hila.
Majeshi yanayomtii kiongozi wa Libya Kanali Muammar Gaddafi yameripotiwa kufanikiwa kuwazidi nguvu waasi katika maeneo mawili muhimu.
Waandishi wa habari wa nchi za magharibi kwenye mji wa Zawiya, magharibi mwa Tripoli, walithibitisha madai ya utawala wa Gaddafi kuwa mji huo umedhibitiwa nao baada ya siku kadhaa za mashambulio.
Waasi wanasadikiwa kukimbia kutoka bandari ya Ras Lanuf kuelekea mashariki.
Viongozi wa Umoja wa Ulaya wanatarajiwa kujadili mgogoro huo, Uingereza na Ufaransa wakiongoza pendekezo la kuivamia nchi hiyo.
Waziri mkuu wa Uingereza David Cameron na Rais wa Ufaransa Nicolas Sarkozy siku ya Alhamis walitoa wito wa kusimamishwa kwa ghasia dhidi ya raia haraka iwezekanavyo na Kanali Muammar Gaddafi na "magenge" yake kuondoka.
Lakini waliweka wazi kuwa hatua zozote zitakazochukuliwa na nchi za kigeni ikiwemo kupiga marufuku ndege kupita kwenye anga yao, itachukuliwa iwapo tu itaungwa mkono na jumuiya za kimataifa.
Mawaziri wa ulinzi wa jeshi la umoja wa nchi za kujihami za Ulaya Nato walijadili juu ya kuzuia ndege kupita siku ya Alhamis lakini wakaamua kunahitajika muda zaidi wa kujipanga.
Gaddafi visits France on road to 'redemption'
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi takes a further step towards shedding his status as an outcast of the West tomorrow with his first visit to France in 34 years, and business deals will be high on the agenda.
The five-day visit will include at least two meetings with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, demonstrating Gaddafi's new respectability and offering the French leader a chance to secure lucrative contracts in a relatively untapped market.
"We hope that a large number of commercial agreements will be signed," Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon said, citing talks on arms and nuclear energy contracts, but giving few details of Gaddafi's schedule during the visit.
Sarkozy has made a point of inviting Gaddafi since Libya in July released six foreign medics accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV.
Paris helped broker their release.
Sarkozy's diplomatic adviser Jean-David Levitte told a parliamentary commission countries like Libya had a "right to redemption".
"Here is a country that did everything to make itself a pariah ... and here is a country that progressively has done everything to come back into the concert of nations," he said.
The West has long accused Gaddafi of backing terrorism but ties with Tripoli have warmed since it scrapped programs to develop weapons of mass destruction in 2003 and agreed compensation for families of victims of bombings of US and French airliners.
"If we do not welcome and we do not speak to countries that become respectable, that turn their back on orientations that were condemned by the international community, then what do we say to Iran, what do we say to North Korea?" Sarkozy said last month.
"Libya thought and still thinks that the key to re-entering the world political stage is in Washington and that the main European states, including France, have only a secondary role," said a senior European diplomat based in Tripoli.
But Libya, rich in oil and gas reserves, still saw France and other European Union states as vital to developing its economy, he said.
"Libya wants to be a member of the World Trade Organisation and needs the support of France and other European states. Tripoli has a bold economic plan that needs foreign investment."
North African political analyst Ali Anzoula said Gaddafi, who has yet to be invited to the United States or Britain, was also banking on Sarkozy's close ties with Washington.
"Gaddafi hopes his visit to Paris will help him speed the normalisation of ties with the United States and visit Washington soon," he said.
It was also in talks to buy Rafale fighter jets, for which a foreign buyer has not been found in eight years, and wanted to buy "numerous" items of military hardware, he said.
Gaddafi's son added, however, that Tripoli also wanted a retrial over the 1989 bombing of a French UTA plane over the West African country of Niger, for which six Libyans were convicted in absentia and for which Libya paid compensation.
The visit could prompt fresh criticism of Sarkozy, who caused disarray in the EU this week by congratulating Russian President Vladimir Putin for his party's victory in a widely criticised election.
Sarkozy's Socialist opponent in the presidential election, Segolene Royal, has called Gaddafi's visit "intolerable", and Amnesty International said the visit should not overshadow human rights violations in the North African state.
Bin Laden behind Libya protests
Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi has blamed Osama bin Laden for the uprising in his country. Addressing the people of Zawiyah, which his supporters have tried to retake from rebels, Gaddafi said that young people have been duped by the Al-Qaeda leader.
In contrast to attacks on Western powers in his previous television address, Kadhafi, who spoke by phone to a Libyan TV station, blamed bin Laden and "international terrorism" for the wave of protests against his rule.
Gaddafi insisted that the Libyan people control their own country, through the revolutionary committees set up when he took power over 40 years ago, and can root out corrupt officials or make any other changes they want.
“The demonstrators are serving the interests of bin Laden,” he declared, as much of the east of the country lay in his opponents' hands.
Gaddafi repeated claims that young people have been supplied with drugs, adding that they have arms are and are attacking police stations.
“How can Zawiyah have arrived at this situation?” he asked, addressing tribal leaders there.
Gaddafi distinguished between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda, saying that the Brothers have renounced violence and want only reform
Libya's Gaddafi seeks solution to Mauritania crisis
Nouakchott, Mauritania - Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi arrived in Mauritania on Monday seeking a deal to end the political crisis that has gripped the county since Mauritanian military officers deposed the president six months ago.
Gaddafi, acting in his capacity as president of the African Union, became the highest-ranking official to seek an end to the political stalemate in Mauritania since a junta led by General Mohammed Ould Abdel-Aziz launched a successful coup against Sidi Mohammed Ould Sheikh Abdallahi in August.
Gaddafi: Mauritanian presidential elections will take place on time
Nouakchott, Mauritania - Mauritanian presidential elections will take place as planned on June 6, Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said Thursday after talks there as current African Union head.
Gaddafi arrived in Mauritania Monday seeking a deal to end the political crisis that has gripped the county since the military deposed in an August 6 coup President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gaddafi visits Mauritania
Libyan leader Colonel Moamer Gaddafi (L) attends a prayer in the capital Nouakchott in Mauritania 10 March 2009. Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi is in Mauritania seeking a deal to end the political crisis that has gripped the county since Mauritanian military officers deposed the president six months ago
Obama Becomes First President to Greet Qadhafi
It was more handshake diplomacy by President Obama as he became the first US president to exchange a face-to-face greeting with Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi.
As Chairman of the African Union, Qadhafi was invited to attend the G8 Summit Leaders dinner tonight in L'Aquila, Italy.
As the chiefs of state and heads of government gathered for a class photo, Qadhafi approached President Obama and they shook hands. It was a polite encounter, conducted according to protocol. Qadhafi smiled, Mr. Obama not so much
In three African countries, it's Gaddafi to the rescue
Tripoli - Dressed in a traditional Libyan brown cap and cloak punctuated by a broach in the shape of the African continent, Moamer Gaddafi looked completely in his element rushing from one conflict-beset African country to the next last week.
On Friday, Libya's 66-year-old "Brother Leader" triumphantly returned to the Niger capital, Niamey, with six hostages whose release he had just secured from the rebel Movement of the Niger People for Justice.
EXTRA: Gaddafi: No recognition of a nuclear-armed Israel
Doha - Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, in his closing remarks to the Arab League summit in Qatar on Monday, said Arab countries could not recognize Israel until it gave up its nuclear weapons and agreed to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
"We cannot recognize Israel while they have nuclear weapons and we have modest weapons," Gaddafi said. "And we should insist on the return of the displaced. We cannot recognize Israel until they agree to these two demands."
Qadhafi files civil lawsuit against Geneva: report
Geneva - Libya has filed a civil lawsuit against the Canton of Geneva for arresting last year the son and daughter-in-law of the Libyan leader Muammar al-Qadhafi, the Swiss TSR channel reported Wednesday.
The lawsuit, for over 500,000 francs (437,000 dollars), alleges the manner of the arrest was disproportionate and violated international regulations related to diplomacy.
In July last year, employees at a Geneva hotel called the police to complain about the abuse of two servants at the hands of their foreign bosses, Hannibal al-Qadhafi and his wife.
Libya's Gaddafi arrives in Italy for "historic" visit
Rome - Libyan leader Moammer Gaddafi on Wednesday arrived for his first official visit to Italy, an event described as "historic" by Italian government officials, but heavily criticized by human rights activists and opposition leaders.
Gaddafi, clad in a military uniform and wearing dark sunglasses, was warmly hugged by Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi at a red carpet ceremony at Rome's Ciampino military airport
Libya's Gaddafi arrives in Italy for "historic" visit
Rome - Libyan leader Moammer Gaddafi on Wednesday arrived for his first official visit to Italy, an event described as "historic" by Italian government officials, but heavily criticized by human rights activists and opposition leaders.
Gaddafi, clad in a military uniform and wearing dark sunglasses, was warmly hugged by Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi at a red carpet ceremony at Rome's Ciampino military airport.
Students protest Gaddafi's Rome visit
Rome - Demonstrators including human rights activists waved banners and set off smoke bombs against Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's planned visit Thursday to Rome's main university.
Gaddafi was scheduled Thursday afternoon to meet a group of students at the University of La Sapienza, where hundreds of police have been deployed as part of tight security measures.
The protest is the latest to mar Gaddafi's first official visit to Italy which began Wednesday.
Students protest Gaddafi's Rome visit
Libyan leader meets Lockerbie attacker
Tripoli - Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi met Lockerbie attacker Abdel Basset al-Megrahi a day after he was released from a Scottish jail, a news report said Friday.
Gaddafi received the terminally ill 57-year-old and his family on Friday, the Libyan news agency Jana said.
The Libyan leader welcomed the decision of the Scottish government to release al-Megrahi, who is suffering from prostate cancer, on compassionate grounds.
"I congratulate them on their courage and their demonstration of independence," Jana reported Gaddafi as saying.
Gaddafi's visit stirs trouble in New York, New Jersey
New York - Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's scheduled visit to New York next month has stirred negative reaction from a small city in New Jersey, where Libya maintains a property that could accommodate Gaddafi's tent, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Gaddafi is known for his preference to live in a tent wherever he travels. He set up a tent in the garden of the Elysee Palace, the French presidential residence in Paris, in
2007 and in Rome's Villa Doria Pamphili in June this year
Libya to distribute Ukrainian aircraft, says Tymoshenko
Kiev - Libyan President Moamer Gaddafi agreed to distribute Ukrainian military cargo aircraft to African customers and to discuss other military hardware purchases, Ukraine's prime minister said Thursday in Kiev.
Yulia Tymoshenko, returning from two days of meetings in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, made the announcement at a cabinet meeting aired by the UT-1 television channel.
Besides participating in talks with Gaddafi, Tymoshenko was among foreign dignitaries at Libyan celebrations Wednesday marking the desert nation's independence.
Moamer Gaddafi
Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad cast shadow on UN summit
New York - US President Barack Obama's vow of a "new era of engagement" stood in stark contrast to United Nations speeches by two long-time rogues of the international community: Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Just minutes after Obama left the podium at the UN General Assembly, Gaddafi rose for his own first-ever speech to the chamber.
Gaddafi condemned the world's major powers, labeling the UN Security Council the "terror council" and slamming every decision it has made in the last 50 years.
Moamer Gaddafi
Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad cast shadow on UN summit
Republicans urge Obama to cancel 2.5-mln-dollar to Libya
Washington, Sep. 27 : Republican lawmakers have asked the Obama administration to change its plans to provide 2.5 million dollars in economic aid to Libya, including 400,000 dollars for Muammar al-Qaddafi''s foundations.
Following Libyan leader’s rambling diatribe at the United Nations this week and the hero''s welcome he gave to the Lockerbie bomber last month, the GOP lawmakers want the administration to cancel the entire economic aid, Fox News reports
Libyan uranium enrichment centrifuges
These confiscated gas centrifuges were apparently manufactured in China for Libya. They are used in uranium enrichment.
Venezuela's Chavez, Libya's Gadhafi meet to discuss oil
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who is reconnecting his nation to the U.S. and to global energy companies, met for talks about oil Wednesday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is moving his country in a different direction. Chavez said before going into a meeting with the Libyan leader that the two men planned to discuss maintaining current oil prices.
The two Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members were to talk about "strengthening our commitment inside OPEC to maintain oil prices and avoid that they hit the floor again," Chavez said in comments broadcast on Venezuelan state television. "Today we have a fair price for oil."
The Bush administration announced Monday that Libya is being taken off a U.S. list of terrorism sponsors and diplomatic ties are being restored, a striking success for Gadhafi's push to do business with foreign oil companies — especially American ones.
The administration also said Monday it was banning arms sales to Venezuela because of what Washington called a lack of support for counterterrorism. The move was the latest blow to steadily worsening relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, America's fifth-largest oil supplier.
"We don't need arms from the United States," Chavez, a harsh and constant critic of the Bush administration, said in Libya, adding that Venezuela is looking at the possibility of purchasing Russian fighter planes and expects to soon receive a shipment of 30,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Libya - Gaddafi: Obama Should Negotiate With Bin Ladan, Jews Can Move To Hawaii
Libyan Drag Queen suggests "One State Solution"Libya - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi advised US President Barack Obama on Wednesday to give Osama bin Laden a chance to reform, telling the new president that America’s most wanted man was looking for “dialogue”.
Gaddafi hailed what he called “positive signals” so far from the new Obama administration, including plans to close the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
A video grab from an undated footage from the Internet shows al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden making statements from an unknown location.
Speaking to students at Georgetown University via a satellite link-up from Libya, Gaddafi said Washington must review its approach to bin Laden, who is blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks and tops the US Most Wanted List.
“Terrorism is a dwarf not a giant. Osama bin laden is a person who can be given a chance to reform,” Gaddafi said through an interpreter. He gave no indication that he had any contact with bin Laden or wanted to act as a go-between.
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“Maybe we can have a dialogue with him and find out the reason that led him in this direction,” he added.
Moreover, he said the Taliban, which the United States helped oust in Afghanistan, was “not as it has been portrayed” and Washington should review its views on that group too.
In a speech outlining his views on how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Gaddafi called for the creation of one state rather than two nations living side by side.
“We can call it Isratine,” he said.
If Jews did not accept a one-state solution, he said they could move to Hawaii, Alaska or an island in the Pacific. “They could live peacefully in an isolated settin
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