Libya

On June 4 China made its first confirmed contact with the Libyan rebels. The meeting was held in Qatar between a Chinese diplomat and the leader of the rebel National Transitional Council and follows a spate of defections by high-profile figures of the Gaddafi regime, including senior oil official and former Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem.In Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Beijing's ambassador to Qatar, Zhang Zhiliang, had met and "exchanged views on developments in Li...

New allegations that the Gaddafi regime is trying to play with the general public's empathy for the civilian victims of the conflict re-surfaced yesterday after a group of journalists who were taken to see 'bomb victims' in a Libyan hospital found out the child they were introduced to had in fact been hurt in road accident.

As Yemen is facing rapid and unprecedented changes, the country that was a year ago accused of being a haven for terrorism is not the number one priority of the U.S and the West anymore. So what happened to all the Yemeni Al-Qaeda fighters that are supposed to be in hiding on the country's territory, have they fled to Libya?The slowness and reluctance of the International community to confront the fragile political situation in Yemen should make us question the efforts that were made to p...

The National Transitional Council in Libya is slowly trying to establish itself as the legitimate successor to Gaddafi. The West has helped the rebel movement by widely promoting it and calling for countries throughout the world to officially back the new regime. However while the U.S , the U.K, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Canada have officially recognised the political organisation as the new legitimate representative body of the Libyan people, countries in Africa and in the Middle East ...

Libya's official opposition movement, the Transitional National Council (TNC), was formed rapidly as it was officially established only a week after the initial uprising began in Benghazi. The group is headed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil. The council was created to provide a structural and organised base for the rebel movement on the ground. However most of its most important positions are filled with regime defectors, not by people from the opposition.

As the news that 270 people went missing after a fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy broke down just off the Tunisian coast came , French writer Bernard Henri Levy announced he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel's premier saying they would seek diplomatic ties with Israel if they came to power.

At least 200 people are missing after a boat carrying almost 700 Tunisian refugees capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, the Tunisian state news agency quoted local officials as saying.

Following the failure of the African Union Road Map proposal presented by South African leader Jacob Zuma to broker a ceasefire between Gaddafi and the rebels, NATO powers are upping their intervention in Libya in a bid to break the deadlock, which has seen the Libyan leader hold on to power defiantly despite weeks of air strikes and a rebel uprising.

South African President Jacob Zuma yesterday confirmed that with the Libyan rebels and NATO setting Gaddafi's departure as the main condition for a ceasefire and with Gaddafi still refusing to leave, the talks initiated by the African Union did not lead to any breakthrough.

Colonel Gaddafi has, since he took over power in Libya more than 40 years ago, been known for being a bit of an eccentric character. Between insisting on having female bodyguards, to trying to set up his tent in Central Park while he visited the United Nations headquarters, he has throughout the years never ceased to amaze us.However is former friend and ItalianPrime Minister Berlusconi is as outrageous as ever and sometines even outshines the Libyan leader as he is a reknown eccentric, ofte...

Colonel Gaddafi has, since he took over power in Libya more than 40 years ago, been known for being a bit of an eccentric character and as guide of the revolution has provided his people and the world with many words of wisdom. Between insisting on having female bodyguards, to trying to set up his tent in Central Park while he visited the United Nations headquarters, he has throughout the years never ceased to amaze us. In an attempt to understand the world according to the King of Kings of Afri...

Democracy has in the last few months seen its popularity soar in all corners of the planet. With Egypt and Tunisia both managing to chase their dictators out of town and Gaddafi still insisting that Libya is the only democratic country on the planet, masses and leaders alike have been fighting to grab a piece of the democratic pie. Last week it was the turn of rising giant China to take us all by surprise as the country made a push for democracy...in the IMF.

G8 countries which include leaders from brings together the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, with the leaders of the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia, Canada and Italy have today come up with a pledge of £12bn in aid, loans and debt relief in an attempt to support and enhance pro-democratic regimes in the region. While the full details of the package are yet unknown, the money will come from international financial institutions and members of the G8.Both the leaders of Egypt and Tunisi...

The Gaddafi saga is today continuing with the Libyan colonel still making headlines throughout the world. More interesting than a Hollywood star, the Kings of Kings is still mesmerizing us and his unknown whereabouts are turning him into a serious urban legend. The latest story sees the King of Kings slowly turning into a schizophrenic/paranoiac erratic mess.

While Obama has spent the last days receiving and giving praises during his three-day state visit to the United kingdom, he will tomorrow fly to Deauville in France, accompanied by British Prime Minister David Cameron, where both leaders will attend the G8 summit.

After bilateral talks and a much talked about barbecue, both held at Ten Downing Street, Barack Obama continued his three-day state visit to the United Kingdom with a joint press conference where he and British Prime Minister David Cameron answered questions posed by the press.

Barack Obama is currently holding talks with David Cameron in Downing Street, with the conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya expected to be high on the agenda of the bilateral talks that are expected to last about 90 minutes.

After a much mediatised first day of his state visit, Obama will today address MPs and peers in Westminster Hall giving his visit a much more political twist. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will also attend the meeting, where the state of the global economy, counter-terrorism the Nato-led operation in Libya and on-going recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa and the conflict in Afghanistan are expected to be high on the agenda.

In 2009 Obama went on his first official visit to Europe with a planned In 2009 ObamaIa five-nation tour in which he was said to be determined to tackle almost every global problem. He came out of the G20 as victorious as he managed to broker a deal a deal at the G20 summit in London, which he has hailed as a "turning point" in the economic crisis. The negotiations were however tough as French PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to walk out from what he said were "false compromises"...

Ahead of the US president's visit in Europe a lot has been said about the implications of the trip on the U.S-E.U relationships. What seems to be a little bit confusing is however whether it is the president who hopes to reassure his counterparts on the strength and importance of their relationship or whether his counter-parts expect him to do so.

Following the U.S. President's European trip, critics in the United States have claimed the president is using it as a way to deflect attention from the domestic issues that preoccupy Americans. For several months, Barack Obama's ratings on the economy have plummeted which, given that the 2012 election approaches, cannot be good news for the President.

Us President Barack Obama's trip to Europe is indeed quite a trip as it will include visits to Ireland, Britain, France and Poland and a G-8 summit. The visit will start with Ireland, and finish with Poland.

Yesterday in his latest major speech on the Middle East, President Obama pledged American support for pro-democracy uprisings in the region. However, in the Gulf, commentators are criticising what they see as a safe choice. They insist that the speech didn't cover new ground, was short on policy prescriptions, and that the president missed a chance to apologise for America's history of supporting the dictators people revolted against. Has Obama then missed the chance of opening "a new c...

Obama's speech was of broad scope, with the US leader tackling different issues in different countries while using this as an opportunity to give the US response to the Middle East uprisings and regime changes. He pledged international economic support for countries undergoing democratic change, notably Egypt and Tunisia and warned Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to lead transition in his country, or to "get out of the way".

Colonel Gaddafi will inevitably leave or be forced from power, says Barack Obama, after NATO allies continue their bombing campaign.

A recording allegedly made by former Al-Qaeda number one Osama Bin Laden shortly before he died has been released. The 12 minute long message sees him praise the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and speak of a "rare historic opportunity" for Muslims to rise up against the "tyrants". He repeatedly refers to and encourages the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt but does not mention Bahrain, Syria, Libya or even Yemen.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first ever permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to promote the rule of law and ensure that the gravest international crimes do not go unpunished and is complementary to national criminal jurisdictions.It was set up in the wake of genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and created in 2002 by the Rome Statute Treaty.While the court is widely understood to be a great international achievement, it has also been cri...

Yesterday the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, raising as they did so an interesting question. Why does the ICC only seem to target African despots?

While the headlines surrounding the Libyan conflict are becoming more and more political with The ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo seeking the arrest of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and two others for crimes against humanity, and Russia and America taking opposite positions over NATO’s strategy, how is the Libyan conflict really evolving, if at all, and will NATO keep its hard-line policies?

Nato airstrikes in Libya against the forces of Colonel Gaddafi should be stepped up to include infrastructure targets, the head of the British Armed Forces has said.