Libya

The likelihood of a breakup of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland looked ominously closer today after the separatist Scottish National Party won an overall majority in elections for the devolved Scottish government.

NATO forces flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound early on Monday, in what a press official from Gaddafi's government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.

Makwaia wa Kuhenga writing for Tanzania's leading English language newspaper, The Citizen, on Sunday 17 April 2011, tells us he witnessed the Libyan troops of Colonel Qaddafi being mowed down, scores of them being buried and the rest rounded up and returned home. This was during a little known war in October 1978, now almost forgotten in the West, when Colonel Qaddafi gave military support to General Idi Amin of Uganda on his invasion and annexation of the Kagera salient in Tanzania.

Rebel forces in Libya are to begin exporting oil from the town of Tobruk, making for the first oil export in three weeks from the east of the country.

Shares in British banks were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as positive signs about the global economic recovery started to be outweighed by more immediate concerns.

Looking at the Sun and Daily Star newspapers on Thursday, 31 March 2011, one could be forgiven for being totally unaware of any conflict taking place in Libya. For any news on the current war, the Sun managed an article on page 13. The Daily star was bereft of any comment on the topic.

The head of the Royal Air Force has said that he expects operations over Libya to last at least six months and has said that the British government needs to increase funding to the service if it is to perform the tasks assigned to it by the government.

A coalition airstrike on a pro-Gaddafi supply convoy has reportedly killed seven civilians, some of them children.

Libyan rebels are reported to be preparing for a large counter attack, after losing significant ground to forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi.

The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has said that his government has not offered immunity to his Libyan counterpart, Moussa Koussa, who dramatically flew to Britain yesterday, allegedly in order to defect.

RAF Tornado aircraft yesterday attacked Libyan armoured vehicles and an anti-aircraft site during patrols to enforce UN Resolution 1973.

The American President, Barack Obama, has reportedly given authorisation to the CIA to conduct covert operations to help rebel forces in Libya.

The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has suggested that Great Britain may be willing to allow Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi to go into exile, rather than face trial at the International Criminal Court.

The British government is to host a meeting today of the international community to discuss the current situation in Libya and make plans for the future of the country.

The Royal Air Force launched attacks on pro-Gaddafi tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery over the weekend, the Ministry of Defence has said.

At the Arab Summit in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, 28 March, 2009, Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi grabbed a microphone as the conference was about to begin and denounced King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a "British product and American ally."

The Labour Party today held what it called a "listening exercise" on a scale hitherto unachieved by a British political party.

Military operations over Libya will be taken over by NATO in the next few days according to the British Foreign Secretary, William Hague.

The imposition of a no-fly zone in Libya has succeeded in one thing at least: it has enforced a stalemate onto what was seemingly the opening moves of the Libyan civil war.

Shares in British banks were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as investors continued to buy after last week's panic sell offs.

Below is the full text of a British government note explaining what it regards as the legal basis for using British military forces in Libya:

The British military and political leadership appears to be divided over whether Colonel Gaddafi is a legitimate target for airstrikes and missile attacks, following the passage of United Nations Resolution 1973.

Shares in British banks were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as investors started to regain their confidence after a spate of global events triggered panic selling.

The equity markets began to deteriorate weeks before the devastating natural disaster in Japan. Food inflation in the emerging markets and the ensuing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa causing an unwelcome spike in oil prices, and hawkish comments from the European Central Bank at a time when the continent's peripheral countries are struggling, collectively weighed on equity prices. Now news from Japan that is troublingly fluid regarding the earthquake's aftermath, which has soc...

Shares in British banks were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as news from around the world helped dampen the spirits of investors.

Shares in British banks were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as concerns about sovereign debt in the eurozone resurfaced.

During the height of the financial crisis, the U.S. dollar spiked as investors fled to the quality and safety of what is considered to be the world's reserve currency. Peaking in March 2009, the dollar has had but one strong rally since. That occurred in late spring 2010 as worries that the U.S. might experience a double-dip recession heightened. As equities were sold investors once again plowed into the valued destination of the dollar. In both instances the dollar's store of value be...

Libya appears to be in, or at least on the verge of, a civil war between Colonel Gaddafi loyalists and armed rebels who just a few weeks ago were merely anti-government protestors.

Shares in British banks were broadly up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after plans to broker a peace deal in Libya were mooted by the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.

Shares in British banks were broadly down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after HSBC reported its full year results for 2010.