Shageletic posted:

poo poo getting real-er?

quote:

22:39 European Parliament urges the recognising of the Libyan Transitional Council as legitimate. There is currently no consensus amongst all the EU countries to recongise the council’s legitimacy.

quote:

22:35 The White House issues a statement saying that the UN resolution is sufficiently flexible to allow the arming of the revolutionaries in Libya if the necessity arose.

quote:

21:55 @ChangeInLibya tweets: Confirmation from Zawia. Centre under control, troops pushed 2-5km out. They captured dozens of mercenaries and killed more

quote:

22:15 Al Jazeera reports that Libya’s oil production has dropped by 70%

Namarrgon posted:

Why does he care that much about Zawiyah anyway? Is it merely the closest large settlement?

Namarrgon posted:

Why does he care that much about Zawiyah anyway? Is it merely the closest large settlement?

Namarrgon posted:

Why does he care that much about Zawiyah anyway? Is it merely the closest large settlement?

Namarrgon posted:

Why does he care that much about Zawiyah anyway? Is it merely the closest large settlement?

Freigeist posted:

It's less than an hour's drive from Tripoli, so it had to be contained to keep the uprising from spreading.
The important road to the Tunisian border goes right through the city, so it has strategic importance. A major oil refinery is also located there, I think.
Not to mention it's the largest city west of Tripoli, 4th largest in Libya. Taking it back, or destroying it if he can't, sends a strong message to the remaining revolting cities that are much less important (except Misurata and, of course, Benghazi). Like: "Give up or I'm going to crush you, I don't give a gently caress."

Jack Napier posted:

I removed the guy behind him for those that want to turn it into an Av or something:

quote:

RABAT — Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Wednesday announced a "comprehensive constitutional reform" to be put to the people in a referendum, in his first speech following uprisings across the Arab world.
Less than a month after protests erupted in Morocco demanding more social justice and limits on his powers, the king pledged to draw up a new draft constitution by June.

"We have decided to undertake a comprehensive constitutional reform," King Mohammed said, underlining his "firm commitment to giving a strong impetus to the dynamic and deep reforms... taking place."

The monarch announced the formation of a commission to work on the constitutional revisions, with proposals to be made to him by June.

A referendum would be held on the draft constitution, he added.

The live broadcast was the first time the king has delivered an address to the nation since thousands of people demonstrated in several cities on February 20 demanding political reform and limits on his powers.
They were the first protests in the country since the start of the uprisings across the Arab world that toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt this year.

There have been other peaceful rallies since then, including in the capital Rabat and the country's biggest city Casablanca, with young activists campaigning for greater democracy using the Facebook social network to call for new demonstrations on March 20.

Six people were killed in unrest that erupted after the February 20 demonstrations, including five found burned to death in a bank set ablaze by people whom officials labelled vandals.

Another 128, including 115 members of the security forces, were wounded in the violence and 120 people were arrested, the interior ministry said.

Dozens of vehicles and buildings were also damaged or set alight.

On February 21, during the launch of an Economic and Social Council, the king spoke of his commitment to "pursuing the realisation of structural reforms".

He also expressed his willingness to "strengthen" the country's accomplishments "by new reforms".

An advisor to King Mohammed VI also told union leaders late last month that the monarch wanted reforms, without specifying what they would be or when they would be introduced, according to a union activist at the meeting.

The advisor, Mohammed Moatassim, said "that the king has decided to start political, economic and social reforms", Democratic Federation of Labour secretary general Abderrahmane Azzouzi told AFP.

He also "specified that Morocco cannot remain indifferent to what is happening around it", Azzouzi said.
The Moroccan government has said it had heard the demands for more change and was committed to speeding up reforms, which it said were already on its national agenda.

Lareous posted:

You made me do this!

Elliptical Dick posted:

A BBC news team has been detained by pro-Gaddafi forces and subjected to beatings and a mock execution reports the BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12695077

Tadhg posted:

That's horrifying; I wonder what kind of orders/structure those soldiers are working under that makes them believe that they're justified in their actions.

Tadhg posted:

That's horrifying; I wonder what kind of orders/structure those soldiers are working under that makes them believe that they're justified in their actions.

Ham posted:

So Mohamed El Baradei was on TV for 3 continuous hours in a landmark interview. Never thought I'd see a politician declare themselves socialist that easily.

Lareous posted:

You made me do this!

ChaosSamusX posted:

I'm going to go ahead and assume you are also from North America. Everywhere else in the Western world (and many places elsewhere), about half the socialists will openly call themselves socialist.

ChaosSamusX posted:

I'm going to go ahead and assume you are also from North America. Everywhere else in the Western world (and many places elsewhere), about half the socialists will openly call themselves socialist.

Ham posted:

So Mohamed El Baradei was on TV for 3 continuous hours in a landmark interview. Never thought I'd see a politician declare themselves socialist that easily.

King Dopplepopolos posted:

Did he really call himself a socialist? In the event that he's elected, what are the odds that some foreign intelligence agency *cough* CIA *cough* topples him and installs another dictator?*

*Half kidding

Slantedfloors posted:

He needs to come back from the left by firing the opposite way.

Ghetto Prince posted:

This has been ,what, 20 days now? If he destroyed the entire city it would be a victory for Gadaffi in the same way that the Alamo was a victory for Santa Anna.

Spiky Ooze posted:

As we've seen from Abu Ghraib or the Stanford prison experiment, all you have to do is tell some of these grunts to terrify people and they will. Hell, a few people are hard wired to get a boner from this kind of thing, as sad a fact as that is.

Lareous posted:

Crazy Ted posted:

The BBC is reporting that one of their reporting teams trying to get to one of the big cities in Libya was detained for 21 hours and everyone on the team was beaten and possibly sexually assaulted.

Eh poo poo I was beaten badly.

Lareous posted:

Ham posted:

EDIT: He also criticized some of the new constitutional amendments, which demands that a presidential candidate be of "pure Egyptian birth" and not to hold dual-citizenship or be married to a foreigner or a woman with dual-citizenship, even if he drops said citizenship. He said the focus on "pure Egyptian birth" reminded him of Hitler. He also said he'd vote No on the vote for the amendments taking place March 19th.

Lareous posted:

Al-Saqr posted:

“ Protestors are apostates” – The religious establishment.

quadratic posted:

While I agree with his objections, (quadratic 2015 ) wouldn't it be better to get these amendments in and then decide later whether to amend it further or start anew? The current constitution is unworkable as it stands.

Al-Saqr posted:

SPECIAL SAUDI ARABIA REPORT BY Al-Saqr

Al-Saqr posted:

By the way, would now be a prudent time to open up an ask/tell thread on how to survive a societal breakdown?

Al-Saqr posted:

SPECIAL SAUDI ARABIA REPORT BY Al-Saqr

quote:

Good morning. Welcome to live coverage of events in Libya and the response of the international community to the crisis.

Here's a summary of the latest developments:

• A fresh bombardment has been launched on the eastern oil port of Ras Lanuf, rebel fighters and witnesses said. Bombs or missiles were landing a few km (miles) from Ras Lanuf oil refinery and close to a building of the Libyan Emirates Oil Referiny Company building, a Reuters witness said. "One bomb landed on a civilian house in Ras Lanuf," rebel fighter Izeddine Sheikhy told Reuters. He said the bombardment seemed to have come from the direction of the sea. This could not be confirmed.

• Britain is pressing for an EU emergency summit declaration calling for Muammar Gaddafi to step down. EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the crisis in Libya. In a joint letter with Germany, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the EU should agree a declaration that "the EU and its member states will not work or co-operate with Gaddafi and that he has to step aside to allow for a true democratic transformation of the country".

• Nato defence ministers are also meeting in Brussels to discuss their response to events in Libya, including the possibility of a no-fly zone. But Nato's secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance had no intervention of intervening and would only do so if the security council called for it. However, he did indicate its stance could change "if the regime continue to attack their own people". A Nato source said not only would there be no decision on a no-fly zone by the notoriously slow-moving organisation, but it was unlikely there would be a joint communique either. Gaddafi, in spite of outrageous acts against his own people, had not done enough to trigger intervention under international law, the source admitted.

• The UK defence secretary, Liam Fox, who will be attending the Nato meeting, has rejected a claim by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates that enforcing a no-fly zone would have to begin with a military attack to destroy Libya's air defences. Asked if his American counterpart was wrong, he told BBC Radio 4's Today: "That is one military option but there are other military options. "In Iraq that was not the way that we carried out the no-fly zone - there are alternatives. Rather than taking out air defences, you can say that 'if your air defence radar locks on to any of our aircraft, we regard that as a hostile act and we would take subsequent action'. "We would want to look at all of these."

• Russia is to ban all weapons sales to Libya, the Kremlin said in a statement today, effectively suspending billions of dollars worth of arms contracts with the Gaddafi regime. The Kremlin decree brings Moscow in line with an arms embargo and other punitive measures imposed in a 26 February United Nations security council resolution against Libya. Russia's state-owned arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport said yesterday it had lost $2bn (£1.2bn) worth of arms contracts with Gaddafi's government due to the UN sanctions against Tripoli. The daily Kommersant reported last week Russia had also been near to closing deals to sell military aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles worth another $1.8 billion.

• Journalists working for the BBC in Libya have been arrested, tortured and subjected to a mock execution by security forces of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime.