Indian rebels deadline extended

21 March 2012 Last updated at 04:08 GMT  Mr Bosusco runs an adventure tourism agency in Orissa Maoist rebels in eastern India have extended a deadline for their demands to met in exchange for returning two Italian men they kidnapped last week to late Wednesday.

A deadline of Sunday for their list of 13 demands to be met was earlier extended to late Tuesday.

The rebels have demanded an end to military operations against them and the release of jailed Maoists.

They say the two Italians are safe and in good condition.

Paulo Bosusco, 54, and Claudio Colangelo, 61, were seized while trekking in a tribal area of Orissa state, one of several regions of India where Maoist rebels are active.

Talks over the Italians' release are stalled because of differences between the government and rebels over mediators.

On Tuesday, the rebels named three mediators, including one Maoist leader who is in prison.

The government rejected two of the names and announced its list of three mediators. The rebels responded with fresh names as replacements, but one of the replacements has refused to negotiate for the rebels.

No violence

The Maoists have said said they would not engage in violence until the expiry of the deadline and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said security forces would halt operations against the rebels during talks.

This is the first time Westerners have been kidnapped in Orissa state by Maoists.

Main states where Maoist groups operate

A Maoist spokesman accused the pair of photographing bathing women.

The Orissa government recently imposed severe restrictions on the movement of tourists inside areas inhabited by tribes people.

Mr Bosusco ran an adventure tourism agency in Orissa while Mr Colangelo was visiting from Italy.

Italian Consul General Joel Melchiori has told the BBC he was working with Orissa officials to find a solution.

The abduction comes at a time of strained relations between Italy and India.

They have been involved in a diplomatic dispute since Indian police arrested two Italian marines a month ago in the southern port of Kochi. The pair are accused of killing two Indian fishermen.

The Maoists have a strong presence in many eastern states, and have been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's biggest security threat.

In his first remarks on the kidnapping, he said "the abduction of two foreign national recently is a reminder of the challenge to our internal security by Naxal [Maoist] and left-wing extremism."

The rebels say they are fighting for a communist state and for the rights of tribal people and the rural poor.

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Gaddafi must face trial in Libya before ICC: rebels (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi must face trial in Libya before being transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel National Council Tuesday.

Ghoga told Egyptian state television that Gaddafi, who was indicted by the ICC in May for war crimes, was still in Libya and there was no chance that he will escape.

"Gaddafi is still in Libya, if not in Tripoli, then he may have sneaked to the center (of the country) or the south," Ghoga said.

"We are keen to capture Gaddafi and to try him in Libya before he is tried in the criminal court," he added.

Libyan rebels were searching for the Libyan leader who ruled the North African Arab country for 42 years after they stormed his headquarters in Tripoli Tuesday.

Asked if the rebels would allow Gaddafi an escape route, Ghoga said: "This is impossible. There is no chance for him to escape at all. Gaddafi has no choice."

(Reporting by Ali Abdelatti; Writing by Sami Aboudi)

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Libyan rebels capture part of Brega, push north

SHALGHOUDA/BENGHAZI, Libya — Libyan rebels said they had captured part of the oil town of Brega on Thursday while their forces in the west pushed toward Zawiyah, trying to get within striking distance of Muammar Gaddafi's capital.

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Gaddafi is clinging to power despite a near five-month-old NATO air campaign, tightening economic sanctions, and a lengthening war with rebels trying to end his 41-year rule.

The rebels have seized large swathes of the North African state, but are deeply divided and lack experience, and Thursday's gains in the east broke weeks of stalemate.

One rebel spokesman said the opposition had captured the residential districts of Brega but Gaddafi's forces still hold western parts of the town where the oil facilities are located.

"It is liberated. It is under our control now," spokesman Mossa Mahmoud al-Mograbi said of the eastern part of the town.

The residential area where the fighting was taking place is about 15 km (9 miles) east of the oil terminal and sea port.

It was not immediately possible for a Reuters reporter to verify the capture of Brega and rebels have repeatedly claimed to have seized towns, only to be repelled by Gaddafi's forces.

In the western mountains, rebels said they reached the village of Bir Shuaib, some 25 km (15 miles) from Zawiyah, which has unsuccessfully risen up against Gaddafi twice this year.

It lies less than 50 km west of Tripoli, on the main road to Tunisia, which has been a lifeline for Libya but has begun to crack down on rampant smuggling of gasoline.

"We've gone past Nasr village and right now we're about 25 km from Zawiyah," said Faris, a rebel fighter. Rebels prevented reporters from reaching the front to see for themselves.

Rebels in the western mountains do not operate as a single force, as each town has its own command. But when they join forces for major operations they can muster a few thousand men.

Their force is poorly trained and short of heavy weapons, despite a French arms drop earlier this year, and most analysts do not think they are capable of capturing Tripoli.

NATO HELP

In an effort to pile economic and military pressure on Gaddafi, more countries are set to announce next week that they will free frozen assets for the rebels, a British official said.

"While it's hard to predict when this will end, it's easy to see the pressure is building on Gaddafi and it is only a matter of time before he's forced to leave power," the official said.

Britain is playing a leading role in NATO air strikes against Gaddafi's forces, which have weakened his armory but have not enabled the rebels to deliver a knockout blow.

Tightening the economic noose around Gaddafi, Tunisia said on Thursday its troops were patrolling fuel stations to curb the flow of smuggled gasoline into neighboring Libya.

International sanctions and the effects of Libya's civil war have disrupted normal supplies of fuel to parts of the country under Gaddafi's control, but huge volumes of gasoline are instead being smuggled across the Libyan-Tunisian border.

"The armed forces are now conducting checks at fuel stations in the south of Tunisia ... so that neither Tunisians nor Libyans can fill up with large quantities," Tunisian defense ministry official Mokhtar Ben Nasr told a news conference.

"These checks are aimed at preventing the smuggling of diesel and gasoline to Libya."

BREGA PROGRESS REPORT

The western battle is one of three widely separated rebel fronts against Gaddafi forces. In the east around the ports of Misrata and Brega, fighting had been bogged down in recent weeks while the western rebels have advanced.

The two sides have been battling for months over Brega, 750 km east of Tripoli. The rebels see securing the oil facilities as a tipping point in the war and hope to resume oil exports from there as quickly as possible.

In the west, doctor Nuri Al-Fasi said one fighter had been killed and four wounded on Thursday in the rebel push.

At a nearby field hospital, he looked over a rebel shot in the stomach in the fighting in Nasr. "This is very serious. I don't think he will make it," said al-Fasi, shaking his head.

Dozens of pick-up trucks packed with rebels drove to a staging post a few kilometers behind the front line.

From rebel-held Misrata, east of Tripoli, rebels were fighting to break a partial encirclement by Gaddafi forces, striking south into the nearby village of Tawurgha.

Medical sources said six rebels were killed and 70 wounded in their offensive on Tawurgha, from which Gaddafi's supporters have been firing rockets at Misrata for weeks.

"Our rebels have just liberated Tawurgha. This is great news ... as this means that the rockets of Gaddafi's forces cannot reach Misrata anymore," said rebel spokesman Hassan Algallay.

Rebels said the offensive was led in coordination with NATO to protect Misrata from missile attacks. He said NATO asked rebels on Wednesday to paint their vehicles yellow and red.

The offensive comes days after Gaddafi's government accused NATO of killing 85 civilians, including women and children, in an air strike near Zlitan, west of rebel-held Misrata.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon voiced alarm over recent reports of civilian casualties and called on all sides to avoid killing innocent people.

Dozens of Libyans protested outside the Hungarian embassy in Tripoli, which has become an unofficial contact point for European nations and the United States, against NATO airstrikes.

Rights group Amnesty International also called on NATO in a statement to "thoroughly investigate" allegations of civilian deaths in the strikes on the village of Majar, close to the front line at Zlitan. NATO said it hit a military target.

(Created by Lin Noueihed)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Somali refugees pack capital after rebels quit (Reuters)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Thousands of Somali refugees, fleeing famine and years of violence, streamed into Mogadishu on Monday searching for food after Islamist rebels withdrew from the capital.

The al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab insurgents began pulling their fighters out of Mogadishu over the weekend, raising hopes that humanitarian groups would be able to step up aid deliveries after years of blockages by the militant group.

Locals told Reuters long lines of refugees were now heading to the battle-scarred city to escape the region's worst drought in decades, and existing supplies were already running low.

The United Nations says about 3.6 million people are at risk of starvation in Somalia and about 12 million people across the Horn of Africa region, including in Ethiopia and Kenya.

"Now thousands ... are on the way from Bakool and Bay (regions) to Mogadishu," Sherif Isak, 58, a refugee in Badbaado camp on the outskirts of the capital, told Reuters.

"I cannot say it will rain but I am sure life will improve if al Shabaab melts away. More agencies will come and people will get food and jobs," he said.

Al Shabaab withdrew four years into their battle to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government, an insurgency that has driven the chaotic country deeper into anarchy.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre 20 years ago, and peace is a distinct prospect.

The militants, hostile to any Western intervention, have blocked humanitarian deliveries in the past, saying aid creates dependency. Aid agencies say they have been unable to reach more than 2 million Somalis facing starvation in rebel-held territories.

Days after al Shabaab's departure, the first of three flights from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR landed in Mogadishu Monday, carrying more than 31 tons of shelter material, including blankets and jerricans for water.

Local officials said they were cautiously hopeful.

"If ongoing aid flights keep coming to Mogadishu, we are optimistic that people will survive," Fartun Abdisalan Adam, a local rights group official told Reuters in Mogadishu.

But existing supplies were running low. "The refugees are still storming the capital in search of food and there is not enough food for them to survive in the capital," she added.

Somalia's struggling government hailed the rebels' exit as a major victory but al Shabaab said their withdrawal was just tactical and promised to return, and analysts said the exit could herald a wave of al Qaeda-style suicide attacks.

CAR BLAST

Monday afternoon, a suicide car bomb detonated prematurely 13 km (8 miles) south of Mogadishu, officials said.

"We understand a car full of explosives detonated unexpectedly. Only the driver died, but two civilians were also injured," said Captain Ndayiragije Come, a spokesman for the African Union (AU) peace keeping force, AMISOM.

"The suicide car bomb was heading to Mogadishu. Al Shabaab has not given up war. They are masterminding more blasts but we are very alert."

Mogadishu residents said they still felt far from secure. Many feared fresh fighting between government troops and remnants of the rebel force hiding out in the capital.

Militants have threatened to behead anyone who betrayed their fighters to the police.

"I think this is one of the riskiest operating environments of any humanitarian operation in the world right now so I think sure, there's risk of an uptick in the fighting, there are all sorts of risks," a senior U.S. official traveling with the delegation of Jill Biden, the wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden was visiting Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp just over Somalia's border in neighboring Kenya. Dadaab, declared full in 2008, has seen an influx of about 1,500 Somali refugees a day since late July.

"There's such a great influx every single day ... coming in here that I think it's just getting overwhelming for them to handle it all. We need to stay ahead of it," Biden told reporters.

(Additional reporting and writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by James Macharia)

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Libya rebels dissolve cabinet after chief's death

BENGHAZI, Libya — Libyan rebels on Monday dissolved their executive committee, or cabinet, after procedural errors in the handling of the unexplained shooting dead 12 days ago of their military chief.

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The 14-member executive committee, including officials responsible for defense and interior affairs, was sacked and a new one will be nominated by Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, National Transitional Council (NTC) media director Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said.

Rebel commander Abdel Fattah Younes was killed on July 28 after being taken into custody by his own side for questioning, throwing into question the unity of the NTC, just as it was winning broader international recognition.

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Opposition leaders have linked his killing to elements loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"They've all been dismissed," Abdulmolah told Reuters. "There were administrative errors that they were held responsible for."

The killing of Younes, a former interior mister under Gadhafi who defected to the rebels soon after Libya's uprising began in February, rocked the rebel movement and raised fears of fighting among opposition factions.

Supporters of Younes, including leaders of his large tribe, have demanded a full and transparent investigation, amid talk that rivals in the opposition camp may have been responsible.

The NTC, under the leadership of Mustafa Abdel Jalil and recognized by about 30 countries, is not affected by the dismissal of the executive and some of its members could be brought back when a new committee is formed, Abdulmolah said.

"It's part of the maturing of the revolution, holding people responsible," he added. "It's healthy. The NTC is still the highest authority."

The killing of Younes deepened concern among the rebels' Western backers, including the United States, who are keen to see them prevail in a nearly six month old civil war but are frustrated by their lack of unity and nervous about the influence of Islamists.

"Given the shortcomings in the performance of some members of the executive committee with regard to this crisis and this incident, the Council has decided to form a new committee," rebel spokesman Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga told Al Jazeera television.

Younes was part of the group involved in the 1969 coup that brought Gadhafi to power. He occupied senior positions at Gadhafi's side, and was interior minister before he defected.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Germany lends Libya rebels $144 million

Libyan rebel fighters attend the funeral of comrades killed during clashes with loyalist troops in the city of Benghazi on July 22.NEW: Rebel forces fight to hold on to village of QawalishGermany to lend money for "civilian and humanitarian purposes"Statement: The money ultimately will be repaid from unfrozen assetsGermany previously announced a smaller loan of $10 million

(CNN) -- Germany announced Sunday it has agreed to lend 100 million euros ($144 million) to the rebels in Libya for "civilian and humanitarian purposes" despite staying out of NATO's bombing campaign against Libyan government forces.

Germany had previously announced a loan of $10 million (7 million euros) for humanitarian aid to the Transitional National Council, the rebel movement that is battling to unseat longtime Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

"Because of Colonel Gadhafi's war against his own people, the situation in Libya is very difficult," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement announcing the loan. "There is a major lack of funds to build infrastructure, as well as a shortage of needed goods, ranging from medical supplies to food."

Germany has not participated in the NATO-led military effort in Libya and abstained from the U.N. Security Council vote that authorized military action to protect civilians from Gadhafi's forces. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in June that her country shares the hope "that this NATO mission is successful."

Merkel also said Germany was supporting the NATO mission by providing increased resources to the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan, freeing other nations to contribute to the Libyan campaign.

Germany has recognized the rebels as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people and established a liaison office with the opposition in Benghazi in May.

Berlin indicated Sunday that the loan will eventually be repaid by the Transitional National Council, using frozen assets from the Gadhafi regime. The statement indicated the reimbursement would happen "when the U.N. Security Council unfreezes the assets for a legitimate Libyan government."

By agreeing to the loan, Germany added itself to a growing number of nations, including Turkey and Qatar, that have announced plans to hand over millions of dollars in frozen Gadhafi assets to the rebel council in Benghazi.

In an interview with CNN last week, the finance minister for the internationally isolated Libyan government in Tripoli warned that the proposed reallocation of frozen funds would violate international law.

"The international monetary system cannot withstand action in this manner," said Abdulhafid Zlitni. "If you are freezing, through United Nations Security Council action, funds for any country, then you can't confiscate it. There are legal obligations of the banks."

Also on Sunday, rebel forces fought to hold on to Qawalish, a key Libyan village along a major north-south route. Rebel fighter Talha Jwaili told CNN that Gadhafi forces advanced from nearby Al-Asaba using heavy machinery. The rebels called in a large rebel force from Zintan, a city 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, and "managed to repel the Gadhafi forces after a fierce fight that lasted almost four hours," Jwaili said.

One person died in the fighting, Jwaili said -- his 16-year-old cousin, Youssef Jwaili, son of the Zintan military commander. Several others were injured, Jwaili said.

State TV, meanwhile, offered a different version of events. It reported "armed gangs and the colonialist crusader alliance" attacked a march of Libyan tribes at the entrance of Qawalish. It broadcast video of a convoy of civilian vehicles with passengers waving green government flags. It also showed video of people being treated at a hospital.

In a speech last week, Gadhafi called on his supporters to march -- unarmed -- to reclaim rebel-controlled cities and towns.

"A million should march to Benghazi and liberate it from the traitors without any weapons," the strongman said. "Even without weapons, we can cleanse the western mountains by the march of men and women."

CNN's Ivan Watson in Tripoli, Kareem Khadder in Tunisia and Frederik Pleitgen in Cairo contributed to this report.

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