Libya, Syria and Middle East unrest - live updates
Nato operation in Libya to end on October 31
Saif al-Islam headed to Mali - Niger official
Gaddafi killers 'to be put on trial'
Arab spring activists honoured by European Parliament
Read the latest summary
4.14pm: Twenty-five Egyptians are crossing from Israel into Egypt in exchange for a US-Israeli citizen jailed in Cairo on suspicion of espionage, AP reports:
Egypt arrested Ilan Grapel (pictured), 27, in June, setting off new concerns that Egypt-Israel relations would sour after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.Under the swap deal, Grapel is to fly from Cairo to Israel later Thursday.
Grapel was volunteering at a legal aid group in Cairo when he was arrested and accused of spying for Israel during the uprising that overthrew Mubarak in February. Israel denied the espionage allegations, as did Grapel's family and friends.
4.01pm: The Local Co-ordination Committees, which report on protests in Syria, say seven people have been killed in Syria today. Four of those were in Homs, where it said 10 people were killed yesterday, two in Dara'a, including a 14-year-old in Daeel (see 12.10pm), and one in Jableh, a ! coastal city on the Mediterranean.
Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified.
3.37pm: The 15-nation UN security council unanimously approved the resolution terminating the UN mandate, which set the no-fly zone over Libya and permitted foreign military forces, including Nato, to use "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.
The resolution said the UN authorisation for foreign military operations in Libya will lapse at 11.59 pm local Libyan time on 31 October.
3.23pm: The UN security council has voted to terminate the mandate allowing Nato to carry out military operations in Libya. This means operations will conclude at the end of the month.
Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil had said Nato should remain involved in Libya until the end of the year to help prevent Gaddafi loyalists from leaving the country.
3.17pm: Here is some more on the news that the Libyan interim government has said it will put Gaddafi's killers on trial.
NTC vice-chair Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told al-Arabiya:
With regards to Gaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us. We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army. Whoever is responsible for that (Gaddafi's killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.
3.10pm: An adviser to the president of Niger says that Gaddafi's intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senoussi, has reached the Kidal region of Mali overnight after crossing through the Niger desert, and that Saif al-Islam is is also on his way, AP reports.
The adviser, speaking anonymously, said that Senoussi had been escorted across the dunes by Malian Tuaregs and is in a desert camp in the region of Kidal in northern Mali. Gaddafi's son is expected to follow! the sam e route.
The pair are wanted by the international criminal court and the interim government in Libya claimed on Wednesday that Islam and Senoussi were proposing that they hand themselves in to the court.
3.04pm: Saif al-Islam is under the protection of South African mercenaries, according to an AFP report, which cites the South African newspaper, the Beeld:
The South Africans were hired by a company with close ties to Gaddafi, training his presidential guard and handling some of his offshore financial dealings, the Afrikaans-language paper said.
South Africans have also reportedly been involved in transporting Gadhafi's gold, diamonds and foreign currency to Niger, and helping his wife and three of children flee Tripoli, the paper said.
Planes are waiting at a Johannesburg airport and in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to fly the South Africans out of Libya, the Beeld said ...
They are all seasoned operators abroad and apparently become involved only by invitation in operations for which they receive large sums in US dollars," it said.
The report says that the group of South Africans includes fomer soldiers and policemen, some of whom were inovolved in the failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004. It adds that some were killed in the attack on Gaddafi's convoy a week ago.
2.41pm: The Libyan National Transitional Council has said Gaddafi's killers will be put on trial, according to al-Arabiya. It did not provide any more details.
Video footage of Gaddafi filmed just before and after his death provoked widespread revulsion outside Libya. The UN human rights office called for a full investigation into his death, as did human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Int! ernation al.
1.39pm: Here's a lunchtime summary:
Five Arab spring activists have been awarded the the European Parliament's Sakharov prize awarded to campaigners for freedom, according to AFP. They include Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisisan fruit seller whose death after he set himself on fire on December 17 last year is credited with inspiring the Arab spring, who was awarded the prize posthumously. The others were Egyptian Apri 6 youth movement co-founder 0Asmaa Mahfouz, Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi, and two Syrians involved in the current uprising, Razan Zeitouneh and Ali Farzat.
Libya
Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif-al Islam, has asked for a plane to take him out of Libya's southern desert so he can turn himself in to the international criminal court, a source within Libya's National Transitional Council has told Reuters. The NTC reported yesterday that Islam and the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi propose handing themselves in to the court. An ICC spokesman said the court was still trying to confirm whether this is true.
The former Libyan prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, has been freed by a Tunisian court despite an extradition request from the Libyan authorities. His lawyer argued in court that Mahmoudi's life could be in danger if Tunisia returned him to Libya. He fled Libya to neighbouring Tunisia soon after the rule of Gaddafi collapsed in August and had gone on hunger strike in protest against his possible extradition.
France's defence minister Gerard Longuet says he doesn't see a need to extend Nato's mission in Libya, despite a request by the new Libyan government. Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Nato should remain involved in Libya until the end of the year to help prevent Gaddafi loyalists from leaving the country.
Syria
A 14-year-old boy has been killed in Daeel, in Dara'a, activis! ts say, as observers and activists warn that the revolution is becoming more violent. Four civilians have been killed today, according to activists. Opposition figures are calling tomorrow's - now traditional - protests after Friday prayers, the Friday of the no-fly zone, calling on Syrians to be granted the same protection from the Assad regime that the Libyan activists were given from Gaddafi.
A massive rally in support of Bashar al-Assad has been taking place in the coastal city of Lattakia. It follows a large pro-regime demonstration in Damascus yesterday.
Egypt
A military source has told Ahram Online that the army is not behind the "Egypt Above All Coalition" that is calling for Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi to be the country's next president. Posters supporting Tantawi have appeared in several districts of Cairo and Alexandria, sparking fears that the armed forces may try to cling to power. But the source said the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is committed to its promise to transfer power to a civilian authority after the transitional period has ended.
1.08pm: Five Arab Spring activists have won the European Parliament's Sakharov prize awarded to campaigners for freedom, AFP reports, citing a parliamentary source.
The winners include Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisisan fruit seller whose death after he set himself on fire on December 17 last year is credited with inspiring the Arab spring.
The others awarded the prize, according to the source, are
Asmaa Mahfouz, who recorded a video (see below) that became an inspiration for the Egyptian uprising and co-founded the influential April 6 youth movement in Egypt.
Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi, 77, who spent ! 31 years behind bars for opposing the Gaddafi regime
Razan Zeitouneh, a 34-year-old lawyer who is one of the leaders of the committees co-ordinating the revolt against Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat, who was badly beaten in August becuase of his satirical works that target governmnet figures.
12.29pm: A Tunisian court has freed former Libyan prime minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi (left) despite an extradition request from Libyan authorities, his lawyer told Reuters:
"The court ruled to free him from prison," Mabrouk Korchid said. Confirming the report, a judicial source said al-Mahmoudi was now a free man.
Mahmoudi fled Libya to neighbouring Tunisia soon after the rule of Muammar Gaddafi collapsed in August and had gone on hunger strike in protest against his possible extradition.
In an interview this month with Reuters conducted via his lawyer, Mahmoudi said he was not involved in repression during Gaddafi's 42-year rule and wanted to cooperate with Libya's new interim government.
Mahmoudi, Libyan prime minister from 2006, was the highest-ranking member of Gaddafi's administration now in detention. During the civil war this year, he gave televised briefings defending Gaddafi and accusing Nato of deliberately killing civilians.
Korchid had argued in court that Mahmoudi's life could be in danger if Tunisia returned him to Libya.
12.21pm: As reports of the uprising becoming more violent continue, the Syrian opposition is naming tomorrow's protest "the Friday of the no-fly zone" (see left). They are calling for the same protection that was offered to Gaddafi's opponents in Libya. Friday has become the traditional day of protest during the Arab spring, with each Friday in Syria given a different title.
12.10pm: At least four people have been killled! in Syri a today, including a 14-year-old boy, activists say.
Activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees, named the 14-year-old, killed in the southern village of Dael, in Dara'a as Amjad Hamed Assimy. A very distressing video has been posted online (WARNING: graphic), purporting to be of Amjad. It shows blood pouring from his head as another boy calls his name in the background.
Activists say security forces have arrested more than 100 people in Dara'a today, according to al-Arabiya.
11.48am: State-run Syrian TV is broadcasting footage of another massive pro-regime gathering in support of President Bashar al-Assad, following yesterday's large pro-Assad demonstration in the capital.
This one is in the coastal city of Lattakia. Video footage on YouTube shows people waving Syrian flags, carrying portraits of Assad and chanting in support of the reform measures proposed by the president.
Both the Assad regime and the opposition have been trying to illustrate the strength of their respective support as an Arab League delegation visits Syria to try to promote dialogue between the sides to end the bloodshed.
11.32am: The US-based Syrian activist Ammar Abdulhamid writes that the success of yesterday's general strike "could help compensate for the increasing militarisation of the revolution in certain parts of the country".
Abdulhamid says soldiers affiliated with the Free Syria Army actually killed 11 Assad loyalists in Hama province yesterday, two more than the the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said were killed.
Meanwhile, Abdulhamid said the "war" on Homs city is continuing. The video below purports to show Homs under heavy fire from shelling yesterday.
He has posted a number of videos illustrating the crackdown on Homs, including this, purportedly taken in the Qoussour neighbourhood last night, in which the sound of heavy gunfire can be heard.
11.05am: The international criminal court says it still has no information on the Libyan NTC claim that Saif al-Islam and Abdullah al-Senussi are proposing to hand themselves in to the court.
A spokeman told the Guardian:
There are terms of communication [with the NTC] through which we are trying to confirm the information.
10.45am: Saif al-Islam wants an aircraft to take him out of Libya's southern desert so he can turn himself in to The Hague war crimes court, a source with Libya's National Transitional Council has told Reuters:
The NTC source said Islam had not left Libya and was being sheltered by a prominent figure among the nomadic Tuareg people of the desert, whom he had supported financially in the past. The rugged and empty area close to the borders of Niger and Algeria has offered an escape route to others in his family. However, under ICC indictment, Islam would find it harder than his relatives to secure a safe haven abroad.
He was reported by an aide to be fearing for his life when he fled Bani Walid, and if he has seen the gruesome video footage of his father's capture, he is likely to be under few illusions about how he might be treated if he remains in Libya.
"Saif is concerned about his safety," the NTC source said. ! "He beli eves handing himself over is the best option for him."
The source said Saif Islam wanted the involvement of a third country - possibly Algeria or Tunisia - in a deal to get him to The Hague. "He wants to be sent an aircraft," the source said by telephone from Libya. "He wants assurances."
Islam's whereabouts and intentions had been tracked by monitoring satellite phone calls, the source said, together with information contained in intelligence cables.
9.33am: France's defence minister Gerard Longuet says he doesn't see a need to extend Nato's mission in Libya, despite a request by the new Libyan government.
Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Nato should remain involved in Libya until the end of the year to help prevent Gaddafi loyalists from leaving the country.
In an interview on France-Info radio Gerard Longuet said: "I don't exactly understand the need" to keep the operation going. He said the mission is continuing surveillance but is already "being dismantled rather quickly."
Last week announced preliminary plans to wind down the bombing campaign on October 31. It is due to meet on Friday to discuss ending the mission.
9.22am: Syrian blogger Hussein Ghrer hasn't been seen since he left his home on Monday, Global Voices reports.
A campaign has already begun for his release, it says. Activists put out this statement:
We demand the immediate disclosure of the fate of our friend and fellow blogger Hussein Ghrer and the release of all prisoners of conscience, since their detention is against the law and universal human rights. We also demand the end of persecution against freedom of speech, because blind force, no matter how strong it is, will stay blind, and will stumble until it falls for goo! d.8.34am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Here's a run down of the main developments:
Libya
Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son Saif al-Islam and his former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi are proposing to hand themselves in to the international criminal court, according to reports. But spokesman for the ICC, could not confirm the claim and it was separately reported that Senussi has fled to Niger.
Gaddafi's driver, Huneish Nasr who was with the former Libyan leader when he was captured and witnessed his burial, says other members of the inner circle may be dead. In an interview with the Guardian he said: "If any of the other close staff are still alive, I don't know where they are or what happened to them. The rest of them may be somewhere with the revolutionaries or they may be dead."
The killing of 53 suspected Gaddafi loyalist at a hotel in Sirte may amount to a war crime, Britain's defence minister Nick Harvey has admitted. Appearing before the defence select committee Harvey said "potentially" it was "prime facie case" of war crimes, but he said "virtually impossible for us [Britain] to investigate".
If the purpose of western intervention in Libya's civil war was to "protect civilians" and save lives, it has been a catastrophic failure, writes Seamus Milne.
Estimates of the numbers of dead ov! er the l ast eight months as Nato leaders vetoed ceasefires and negotiations range from 10,000 up to 50,000. The National Transitional Council puts the losses at 30,000 dead and 50,000 wounded. Of those, uncounted thousands will be civilians, including those killed by Nato bombing and Nato-backed forces on the ground. These figures dwarf the death tolls in this year's other most bloody Arab uprisings, in Syria and Yemen. Nato has not protected civilians in Libya it has multiplied the number of their deaths, while losing not a single soldier of its own.
Libya and Gaddafi's history reflects much of what is wrong with the global trade in arms, writes Andrew Feinstein former South African politician turned campaigner against the arms trade. If Gaddafi's demise is not followed by democracy but, instead, by in-fighting, those who would wage war for control will have a seemingly limitless supply of weapons to do so, he warns.
Syria
Representatives of the Arab League have had a "frank and friendly" discussion with president Bashar al-Assad while anti-government activists staged a general strike across the country. The Arab League said it was trying to foster dialogue in Syria, but it faces a daunting challenge in the heavily polarised, the LA Times reports.
US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is expected to return to Damascus in the next month, according to the US state department. Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: "He's bought his Thanksgiving turkey for his Embassy staff and he wants very much to have a Thanksgiving dinner for his folks there. So that's our expectation. It'll be some time before Thanksgiving."
A group of defectors, the Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for an attack that killed a military officer and eight soldiers in central Syria, in a further sign that the uprising is turning violent, according to the New York Times. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a rocket-propelled grenade had struck a vehicle carrying troops on the highway linking Hama and Salamiya.
Sectarian war is now a reality in Syria, according to the Independent's veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk. He also claimed that a pro-Assad demonstration was genuine. "There was no Saddam-style trucking of the people to the Omayad Square", he wrote despite activist video suggesting that the army had been involved in bussing in troops dressed as supporters.
Middle East analyst Juan Cole says Syria is close to civil war, but has not yet reached that stage.
The only ingredients lacking are battlefield skirmishes and a discrete insurgent guerilla force, though there are now flickers indicating that such a force is gradually being formed, especially through deserters from the military. Still, I wouldn't say that the conflict has quite risen to the level of civil war, since most deaths have occurred in the course of the repression of demonstrations by non-combatant civilians.
Egypt
Democracy activists have condemned the seven year sentence given to two policemen convicted of killing Khaled Said, whose death inspired Egypt's uprising. Said's family said they were "shocked" by the sentence, adding that the ! revoluti on was being "aborted".
A decision by the ruling generals to consider reintroducing a law on political treachery invites abuse and the arbitrary exclusion of individuals from politics, Human Rights Watch has warned. The law would allow the authorities to imprison anyone convicted of vaguely defined crimes of "political corruption" and to deprive them of the right to vote or run for office, it says.
Yemen
Hundreds of Yemeni women set fire to veils on Wednesday in protest at the government's crackdown on demonstrators. The women spread a black cloth across a main street in Sana'a and threw their full-body veils, known as makrama, on to a pile, sprayed it with oil and set it ablaze. As the flames rose, they chanted: "Who protects Yemeni women from the crimes of the thugs?"
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