Russia Condemns Syria Over Massacre Of 108 At Houla

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY and LYNN BERRY 05/28/12 08:25

BEIRUT — A weekend massacre of more than 100 people emerged as a potential turning point in the Syrian crisis Monday, galvanizing even staunch ally Russia to take an unusually hard line against President Bashar Assad's government.

Analysts said Russia may be warning Assad that he needs to change course or lose Moscow's support, which has been a key layer of protection for the Syrian government during the uprising that began in March 2011.

Russia has grown increasingly critical of Damascus in recent months, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's latest comments were unusually strong. Although he said opposition forces have terrorists among them, he put the blame for 15 months of carnage primarily on Assad's government.

"The government bears the main responsibility for what is going on," Lavrov said in Moscow following a meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "Any government in any country bears responsibility for the security of its citizens."

Alexei Malashenko, a Middle East expert with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Lavrov's comments suggest Russia may be backing away from its long-standing support for Damascus.

"Bashar Assad is driving himself and Russia into a corner," Malashenko said. "Bashar has definitely gotten the sense that he may lose Russia's sympathy, and he may step back a bit."

It is not clear whether Assad's forces were exclusively to blame for the slaughter of 108 people Friday in Houla, a collection of poor farming villages in Homs province. The United Nations said 49 children and 34 women were among the dead; some had bullet holes through their heads.

The U.N. Security Council blamed Syrian forces for artillery and tank shelling of residential areas, but it did not clearly state who was responsible for the close-range shooting deaths and "severe physical abuse" of civilians.

Activists from the area said the army pounded the villages with artillery and clashed with local rebels. They said pro-government gunmen later stormed the area, doing the bulk of the killing by gunning down men in the streets and stabbing women and children in their homes.

The Syrian government rejected that account entirely, saying soldiers were attacked in their bases and fought back in self-defense without leaving their bases.

Russia blamed both the government and the rebels for the Houla massacre.

"Both sides have obviously had a hand in the deaths of innocent people, including several dozen women and children," Lavrov said. "This area is controlled by the rebels, but it is also surrounded by the government troops."

He said Russia has no interest in propping up Assad but wants Syria to guide its own transition under a plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan.

"We don't support the Syrian government; we support Kofi Annan's plan," Lavrov said.

Moscow's pro-Syria stance has been motivated in part by its strategic and defense ties to Damascus, including weapons sales. Russia also rejects what it sees as a world order dominated by the U.S.

Losing Russian support could be disastrous for Assad because his crackdown has left him almost completely isolated internationally. Russia and China have stood by him so far, using their veto power to block U.N. resolutions against him.

Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said the Houla massacre appears to be ushering in a change in Russia's position.

"There is a shift and the momentum against the regime is gathering," Khashan said. "The momentum is building and the Russians are not blocking the rising momentum."

The Syrian conflict is among the most explosive of the Arab Spring, in part because of Syria's allegiances to powerful forces, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Shiite powerhouse Iran.

Activists say as many as 12,000 people have been killed since the uprising began. The U.N. put the toll as of March, a year into the uprising, at 9,000, but many hundreds more have died since.

Annan's peace plan, which calls for a cease-fire and dialogue, has been faltering for weeks. But Western leaders have pinned their hopes on his diplomatic pressure, since the U.S. and others are unwilling to get deeply involved in another Arab nation in turmoil.

Annan arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with Assad and other officials and called on "every individual with a gun" in Syria to lay down arms, saying he was horrified by the Houla massacre.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Holland spoke on the phone and expressed their desire to work with Russia to resolve the crisis in Syria. A British spokeswoman said Cameron and Hollande agreed to act together to "bring an end to the bloody suppression of the Syrian people."

Activists reported fresh violence Monday, saying troops shelled several neighborhoods in Hama, killing at least 24 people.

Berry reported from Moscow. AP writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/28/syria-massacre-russia_n_1551063.html

Heavy fighting reported across Syria

Anne Barker, 12/12/11

A series of gun battles have erupted across Syria, with army defectors taking up weapons against security forces in clashes that have left at least nine people dead.

As more and more soldiers abandon the Syrian army to switch sides, the nine-month uprising against the government is increasingly descending into armed conflict.

Clashes have broken out across the country, with the worst fighting at Homs, in Syria's centre, and Deraa in the south.

Sources inside Syria have told the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that hundreds of army defectors are clashing with government forces in and around Deraa.

Fighting was also reported around the town of Busra al-Harir, near Syria's southern border with Jordan.

A housewife in Busra who did not want to be named told reporters by telephone the town was being hit by machine-gun fire from tanks. Her children were crying.

The sound of explosions and heavy machine-guns was heard there and in Lujah, an area of rocky hills north of the town, where defectors from the army have been hiding and attacking military supply lines, residents and activists said.

"Lujah has been the safest area for defectors to hide because it is difficult for tanks and infantry to infiltrate. The region has caves and secret passageways and extends all the way to Damascus countryside," an activist, who gave his name as Abu Omar, said.

For the first time, too, the violence has spilled across the border into Jordan, where several Syrians attacked their embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Embassy officials say the protesters entered the mission claiming they had paperwork to finish and beat up two diplomats, a security guard and other staff.

Syria's opposition leaders have now called a general strike to increase pressure on the government to stop the crackdown.

Opposition activists said they had shut down much of the capital and other towns with the strike, the biggest walkout by workers since the protest movement demanding President Bashar al-Assad's removal erupted in March.

Syria has barred most independent journalists, making it difficult to gauge the extent of participation in the strike. Official state media made no mention of it.

"For the first time we have seen business close in multiple districts in Damascus and spread to most of the suburbs and provinces. The aim is to reach civil disobedience that encompasses all sectors and forces the regime down," said Rima Fleihan, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council.

"The cost will be more human lives but I am afraid it is less costly than an armed uprising and the regime dragging the country into a Libya-type scenario."

Mr Assad has been widely condemned abroad for what Western and Arab countries describe as a crackdown on peaceful protests. The Syrian government says it is fighting an armed insurgency backed by enemy countries.

Homs unrest

Resistance has been fiercest in the central city of Homs. Increasingly in the last several weeks the town has seen sectarian killings and kidnappings between Sunni Muslims, who are the majority in Syria, and members of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

One activist in the city said Sunni and Alawite elders from the Homs area had helped win the release of 15 Sunni civilians, including five women, who were abducted and taken to an Alawite village after an officer from the village disappeared.

"Homs has the largest degree of sectarian tension but also the biggest awareness of the disaster it could lead to," said the activist, who gave his name as Ibrahim.

The United Nations says more than 4,000 Syrians have been killed since March. Mr Assad says the number of dead is far lower and most of them have been from the state security forces.

The official news agency SANA said 13 soldiers killed by "armed terrorist groups" were buried on Sunday.

Homs and its countryside were mostly shut down by the strike. Elsewhere, the impact was difficult to gauge.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces in some neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Damascus forced shopkeepers to keep shops open. This could not be independently confirmed.

"They were taken down to their stores and ordered to open them. They refused and the police smashed open the shop doors," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based rights group.

Central parts of the capital Damascus and the business hub Aleppo seemed calm though there were reports of strikes taking hold in some areas on the outskirts of both cities.

ABC/Reuters

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-12/defectors2c-businesses-ramp-up-syria-resistance/3724982/?site=sydney

突尼西亞、埃及、利比亞、和葉門的領袖已經或即將下台。敘利亞的阿薩德還在橫行，但苟延殘喘不能改變為期不遠的現實。

人民力量終將得到伸張和最後勝利。

Yemen presidential election set for February 21

Reuters , 11/26/11

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's vice president called presidential elections for February 21 on Saturday under a deal aimed at ending months of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh that have brought the country to the edge of civil war.

If the agreement goes according to plan, Saleh will become the fourth Arab ruler brought down by mass demonstrations that have reshaped the political landscape of the Middle East.

Saleh returned home on Saturday after signing the deal with the opposition in Riyadh on Wednesday under which he transferred his powers to Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after 33 years in office and 10 months of protests.

In a decree run on the Saba state news agency on Saturday, Hadi said Yemenis "are called on to vote in early elections for a new president of the republic starting at 8 o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, February 21, 2012."

"The early presidential election will take place under the management of the Supreme Commission For Elections and Referendum," the decree added.

Yemen has become engulfed under Saleh by political strife that has allowed free rein to northern rebels, southern secessionists and al-Qaeda.

Under the agreement, signed with the Yemeni opposition at a ceremony hosted by Saudi King Abdullah, Saleh will receive immunity from prosecution and keep his title until a successor is elected. Hadi was charged with calling the election within three months and forming a new government with the opposition.

Hundreds of people have been killed during months of protests seeking Saleh's overthrow. The political deadlock has reignited conflicts with separatists and militants, raising fears that al Qaeda's Yemen wing could take a foothold on the borders of Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.

Details of the power transfer deal - drawn up by Yemen's richer neighbors in the Gulf Cooperation Council earlier this year, and thwarted by Saleh on three separate occasions - were hammered out by U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar, with support from U.S. and European diplomats.

The deal has failed to appease protesters at Sanaa's Change Square, with many of them angry that it has guaranteed Saleh and his family immunity.

On Friday, opposition parties agreed to nominate the head of an alliance that led the protests, Mohammed Basindwa, to form a new government. Basindwa is a former foreign minister who leads the opposition National Council formed after the protests broke out in February.

SALAFI SITES SHELLED

Earlier on Saturday, 10 people were killed in north Yemen when Shi'ite Muslim rebels shelled positions held by Sunni Islamist Salafi fighters after the collapse of a week-old ceasefire, a Salafi spokesman said.

The conflict between the Shi'ite Houthi rebels and the Sunni Salafis is just one of several plaguing Yemen. In recent weeks, the Houthis have skirmished with Salafist fighters, leading local tribesmen to broker a truce between them a week ago.

"The Houthis broke the ceasefire and shelled the town of Damaj," said the Salafi spokesman, who identified himself as Abu Ismail, adding that 15 people were injured.

Members of the Zaidi sect of Shi'ite Islam, the Houthi rebels led an uprising based in the northern Saada province that Saleh's forces have struggled to crush, with Saudi Arabia intervening militarily in 2009 before a ceasefire took hold last year.

The Houthis, who effectively control Saada, are deeply wary of Saudi Arabia's promotion of puritanical Sunni Salafi creeds that regard Shi'ites as heretics.

Saleh Habra, a Houthi leader, has accused the Yemeni government of supplying arms to the Salafis, who he said were trying to build a military camp near the Saudi border. "We are trying to cut off their arms supplies," Habra told Reuters last week.

Separately, Yemeni aircraft bombed sites used by anti-government tribal militants in northern Sanaa, killing seven people, tribal sources said on Saturday.

Those sources said tribal fighters were seeking to surround a camp used by the Republican Guard, a unit led by Saleh's son.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari and Sami Aboudi; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by David Stamp)

http://news.yahoo.com/three-killed-clashes-yemens-north-143935135.html

Yemeni president agrees to step down in 30 days

Ahmed Al-haj, Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen – Yemen's embattled president agreed Saturday to a proposal by Gulf Arab mediators to step down within 30 days and hand power to his deputy in exchange for immunity from prosecution, a major about-face for the autocratic leader who has ruled for 32 years.

A coalition of seven opposition parties said they also accepted the deal but with reservations. Even if the differences are overcome, those parties do not speak for all of the hundreds of thousands of protesters seeking President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster, and signs were already emerging that a deal on those terms would not end confrontations in the streets.

A day earlier, protesters staged the largest of two months of demonstrations, filling a five-lane boulevard across the capital with a sea of hundreds of thousands of people. Day after day of protest have presented a stunning display of defiance in the face of a crackdown that has included sniper attacks and killed more than 130 people.

The uprising and a wave of defections by allies, including several top military commanders, have left Saleh clinging to power and now appear to be pushing him to compromise on his earlier refusal to leave office before his term ends in 2013.

For decades the former military officer has fended off numerous challenges, deftly maneuvering among the nation's powerful and fractious tribes and using security forces to put down opponents. Al-Qaida's most active franchise has attacked his forces, an armed rebellion has battered the north of the country and a secessionist movement has reappeared in the once-independent south.

At the same time, the country is rapidly running out of water and oil and is the poorest in the Arab world.

The United States has watched the uprising with particular concern because Saleh has been an ally in fighting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen's remote mountainous south and has made several nearly successful attempts to attack U.S. and other targets abroad.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington welcomes the proposal for ending the crisis and called for immediate dialogue by all sides on a transfer of power.

"We will not speculate about the choices the Yemeni people will make or the results of their political dialogue," he said. "It is ultimately for the people of Yemen to decide how their country is governed."

Later, the White House in a statement urged all parties in Yemen "to move swiftly to implement" a deal transferring power.

The opposition movement, fed up with poverty and corruption under Saleh, took inspiration from the toppling of leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and has grown in numbers since the first protests in early February.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes powerful Saudi Arabia, has been seeking to broker an end to the crisis in the fragile nation on the southern edge of the Arabian peninsula.

Under the latest draft, Yemen's parliament would grant Saleh legal protection from prosecution. The president would submit his resignation to lawmakers within 30 days and hand power to his vice president, who would call for new presidential elections.

Opposition spokesman Mohammed Kahtan described the Gulf council's initiative as "positive" and said the leaders of the opposition parties have all agreed on it.

Kahtan, however, listed several reservations. He said the opposition rejects the draft proposal's call for the formation of a national unity government within seven days of the signing of a deal and wants to see Saleh step down first.

"We would have to swear an oath to Saleh, who has already lost his legitimacy," he explained.

They are also against giving Yemen's parliament — dominated by Saleh's party — the power to approve or reject his resignation, which opens to the door to allowing the president time to stall.

Mohammed al-Sabri, another spokesman of the opposition, said that if the parties sign the initiative it does not mean that the mass protests will come to a quick end.

"We don't represent everybody in the squares. We only represent the political parties," he said.

A spokesman for the youth movement that is one of the key organizers of street protests said any deal that protects him from prosecution is unacceptable.

He should be held responsible for the killings of protesters and corruption, said Khaled al-Ansi.

"The youth of the revolution reject any initiative that gives immunity to the president, who collaborated in killings of civilians and in corruption," he said. "The GCC initiative is actually violating the basic principles of justice."

State TV announced the president's acceptance of the deal and said Yemen's foreign minister delivered the government's response to mediators on Saturday.

The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met in the Emirati capital Saturday with his Yemeni counterpart, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, and urged him to accept the GCC plan, the official UAE news agency WAM reported.

Protests continued throughout the day and expanded to include a general strike.

Schools, government offices and private companies shut their doors in response to the Yemeni opposition's call for a strike aimed at putting more pressure Saleh to step down.

Thousands of protesters kept up sit-ins at city squares in at least five provinces, while Saleh accused the opposition of "dragging the country into a civil war" in a televised speech to a military academy.

Saleh has over the past two months used violence to try to quell the unrest. He has also offered concessions, including a pledge not to run again for president when his term is up in 2013 or allow his son to succeed him, but to no avail.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110424/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen

Swazi police fire water cannons to stop protests

Phathizwe-chief Zulu, Associated Press

MANZINI, Swaziland – Police in Swaziland fired water cannons and tear gas, beat people with batons and arrested activists to prevent pro-democracy protests Tuesday in sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy.

In recent weeks, an online campaign has tried to rally support for Tuesday's protests, which come exactly 38 years after the current Swazi king's father, King Sobhuza II, banned political parties and abandoned the country's constitution.

Simantele Mmema, spokeswoman for the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, said Tuesday that police fired water cannons and tear gas and beat people with their batons to disperse more than 1,000 workers who were singing and chanting peacefully in a teacher's training center in Manzini, the country's economic hub. Mmema said teachers left the center march to Manzini's Freedom Square, where the march was scheduled to begin this morning.

Protesters and passers-by fled the tear gas, leaving the usually bustling streets of Manzini deserted.

Police spokeswoman Wendy Hleta said she could not confirm police fired on protesters at the training center, but said police fired tear gas elsewhere in Manzini after people threw stones that injured two officers.

"The situation almost got out of control," Hleta said. "They were compelled to shoot tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd."

More than 150 Swazi police guarded the square where pro-democracy protesters had planned to demonstrate in Manzini.

Outside the square, uniformed and plainclothes police kept watch on the streets in southern Africa's usually peaceful tiny mountain kingdom.

Swazi activists said police arrested nine labor and pro-democracy leaders Tuesday. With political parties banned, the labor movement has become a key platform for pro-democracy activists.

Police spokeswoman Hleta said the union leaders were being questioned over threats to overthrow the government they allegedly made to foreign media.

Thuli Makama, director of the Swaziland Legal Assistance Center, said police are blocking people and buses from traveling between towns.

"They are in every corner of the country," she said.

Activists said police were also barring students at the University of Swaziland from leaving the campus.

Several reporters were detained and released Tuesday and prevented from reporting on the protests. Police spokeswoman Hleta said foreign journalists were prevented from working because they did not have accreditation.

Activists said Swaziland's pro-democracy protests were inspired by demonstrations in North Africa, where protesters in places like Egypt and Libya demanded their longtime leaders step down.

An anti-monarchy movement has gained momentum since the government declared a budget crisis and proposed freezing civil service wages. But many Swazis revere the monarchy, even if they differ with the current king, portrayed by activists as autocratic and uncaring in a country suffering high rates of poverty and AIDS.

Associated Press writer Jenny Gross contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110412/ap_on_re_af/af_swaziland_protests

Yemen’s Saleh on the brink as generals join protesters

Laura Rozen , 03/21/11

Yemen's embattled three-decade ruler, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key ally in the U.S. war against Al Qaeda militants in that country, is clinging to power amid a wave of high-level official defections to protesters demanding his immediate ouster.

Five top army commanders joined Yemeni diplomats who have defected to the side of protesters, even as Yemen's defense minister said Monday the army stands with Saleh, and will support him against what he called an attempted coup.

The wave of defections came after Saleh fired his cabinet Sunday night, following the killing of 45 protesters in recent days, the New York Times' Laurie Kasinof reports from Sana:

The shift in support by the tribal leader and senior military commanders came amid a stream of resignations by Yemeni officials on Monday, including the mayor of the restive southern city of Aden, a provincial governor and at least one of the country's ambassadors, according to a diplomat at the Yemeni Embassy in Washington who asked not to be identified.

Yemen's ambassadors to Syria and Saudi Arabia also resigned on Monday, according to Al Jazeera, and the ambassador to Japan was reported to have quit as well.

"This is a replicate of the changes that have happened in Egypt," said a high-ranking Yemeni diplomat in Europe who spoke on condition of anonymity. But, he added, "It is too early to see where the shift would lead to."

The military commanders included Gen. Mohamed Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, who leads forces in the east, Brig. Gen. Ali Mohsin Saleh, who commands those in the northwest, and three other brigadier generals. They said they declared their support for the protesters after watching the bloody clashes on Friday.

Brigadier General Saleh, in an appearance on Al Jazeera television on Monday, cited the suppression of peaceful protests and said the country was being pushed to the brink of civil war.

Al Jazeera has compiled a running list of officials and generals who have announced a break with Saleh's regime.

(A Yemeni military officer joined protesters demanding the resignation of Yemen's three decade ruler President Ali Abdullah Saleh Monday, but Yemen's Defense Minister said the army would stand with Saleh. Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theenvoy/yemens-saleh-on-the-brink-as-generals-join-protesters;_ylt=AsjV.AnYeVC3oxd53KGwTPkbr7sF;_ylu=X3oDMTQ0c3Rkb3F2BGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RoZWVudm95LzIwMTEwMzIxL3llbWVucy1zYWxlaC1vbi10aGUtYnJpbmstYXMtZ2VuZXJhbHMtam9pbi1wcm90ZXN0ZXJzBGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3llbWVuc2xlYWRlcg--

Chaos and Bloodshed Continue as Gaddafi Loses His Grip on Power

Vivienne Walt

Libya tipped towards all-out civil war on Tuesday, as the chaos from a week-long revolt deepened, with reports of bodies lying in the streets of the capital Tripoli and parts of eastern Libya entirely out of the control of Muammar Gaddafi's regime. With Gaddafi's hold on power looking increasingly tenuous, human-rights groups and exile organizations say it is now impossible to calculate how many have been killed during the past week, although their estimates easily exceed 400.

With events accelerating, Gaddafi's 42 years in power appear to be unraveling at lightning speed, buckling under several pressure points: Deep divisions within the military, which has launched air, naval and ground attacks against unarmed protesters; a stampede of defections among top officials; and a collapse of the regime's credibility internationally, let alone among many of its own citizens. (See photos of Muammar Gaddafi's rise to power.)

As rumors intensified that Gaddafi had fled the country, the leader appeared for a few seconds on state-run Libyan television at about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. He appeared to be in front of his compound in Tripoli's western suburbs, which still bears the damage done to it by a U.S. aerial bombardment in 1986, the scars acting as a show of defiance against those who have long wished to see the back of him. I am in Tripoli not in Venezuela," he said as he climbed into a vehicle, awkwardly holding a huge gray umbrella.

That sneering shrug towards his enemies was classic Gaddafi. Yet while the Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution — as he is officially known in Libya — might still be in Tripoli, the city which has been his stronghold for four decades is now in chaos. Associated Press reported on Tuesday morning that numerous bodies lay on Tripoli's streets, after security forces again opened fire on anti-government protesters. (Comment on this story.)

The capital has sunk into turmoil since Sunday, and only got worse on Monday, after Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam — long the favorite among Western leaders to succeed Gaddafi — gave his own 1 a.m. speech in which he warned that the military would crush the protesters "to the last bullet." As his speech ended, thousands of protesters poured into Tripoli's Green Square — a huge open area in the heart of the city, ringed by sidewalk cafés and Libya's old fortress museum, a block from the seafront. Chanting their fury at Saif's threats of violence, the protesters confronted men who drove into the square in a convoy of about 50 cars and opened fire with machine guns, according to eye-witness accounts told to the Canada-based Libyan Youth Movement, an anti-government group which has sprung up during the past month and now acts as a conduit for information from those inside Libya. "We have confirmed 250 deaths on Monday in Tripoli alone," Ayat Mneina, a 23-year-old Libyan-Canadian student in Winnipeg, told TIME Monday night. "We have called the hospitals, and got that figure from doctors." If it is accurate, the total death toll for the past week stands at about 550. (See how Saif could help reform Libya.)

Although the massacre of demonstrators in Tripoli — and in and around Libya's second-biggest city Benghazi, about 600 miles east of the capital — were designed to stanch the nascent rebellion and shore up Gaddafi's rule, by Tuesday they seemed almost certain to have backfired. Western leaders and members of the Arab League (of which Gaddafi currently holds the rotating chairmanship) expressed outrage on Monday at the assaults. The Arab League called an emergency meeting for Tuesday to discuss Gaddafi's brutal crackdown.

At home too, Gaddafi appears increasingly isolated. On Monday afternoon, two senior Air Force colonels flew Mirage fighter jets to Malta, where they claimed political asylum, saying they had rejected Gaddafi's orders to fire live ammunition on protesters. That night, Maltese officials refused to allow the Libyan ambassador to meet the two fighter pilots. (See why Gaddafi felt secure despite the uprising.)

In an show of contempt for Gaddafi, which would have been unthinkable just a week ago, numerous diplomats have quit their jobs since Sunday, including the Libyan ambassadors to Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Poland, as well as several lower-level diplomatic officials. Nine staff members in the London embassy resigned, and joined the huge anti-Gaddafi demonstration outside the building. "After this bloodshed you cannot stay, you cannot be in such a situation," Ali al-Essawi, who resigned on Sunday as Libya's ambassador to India, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday morning. "Before, there were reforms, there was some progress. You could feel hope. But after this, there is frustration."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2052978,00.html