Libyan sues Nato over family deaths

A Libyan sought damages against Nato in a Belgian civil court yesterday, accusing the alliance of killing his wife and three children in an air strike, his lawyer said yesterday.

Khaled Hemidi says his wife and children were killed in a bombing west of Tripoli on June 20 that had targetted his father, Khuwildi Hemidi, who is close to the regime of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi and escaped unharmed.

Nato said at the time that warplanes had struck a high-level command and control centre in Sorman, 70 kilometres from Tripoli.

The regime charged that 15 people, including three children, were killed, but Nato insisted that the target was of military nature and that it goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties.

US Senate confirms Locke as China envoy

Former US commerce secretary Gary Locke won unanimous Senate confirmation yesterday as ambassador to Beijing, becoming the first Chinese-American to hold the prestigious and difficult diplomatic post.

Locke, whose grandfather came from China to the United States on a steamboat, promised during his smooth confirmation hearings to be a forceful advocate for human rights and for US businesses.

The new envoy, 61, succeeds Republican former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, who left Beijing some three months ago and has mounted a run against former boss President Barack Obama in the November 2012 elections.

Locke takes over at a time of tensions in US-China relations, which have been fraught over a range of disputes including on Beijing's export-driven economic policies, growing military spending and human rights record.

And US lawmakers, locked in a angry debate over cash-strapped Washington's debt, have increasingly painted China's status as the country's largest foreign creditor as a source of concern.

Senators approved Locke by voice vote.

He grew up in Seattle's public housing projects and worked his way through Yale University, eventually becoming a prosecutor and the governor of Washington state. He had been commerce secretary since 2009.

He said during his senate confirmation hearings that he would use his personal story to reach out to China's people, but not shy away from sensitive issues like his "vigorous disagreement" with Beijing's leaders on human rights.

"The protection and the promotion of liberty and freedom are fundamental tenets of US foreign policy, and if confirmed, I will clearly and firmly advocate for upholding universal rights in China," Locke said.

Locke, pointing to his work in Obama's cabinet, said he would also fight for US businesses by pressing for protection of intellectual property and for the right of foreign firms to compete for government contracts.

Under questioning by senators, Locke said he would put a top priority on non-proliferation and that Beijing "can, definitely, and must do more" to rein in North Korea -- whose reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il recently visited China.

Senators also voiced concerns about China's military strength against Taiwan and the value of its currency, which critics accuse Beijing of keeping artificially low to boost exports.

Libya condemns UK’s recognising rebels

Tripoli has condemned the UK for recognising the rebels as Libya's "sole governmental authority" after similar moves by France and the US.
Khaled Kaim, deputy foreign minister in Muammar Gaddafi's government, told reporters the decision was unprecedented and irresponsible.
Libya would seek to reverse the decision through the courts, he said.
Britain has ordered the expulsion of all eight remaining Gaddafi diplomats in the UK.
The rebel leadership, the National Transitional Council (NTC), has put forward Mahmud al-Naku, a writer and journalist, as the new Libyan ambassador in London.
He told the BBC he has been in exile for 33 years because of his opposition to the Gaddafi regime.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the NTC had shown its commitment to a "more open and democratic Libya... in stark contrast to Gaddafi whose brutality against the Libyan people [had] stripped him of all legitimacy".
The green flag of the Gaddafi government was still flying outside the Libyan embassy in Knightsbridge on Wednesday afternoon as protesters carrying the red, green and black flag of the rebels gathered outside.
Following the US decision to recognise the NTC two weeks ago, the BBC has been told the US has now received an "official request" from the rebels to reopen the Libyan embassy in Washington.
US officials say they are "reviewing" the request.
Libyan rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces are still locked in battle, five months after an uprising began against Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, as Nato continues to enforce a UN-backed no-fly zone over the country.
'Surprise decision'
Kaim said the British decision was "unprecedented in diplomatic history".
"It's illegal, it's irresponsible and for us it was a surprise to happen from the British Government because, I mean, if other countries will [follow] Britain, then the international diplomacy will be chaos," he told reporters in Tripoli.
"Of course it both violates national British laws and international law. Specifically the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations of 1961," he said.
"I personally consider it a stain on the forehead of Britain," he added. Libya, he added, would try to reverse the decision by taking legal action in both British courts and the International Court of Justice.
The deputy foreign minister also condemned Britain and France for supporting the rebels in eastern Libya. They were, he said, "flogging a dead horse".
Col Gaddafi's charge d'affaires, Khaled Benshaban, is being given three days to leave while his colleagues' fate will be decided on a "case-by-case basis", the Foreign Office said.
Hague told reporters in London that a recent meeting of the Libya contact group in Istanbul had decided to treat the NTC as the legitimate government authority in Libya - and he was outlining the UK's response.
The UK previously said it recognised "countries not governments" but the British foreign secretary argued it was a "unique situation" and recognising the NTC could help "legally in the unfreezing of some assets".
The British government will now be able to unfreeze £91m ($149m, 102m euros) in assets from a Libyan oil company but not other Libyan assets frozen in the UK, which total about £12bn.
Libya's rebels have been saying for weeks that they need more money from the international community to pay for salaries and food supplies.
In the rebel stronghold Benghazi, NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil praised the British decision as an economic and political boost.
The new ambassador to London, Mahmoud al-Naku, told the BBC Col Gaddafi could not stay in Libya once he was overthrown.
"Thanks to the brave men on the ground who now surround the main cities, we hope in a few weeks [the rebels] will arrive to Tripoli," he said.
Meanwhile, outside the embassy in London, about 20 demonstrators chanted, "We want to say thank you UK".
"I was so happy I cried," one of them, 57-year-old Muftah Abdelsamad, told AFP news agency.
"We have been wanting this for six months now. It will put pressure on Gaddafi to leave the country because there is no other way for him. Soon we will have freedom and democracy in Libya."

 

Norway Massacre

Norwegian domestic intelligence chief Janne Kristiansen has told the BBC no evidence has so far been found linking Anders Behring Breivik with far-right extremists in Norway or elsewhere.
But Kristiansen said she thought he had acted completely on his own. She also cast doubt on suggestions by Breivik's lawyer that he was insane.
Kristiansen, who heads Norway's Police Security Service, told the BBC: "We don't have indications that he has been part of a broader movement or that he has been in connection with other cells or that there are other cells."
But she added that the possible existence of accomplices was being investigated. "I don't think there is any limits to the evil in this person's head," she said. "We can't take any chance with this person."
About contacts with right-wing activists in the UK or other countries, she said: "We are in close contact with our sister services in Europe, America and elsewhere."
Denying suggestions that Breivik was insane, Kristiansen described him as calculating and someone who sought the limelight.
The bomb in the capital Oslo targeted buildings connected to Norway's Labour government, while the mass shooting occurred at an annual Labour Party youth camp on a small island, Utoeya.
Breivik has said he had wanted to inflict maximum damage on the party, which he accuses of failing the country on immigration, according to his lawyer.
The lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said it was too early to say if his client would plead insanity, even though "this whole case indicated that he is insane".
In her BBC interview, Kristiansen also defended the actions of Norwegian police - who have been criticised for taking 90 minutes to get to Utoeya after the shooting began.
She said the island was "quite a way away" from Oslo, and that officers had got there as quickly as they could.
The leader of Norway's Delta Force, a special-operations unit, said the breakdown of a police boat did not cause any significant delay.
Anders Snortheimsmoen told reporters that the team had immediately found an alternative boat to reach Utoeya.
Early on yesterday, parts of Oslo's central station were briefly evacuated after a suitcase was left on a bus. Police later said nothing suspicious had been found in it.
Meanwhile police say they have detonated a cache of explosives found at a farm north of Oslo which Breivik had rented.
Friday's massacre prompted up to a quarter of a million people to take to the streets of Oslo on Monday to commemorate the victims.
The names and addresses of the first four confirmed victims were published on Tuesday on the Norwegian police's website.
They were listed as Gunnar Linaker, 23; Tove Ashill Knutsen, 56; Hanna M Orvik Endresen, 61; and Kai Hauge, 32.
It is also known that Crown Princess Mette-Marit's stepbrother, Trond Berntsen, an off-duty police officer, was among those killed at the youth camp, as was Tore Eikeland, 21, who was named by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at a memorial service on Sunday.

Breivik

 

The no-kids-allowed movement is spreading

What's the matter with kids today and why doesn't anyone want them around? In June, Malaysia Airlines banned babies from many of their first class cabins, prompting other major airlines to consider similar policies.

Lately, complaints about screaming kids are being taken seriously, not only by airlines, but by hotels, movie theaters, restaurants, and even grocery stores.

Read more about restaurants around the country banning kids.
 Earlier this month, McDain's, a Pittsburgh area restaurant that banned kids under 6 became a mascot for the no-kids-zone movement.

According to a Pittsburgh local news poll, more than half of area residents were in favor of the ban. And now big business is paying attention.

"Brat bans could well be the next frontier in destination and leisure-product marketing," writes Robert Klara in an article on the child-free trend in AdWeek.

Klara points to Leavethembehind.com, a travel website for kid-free vacations, with a massive list of yoga retreats, luxury resorts and bargain hotels around the world that ban children.

"Call me a grinch, a misanthrope, a DINK (dual-income-no-kids), or the anti-cute-police, but I hate (hate a thousand times over) ill-behaved children/infants/screaming banshees in upscale restaurants (ok, anywhere, really, but I don’t want any death threats)," writes Charlotte Savino on Travel and Leisure's blog. She lists a slew of a popular destination restaurants with kid-free areas and policies for travelers looking for quiet vacation dining.

Traveling is one thing, but what about in kids' own hometowns? Should kids been banned from local movie theaters, like they were at a recent adults-only Harry Potter screening? In Texas, one cinema chain has even flipped the model, banning kids under six altogether, except on specified "baby days".

Even running errands with toddlers may be off limits.  This summer Whole Foods stores in Missouri are offering child-free shopping hours and in Florida, a controversy brews over whether kids can be banned from a condominium's outdoor area. That's right, some people don't even want kids outdoors.

When did kids become the equivalent of second-hand smoke? Blame a wave of childless adults with money to spare. "Empty nesters continue to wield a huge swath of discretionary spending dollars, and population dips in first-world countries mean more childless couples than ever," writes AdWeek's Klara.

Catering to the child-free community may be good for business but is it good for parents? It could help narrow choices and make kid-friendly environments even kid-friendlier.  And let's be honest, babies won't miss flying first class. They won't even remember it. But their moms and dads will.

Most parents with young children have self-imposed limits on spending and leisure. This new movement imposes limits set by the public. And the public isn't as child-friendly as it used to be.  As businesses respond to their new breed of 'first-class' clientele, are parents in danger of becoming second-class citizens?