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Police are investigating the deaths of a British couple said to have plunged from balconies in Morocco a week apart.

Roger and Mathilde Lamb, who have four children, were on holiday in the historic coastal city of Essaouira when the tragic events unfolded.

Mrs Lamb, 44, who was known as Tilly, is reported to have fallen from a third-floor balcony at a rented holiday home. According to local news reports she died from her injuries on Saturday – six days after the fall.

Mr Lamb, a 47-year-old civil engineer, apparently fell from the balcony of a hotel in Morocco on Sunday.

The Foreign Office confirmed that the couple had died in Morocco but gave no further details.

The couple’s children are believed to have returned to the UK, where they are being looked after by a relative.

Shocked neighbours of the Lambs, who have an £850,000 house near Pershore in Worcestershire, described them as “pillars of the community”.

John Grantham, the mayor of Pershore, said: “Everybody is in shock.”

A neighbour said: “Roger and Tilly were pillars of this community. It is an absolute tragedy for the family and their four lovely boys.

“We will probably have to wait a while before the exact details come out.”

The Rev Terry Henderson, of St Michael’s Church in nearby Great Comberton, said: “They were both heavily involved in village life and the local primary school.

“Everybody knew them and hence everybody is very sad and very shocked.”

A spokesman for West Mercia police said it had been made aware of the incident. He added: “Officers from south Worcestershire made some initial inquiries but the matter is now with the coroner for Wiltshire and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.”

Mr Lamb was a geotechnical engineer who moved from Worcestershire to Christchurch in New Zealand last September. The rest of the family is said to have been planning to move out to New Zealand.

Mr Lamb’s online CV describes his interests as “family, fell running and horses”.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/26/british-couple-die-morocco-balcony-falls

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — The son of slain Gov. Salman Taseer was kidnapped Friday afternoon in a wealthy neighborhood in the city of Lahore, police said.

Shahbaz Taseer was abducted from his car as he was on the way to his office, senior police official Abdul Razaq Cheema told reporters.

Lahore police chief Ahmad Raza Tahir, appearing on Pakistani television, told reporters that a squad of 16 security personnel had been provided to Taseer for protection, as he had earlier reported receiving a series of anonymous threats.

However, a provincial minister told reporters that the security detail was not with Taseer during the kidnapping. He said four armed men abducted Taseer in the Gulberg neighborhood, blocking his car with a motorcycle and a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Taseer ran several family businesses after the death of his father. Salman Taseer was a renowned businessman and governor of Punjab province who was assassinated by one of his own security guards earlier this year.

Police say bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri confessed to gunning down Taseer because of the governor was critical of the country’s blasphemy law. The controversial legislation has been criticized by some as being used to entrap minorities.

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/d2nTsAciuCw/index.html

(CNN) — The U.S. State Department got personal in its complaints against the Syrian government Thursday, accusing it of a “targeted, brutal attack” on a popular Syrian political cartoonist, Ali Farzat.

Shortly after a cartoon by Farzat depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hitching a ride with outgoing Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi began circulating in Syria, Farzat was reportedly kidnapped by masked men, beaten and thrown unconscious from a van onto a road in Damascus

“The (al-Assad) regime’s thugs focused their attention on (Farzat’s) hands, beating them furiously and breaking one of them — a clear message that he should stop drawing,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland wrote in an official statement.

The statement went on to name five other “moderate activists” that it said have been jailed for speaking out against the al-Assad regime.

“While making empty promises about dialogue with the Syrian people, the Assad regime continues to carry out brutal attacks against peaceful Syrians trying to exercise their universal right to free expression. We demand that the Assad regime immediately stop its campaign of terror through torture, illegal imprisonment, and murder,” Nuland’s statement continued.

Passers-by reportedly found the beaten 60-year-old cartoonist and took him to a hospital. A photograph circulating Thursday on the internet showed Farzat with a bandage over his right eye, his face badly bruised, and heavy bandages wrapped around both hands.

Nuland’s statement described Farzat as “the most popular political cartoonist in the country,” and reaction in Syria was swift to the attack on a man described on a website featuring his cartoons as having “a pen of Damascus steel.”

In a demonstration of solidarity, a number of Syrians on Facebook changed their profile pictures to that of the bruised and bloodied satirist.

Farzat is known for his caricatures lampooning figures such as Saddam Hussein, who threatened him with death before banning his work in Iraq, and Gadhafi of Libya, where his work is also banned.

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/7JB1pZLJrIk/index.html

Manila, Philippines (CNN) — Typhoon Nanmadol is not expected to make landfall in the Philippines, forecasters said Friday, a development that may be cheered in the places that were supposed to be in the path of the powerful storm.

The storm was expected to hit the northern Philippines in the next two days the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said earlier Friday.

But later in the day, forecasters said the typhoon is expected to move away from the nation.

The storm, known as Mina locally, had strengthened Friday.

On Friday morning, it had maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour (93 mph), with gusts up to 185 kph (115 mph).

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/9xxCPLoUfe0/index.html

(CNN) — Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned Friday the torching of a Monterrey casino that killed at least 52 people as “the most serious attack on civil society that the country has seen in a long time.”

Calderon said the burning of the Monterrey Casino Royale on Thursday was perpetrated by “terrorists” motivated by greed.

Meanwhile, authorities in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, of which Monterrey is the capital, released a video showing how armed men arrived in three vehicles and were carrying what appeared to be gallons of gasoline.

They burst into the casino, and seconds later, dozens of people fled the casino, which was clouded with smoke and fire. The attack lasted two and a half minutes, according to the video released by Secretary of the Interior Francisco Blake and Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina.

Medina said 52 people died in the fiery attack, not 53 as earlier reported by authorities. None of the deaths was by firearms, Medina said.

Nuevo Leon Civil Protection Director Jorge Camacho Rincon confirmed that the final death toll was 52, but some officials were putting the death toll at 53 because one victim was pregnant.

At least 35 of the victims were women, and at least 10 were men, officials said. Authorities have yet to determine the gender of the remaining victims.

Residents of Monterrey reported a lot of confusion surrounding their efforts to determine whether their relatives were among those killed in the fire.

“Nobody really tells me anything,” Alma Rosa Monsivais Estrada, 24, said of her search for her sister Maria Guadalupe.

Dozens dead in Mexico casino fire

Dealing with Acapulco’s violence

The missing sister left for work at the casino Thursday morning, and Monsivais said goodbye to her, she said.

“For me, she is everything, my sister, my friend,” Monsivais said. “She went to work out of necessity. She always goes home after work every day. It’s unfair.”

She had searched for her sister until midnight, visiting at least five hospitals and clinics throughout ??Monterrey without success, she said.

“I wanted to know where she is,” a tearful Monsivais said.

Eventually, she decided to return to the Forensic Medical Service University Hospital, where authorities have taken most of the bodies. Officials told relatives they will install a special window to handle requests from victims’ families.

“It’s a nightmare, and there is misinformation,” Alfredo Jimenez said angrily. He was searching for his sister-in-law Rosa Ramírez, 45, who regularly visited the casino.

His sister took Ramirez, a homemaker, to the casino a half-hour before the fiery attack occurred, he said.

Jimenez claimed some survivors provided him with an account of what happened inside the casino during the attack.

“(Customers) hid in the bathrooms because they thought there were shots, but they become asphyxiated there,” Jimenez said.

A young man who said he was inside the casino explained how he and others were able to escape the burning buildling.

“One lady was able to break a window at the rear part of the place, and we got out,” said the man, who didn’t want to be identifed.

Meanwhile, Calderon declared three days of national mourning, and the Mexican attorney general’s office offered a reward of 30 million pesos (about $2.4 million) to anyone with information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrators.

The casino is in an upscale area of Monterrey, government and emergency officials said.

Calderon said he will increase the presence of federal forces in Monterrey and northeastern Mexico to “restore to the people of Nuevo Leon the peace that has been lost.”

Though Mexican authorities have yet to identify a motive for the casino attack, Calderon said, the ambition of criminals has increased in Mexico because of the lucrative drug trade with the United States.

The president urged the country’s government to reflect on “the tragedy” of Mexico and other Latino American countries affected by the “insatiable consumption of drugs involving millions of Americans.”

“Mexico can no longer be the gateway nor pay the consequences that this market generates,” Calderon said.

Mexico must end how the drug trafficking “generates intolerable violence, and the United States should do something to achieve” that goal, Calderon said.

As authorities investigate who is responsible for the casino attack, Calderon called on the Mexican states to accelerate the implementation of the National Agreement on Security, Justice and Legality, which seeks to reform law agencies.

“The advance of criminals is due to the corruption of institutions of security and justice,” Calderon said.

Calderon also urged lawmakers to approve his proposed reforms to improve national security.

“Federal forces detain criminals. Let us do our work. Leave aside the political pettiness and interests that seek to curb the actions of federal forces for political gain,” Calderon said, referring to the proposed National Security Act, which the Mexican congress has yet to approve.

Civil rights groups and opposition parties have rejected the proposed law because they say it promotes the militarization of the state.

Eight others were injured in the Thursday afternoon attack, the Red Cross said.

Witnesses have told investigators that up to six people entered the Casino Royale and asked for the manager, according Adrian de la Garza, the state attorney general for Nuevo Leon.

When the manager refused, they set the building on fire, he said.

It’s believed a solvent was used to start the blaze, possibly gasoline, de la Garza said.

Earlier reports that a grenade attack caused the fire could not be verified, he said. An investigation is under way.

Between 20 and 30 people were trapped in the casino by debris, said Cmdr. Angel Flores of the Green Cross.

Video from the scene showed a burned-out building as firefighters made rescue attempts to break the wall of the facade of the casino to release the smoke inside the building.

Authorities suspended rescue efforts Thursday night for fear that the building could collapse.

Calderon initially responded to the incident through his official Twitter account.

“With deep consternation, I express my solidarity with Nuevo Leon and the victims of this abhorrent act of terror and barbarism,” he said. “These reprehensible acts require us all to persevere in the fight against gangs of unscrupulous criminals. All the support to NL.”

The National Commission on Human Rights in Mexico said it has opened an investigation regarding the response to the events at the casino.

“The priority is to help safeguard the human rights enshrined in the Constitution of the United Mexican States and international treaties,” it said in a news release.

The agency said it has also sent personnel to the scene, including physicians, psychologists and lawyers, to work with authorities.

Nuevo Leon, in northeastern Mexico, has been the scene of recent violence.

In July, gunmen entered a downtown bar in Monterrey and shot 20 people dead. A public safety spokesman said the attack was probably sparked by a dispute between organized crime groups for control of the El Sabino Gordo nightclub, where drugs were allegedly sold.

Nuevo Leon and the neighboring states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas have been the scene of clashes between organized crime groups. The Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas are vying for control of trafficking routes into the United States.

In November, the federal government launched the Coordinated Operation Northeast, which involves sending more security forces to the area to tackle crime.

CNN’s Michael Martinez and Nick Valencia and journalists Javier Estrada and Victor Badillo contributed to this report

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/KEyJbAwgp7U/index.html

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) — At least 18 people were killed Friday in a bombing at a U.N. building in the Nigerian capital, a police spokesman said.

Police commissioner Michael Zuokumo told reporters eight people had been injured.

Rescue officials at the scene in Abuja helped to pull the dead and injured from the rubble. Bomb squad officers and other security teams were also sent to the scene, deputy police spokesman Yemi Ajayi said.

A representative for the National Hospital said there was a shortage of blood to use in surgery. Hospital staff and relatives of the injured have been going to the blood bank to donate.

The hospital called in all doctors and nurses who were not working Friday to deal with the emergency, the spokeswoman said as ambulances brought people in.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned what he called a “barbaric, senseless and cowardly attack.”

A statement issued by his office said extra security had been ordered in the area around the capital and Nigeria would do everything it could to bring the perpetrators to justice.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, addressing the media in New York, said exact casualty figures are not yet known but are likely to be “considerable.”

U.N. Secy.-Gen. condemns Nigeria attack

U.N. office in Nigeria bombed

He condemned the car bombing but would not speculate on who might be responsible.

The attack targeted a building that housed 26 U.N. humanitarian and development agencies, he said, adding: “This was an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others.”

Ban said he was sending the deputy secretary general and the chief of U.N. security to Abuja, where they will try to determine who is responsible.

Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, said the driver of the vehicle used in the bombing had passed through the first and second gates of the compound before detonating the explosives by the building’s reception area.

A witness outside the U.N. building at the time of the attack told CNN she had seen a white SUV drive quickly through the main gate of the compound. She then heard two explosions in quick succession, the second one much larger and followed by the shattering of glass.

Images from the scene showed severe damage to the bottom floors of the building, with windows blown in and debris scattered around.

People who were in the U.N. building told CNN that after the explosion, a wall fell on some people, causing several casualties.

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was shocked by the attack.

“This brutal act has killed and injured many innocent people, and I utterly condemn those who have carried it out,” he said.

“Around the world the U.N. works for peace, security and international cooperation and an attack on the U.N. is an attack on these principles.”

Alessandra Vellucci at the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland, confirmed that the “U.N. premises in Abuja have been bombed” but was unable to give more details.

The building is home to the main U.N missions operating in Nigeria and may have had as many as 400 people inside.

CNN’s Alkasim Abdulkadir said the area was not very busy because it was a diplomatic district, with the Liberian and U.S. embassies nearby, but there were people working there.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Deborah MacLean, told CNN that there had been no damage to the embassy building, which is half a mile from the U.N. building.

Embassy personnel were initially told to be careful in case of further violence, she said.

Zoran Jovanovic, head of mission for the International Red Cross in Abuja, said the explosion was heard at 10:15 a.m.

The U.N. building is in a large compound that has five gates, Jovanovic said, adding that the area is also home to Western African embassies.

It is not yet clear who was responsible for the attack.

The Nigerian capital has experienced a series of bombings recently.

In June, a car blast killed at least five people at the police headquarters in the city. It detonated less than two minutes after the federal police chief entered the building, a security source said at the time.

A month later, at least three people died in an explosion near a church outside the capital. The number of casualties could have been higher if services had still been going on, according to a police spokesman.

In October, at least 12 people died when car bombs exploded as the nation celebrated 50 years of independence. The attacks near the Justice Ministry injured about 50.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta claimed responsibility for the October attack. MEND, an umbrella organization of several rebel groups, is battling the government for fairer distribution of oil wealth.

Recent attacks, including on the church and police station, may have been the work of a radical Muslim sect, Boko Haram, the nation’s officials said this year. Boko Haram aims to enforce a strict version of Sharia law in the nation.

Africa’s most populous nation is divided between a largely Christian south and a Muslim north.

CNN’s Alkasim Abdulkadir, Umaro Djau, Christian Purefoy, Ben Brumfield, Stephanie Halasz, David Wilkinson and Claudia Rebaza contributed to this report.

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/AKpLS5xEv8s/index.html

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — Hundreds of pro-al Qaeda militants were among the prisoners freed from a notorious Tripoli prison this week, according to a former Libyan jihadist.

The freed militants — around 600 in total — had been imprisoned in Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison by Moammar Gadhafi’s regime during the height of the insurgency in Iraq, according to Noman Benotman, a former senior commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

“This is potentially a very dangerous development,” Benotman said. “Nobody knows what these released prisoners are going to do next. Will they take part in the fighting and if they do will they join pre-existing rebel brigades or form a separate fighting force?”

Benotman, now a senior analyst at the Quilliam Foundation in London, said the freed prisoners are Salafists, embracing a puritanical interpretation of Islam that has gained ground in Libya in recent years.

Gadhafi’s regime imprisoned thousands of suspected pro-al Qaeda militants after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq stoked radicalization in Libya, especially in its impoverished eastern provinces. According to Benotman, those rounded up by the regime included militants who had tried to travel to Iraq and some who had returned from fighting against U.S. forces there. He said many of them had already been released by the Gadhafi regime.

Internal al Qaeda in Iraq records seized by the U.S. military in 2007 indicated that proportionately more Libyans traveled to fight with al Qaeda in Iraq than from any other Arab country. Some saw fighting in Iraq as a “a last act of defiance against the Gadhafi regime,” according to a confidential 2008 State Department cable made public by the website WikiLeaks, because of the rapprochement at the time between Gadhafi and the United States.

Wednesday’s prison release, which occurred as rebel forces took control of the Abu Salim area of Tripoli, comes as Islamists are taking on an increasingly prominent role in the fight against the Gadhafi regime — to the concern of some in the West.

Former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) have assumed leadership positions in several rebel brigades, according to Benotman. Their current prominence, he said, was due to their quick mobilization — as armed opposition replaced peaceful protests in Libya — and their valued military skills.

The former leader of the LIFG, Abdullah al Sadeeq, now commands one of the most powerful rebel brigades in Tripoli, according to Benotman and, according to reports, took charge of successful rebel efforts earlier this week to storm Gadhafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound, further bolstering his prominent position in rebel ranks.

Sadeeq was a well-known figure in the jihadist movement. He fought the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan and helped found the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group there. In the mid-1990s the LIFG conducted a deadly campaign of attacks on Libyan security services, before a crackdown largely constrained the group’s ability to operate inside the country. After the fall of the Taliban, Sadeeq fled Afghanistan to Iran and was eventually arrested in Hong Kong in 2004. According to Benotman, he was then held and interrogated by the CIA before being transferred to Libya where he was held in Abu Salim prison until his release in March 2010.

But Sadeeq has now become a powerful voice against al Qaeda’s terrorism, according to Benotman, who says that Sadeeq always resisted requests by Osama bin Laden for his Libyan group to join forces with al Qaeda.

In 2009 Sadeeq and other senior LIFG leaders formally repudiated al Qaeda style terrorism and disbanded their campaign to overthrow the Libyan regime. The breakthrough was the result of a two-year dialogue with the regime brokered by Benotman. CNN interviewed leading figures of the LIFG in Abu Salim prison in Tripoli in September 2009, shortly before the group’s leaders were released. Although they were then behind prison bars, the leaders’ disavowal of violence appeared genuine.

Benotman says that former LIFG members who have again taken up arms have fused their efforts with rebel forces and do not operate as a separate armed group. Instead they have created a new political organization called the Islamic Movement for Change, which Benotman says is committed to working within a future democratic process.

He says other Islamist units are operating in Libya but does not know of any former members of his group who are fighting with them.

Benotman says that it will be important for the National Transitional Council to keep a close watch over the militants released from Abu Salim jail — especially if they begin operating as a group outside the NTC chain of command. According to Benotman, the presence of former LIFG leaders in rebel ranks like Abdullah Sadeeq may help prevent this happening.

LIFG members and the younger generation of Salafi jihadists were often incarcerated in the same wing of Abu Salim prison. Benotman believes the presence of former LIFG commanders in rebel front lines will enhance their credibility amongst the released prisoners.

But he says some among the younger generation of jihadists have already begun operating outside the orbit of the NTC. In the east, where radicalization has historically run highest, young Salafi jihadists have linked up with foreign militants and may even have started their own training camps to train volunteers to fight the Gadhafi regime, according to Benotman. A number of jihadists, he says, have entered Libya from other Arab countries. In June the NTC detained two suspected Jordanian jihadists in al-Brega in eastern Libya and expelled them, according to Benotman.

Neighboring Algeria, which waged a long battle against Islamist insurgents in the 1990s, has already expressed concern about the instability in Libya being exploited by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other jihadist groups. Algerian officials are also concerned that weapons such as ground-to-air missiles may have fallen into militant hands, a worry that has also been expressed by U.S. commanders.

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/CLRjowT1n3c/index.html

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — As fighting continued Friday in much of Libya, regional organizations underscored the need to plan carefully and move quickly to speed the transition from crisis to democracy.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had talked with heads of such organizations.

“All agreed that the crisis in Libya has entered a new and decisive phase,” he said. “All agreed, as well, on the importance of a smooth transition.”

That transition must be based on inclusiveness, reconciliation and national unity, he said.

“Fighting goes on in many parts of the country,” Ban said. “There is an urgent need to put an end to the conflict and restore order and stability. All agreed that, if the Libyan authorities request, we should be prepared to help develop police capacity, bearing in mind that the country is awash with small arms.”

Gadhafi: Women, kids fight for me

Rebels claim to have Gadhafi surrounded

Global response to Libya conflict

Map: Tripoli hot spots

The effect of the fighting has been profound, he said. “There are widespread shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies. Reports on the ground suggest that the water supply to the capital and surrounding region may be in danger, putting several million people or more at risk.”

Friday’s meeting participants agreed that the international community “must come together with an effective, well-coordinated program of action,” Ban said.

Over the longer term, they emphasized early support for elections, transitional justice and policing, and help in social-economic recovery, rule of law and institution-building, Ban added.

He called Thursday’s action by the Security Council in unfreezing $1.5 billion in Libyan assets “a welcome step” but said Friday’s participants agreed that more must be done to ensure a stable transition of power.

Despite the continuing fighting, Gadhafi’s grip on power has slipped, said Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest, on Martha’s Vineyard with the vacationing President Barack Obama.

“It is evident that there is momentum on the side of the rebels as they continue to make advances and as they continue in their efforts to set up a new government in Libya,” he said.

Asked about the whereabouts of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, he said, “Right now, as I’ve been saying the past few days, right now there is no evidence to indicate that Gadhafi has left Libya.”

Earnest called on Gadhafi “to relinquish power once and for all,” turn himself in and be held accountable.

The comments came as opposition and NATO forces took aim Friday at the Gadhafi regime in Tripoli and Sirte as rebels worked to consolidate their power across the country.

British warplanes pounded a “large headquarters bunker” overnight in Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, the UK Defence Ministry said. Tornado aircraft fired a salvo of precision-guided missiles into the city, which is east of Tripoli on the central coast.

In the heart of the capital, rebels began exploring the vast network of tunnels that run underneath Gadhafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound and much of the rest of the city. The thick-walled hallways — wide enough for three people to walk abreast — appeared to have been built to protect their occupants from bombing. But NATO’s assault on the leader’s compound was visible in one part of the tunnel, from which the sky was visible through a hole dug out by a bomb. Elsewhere in the bunker was a professionally equipped television studio.

Other previously hidden areas were opened to public view. In Tripoli, a former U.S. airbase converted by Gadhafi into a private airport showed graphically that the longtime leader’s military had begun to decay long before rebels picked up their guns against him in February: Long lines of dust-laden jets once worth millions of dollars apiece sat rusting on the tarmac. A tree sprouted from the center of the runway.

The opposition said its forces made gains late Thursday as it closed in on Sirte, and clashes flared Friday in that region, considered by fighters as a hot war zone.

On Thursday, Tornado aircraft destroyed one of Gadhafi’s few remaining long-range surface-to-air missile systems, near Al Watiyah, close to the Tunisian border, the ministry said.

The ministry said Tornadoes and Typhoons destroyed a loyalist-held command-and-control site in the Tripoli area, also on Thursday. Britain is a participant in NATO’s mission to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the protection of Libyan people against Gadhafi regime forces.

As for the airport, rebels said they controlled the facility but were struggling to secure an area east of it controlled by Gadhafi loyalists.

The rebels said Gadhafi loyalists were indiscriminately shelling the airport from a civilian village east of the facility in an effort to repel the advance of rebel forces. Rebels said they were cautious in their response to the incoming fire because of concern over civilian casualties.

An aircraft burned as loyalists resumed shelling the airport with mortars and Grad rockets, a CNN team that witnessed the attack said.

A 17-year-old rebel said he hates war but feels forced to fight until the war ends. At that point, “I’m going to see my mother. I’m going to see my family,” said Louis al-Zinatni. “I’m going to remove this gun from my hands. It’s not for me.”

The reports of continuing fighting came amid world concerns over revenge killings by rebels and loyalists.

Amnesty International has gathered accounts from survivors of abuse in Zawiya by pro-Gadhafi soldiers and rebel forces.

Amnesty said it also uncovered evidence that pro-Gadhafi forces killed detainees at two military camps in Tripoli on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Escaped detainees said loyalist forces had used grenades and gunfire on scores of prisoners at one camp, while guards at the other camp fatally shot five detainees. “Loyalist forces in Libya must immediately stop such killings of captives, and both sides must commit to ensuring no harm comes to prisoners in their custody,” Amnesty International said.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Gadhafi alleging crimes against humanity.

On the political front, the opposition National Transitional Council was moving its political base to Tripoli from its stronghold in Benghazi in eastern Libya.

Libya’s rebel leadership on Friday pleaded with the United States and other countries to unfreeze more money, saying the funds are vital to establish peace and stability in the nation.

“Our friends throughout the world are talking about the procedures needed to bring back peace and stability,” Mahmoud Jibril, a senior National Transitional Council leader, said at an international conference in Turkey. “But we cannot do that unless we can fulfill our duties.”

Though the National Transitional Council has been recognized by 57 nations as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union failed to follow suit at a meeting Friday.

Nevertheless, the council issued a communique that urged the “formation of an inclusive transitional government.”

It called for the “establishment of a constitutional and legislative framework for the democratic transformation of Libya, as well as for support towards the organization of elections and the national reconciliation process.”

It encouraged “the Libyan stakeholders to accelerate the process leading to the formation of an all-inclusive transitional government that would be welcome to occupy the seat of Libya in the AU, which represents countries across Africa.

In Washington, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, Aaron Snipe, said he was pleased that 20 countries on the African continent have recognized the National Transitional Council.

“The international community has come out very much in one voice to support the aims and the purposes of the Libyan people,” he said.

CNN’s Nic Robertson, Dan Rivers, Sara Sidner, Arwa Damon, Raja Razek, Jomana Karadsheh, Hada Messia, Barbara Starr, Chelsea J. Carter and Pam Benson contributed to this report.

Article source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/CzwKDupwKBo/index.html

26 August 2011
Last updated at 09:47 GMT

Edwards founded the Motown Museum

Motown executive Esther Gordy Edwards – the sister of label founder Berry Gordy – has died at the age of 91.

She served as senior vice-president and was charged with exposing the unique Motown sound to international audiences.

She also led the efforts to turn Motown’s original headquarters in Detroit into a museum.

Berry Gordy started the famed label, home to such artists as Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, in 1959.

A statement on the Motown Museum’s website said Edwards died “surrounded by family and friends” on 24 August.

Edwards – Gordy’s eldest sister – held several positions within the label but is best known for turning Motown’s famed Studio A in Detroit into an attraction after the company moved to Los Angeles.

Gordy called her “one of my biggest assets at Motown”.

He said: “Esther turned the so-called trash left behind after I sold the company in 1988 into a phenomenal world-class monument.”

She also worked with several of Motown’s biggest artists through the years such as Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye

Stevie Wonder said in a statement: “She believed in me. When I was 14 years old and many other people didn’t or could only see what they could at the time, she championed me being in Motown.”

“I shared with her many of my songs first before anyone else,” he added.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/entertainment-arts-14676193

26 August 2011
Last updated at 11:48 GMT

Comic Jason Manford hosted the live final at London’s Hammersmith Apollo

Teesside stand-up Patrick Monahan has won ITV1 comedy competition Show Me The Funny.

The Irish-Iranian comic beat former undertaker Dan Mitchell and Tiffany Stevenson to the title, which was voted for by the public.

After being named the winner, Monahan said he was “genuinely shocked”, adding he thought he would be eliminated from the competition in the first week.

The comic’s prize includes £100,000, a nationwide tour and a DVD deal.

Monahan, 35, said he wanted to give his prize money to his family to thank them for their support.

The live final at London’s Hammersmith Apollo saw each of the three finalists deliver five minutes of new stand-up material to a live audience, including judges Alan Davies and Kate Copstick.

Monahan’s winning routine included material about his family, including the joke: “My dad’s Irish and my mum’s Iranian – so we spent most of our family holidays in customs.”

Comedian Johnny Vegas, who mentored Monahan during the show, said: “I’m made up about it. It’s showed him that others had more faith in him than he had in himself.”

Monahan will now headline a 12-date tour, supported by the two runners up, beginning on 17 September at Stevenage Concert Hall.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/entertainment-arts-14678380