Monday, February 21, 2011
Qaddafi’s Forces S
Neither side budging
Neither side budging in Wisconsin union fight - Yahoo! News
MADISON, Wis. – No resolution appeared imminent Monday to the stalemate over union rights in Wisconsin, leaving Senate Republicans resigned to forge ahead with less-controversial business such as tax breaks for dairy farmers and commending the Green Bay Packers on winning the Super Bowl.
As the standoff entered its second week, none of the major players offered any signs of backing down in a high-stakes game of political chicken that has riveted the nation and led to ongoing public protests that drew a high of 68,000 people on Saturday. Thousands more braved cold winds and temperatures in the 20s to march again on Monday, waving signs that said "Stop the attack on Wisconsin families" and "solidarity."
The 14 Senate Democrats who skipped town Thursday to indefinitely delay a vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's bill stripping most collective bargaining rights from nearly all public employees remained missing in action for a fifth day.
Walker refused to back down and again called on the Democrats to return and vote on the bill
"For those 14 Senate Democrats, you've had your time," he said. "It's time for them to come back and participate in democracy."
The Democrats have been far from in hiding. They've done numerous television interviews and two of them even participated, via telephone from an undisclosed location, in a brief meeting to schedule the Senate's session on Tuesday.
"You have shut down the people's government, and that is not acceptable," Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said to them during the meeting.
Both the Senate and Assembly planned to be in session on Tuesday to take up the bill, but at least one of the missing Democrats needed to show up for a vote to be taken in the Senate. Assembly Democrats planned to offer dozens of amendments that could push a vote into Wednesday or later.
Although Tuesday's list of items, including the resolution honoring the Packers, is largely bipartisan, Fitzgerald hinted that he might try to push some more controversial ones later, even if the Democrats aren't back. Among the possibilities is a vote on the question of whether voters should be required to show identification at the polls.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller said Democrats were waiting for Walker to compromise.
"It's right in front of the governor," Miller said. "He just needs to pick it up and allow us to move on. ... This is a no-brainer."
Under one deal, the unions said they would accept paying more for benefits as Walker wants but still retain their collective bargaining rights. Another compromise offered by Republican Sen. Dale Schultz would remove collective bargaining rights just for two years.
Walker has repeatedly rejected both offers, saying local governments and school districts can't be hamstrung by the often lengthy collective bargaining process and need to have more flexibility to deal with up to $1 billion in cuts he will propose in his budget next week and into the future.
As he spoke under heavy guard at a late afternoon news conference inside his conference room, thousands of protesters could be heard through the doors blowing whistles, banging on drums and chanting "Scott Walker has got to go!"
"This guy is power drunk and we're here to sober him up," said Bert Zipperer, 54, a counselor at a Madison middle school who was among the protesters. "He wants to do it unilaterally without any compromise. He wants to be a national conservative hero and he thinks he can get away with this."
The emergency plan Walker wants the Legislature to pass would address this year's $137 million shortfall and start dealing with the $3.6 billion hole expected by mid-2013. The benefits concessions would amount to $30 million this year, but the largest savings Walker proposed comes from refinancing debt to save $165 million.
That portion must be done by Friday for bonds to be refinanced in time to realize the savings by June 30, the end of this fiscal year.
Walker said not passing the bill by Friday would make even deeper cuts necessary and possibly result in laying off 1,500 workers over the next four months.
Thousands of those affected and their supporters marched on the Capitol for a seventh straight day. Hundreds of them have been sleeping in the rotunda every night and several districts have had to close after so many teachers called in sick. The Madison School District was closed Wednesday through Monday but was expected to reopen Tuesday.
Districts in central Wisconsin were also closed Monday, but that was because of 10 to 12 inches of snow. Milwaukee schools were shut down for a pre-scheduled midsemester break. Those closures, on top of Monday being a previously scheduled furlough day for state workers, resulted in another large crowd Monday but an official estimate was not yet released.
At noon, guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine took to a stage on the Capitol steps to fire up the crowd. He said he flew in from California to lend his voice to the protest.
"The future of workers' rights will be decided in Madison, Wisconsin," he said. "You're making history here."
He joked that he could hardly play the guitar because his fingers were numb. He sang a song with the refrain, "For the union men and women standing up and standing strong!" Each time he repeated that lyric, the crowd roared.
Walker's plan would allow unions representing most public employees to negotiate only for wage increases, not benefits or working conditions. Any wage increase above the Consumer Price Index would have to be approved in a referendum. Unions would face a vote of membership every year to stay formed, and workers could opt out of paying dues.
The plan would also require many public employees to cut their take home pay by about 8 percent by contributing more of their salaries toward their health insurance and retirement benefits, concessions the unions have said they're willing to accept.
But Walker and Republicans are showing no willingness to budge while the Senate Democrats say they are prepared to stay away for weeks if that's what it will take.
___
Associated Press writer Ryan J. Foley contributed to this report.
Qaddafi’s Forces Strike With Fury as Unrest Grows
By Monday night, witnesses said, the streets of Tripoli were thick with special forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi as well as mercenaries. Roving the streets in trucks, they shot freely as planes dropped what witnesses described as “small bombs” and helicopters fired on protesters.
Hundreds of Qaddafi supporters took over the central Green Square in the capital after truckloads of militiamen arrived and opened fire on protesters, scattering them. Residents said they now feared even emerging from their houses.
“It was an obscene amount of gunfire,” said one witness. “They were strafing these people. People were running in every direction.”
The police stood by and watched, the witness said, as the militiamen, still shooting, chased after the protesters. The death toll could not be determined.
The escalation of the conflict came after six days of revolt that began in Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi, where hundreds of people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to witnesses. Human rights activists outside the country said they had confirmed more than 220 deaths. The rebellion is the latest and bloodiest so far of the uprisings that have swept across the Arab world with surprising speed in recent weeks, toppling autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia, and challenging others in Bahrain and Yemen.
The day had begun with growing signs that Colonel Qaddafi’s grip on power might be slipping, with protesters in control of Libya’s second-largest city, his security forces pulled back to key locations in the capital as government buildings smoldered, and a growing number of officials and military personnel defecting to join the revolt.
But the violence Colonel Qaddafi unleashed Monday afternoon on Tripoli demonstrated that he was willing to shed far more blood than the deposed rulers of either neighboring Egypt or Tunisia in his effort to hold on to power.
Two residents said planes had been landing for 10 days ferrying mercenaries from African countries to an air base in Tripoli. The mercenaries had done much of the shooting, which began Sunday night, they said. Some forces were using particularly lethal, hollow-point bullets, they said.
“The shooting is not designed to disperse the protesters,” said one resident, who wanted to be identified only as Waleed, fearing for his security. “It is meant to kill them.”
“This is not Ben Ali or Mubarak,” he added, referring to the deposed leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. “This man has no sense of humanity.”
Colonel Qaddafi, for his part, remained largely out of sight. Around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, after a rainy day, he appeared on state television for about 30 seconds, holding an umbrella up through the open door of a passenger car. He denied rumors that he had fled to Venezuela and called the cable news channels covering Libya “dogs.”
As rioters overwhelmed the streets around 1 a.m. on Monday, Colonel Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, delivered a rambling but bellicose speech threatening Libyans with the prospect of civil war and “rivers of blood” if they turned away from his father.
Apparently enraged by the speech, protesters converged on Green Square soon after and clashed with heavily armed riot police officers for several hours, witnesses in Tripoli said by telephone.
By dawn in Tripoli, police stations and government buildings — including the Hall of the People, where the legislature meets — were in flames. Debris fires from the rioting the night before burned at many intersections.
Most stores and schools were closed, and long lines were forming for a chance to buy bread or gas. Protesters had torn down or burned the posters of Colonel Qaddafi that were once ubiquitous in the capital, witnesses said.
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Reporting was contributed by Sharon Otterman, Neil MacFarquhar and Kareem Fahim from Cairo; Nada Bakri from Beirut, Lebanon; and Colin Moynihan from New York.
FT.com / Brussels - Italians fear African migration surge
Italians fear African migration surge
By Stanley Pignal in Brussels and Giulia Segreti in Rome
Published: February 21 2011 23:23 | Last updated: February 21 2011 23:23
Fears of a possible surge of north African immigrants undermined European efforts to craft a joint response to Libya’s bloody crackdown against anti-government protesters.
In the wake of the bloodshed in Tripoli, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels condemned the violence and called for restraint on all sides, as they considered the repercussions of the wave of fallen and tottering regimes in the region.
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But Italy, which has in recent years seen a huge influx of illegal immigrants arrive from Libya, sounded a more conciliatory tone, worried that the departure of the Gaddafi regime could result in more migrants.
Franco Frattini, foreign minister, warned of the dangers of Libya becoming an “Islamic Arab Emirate at the border of Europe”, as he reiterated calls for a closer partnership with north Africa, which would provide European trade and investment in exchange for political reform.
The division followed last week’s threat by Libya to stop co-operation on migration matters if the EU encouraged protesters. The warning was dismissed as “state blackmail” by France and Germany.
Fears of a surge in illegal immigrants are most acute in Italy. Lampedusa island near Sicily has received nearly 6,000 migrants from Tunisia since the regime there collapsed last month.
Officials fear the numbers could swell if anarchy grips Libya.
Under the terms of a secretive 2009 deal between Rome and Tripoli, the Libyan authorities have co-operated in intercepting boats seeking to cross to Europe, also taking back migrants caught by Italian coastguards without assessing their claims to asylum under international law.
The agreement, which has been severely criticised by the Vatican and human rights organisations, has proved effective. Immigrants landing at Lampedusa have decreased by 98 per cent, from 37,000 in 2009 to 400 in 2010.
At Rome’s request, the European Commission on Sunday started co-ordinating a taskforce of border specialists to help patrol around Lampedusa.
Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, will hold a special cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss the issue of illegal immigration from North Africa.
During his last visit in Rome last August, Mr Gaddafi urged the EU to give $7bn a year to curb the flow of African migrants.
Under the accord, Italy pledged to pay $7bn over 20 years as reparations for its colonial rule from 1911 to 1943.
In return, Libya not only granted the immigration deal, but also gave Italian companies priority in infrastructure projects.
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Libya Violence Escalates as Qaddafi's Son Vows `Rivers of Blood' - Bloomberg
Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam. Source: AFP/Getty Images
Libya erupted into violence last night after Muammar Qaddafi’s son threatened “rivers of blood” and deployed security forces on protesters, some of whom claimed control of the second-biggest city, Benghazi.
At least 250 people died in Tripoli alone, al-Jazeera reported, citing witnesses. Troops attacked “terror” hideouts and urged citizens to fight back the “organized gangs that are destroying Libya,” state television said. Amid the violence were signs that some officials and troops were deserting.
Oil surged to the highest in more than two years. Libya, holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves, is the latest country in the region to be rocked by protests ignited by last month’s ouster of Tunisia’s president and energized by the Feb. 11 fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Violence has flared in Yemen, Djibouti, Iran and Bahrain as governments cracked down on demands for change.
“This is not a regime that will compromise,” said Dirk J. Vandewalle, author of “A History of Modern Libya” and an associate professor of government at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. “Whichever way this goes, we can expect a good amount of chaos and bloodshed.”
Diplomats in several cities were reported to have abandoned the Qaddafi regime to protest against the violence. Two Libyan warplanes crossed to Malta and requested asylum after refusing to bomb protesters, according to al-Jazeera.
‘Genocide’
“We find it impossible to stay silent,” Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, told reporters. “The Libyan mission will be in the service of the Libyan people rather than in the service of the regime.” He accused the regime of “genocide.”
Brent crude for April settlement adding as much as 2.5 percent to $105.08 a barrel. It traded at $104.87 at 5:08 p.m. in London yesterday. Persian Gulf shares extended declines, with Dubai’s benchmark index dropping to a six-month low.
“This is much, much worse chaos than we saw in Egypt or Tunisia,” said Daniel Byman, director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University in Washington. “They’re in a civil war, at least a low-level one, right now. The question to me is, does the regime capitulate or does the civil war intensify.”
Arab League Meeting
The Arab League will meet today to discuss the turmoil in Libya, al-Jazeera said. The broadcaster televised pictures of what it said were corpses of Libyan civilians killed in the clashes, some charred and with bullet wounds.
“Instead of weeping over 84 dead people, we will weep over hundreds of thousands of dead,” said Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader. “Rivers of blood will flow.”
He said the army will “impose security and get things back to normal, whatever the price,” and warned that the conflict may drive oil companies away. Several international companies in Libya announced evacuations or halted operations. Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it evacuated the families of personnel in Libya, and Norway’s Statoil ASA closed its offices and said it is evacuating expatriate workers.
Shares in Italy’s Eni SpA, which produced 244,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in Libya in 2009, fell 5 percent at 4:50 p.m. in Milan.
“Libya has oil,” Qaddafi’s son said. “This oil will be burnt. Thugs, criminals, gangs and tribes will burn it.”
Vulnerable Regime
Protesters said they had taken over Benghazi, the Associated Press said, citing witnesses. The International Federation for Human Rights said more than 300 people have been killed in the past week.
The Quryna newspaper, based in Benghazi, reported that the country’s top judicial official, Mustafa Abduljelil, resigned to protest the violence. Libya’s representative to the Arab League quit his post and sided with the protesters, Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency reported yesterday. Libya’s ambassadors in China, India, the U.K., Indonesia, Bangladesh, Poland and the Arab League also resigned, al-Jazeera said.
“The regime is exceptionally vulnerable right now,” Byman said. “You’ve seen defections among the elite. That’s a good sign the regime has problems.”
Thousands of people demonstrating yesterday in Benghazi were met by gunfire from forces loyal to the regime, New York- based Human Rights Watch said, citing reports from witnesses.
‘An Obstinate Place’
“Benghazi is always known for resisting tyranny and diktats, it’s an obstinate place,” said Faraj Najem, a historian and author of “Tribes, Islam and State in Libya.”
The leader of the opposition Front for the Salvation of Libya, Ibrahim Sahad, told ABC television that some army units in Benghazi had defected to join the protesters and were helping to protect them.
“The world is watching the situation in Libya with alarm,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last night. “Now is the time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed.”
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron denounced the violence as “appalling and unacceptable” while in Egypt yesterday, where he was the first Western leader to visit since Mubarak’s fall.
Protesters across the region have focused on the same blend of economic ills, political repression and unelected rulers in power for decades.
In Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula, President Ali Abdullah Saleh held a press conference in the capital, Sana’a, to rule out meeting the demands of protesters seeking an end to his more than 30 years in office. People took to the streets for an 11th day as Saleh said their calls for regime change are “not logical.”
Regional Turmoil
Thousands gathered outside Sana’a University and in the southern provinces of Aden and Taiz, while followers of the Shiite Houthi rebel group joined in the protests by holding a demonstration in the northern Saada province, according to activists in Sana’a. At least five people have been killed.
In Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, opposition groups are drawing up demands and discussing the government’s call for dialogue, said Ebrahim Sharif, head of the National Democratic Action Society. Protests have been led by the Shiite Muslim majority, which says it is discriminated against by Sunni rulers.
Thousands of mainly Shiite demonstrators are camped in the central Pearl Roundabout in the capital, Manama, after tanks, armored personnel carriers and riot police withdrew on the orders of Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Analysts including the Eurasia Group, a New York-based company that assesses political risk, have warned of the risk of unrest spreading to Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter.
Saudi Arabia neighbors Bahrain and has a Shiite minority population in the east, where most of its oil is produced. It was the lowest-ranked Middle Eastern country in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 Democracy Index, which classified all Gulf nations as authoritarian regimes.
Swap contracts for Saudi Arabia, used as a measure of confidence although the country has no debt to insure, rose basis points to 144 yesterday and have almost doubled since the end of January, according to CMA prices. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock index fell for a seventh day, dropping 0.6 percent. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index of Gulf stocks fell 0.4 percent to a four-month low.
“Perception of risk is only increasing,” said Alia Moubayed, senior economist at London-based Barclays Capital. “Investors will not take any sort of half solutions to be enough for calming their sense of risk aversion.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Mariam Fam in Cairo at mfam1@bloomberg.net; Kevin Costelloe at kcostelloe@bloomberg.net; Massoud A Derhally in Beirut, Lebanon at mderhally@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.