Ivory Coast:, Capital ' Yamoussoukro' captured...[2221 ]

Ivory Coast: Ouattara fighters 'capture Yamoussoukro'

 

Pro-Ouattara forces began offensives on several fronts from their northern bases this week

BBC.,,30 March 2011 Last updated at 18:20 GMT

Forces loyal to UN-backed President-elect Alassane Ouattara have captured Ivory Coast's capital, residents of Yamoussoukro say.

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They have continued their advance from the north despite incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo's ceasefire appeal.
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Mr Gbagbo refuses to stand down despite the UN saying he lost November's poll.
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Abidjan is Ivory Coast's main city, but a BBC reporter says Yamoussoukro's capture is a major symbolic victory for the pro-Ouattara forces.
The pro-Ouattara soldiers are also reported to be 100km (60 miles) north of the port of San Pedro, a major cocoa exporting centre.
One million people have fled the violence - mostly from Abidjan - and at least 462 people have been killed since December, according to the UN.
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'Residents clapping'..........

Ivory Coast: Battle for power

• 462 killed, one million fled since disputed election
• 9,000 UN peacekeepers monitor 2003 ceasefire
• World's largest cocoa producer
• Once was haven of peace and prosperity in West Africa
• Alassane Ouattara recognised as president-elect
• International sanctions imposed to force Laurent Gbagbo to go

Click and Read full article 

• Ivorian fighters 'take capital'

NASA Image of the day, Mar 29th ....[ 2220 ]

NASA Image of the Day

• Watercolor Canvas

Tassili n’Ajjer National Park, a part of the Sahara Desert, has a bone-dry climate with scant rainfall, yet does not blend in with Saharan dunes. Instead, the rocky plateau rises above the surrounding sand seas. 

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Rich in geologic and human history, Tassili n’Ajjer is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, and covers 27,800 square miles (72,000 square kilometers) in southeastern Algeria. 

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This image from 2000 was made from multiple observations by the Landsat 7 satellite, using a combination of infrared, near-infrared and visible light to better distinguish between the park’s various rock types. Sand appears in shades of yellow and tan. Granite rocks appear brick red. Blue areas are likely salts. 

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As the patchwork of colors suggests, the geology of Tassili n’Ajjer is complex. The plateau is composed of sandstone around a mass of granite. Over the course of Earth's history, alternating wet and dry climates have shaped these rocks in multiple ways. Deep ravines are cut into cliff faces along the plateau’s northern margin. 

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The ravines are remnants of ancient rivers that once flowed off the plateau into nearby lakes. Where those lakes once rippled, winds now sculpt the dunes of giant sand seas. In drier periods, winds eroded the sandstones of the plateau into 'stone forests' and natural arches. 

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Not surprisingly, the park’s name means 'plateau of chasms.' Humans have also modified the park’s rocks. Some 15,000 engravings have so far been identified in Tassili n’Ajjer. From about 10,000 B.C. to the first few centuries A.D., successive populations also left the remains of homes and burial mounds. 

Image Credit: NASA

Τρίτη, Μάρτιος 29,2011 7:00:00 πμ

Japan: Wrong radiation readings...[ 2219 ]

Japan says very high radiation reading at reactor was wrong

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TOKYO | Sun Mar 27, 2011 12:02pm EDT
 

(Reuters) - The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant said on Monday a very high radiation reading that had sent workers fleeing the No. 2 reactor was erroneous.
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Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) vice-president Sakae Muto apologized for Sunday's error, which added to alarm inside and outside Japan over the impact of contamination from the complex which was hit by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
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Radiation in the water was a still worrying 100,000 times higher than normal, rather than 10 million times higher as originally stated, Muto said.
"I am very sorry...I would like to make sure that such a mistake will not happen again."
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(Reporting by Yoko Kubota)

Libya : Rebels push west..[ 2218 ]

Rebels push west as air strikes hit Gaddafi forces

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Air strikes aid Libyan rebel advance

9:10am EDT

• Libyan rebels claim victory in Ajdabiyah
• West continues assault on Libya
• Libyan woman claiming rape is muzzled

1 / 26

By Angus MacSwan

BIN JAWAD, Libya | Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:21am EDT

(Reuters) - Libyan rebels pushed further west on Sunday to retake more territory abandoned by Muammar Gaddafi's retreating forces, which have been weakened by Western air strikes.
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Emboldened by the capture of the strategic town of Ajdabiyah with the help of foreign warplanes on Saturday, the rebels have regained the initiative and are back in control of all the main oil terminals in the eastern half of the North African country.
"There are no Gaddafi soldiers here. We control all the town," rebel fighter Youssef Ahmed, 22, said in the town of Bin Jawad, 525 km (330 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.
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A Reuters correspondent in Bin Jawad saw more than two dozen rebel pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns in the town center, as fighters were shooting in the air in celebration.
Bin Jawad is the westernmost point the rebels reached in early March, before they were pushed back by Gaddafi's better-equipped forces to their stronghold of Benghazi.
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Rebels said Gaddafi loyalists had retreated westwards and that they planned to push on toward Sirte, the Libyan leader's heavily defended home area on the Mediterranean coast.
"We want to go to Sirte today. I don't know if it will happen," said 25-year-old Marjai Agouri as he waited with another 100 rebels along the main coastal road outside Bin Jawad with three multiple rocket launchers, six anti-aircraft guns and around a dozen pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.
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The rebel advance is a rapid reversal of three weeks of losses and indicates Western air strikes under by a U.N. no-fly zone are shifting the battlefield dynamics in their favor.
Their gains put the rebels back in control of all the main oil terminals in the eastern half of Libya -- Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Brega, Zueitina and Tobruk.
In Ras Lanuf, battle debris was scattered around the eastern gate, which had been hit by an air strike.
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At least three trucks of Gaddafi's forces were smouldering. Ammunition, plastic bags of rations left behind and a tin bowl with a half eaten meal on the ground suggested Gaddafi's forces had beaten a hasty retreat.
Mansour al-Breik, a 20-year-old shopkeeper now turned fighter, said: "The air strikes were from midnight to 3 a.m."
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REBELS TAKE PRISONERS
On the way into Ras Lanuf a Reuters correspondent saw a bus loaded with Gaddafi soldiers who had been taken prisoner, escorted by a machinegun-mounted pickup.
As foreign media passed, rebels chanted: "Sarkozy, Sarkozy, Sarkozy" in reference to the French president and air strikes by coalition states including France aimed at protecting civilians.

Libya : strikes fin Marsha el Brega....[ 2217 ]

Libya : Rebels say that entered Brega, But Reuters said rebels were only on the outskirts.
Warplanes bombed the outskirts of Misrata to stop Gaddafi forces shelling the city Photo: REUTERS
Rebels claim to have reached oil port just hours after taking Ajdabiya, but Misurata is "besieged" by Gaddafi forces. Last Modified: 26 Mar 2011 19:12
Libyan rebels are advancing westwards after recapturing the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiya from government controls with the help of coalition air strikes. Reports late on Saturday suggested rebels had already pressed onto the key oil-port town of Brega, 80 kilometres to the west. "We are in the centre of Brega," rebel fighter Abdelsalam al-Maadani told the AFP news agency by telephone. But Reuters said rebels were only on the outskirts of Brega. Al Jazeera's James Bays, who reached Ajdabiya on Saturday, said that while it appeared that rebels had taken over the town of Brega, it remained unclear who controlled the nearby oil port. . Meanwhile, pro-Gaddafi forces were attacking the opposition-held city of Misurata in the west of the country with heavy shelling, witnesses said, drawing coalition air strikes against government military targets. . The port city has experienced some of the heaviest fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi since the uprising began on February 16. Pro-democracy activist Ahmed Al Misrati, speaking from Misurata, told Al Jazeera the town was "besieged from all sides". "Since morning [Misurata] has been under heavy gunfire and heavy bombardment ... by tanks or mortar shells," said Al Misrati. "This bombardment is indiscriminate and arbitrary, sometimes targeting residential plots and one entire family was killed - the father and his children. . They [Gaddafi troops] are also stationed in other rooftops, especially the high buildings ... Anybody in the street comes under heavy gunfire and now the situation is exacerbating and is very, very dire." But rebels said later that coalition forces had made several raids, bombing locations on the outskirts of the town including an ammunition dump. The strikes had reduced the shelling, they told Reuters. British missile strikes destroyed three armoured vehicles in Misurata and two more in Ajdabiya, the Royal Air Force said in a statement. . Celebrating in the streets Rebel fighters further east were earlier celebrating on the streets of Ajdabiya after driving pro-Gaddafi forces out of the town. "There is no doubt about it, you can probably hear some of the celebrations behind me, Ajdabiya is in opposition hands," Al Jazeera's James Bays said from the city on Saturday as celebratory gunfire rang out. . "Gaddafi forces have been controlling the ring road that goes around Ajdabiya ... that has been the situation for six days, but they have now been cleared from that position." But Libyan government officials said that the army had withdrawn to save residents from more bloodshed. . Rebel forces had initially captured Ajdabiya during an advance along Libya's east coast that was halted and reversed in a counter-offensive by government forces backed by superior air power earlier this month. But coalition airstrikes which have destroyed Libya's air force have tipped the balance back towards the rebels, Bays said. "The road is open beyond Ajdabiya, and [the rebels] are heading, streaming along that road ... they are on the road and they are moving forward," Bays reported. One rebel, speaking to Reuters, praised the coalition air strikes, saying: "Thank you Britain, thank you France, thank you America." . General 'captured' Many fighters belonging to forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi were also taken hostage by rebels. Among them, according to reports in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, is one of Gaddafi's most senior soldiers, General Bilgasim Al-Ganga, said Al Jazeera's Sue Turton. . "We're hearing reports that the number three in Gaddafi's army, Bilgasim Al-Ganga, has been captured overnight in fighting in Ajdabiya. He has a fierce reputation among the opposition who accuse him of committing many atrocities under the Gaddafi regime," our correspondent said. . On Friday, western warplanes bombed Gaddafi's tanks and artillery outside the town to break the battlefield stalemate and help rebels retake the town. Plumes of smoke filled the sky as the pace of coalition air strikes escalated, forcing terrified residents to flee Ajdabiya, which is 160km south of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. In Benghazi, Turton said the rebels now believed they had government forces "on the back foot". "There is muted optimism. It really does feel the momentum of the Gaddafi forces has been stopped," our correspondent said. "They are not outwardly celebrating but they are definitely optimistic." . 'Focused mission' Meanwhile, Barack Obama, the US president, said Saturday that the military mission in Libya was succeeding. "Because we acted quickly, a humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided and the lives of countless civilians - innocent men, women and children - have been saved," Obama said. But Obama reiterated that the military mission was clear and focused and that the role of American forces had been limited. "Our military has provided unique capabilities at the beginning, but this is now a broad, international effort...  Key Arab partners like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have committed aircraft.  And as agreed this week, responsibility for this operation is being transferred from the United States to our NATO allies and partners. "This is how the international community should work - more nations, not just the United States, bearing the responsibility and cost of upholding peace and security." . Meanwhile, the African Union, which has rejected foreign intervention in Libya's affairs, said on Friday it plans to facilitate talks to help end the conflict. "The AU action is ... aiming at facilitating dialogue between the Libyan parties on reforms to be launched to eliminate the root causes of the conflict," the union's commission chairman Jean Ping told a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He said that the process should end with democratic elections in Libya. It was the first statement by the AU since the UN Security Council imposed a no-fly zone last week and a Western coalition began air strikes on Libyan military targets. .

Source:   Al Jazeera and agencies

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