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Gaddafi family wants dead bodies

The clan of Muammar Gaddafi demanded a chance to bury the body that lay on display in a meat locker after a death as brutal and chaotic as his 42-year rule.  In a statement on a Syria-based pro-Gaddafi television station, the ousted dictator's family asked for the bodies of Gaddafi, his son Mo'tassim, and others who were killed on Thursday by fighters who overran his hometown Sirte. "We call on the UN, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Amnesty International to force the Transitional Council to hand over the martyrs' bodies to our tribe in Sirte and to allow them to perform their burial ceremony in accordance with Islamic customs and rules," the statement said.  Like other Western officials, Rasmussen expressed no regrets in public about the gruesome death of the deposed Libyan dictator, who was captured alive by the forces of the National Transitional Council but was brought dead to a hospital. "We mounted a complex operation...

Gadhafi raised hands, begged for life and died after an hour

Dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, a wounded Moammar Gadhafi raised his hands and begged revolutionary fighters: "Don't kill me, my sons." Within an hour, he was dead, but not before jubilant Libyans had vented decades of hatred by pulling the eccentric dictator's hair and parading his bloodied body on the hood of a truck. The death Thursday of Gadhafi, two months after he was driven from power and into hiding, decisively buries the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom. It also thrusts Libya into a new age in which its transitional leaders must overcome deep divisions and rebuild nearly all its institutions from scratch to achieve dreams of democracy. "We have been waiting for this historic moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed," Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in the capital of Tripoli. "I would like to call on Libyans to put aside the g...

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi killed: instant views from world

Deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been killed, interim Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril told reporters in Tripoli on Thursday (October 20, 2011). There are conflicting reports surrounding the circumstances of his killing, which reportedly happened in or near Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte on Thursday. Libya's ambassador to the United Kingdom says that Gadhafi's body is in Misrata, Libya. A different source – a spokesman for a member of the Tripoli military council – says that one of Gadhafi's sons, Mutassim, and Moammar Gadhafi's chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, also have been killed.  A grisly video that aired on the Al Jazeera Arabic network appears to show a lifeless Gadhafi with a wound to his head. A photograph distributed by the news agency Agence France-Presse also appeared to show the longtime dictator severely wounded.  CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of the images. In another major development, revo...

Oil price touches $105.2 marking 3 years highest

Brent crude had jumped 2.6% by late afternoon to $105.2 a barrel, its highest level since before the 2008 financial crisis. European energy companies are evacuating some staff from the country, which is a major oil and gas producer for the European market. Sources said, the price of oil has risen in response to the ongoing turmoil in Libya for last five days. Meanwhile shares in Italian oil firm ENI - which is active in Libya - ended Monday trading 5.1% lower. The Italian company said on Monday that its operations were unaffected by the violence. Italy buys about one-third of Libya's oil and gas exports, making it the country's biggest customer by far. ENI has been buying gas from Libya for decades, and is at the centre of a close political relationship between the two countries, according to one analyst. In 2008-09, the Libyan government had considered buying an up-to- 10% stake in ENI , although the investment did not go ahead. Some 13% of the company's reven...

233 killed in Libya

Human Rights Watch says at least 233 people have been killed in Libya since last Thursday, 17 February 2011 in the the ongoing protest against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's rule in the country. The US, UK and French governments are among those condemning the harsh treatment of protesters. But Italy, the former colonial power in Libya, has close business links to Tripoli and voiced alarm at the prospect of the Gaddafi government collapsing. "Would you imagine to have an Islamic Arab Emirate at the borders of Europe? This would be a very serious threat," said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. The head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, described the protesters' demands as legitimate, calling it a "decisive moment in history" for Arab nations.