Muammer Gaddafi’s end was destined to be bloody. A few months ago, when the rebels were struggling and their western backers were losing patience, he could have saved his skin and that of his children and fled into exile, with the consent of his Libyan opponents and their western backers.
Even the indictment by the International Criminal Court seemed, at least for a while, open for some compromise.
Gilad Shalit crossed into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula this morning at the start of a highly emotional day of prisoner exchanges between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas. The 25-year-old soldier captured five years ago by Hamas will be receiving a hero’s welcome in Israel, and Palestinians will celebrate the return of 477 prisoners, the first batch in the 1,000-to-one exchange.
By Lina Saigol
Steve Jobs: Hero of the Arab spring. Or so say the tweeting foot soldiers of the unrest sweeping the region.
Their (somewhat tenuous) accolade is thanks to the biological father of the visionary co-founder and former chief executive of Apple who died on Wednesday, aged 56, being Syrian.
Abdel-Fattah Jandali, 81, was born in Homs, Syria’s third largest city and epicentre of the seven-month uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
A former professor of political science, Mr Jandali put Mr Jobs up for adoption because his girlfriend’s father was extremely conservative and would not let him marry her.
It is a testament to the sorry condition of Saudi women that any step towards empowerment, however small or marginal, is greeted with joy. Women reacted warmly to King Abdallah’s pledge to include them on the advisory shoura council and allow them to vote and stand in municipal elections.
In this week’s podcast: As president Mahmoud Abbas presses his argument for Palestinian statehood at the UN – we ask former editor of the Jerusalem Post, David Horovitz and head of the Palestinian government media centre, Ghassan Khatib, what the people on the streets of Israel and Palestine really think about the prospect; then we talk about an activist Turkish foreign policy which sees Turkey facing confrontation on many borders; and finally, rising inflation and soaring property prices in Hong Kong open up the gap in living standards between the rich and poor.
Presented by Gideon Rachman with Dan Dombey in Istanbul and David Pilling in Hong Kong – interviewed by Serena Tarling. Produced by LJ Filotrani
Just a day after the visit to Tripoli by Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, the Libyan National Transitional Council played host to another foreign leader – Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The Brits and the French might have regarded it as a bit cheeky of Erdogan to roll up in Tripoli to try and bask in the success of the revolution, given that the Turkish prime minister had initially opposed Nato intervention. But the Turks saw it a bit differently. Some of the papers here in Istanbul reported that the British and the French leaders had rushed to Tripoli to upstage the Turkish prime minister. Erdogan himself seemed to see things this way, remarking sniffily – “We’ll see who gets the better reception.”
Brics buying debt, Greece in trouble again, Palestine lobbies for statehood
In this week’s show: As Europe looks to China and other Bric nations to buy up its debt – we ask, is the global economy at a tipping point? Back in the Eurozone – rumours are flying again about the possibility of a Greek debt and Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel is under pressure; and, Palestinian leaders prepare to present their case to the UN for statehood.
Presented by Shawn Donnan with Joe Leahy in Sao Paulo, Jamil Anderlini in Beijing, Guy Dinmore in Rome, Gerrit Wiesmann in Berlin and Roula Khalaf and Ben Hall in the studio in London. Produced by LJ Filotrani and Serena Tarling
Since the eruption of Syria’s uprising six months ago, one thing has been clear, for the protestors and the world alike: there would be no international military intervention to get rid of Bashar al-Assad.
Syrians are far too nationalistic to accept anything resembling outside military involvement, the argument went, and the Libya mission was too messy, too fraught with risk, to be attempted again.
Libya’s opposition move into Tripoli and say they will leave no stone unturned to find Muammer Gaddafi, arrest him and put him on trial. Look at our slideshow with some of the most striking images from Libya over the past 24 hours.
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