Gaddafi’s media strategy backfires

Libya has never been a friendly place for foreign journalists. A media ban kept reporters away as the uprising against strongman Muammar Gaddafi began on Feb. 17, and officials of the Gaddafi regime blasted journalists entering opposition-controlled areas last week as "outlaws" and al-Qaeda sympathizers.

Such hardball tactics, along with rambling speeches aired on Libyan state television, haven't helped Gaddafi in the court of public opinion. So the regime is now trying to make its case though the western media, claiming the government hasn't brutally cracked down on protesters (which it has) and that Gaddafi is firmly in control of the North African country (which he isn't).

On Monday, Gaddafi made such arguments to ABC News' Christine Amanpour--no stranger to dealing with authoritarian leaders--and journalists from the Times of London and BBC. "All my people love me," Gadhafi insisted. "They would die to protect me."Despite the government's attempt to get in front of the story, journalists arriving in Tripoli since Saturday aren't reporting back a story that matches Gaddafi's rhetoric.

New York Times reporter David Kirkpatrick, in the lead article in Sunday's paper, described how Gaddafi's media ploy backfired as "foreign journalists he invited to the capital discovered blocks of the city in open defiance of his authority." The government tried to sanitize the appearance of destabilizing unrest, and even picked the drivers who shuttled around the media. But that didn't work.

"In some ways, the mixed results of Colonel Gaddafi's theatrical gamble—opening the curtains to the world with great fanfare, even though the stage is in near-chaotic disarray—are an apt metaphor for the increasingly untenable situation in the country," Kirkpatrick noted.

NBC's Jim Maceda had a similar take. On Monday's "Today" show, Maceda noted the "irony" in finally allowing western journalists in the country only to have them see the opposition taking control just 30 miles outside Tripoli.

"That strategy completely backfired," Maceda said, adding that the images now being broadcast to the world make "Gadhafi look even weaker and more cornered" than before.

HomeNews News Schools adopt dirty tricks to cheat in national exams

Candidates have invented new dirty tricks of cheating in Form Four national examination whose results were released on Monday.

Some schools recruited university students and former Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) qualifiers to resit exams with the aim of boosting their performance index.

Other candidates collected money with the intention of buying examination papers while some school heads arranged for other people to impersonate their candidates.

Releasing the 2010 KCSE results on Monday, Education minister Sam Ongeri announced that results of 534 candidates were cancelled due to cheating. It was the least figure of cheating cases over the past 10 years. That was a drop from the 1,171 candidates whose results were nullified in 2009.

“This is an encouraging turn of events and I thank all those who have participated in the fight against this vice,” Prof Ongeri said of the reduction in cases of cheating.

He attributed the reduction to the involvement of the spy agency, National Security Intelligence Service, police and provincial administration.

“It is important that we continue in this spirit to win the war.”

But the minister spoke of disturbing cases of cheating involving candidates, parents and teachers.

Some candidates, he said, defied the school administration and “collected money in advance with the intention of purchasing examination papers”.

Some parents facilitated cheating by bringing mobile phones for their girls in boarding schools during the prayer days ahead of the start of the examinations.

He mentioned the headteacher of Ruiru St Triza Academy who allegedly entered an examination room without permission when the examination was in progress and placed a mathematical table with prepared notes on the desk of one of the candidates.

But the case was intercepted by the invigilator, Prof Ongeri said.

In another case, the proprietor of John Okongo Secondary School and principal, Kebaroti Secondary School organised for impersonation in their schools.

“This impersonation was organised so as to assist the daughter of the proprietor who was a candidate in the same school,” he said.

He said the headteacher of Rigoma Secondary School tried to bribe an official of the Kenya National Examinations Council but was apprehended by the police and charged in court.

“Such cases are very disturbing to me,” Prof Ongeri said, asking: “Why should adults go to such lengths to commit irregularities?”

He praised teachers and the public that passed useful information to Knec to give leads on the cheats.

Prof Ongeri said it was unfortunate that parents still flocked private schools that were ill-equipped leaving well equipped public schools at their doorstep.

“Some other institutions use unorthodox methods to attain good results,” he said. He said some schools paid university students or former KCSE candidates who performed well to re-sit so as to boost their performance index. These candidates were referred to as “boosters”.

He said severe disciplinary action would be taken against those involved.rof Ongeri also said some headteachers continued to register candidates with foreign qualifications without equating them to the Kenyan education system, which was against examination regulations.

He said results of 134 candidates would be withheld because their headteachers did not submit candidates’ foreign certificates for equation to the Kenyan system by the Knec.

“Any student seeking admission into our secondary schools should have had the required years of instruction for his/her foreign qualification to be considered as equivalent to our primary education system which is eight years,” he said.

UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on Gaddafi

The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed travel and asset sanctions on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and close aides, ratcheting up pressure on him to quit before any more blood is shed in a popular revolt against his rule.
It also adopted an arms embargo and called for the deadly crackdown against anti-Gaddafi protesters to be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation and possible prosecution of anyone responsible for killing civilians.

Is Gaddafi living up to his nickname of "mad dog of the Middle East"?
No Flash warning
To take advantage of all the features on FRANCE24.COM, please click here to download the latest version of Flash Player.
By Catherine VIETTE
The 15-nation council passed the resolution hours after Gaddafi's police abandoned parts of the capital Tripoli to the revolt that has swept Libya and the United States bluntly told him he must go.

In the oil-rich east around the second city of Benghazi, freed a week ago by a disparate coalition of people power and defecting military units, a former minister of Gaddafi announced the formation of an "interim government" to reunite the country.

To the west in Tripoli, the 68-year-old Brother Leader's redoubt was shrinking. Reuters correspondents found residents in some neighbourhoods of the capital barricading their streets and proclaiming open defiance after security forces melted away.

Western leaders, their rhetoric emboldened by evacuations that have sharply reduced the number of their citizens stranded in the oilfields and cities of the sprawling desert state, spoke out more clearly to say Gaddafi's 41-year rule must now end.

"When a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now," an aide to U.S. President Barack Obama said of phone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over Libya.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the Security Council measures against Gaddafi and 15 other Libyans, including members of his family, were "biting sanctions" and that all those who committed crimes would be held to account.

"Those who slaughter civilians will be held personally accountable," Rice told the council after the vote. Speaking to reporters later, she praised the council's "unity of purpose".

The death toll from 10 days of violence in Libya is estimated by diplomats at about 2,000.

Talk of possible military action by foreign governments remained vague, however. It was unclear how long Gaddafi, with some thousands of loyalists -- including his tribesmen and military units commanded by his sons -- might hold out against rebel forces comprised of youthful gunmen and mutinous soldiers.

London-based Algerian lawyer Saad Djebbar, who knows a large number of Gaddafi's top officials, said that for Gaddafi staying in power had become impossible.

"It's about staying alive. (Gaddafi's) time is over," he said. "But how much damage he will cause before leaving is the question."

Tribal loyalties

One key element in the opposition's efforts to unseat him may be tribal loyalties, always a factor in the desert nation of six million and one which Gaddafi, despite official rhetoric to the contrary, tended to reinforce down the years.

His former justice minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil, now gone over to the opposition in Benghazi, was quoted by the online edition of the Quryna newspaper as saying that an interim government, whose status remained unclear, would "forgive" his large Gaddadfa tribe for "crimes" committed by the leader.

Such declarations may be intended to erode Gaddafi's efforts to rally supporters into a do-or-die defence of the old guard.

Libya Timeline: looking back at two weeks of violence
No Flash warning
To take advantage of all the features on FRANCE24.COM, please click here to download the latest version of Flash Player.
By Nicholas RUSHWORTH
Some of those closest to Gaddafi have been deserting him and joining the opposition. On Saturday, Libya's envoy to the United States told Reuters he backed Abud Ajleil's caretaker team -- though it was unclear how much popular support that would have.

One of Gaddafi's sons, London-educated Saif al-Islam, again appeared on television on Saturday to deny that much of Libya was in revolt. But he also said: "What the Libyan nation is going through has opened the door to all options, and now the signs of civil war and foreign interference have started."

Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by Washington for his support of militant groups worldwide, has been embraced by the West in recent years in return for renouncing some weapons programmes and, critically, for opening up Libya's oilfields.

While money has flowed into Libya, many people, especially in the long-restive and oil-rich east, have seen little benefit and, inspired by the popular overthrow of veteran strongmen in Tunisia and Egypt, on either side of their country, they rose up to demand better conditions and political freedoms.

Particular condemnation has been reserved for aerial bombing by government forces and for reported indiscriminate attacks by Gaddafi loyalists and mercenaries on unarmed protesters.

"Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" a crowd chanted on Saturday in Tajoura, a poor neighbourhood of Tripoli, at the funeral of a man they said was shot down by Gaddafi loyalists the day before.

Now, residents said, those security forces had disappeared.

Locals had erected barricades of rocks and palm trees across rubbish-strewn streets, and graffiti covered many walls. Bullet holes in the walls of the houses bore testimony to the violence.

The residents, still unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be independently confirmed.

Libyan state television again showed a crowd chanting their loyalty to Gaddafi in Tripoli's Green Square on Saturday. But journalists there estimated their number at scarcely 200.

Revolt closes in

From Misrata, a major city 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents said by telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi, operating from the local airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed by the opposition.

"There were violent clashes last night and in the early hours of the morning near the airport," one resident, Mohammed, told Reuters. "An extreme state of alert prevails in the city."

He said several mercenaries from Chad had been detained by rebels in Misrata. The report could not be verified but was similar to accounts elsewhere of Gaddafi deploying fighters brought in from African states where he has long had allies.

Protesters in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, have fought off government forces for several nights.

At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate foreign workers besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and whips to keep them out.

Britain and France followed the United States in closing their embassies. Britain sent in air force troop carriers to take some 150 oil workers out of camps in the desert.

Libya supplies 2 percent of the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and supply terminals in the east. The prospect of it being shut off -- as well as speculation that the unrest in the Arab world could spread to the major exporters of the Gulf -- has pushed oil prices up to highs not seen in over two years.

UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on Gaddafi

The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed travel and asset sanctions on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and close aides, ratcheting up pressure on him to quit before any more blood is shed in a popular revolt against his rule.
It also adopted an arms embargo and called for the deadly crackdown against anti-Gaddafi protesters to be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation and possible prosecution of anyone responsible for killing civilians.

Is Gaddafi living up to his nickname of "mad dog of the Middle East"?
No Flash warning
To take advantage of all the features on FRANCE24.COM, please click here to download the latest version of Flash Player.
By Catherine VIETTE
The 15-nation council passed the resolution hours after Gaddafi's police abandoned parts of the capital Tripoli to the revolt that has swept Libya and the United States bluntly told him he must go.

In the oil-rich east around the second city of Benghazi, freed a week ago by a disparate coalition of people power and defecting military units, a former minister of Gaddafi announced the formation of an "interim government" to reunite the country.

To the west in Tripoli, the 68-year-old Brother Leader's redoubt was shrinking. Reuters correspondents found residents in some neighbourhoods of the capital barricading their streets and proclaiming open defiance after security forces melted away.

Western leaders, their rhetoric emboldened by evacuations that have sharply reduced the number of their citizens stranded in the oilfields and cities of the sprawling desert state, spoke out more clearly to say Gaddafi's 41-year rule must now end.

"When a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now," an aide to U.S. President Barack Obama said of phone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over Libya.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the Security Council measures against Gaddafi and 15 other Libyans, including members of his family, were "biting sanctions" and that all those who committed crimes would be held to account.

"Those who slaughter civilians will be held personally accountable," Rice told the council after the vote. Speaking to reporters later, she praised the council's "unity of purpose".

The death toll from 10 days of violence in Libya is estimated by diplomats at about 2,000.

Talk of possible military action by foreign governments remained vague, however. It was unclear how long Gaddafi, with some thousands of loyalists -- including his tribesmen and military units commanded by his sons -- might hold out against rebel forces comprised of youthful gunmen and mutinous soldiers.

London-based Algerian lawyer Saad Djebbar, who knows a large number of Gaddafi's top officials, said that for Gaddafi staying in power had become impossible.

"It's about staying alive. (Gaddafi's) time is over," he said. "But how much damage he will cause before leaving is the question."

Tribal loyalties

One key element in the opposition's efforts to unseat him may be tribal loyalties, always a factor in the desert nation of six million and one which Gaddafi, despite official rhetoric to the contrary, tended to reinforce down the years.

His former justice minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil, now gone over to the opposition in Benghazi, was quoted by the online edition of the Quryna newspaper as saying that an interim government, whose status remained unclear, would "forgive" his large Gaddadfa tribe for "crimes" committed by the leader.

Such declarations may be intended to erode Gaddafi's efforts to rally supporters into a do-or-die defence of the old guard.

Libya Timeline: looking back at two weeks of violence
No Flash warning
To take advantage of all the features on FRANCE24.COM, please click here to download the latest version of Flash Player.
By Nicholas RUSHWORTH
Some of those closest to Gaddafi have been deserting him and joining the opposition. On Saturday, Libya's envoy to the United States told Reuters he backed Abud Ajleil's caretaker team -- though it was unclear how much popular support that would have.

One of Gaddafi's sons, London-educated Saif al-Islam, again appeared on television on Saturday to deny that much of Libya was in revolt. But he also said: "What the Libyan nation is going through has opened the door to all options, and now the signs of civil war and foreign interference have started."

Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by Washington for his support of militant groups worldwide, has been embraced by the West in recent years in return for renouncing some weapons programmes and, critically, for opening up Libya's oilfields.

While money has flowed into Libya, many people, especially in the long-restive and oil-rich east, have seen little benefit and, inspired by the popular overthrow of veteran strongmen in Tunisia and Egypt, on either side of their country, they rose up to demand better conditions and political freedoms.

Particular condemnation has been reserved for aerial bombing by government forces and for reported indiscriminate attacks by Gaddafi loyalists and mercenaries on unarmed protesters.

"Gaddafi is the enemy of God!" a crowd chanted on Saturday in Tajoura, a poor neighbourhood of Tripoli, at the funeral of a man they said was shot down by Gaddafi loyalists the day before.

Now, residents said, those security forces had disappeared.

Locals had erected barricades of rocks and palm trees across rubbish-strewn streets, and graffiti covered many walls. Bullet holes in the walls of the houses bore testimony to the violence.

The residents, still unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be independently confirmed.

Libyan state television again showed a crowd chanting their loyalty to Gaddafi in Tripoli's Green Square on Saturday. But journalists there estimated their number at scarcely 200.

Revolt closes in

From Misrata, a major city 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents said by telephone that a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi, operating from the local airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed by the opposition.

"There were violent clashes last night and in the early hours of the morning near the airport," one resident, Mohammed, told Reuters. "An extreme state of alert prevails in the city."

He said several mercenaries from Chad had been detained by rebels in Misrata. The report could not be verified but was similar to accounts elsewhere of Gaddafi deploying fighters brought in from African states where he has long had allies.

Protesters in Zawiyah, an oil refining town on the main coastal highway 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, have fought off government forces for several nights.

At Tripoli's international airport, thousands of desperate foreign workers besieged the main gate trying to leave the country as police used batons and whips to keep them out.

Britain and France followed the United States in closing their embassies. Britain sent in air force troop carriers to take some 150 oil workers out of camps in the desert.

Libya supplies 2 percent of the world's oil, the bulk of it from wells and supply terminals in the east. The prospect of it being shut off -- as well as speculation that the unrest in the Arab world could spread to the major exporters of the Gulf -- has pushed oil prices up to highs not seen in over two years.

Zawiyah braces itself for attack as Gaddafi digs in

Libyan rebels awaited a counter-attack by Muammar Gaddafi's forces on Monday, after the country's leader defied demands that he quit to end the bloodiest of the Arab world's wave of uprisings.
Rebels holding Zawiyah, only 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, said about 2,000 troops loyal to Gaddafi had surrounded the city.

"We will do our best to fight them off. They will attack soon," said a former police major who switched sides and joined the rebellion. "If we are fighting for freedom, we are ready to die for it."

Gaddafi is fighting a rebellion which has swept through his Mediterranean oil producing nation after uprisings toppled entrenched leaders in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt. His fierce crackdown has killed hundreds, triggering U.N. sanctions and Western condemnation, but has not turned the tide of protests.

Residents even in parts of the capital Tripoli have thrown up barricades against government forces. A general in the east of the country, where Gaddafi's power has evaporated, told Reuters his forces were ready to help rebels in the west.

"Our brothers in Tripoli say: `We are fine so far, we do not need help'. If they ask for help we are ready to move," said General Ahmed el-Gatrani, one of most senior figures in the mutinous army in Benghazi.

Analysts say they expect rebels eventually to take the capital and kill or capture Gaddafi, but add that he has the firepower to foment chaos or civil war -- a prospect he and his sons have warned of.

Monday looked likely to see nervousness in oil markets. NYMEX crude for April delivery was up $1.38 at $99.25 per barrel at 0722 GMT. Libya pumps only 2 percent of world oil and Saudi Arabia has boosted output, but traders fear turmoil intensifying in the Arab world.

Serbian television quoted Gaddafi as blaming foreigners and al Qaeda for the unrest and condemning the U.N. Security Council for imposing sanctions and ordering a war crimes inquiry.

"The people of Libya support me. Small groups of rebels are surrounded and will be dealt with," he said.

Stand down calls

European powers said it was time for Gaddafi to stand down and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was "reaching out" to opposition groups.

Residents of Zawiyah told of fierce fighting against pro-Gaddafi paramilitaries armed with heavy weapons.

"Gaddafi is crazy. His people shot at us using rocket-propelled grenades," said a man who gave his name as Mustafa. Another man called Chawki said: "We need justice. People are being killed. Gaddafi's people shot my nephew."

There were queues outside banks in Tripoli on Sunday for the 500 Libyan dinars ($400) the government had promised it would start distributing to each family.

From Misrata, a city 200 km (120 miles) east of Tripoli, residents said by phone a thrust by forces loyal to Gaddafi, operating from the airport, had been rebuffed with bloodshed.

But Libyan exile groups said later aircraft were firing on the city's radio station.

In the eastern city of Benghazi, opponents of the 68-year-old leader said they had formed a National Libyan Council to be the "face" of the revolution, but it was unclear who they represented.

They said they wanted no foreign intervention and had not made contact with foreign governments.

The "Network of Free Ulema," claiming to represent "some of Libya's most senior and most respected Muslim scholars", issued a statement urging "total rebellion" and endorsing the formation of an "interim government" announced two days ago.

Foreign workers stranded

Western leaders, emboldened by evacuations that have brought home many of their citizens from the vast desert state, spoke out more clearly than before against Gaddafi.

"We have reached, I believe, a point of no return," Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, adding it was "inevitable" that Gaddafi would leave power.

Britain revoked Gaddafi's diplomatic immunity and said it was freezing his family's assets. "It is time for Colonel Gaddafi to go," Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Britain's former prime minister, Tony Blair, said he had spoken to Gaddafi on Friday and told him to go. Blair helped end the Western isolation of Gaddafi after he agreed to renounce weapons of mass destruction, paving the way for big British business deals in Libya.

Three British military planes evacuated 150 civilians from Libya's desert on Sunday, after a similar operation on Saturday.

Wealthy states have sent planes and ships to bring home expatriate workers but many more, from poorer countries, are stranded. Thousands of Egyptians streamed into Tunisia on Sunday, complaining Cairo had done nothing to help them.

Malta said it had refused a Libyan request to return two warplanes brought to the island by defecting pilots last Monday.

Gaddafi, once branded a "mad dog" by Washington for his support of militant groups worldwide, had been embraced by the West in recent years in return for renouncing some weapons programmes and, critically, for opening up Libya's oilfields.

While money has flowed into Libya, many people, especially in the long-restive and oil-rich east, have seen little benefit and, inspired by the popular overthrow of veteran strongmen in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, they rose up to demand better conditions and political freedoms.

US moves ships closer to Libya and freezes assets

The United States has begun moving warships and aircraft closer to Libya and has frozen $30 billion in Libyan assets. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
World plans military action against Libya Play video

* World plans military action against Libya Play video
* US moves ships closer to Libya and freezes assets Enlarge photo

More photos: Barack Obama
Related content

* U.S. military action seen unlikely against Gaddafi
* Libya: Exodus As World Plans Military Action
* Libya: Rebels Show Off Trophies Of Victory
* Related Hot Topic: Libya

Have your say: Libya

The White House is ramping up pressure on leader Muammar Gaddafi after calling on him to step down.

The ships could be used for humanitarian and rescue missions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Geneva, where she told the UN Human Rights Council that Gaddafi was using "mercenaries and thugs" to suppress a popular uprising.

"There is not any pending military action involving US naval vessels," she said after the Pentagon announced it was moving warships and air force units closer to Libya.

The Obama administration has said military action is one option it is looking at, although many analysts say the United States is highly unlikely to launch a ground invasion or air strikes because of the volatile situation on the ground.

The Pentagon gave no details of the forces being moved, but its announcement is likely aimed at sending a signal to Gaddafi and his government that the United States is matching its sharper rhetoric of recent days with action.

Other foreign governments are also increasing the pressure on Gaddafi to leave in the hope of ending fighting that has claimed at least 1,000 lives.

Libya: Gaddafi's last stand?

Since Feb. 15 Libya has been rocked by an unprecedented movement to overthrow the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. At the helm of the North African nation for 42 years, the strongman is now struggling to retain his grip on power. The international community has almost unanimously decried the "bloodbath" inflicted on Libyans by government supporters.