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Muammar Gaddafi diehard supporters capture Libya town of Bani Walid
Diehard supporters of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi seized control Monday of Bani Walid, his one-time bastion, after launching a brazen attack at a base there that killed five, officials told AFP.
“The loyalists of Gaddafi took control of the entire city of Bani Walid,” said M’barek al-Fotmani, a former member of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in the desert oasis, 170 kilometres south of Tripoli.
The assault on the base of ex-rebels was the first major offensive launched by Gaddafi loyalists since the “liberation” of Libya on October 23, shortly after the fall of Bani Walid. (Photo: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images)
Ottawa puts freeze on Saadi Gaddafi’s $1.6M Toronto condo
Federal government lawyers have frozen a $1.6-million penthouse on the Toronto waterfront owned by Saadi Gaddafi, the fugitive son of the late Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
The Department of Justice filed a notice that prevents Mr. Gaddafi, who is the subject of an assets freeze imposed by the United Nations Security Council, from selling the downtown luxury condo.
The government took action after the National Post revealed that Mr. Gaddafi was the registered owner of the suite, which has a view of Lake Ontario and access to a pool, bowling alley and squash, basketball and tennis courts.
Mr. Gaddafi, 38, is wanted on an Interpol warrant issued in September. The Security Council froze his assets in March, describing him as a commander of “military units involved in the repression of demonstrations.” (Photo: Left: Tim Wimborne/Reuters; Right: Tyler Anderson/National Post)
The Arab Awakening: The beginning of the end for the Gaddafi regime
The seeds of Libya’s uprising were planted 15 years ago when stories of cold-blooded murder began to seep from Abu Salilm, the nation’s most notorious prison.
In 1996, more than 1,270 political prisoners were killed at the Tripoli detention centre, shot to death by the henchmen of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Their families knew nothing about their fate until 2001, when the government acknowledged at least some of what’s now considered one of the most horrific crimes against humanity under the Gaddafi regime.
Fathi Terbil, 39, a human rights lawyer in Benghazi, became leader of a legal team representing the slain prisoners’ families. Protests were planned for mid-February in the eastern Libya city and Mr. Terbil was preparing to begin a court case examining the Abu Salim massacre. He planned to demand compensation — and answers — for the families.
He was deemed a brave soul for agreeing to do so. On Feb. 15, he was arrested by government officials.
Then something extraordinary happened, protesters say.
Mr. Terbil’s mother ran out into the street and made the first call to action. “Wake up, wake up oh Benghazi,” she shouted. “This is the night that we’ve been waiting for.” (Photo: Suhaib Salem/Reuters)
Ottawa asks RCMP to investigate Saadi Gaddafi’s Toronto condo
The federal government said Thursday it has asked the RCMP to look into a $1.6-million Toronto condo owned by the wanted son of the late Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
“This matter has been referred to the RCMP,” Joseph Lavoie, press secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, responded when asked about the downtown property.
The move came after the National Post reported on Thursday that Saadi Gaddafi, who is the subject of a United Nations-imposed assets freeze, is the listed owner of a penthouse on the Toronto waterfront.
The RCMP has not said if it has launched an investigation into whether the sanctions have been violated. The Department of Justice ultimately decides whether properties should be seized.
Saadi Gaddafi owns a $1.6M penthouse in Toronto
The Gaddafi family owns a $1.6-million penthouse apartment in downtown Toronto that has apparently gone unnoticed by the Canadian and Libyan governments, the National Post has learned.
The luxury condo atop the Harbor View Estates building on the Toronto waterfront comes with a view of Lake Ontario and access to a 25-metre swimming pool, squash, basketball and tennis courts and a bowling alley.
Although the United Nations Security Council ordered countries to freeze the Gaddafis’ worldwide assets in response to Libya’s crackdown on demonstrators, Ontario property records still list the condo’s owner as “Saadi Kaddafi.”
New on the market: ‘Casa Kadafi’
Saadi Gaddafi, playboy son of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was supposed to live in exile on a beachfront property with views of yachts and fishing boats in the Bahia de Banderas and the lights of Puerto Vallarta twinkling in the distance.
The Guadalajara newspaper Mural ran a front-page story last week, saying Gaddafi’s third son and his family were to reside in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home on a 10-metre-by-40-metre lot with a swimming pool, barbecue pit and access to a dark sand beach littered with beat-up fishing boats.
The property, which the National Post visited and accessed via an unlocked back gate, is listed for sale and was full of leopard-print furnishings still under plastic wrap. Located on a rutted road and fronting a vacant lot overgrown with weeds, the property is known locally as “Casa Estrella,” or the “Star House.” But given the recent spate of unexpected attention, someone instead posted a sheet of paper below the address numbers christening the house “Casa Kadafi.” (Photo: David Agren for National Post)
Saadi Gaddafi planned escape to luxurious home in trendy Punta Mita
After Libyans turned against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in February, his playboy son Saadi made plans to flee to a Mexican beach resort whose celebrity visitors include Kim Kardashian, Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga, according to those familiar with the scheme.
Although the United Nations had frozen Saadi Gaddafi’s assets and banned him from crossing borders because of his close ties to the Libyan dictatorship, a multi-million-dollar refuge awaited him in Punta Mita, a posh development near Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
South African chicken chain pulls ad poking fun at Mugabe
A cheeky chicken advert poking fun at Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe as “the last dictator standing” who misses the company of deceased autocrats was pulled Thursday from South African television, though, as you can see above, it still has the ad hosted on its YouTube channel.
The advert which upset Mugabe supporters shows a cheerless look-a-like pausing to reminisce about happier times with the likes of former Ugandan president Idi Amin and Muammar Gaddafi, after placing the dead Libyan’s name card on an empty banquet table.
“We’ve noted with concern the political reaction emanating out of Zimbabwe, including perceived threats against Nando’s Zimbabwe’s management, staff and customers,” said Nando’s South Africa.
“Nando’s South Africa takes these threats very seriously and will regrettably no longer flight the TV commercial as part of our festive season campaign.”
Robert Mugabe’s supporters demand apology for Nando’s chicken chain’s ‘last dictator’ ads
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s youth militia has seen the South African restaurant chain Nando’s new “last dictator standing” ad, and they are not amused.
The commercial for its six-piece chicken combo depicts Mr. Mugabe reminiscing about his times with departed dictators to the song Those Were the Days.
He is shown having a water-gun fight with Muammar Gaddafi, making sand angels with Saddam Hussein and riding in a tank with Idi Amin, before awakening from his dream to find himself at a dinner table, alone at Christmas, The Associated Press reported.
A night on Muammar Gaddafi’s bed: ‘I slept like a self-assured dictator’
While I lay in silence, my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could hear the fighters talking excitedly next door — I felt like a child who had been put to bed early.
Muammar Gaddafi’s room was large, but not enormous and his monstrous bed took up the majority of the room. Two tacky chandeliers hung from the ceiling. (Photo: Oliver Holmes/Reuters)
National Post Editorial cartoonist Gary Clement on the death of Muammar Gaddafi
Related:
Graphic: How Muammar Gaddafi died
The last hours of a TYRANT
Gaddafi news coverage
Commentary on Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi’s violent end a warning to Syria and Yemen, Arabs say
For many Arabs, the humiliating capture and killing of Muammar Gaddafi, the longest-serving Arab leader, is a lesson to other tyrants in a region that has overthrown three long-serving rulers this year.
But some said on Friday that Libya would have been better off if its former leader had been given a fair trial for abuses committed during his 42-year rule, which ended when rebels captured the capital Tripoli in August.
“The world now has one less dictator,” said Ziad Khalil, a Beirut shopkeeper, a day after Gaddafi’s death. “This is the end he deserves.”
Muammar Gaddafi dead: Former Libyan dictator found hiding in a sewer waving a golden gun
Former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was found hiding in a drainage culvert waving a golden gun as he tried to flee National Transitional Council fighters who had overran his hometown and final bastion on Thursday.
According to various sources, the former Libyan dictator may have tried to break out of his final redoubt at dawn in a convoy of vehicles after weeks of dogged resistance.
However, he was stopped by a NATO airstrike and captured, possibly three or four hours later, after gunbattles with NTC fighters who found him hiding in a drainage culvert.
Moments later, his bloodied body was stripped and displayed around the world from cellphone video. (Photo: Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters)
Muammar Gaddafi reportedly captured as Libyan forces seize Sirte
An image captured off a cellular phone camera shows the arrest of Libya’s strongman Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte on October 20, 2011. A Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) commander had told AFP that Kadhafi was captured as his hometown Sirte was falling, adding that the ousted strongman was badly wounded. (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images)
