...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
-led air strikes on Saturday targeted the district of Tripoli where Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy
... Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years ...
has his residence, after G8 world powers intensified the pressure on the strongman to step down.
For the fourth successive night, powerful blasts rocked Bab Al-Aziziya near the city centre, an AFP correspondent said as Libyan state media reported air raids on the Al-Qariet region south of the capital.
The strikes came after US President Barack
B.O.Obama told a summit of G8 world powers that the United States and La Belle France were committed to finishing the job in Libya, as Russia finally joined explicit calls for Qadaffy to go.
Russia's dramatic shift - and an offer to mediate - came as British Prime Minister
David Cameron... has stated that he is
certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite,which means he's not. Since he is
not deeply ideologicalhe lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as
certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger,but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
said the NATO mission against Qadaffy was entering a new phase with the deployment of helicopter gunships to the conflict.
"We are joined in our resolve to finish the job," Obama said after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
at the G8 summit of industrialised democracies in the French resort of Deauville. But the US leader warned the "UN mandate of civilian protection cannot be accomplished when Qadaffy remains in Libya directing his forces in acts of aggression against the Libyan people."
G8 leaders from Perfidious Albion, Canada, La Belle France, Germany, Italia, Japan, Russia and the US called in their final statement for Qadaffy to step down after more than 40 years, in the face of pro-democracy protests turned full-fledged armed revolt.
"Qadaffy and the Libyan government have failed to fulfil their responsibility to protect the Libyan population and have lost all legitimacy. He has no future in a free, democratic Libya. He must go," it said.
But the Libyan regime rejected the call and said any initiative to resolve the crisis would have to go through the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
. "The G8 is an economic summit. We are not concerned by its decisions," said Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaaim.
Tripoli also rejected Russian mediation and will "not accept any mediation which marginalises the peace plan of the African Union," he said. "We are an African country. Any initiative outside the AU framework will be rejected."
Kaaim said it had no confirmation of a change in Moscow's position after President Dmitry Medvedev toughened Russia's stance at the G8 meeting by declaring: "The world community does not see him as the Libyan leader."
African leaders at a summit in Addis Ababa on Thursday called for an end to NATO air strikes on Libya to pave the way for a political solution to the conflict.
The pan-African bloc also sought a stronger say in resolving the conflict.
Kaaim meanwhile confirmed the visit on Monday of South African President Jacob Zuma, without indicating whether the exit of Qadaffy from power would be discussed as the South Africans have claimed. On Thursday, the Libyan regime said Tripoli wanted a monitored ceasefire.
But NATO insisted it would keep up its air raids in Libya until Qadaffy's forces stop attacking civilians and until the regime's proposed ceasefire is matched by its actions on the ground. Meanwhile Gadafi's wife Sofia on Friday slammed strikes against the Libyan leader and his family, and accused NATO forces of "committing war crimes" with its action against the regime. Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
chief
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa... who has been head of the Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ...
said there was a yawning gap between Tripoli and the rebel National Transitional Council on Qadaffy's fate, with the rebels demanding he go immediately and the regime saving his exit for "later."
"I was not there. But I wished that I was so I may die with him," she told CNN in a telephone interview, describing the reported death of her son Seif al-Arab from a NATO air strike.
"My son never missed an evening prayer. We had strikes every day, and the strikes would start at evening prayer. Four rockets on one house!" she said in the rare interview.
International forces, which have been attacking Qadaffy forces under the terms of a UN resolution to protect civilians, "are looking for excuses to target Moamer. What has he done to deserve this?" asked Sofia.
NATO, she said, is "committing war crimes" in the North Africa country. "They killed my son and the Libyan people. They are defaming our reputation, she said. "Forty countries are against us. Life has no value anymore," she lamented, in the wake of her son's death. Doubts have been raised in recent days of the veracity of reports on Seif al-Arab, Qadaffy's youngest son, being dead. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pointed out Wednesday that the international coalition had no information on his demise, and said the report from a Libyan government front man was "propaganda."