BBC’s Paul Wood, in Homs, says Russian-made tanks are firing on residents
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for a solution to the crisis in Syria based on initiatives put forward by the Arab League.
Visiting Syria, Mr Lavrov said Damascus was ready for a larger Arab mission to monitor peace efforts, and would set a date for a constitutional referendum.
His visit comes after Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution. Gulf states say they are expelling Syria’s ambassadors.
Government forces are continuing a fierce assault on rebels in Homs.
The BBC’s Paul Wood – one of the only foreign reporters in Homs – says the Syrian army resumed mortar attacks and heavy machine-gun fire after daybreak.
He says Russian-made tanks have been seen close to the city centre, but these is no sign so far of the ground assault feared by many residents.
Hundreds are reported to have died since shelling of the city began on Friday. At least 95 people were killed on Monday alone, activists say.
‘Rapid solution’
Crowds of people were out in Damascus as Sergei Lavrov’s convoy arrived
The Syrian opposition has voiced strong criticism of the stalemate at the UN, saying the Russian and Chinese vetoes on Saturday encouraged the Syrian government to step up the assault on Homs.
But after meeting Syrian leaders, Mr Lavrov said President Bashar al-Assad was “fully committed” to ending bloodshed and ready for dialogue with all political forces.
Mr Assad would soon announce a date for a referendum on a new constitution, he added.
“We [Russia] confirmed our readiness to act for a rapid solution to the crisis based on the plan put forward by the Arab League,” Mr Lavrov said, though Syrian officials later clarified that he was was not referring to the current Arab League plan which calls for Mr Assad to step down in favour of his vice-president.
“Syria is informing the Arab League it is interested in the League’s mission continuing its work and being increased in terms of quantity,” he added.
The league deployed an observer mission to Syria in December but suspended it in late January amid worsening violence.
In a separate development, Gulf Arab states said they were expelling Syria’s ambassadors in the region and recall their own ambassadors in Syria over what they described as the “mass slaughter” of civilians.
The decision comes a day after the US closed its embassy in Damascus and pulled out all remaining staff.
The UK, France, Spain and Italy have also recalled their ambassadors.
‘Isolated regime’
Continue reading the main story
Jonathan MarcusBBC diplomatic correspondent
After the collapse of efforts to pass a UN Security Council resolution on Syria, all the talk now is of “new initiatives” – Turkey, France, the UK, the Arab League are all promising action.
So what’s on offer? First there will be efforts through other parts of the UN system – the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council – to try to increase the pressure on Damascus.
The Arab League may appoint a special envoy for Syria. Momentum is building for a much broader group of countries – perhaps styled as “the Friends of Syria” – to co-ordinate activities and keep the Syria issue in the spotlight.
For now though this is all entirely in the realm of diplomacy. Some may already be filtering arms to Syrian rebel fighters but the international consensus is that external military intervention has no role in this crisis.
Thousands of President Assad’s supporters lined the streets of Damascus and waved flags as Mr Lavrov’s motorcade drove through the city ahead of his meeting with Mr Assad, in what correspondents described as a hero’s welcome.
Mr Lavrov has said Western reaction condemning Russia’s veto of the UN Security Council resolution on Saturday bordered on “hysteria”.
Moscow has said the draft – which backed an Arab League peace plan calling for President Assad to hand over power – would have forced regime change on Syria.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland urged Mr Lavrov to “use this opportunity to make absolutely clear to the Assad regime how isolated it is and to encourage Assad and his people to make use of the Arab League plan and provide for a transition”.
Russia is the main supplier of arms to Damascus. The Syrian port of Tartus is home to Russia’s only Mediterranean naval base.
Meanwhile Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told MPs in Ankara: “We will start a new initiative with those countries who stand by the Syrian people, not the regime.”
The Syrian government, which has been fighting an uprising against President Assad’s rule since March, says it is fighting foreign-backed armed gangs.
Thousands of former army soldiers have defected to the rebel side, forming the Free Syrian Army.
Syria’s interior ministry said operations against “terrorist groups” would continue until “security and order are restored” in Homs.
Human rights groups and activists say more than 7,000 people have been killed by Syrian security forces since the uprising began last March.
The UN stopped estimating the death toll in Syria after it passed 5,400 in January, saying it was too difficult to confirm.
President Assad’s government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed.
Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
The most comprehensive statistics published so far on people charged over the August riots in England show that they were poorer, younger and of lower educational achievement than average.
Some 90% of those brought before the courts were male, and only 5% were over the age of 40.
The government figures show a quarter were juveniles – aged 10-17 – and a similar proportion were aged 18-20.
Of those arrested, 13% were identified as gang members.
Even in London, where gang membership among those arrested was highest, the figure was less than one in five.
Some 35% of adults brought before courts were claiming out-of-work benefits, which compares to a national average of 12%.
Of the young people involved, 42% were in receipt of free school meals compared to an average of 16%.
School exclusions
A government spokesman said: “In terms of the role gangs played in the disorder, most forces perceived that where gang members were involved, they generally did not play a pivotal role.”
Two-thirds of the young people in court were classed as having some form of special educational need. This compares to 21% for the national average.
More than a third of young people who were involved in the riots had been excluded from school during 2009-10. The figure for all Year 11 pupils is 6%, according to Department for Education records.
And more than one in 10 of the young people appearing before courts had been permanently excluded – the figure drops to 0.1% among all those aged 15.
Three-quarters of all those who appeared in court had a previous conviction or caution. For adults the figure was 80% and for juveniles it was 62%.
In terms of ethnicity, 42% of those charged were white, 46% black, 7% Asian and 5% were classified as “other”.
‘Pattern held’
Ethnic background ranged geographically from 77% white in Manchester to 32% white in London, and from 47% black in London to 11% black in Hertfordshire.
Continue reading the main story
These figures confirm that, in the vast majority of cases, existing criminals were out in force during the disturbances in August”
End QuoteNick HerbertCriminal Justice Minister
One in eight of all the crimes committed in the disturbances were muggings, claiming 664 victims.
More than 2,500 shops and businesses were victims of looters and vandals, and more than 230 homes were hit by burglars or vandals.
The figures were released by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
The MoJ said: “It is clear that compared to population averages, those brought before the courts were more likely to be in receipt of free school meals or benefits, were more likely to have had special educational needs and be absent from school, and are more likely to have some form of criminal history.
“This pattern held across all areas looked at.”
‘Opportunity and greed’
BBC legal correspondent Clive Coleman said: “One of the key, surprising statistics is the one relating to gang members because there was much talk of the involvement of gangs after the riots.
“These statistics seem to reveal that, relatively speaking, a small number of those involved were gang members, and most police forces are reporting that to be the case.”
Earlier this month, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Conservative Party conference that gangs had played a “significant part” in the riots.
Following the release of the statistics, Criminal Justice Minister Nick Herbert said: “These figures confirm that, in the vast majority of cases, existing criminals were out in force during the disturbances in August.
“The fact that half of recorded crimes were for offences like stealing and looting shows that most of what we saw was motivated by opportunity and greed.
“The tough sentences that have rightly been handed down to rioters, and subsequently upheld on appeal, send out a strong deterrent message that society will not tolerate the appalling behaviour we saw on our streets.”
Water cannon
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police has published the initial findings of a review into its handling of the rioting and looting.
It said that so far there was no evidence of senior commanders ordering local commanders to not make arrests if offences were taking place.
However, it admitted that “with hindsight” the Met did not have enough officers available on the first night of the rioting.
The review will investigate the cost of making water cannon available to the force – although the report notes that such equipment does have limitations.
The Met is reviewing ways of “co-ordinating, assessing and prioritising social media content for intelligence purposes”.
Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens said: “Thoroughly reviewing disorder that touched almost every part of London was always going to be a significant task and we are progressing this as quickly as we can.
“We are committed to being as open as possible so that we, our partners and the public can properly understand what worked, what didn’t and what we need to do differently.
“Today’s report provides some high-level emerging findings and we will publish more detailed findings as the review further progresses.”
In Paranormal Activity 3, creepy stuff mostly happens when people are sleeping. But the movie, third in the series of low-budget spook sonatas about two sisters beset by ghosts and other demons, woke up the somnolent autumn box office with $ 54 million at North American theaters, according to preliminary studio reports, for the biggest October opening ever. PA3 also broke the usual jinx of the third episode in a horror series: it improved on the opening of PA2, by 33%. And with its subtle shivers instead of gross-out gore, the movie attracted mostly women.
Its weekend take was the loftiest since early August, when Rise of the Planet of the Apes earned $ 54.8 million. One big difference: the simian smash cost $ 93 million to produce, PA3 about $ 5 million. The new movie was already in the black after its Thursday midnight shows, where it scared up $ 8 million. That was nearly as much as another new movie, a $ 90-million remake of The Three Musketeers, earned for the whole weekend—and more than twice the take of the third debut film, Rowan Atkinson’s Johnny English Reborn, at $ 3.8 million.
(MORE: Richard Corliss reviews Paranormal Activity 3)
Any studio has to like the Paranormal math. The first movie was made for $ 15,000—repeat: thousand—by Israeli-born Oren Peli in a week in his own house four years ago. (Steven Spielberg screened the picture, freaked out and urged Paramount to distribute it.) Released in a clever pseudo-viral campaign in 2009, PA1 earned $ 107.9 million domestic and $ 193.4 million worldwide, making it the all-time most profitable horror film.
And unlike the previous title-holder The Blair Witch Project (nearly $ 250 million worldwide gross on a $ 60,000 budget), Paranormal spawned a gigantic franchise. Last year’s sequel, shot for $ 3 million, gleaned another $ 84.7 million at home, $ 177.5 million abroad. A worldwide double-take of $ 371 million, for movies that cost little more than the drivers’ fees on a standard Hollywood epic, guarantees that sequels will be ornamenting the multiplex pumpkin patch for years to come. PA also challenged the franchise that had dominated Halloween for much of the past decade and became the new champ. It came, it conquered Saw.
(MORE: The Paranormal Phenomenon)
The only subnormal aspect of the Paranormal success story is the new film’s rating from the CinemaScore research group, which canvases moviegoers who’ve seen a new movie and asks them to grade their response. The survey is meant to measure word-of-mouth, an important factor in the extension of any picture’s shelf life. PA3 got a severe C-plus, which suggests that audiences were lured into theaters by the advertising but hated themselves in the lobby. A C-plus CinemaScore often accompanies movies (Let Me In and Your Highness, for example) that simply don’t connect with the public. but other C-pluses, like Rango and Bad Teacher, hung around in theaters and earned healthy mulltiples of their first-weekend gross. We’d expect PA3 to drop off, as most horror movies do, but tiptoe up to the $ 100-million mark, say “Boo!” and make it jump.
The other two big new films—which earned decent CinemaScores of B, but attracted few paying customers—were essentially European imports. The Three Musketeers, something like the 30th film version of the novel by Alexandre Dumas père (the best ones: Douglas Fairbanks’ silent swashbuckler in 1921 and Richard Lester’s puckish adaptation in 1974), has earned $ 64.4 million in foreign climes but won’t come near that here. Director Paul Anderson’s retread, starring his wife Mila Jovovich, finished behind Footloose, now in its second week, and Real Steel in its third.
As for Johnny English Reborn, it’s further proof that Rowan Atkinson is a luminary abroad who can’t get arrested in the States (unlike, say, Dominique Strauss-Kahn). Atkinson has developed three beloved comic personae: Blackadder, whose trot through five centuries of English history made him a Europe-wide TV star but only an intermittent presence on PBS; the wordless, bumbling Mr. Bean, whose two film features took in $ 400 million abroad but just $ 79 million here; and Johnny the international spy, whose pair of movies have earned nearly $ 240 million elsewhere, $ 30 million here. It’s said that all comedy is local; Hollywood comedies that America loves (e.g., Wedding Crashers) may earn no more than 30% of their total earnings on all other continents. But Atkinson’s imaginative farces are popular nearly everywhere but here. Put that conundrum in the Go Figure column.
(MORE: Mary Pols reviews Marcy Mary May Marlene)
On the indie subcontinent, Marcy Mary May Marlene, limning the travails of an escapee from a religious cult, opened to a beatific $ 137,541 in four theaters. Being Elmo, a doc about Muppeteer Kevin Clash, scored a felt-good $ 25,158 at one Manhattan theater. And the insider-trading drama Margin Call lucked into all the Occupy Wall Street coverage to earn $ 582,400 on 56 screen screens in 20 cities. Among holdover art films, the black-Irish comedy The Guard, starring Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson, is just $ 18,000 short of the $ 5-million milestone in its 13th week; and Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain passed $ 7.5 million in its seventh. The comedy concert film, produced for just $ 750,000, has quickly earned 10 times its budget. If those aren’t quite Paranormal numbers, they’re certainly way above par.
(MORE: Mary Pols reviews Margin Call}
Here are the Sunday estimates of this weekend’s top-grossing pictures in North American theaters, as reported by Box Office Mojo:
1. Paranormal Activity 3, $ 54 million, first weekend
2. Real Steel, $ 11.3 million; $ 67.2 million, third week
3. Footloose, $ 10.85 million; $ 30.9 million, second week
4. The Three Musketeers, $ 8.8 million, first weekend
5. The Ides of March, $ 4.9 million; $ 29.2 million, third week
Tunisians line up outside a polling station in La Marsa to cast their votes in the country’s first ever free elections on Oct. 23, 2011
Lionel Bonaventure / AFP / Getty Images
If voter turnout is the measure, the first elections of the Arab Spring closed as a smashing success on Sunday. Tunisians of all ages and social classes packed into polling stations across the country to cast their votes in the first free elections that the North African country has seen since it gained its independence in 1956. Tunisia’s electoral commission said close to 70% of registered voters cast their ballots.
The vote will usher in a 217-member constitutional assembly whose primary task will be to draft a new constitution over the next year, ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections. (Watch Tunisia’s youth preparing for their first free election.)
More significantly, it’s the first official step in Tunisia’s transition to democracy after the January uprising that ousted President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, the country’s dictator for 23 years. And in some neighborhoods of the capital, Tunis, men and women stood in line for hours during the initial rush of the early morning, some giddy with excitement. “I’m very happy to be able to vote. It’s a historical moment,” said Lamia Tliba, a marketing professor who had been waiting for an hour outside a polling station in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Bardo. “I can stay here all day.” By midafternoon in the poor neighborhood of Hay al-Khudra, Mohamed Zoghlamy, 70, had been waiting even longer. But he too only smiled: “The people who died [in the revolution] didn’t complain. Why should we?”
In an effort to rally as many people as possible to the polls, the transitional authorities had set up polling stations for even the unregistered voters to participate on Sunday. Those too were packed. And while some complained of voting irregularities (one man said he spotted his dead father’s and brother’s names listed on a voter registry), the monitors and election authorities TIME spoke to described a process that was peaceful and orderly. “It was so organized, so unexpected, and highly civilized,” remarked Reda Sassi, a monitor from the High Committee to Protect the Revolution at a polling station in Ariana, a middle-class suburb north of Tunis.
The election is a crucial test for the regional phenomenon that started in Tunisia and has become known as the Arab Spring. What began with the self-immolation of a young Tunisian fruit seller last December quickly snowballed into a wave of popular uprisings that has swept thousands of pro-democracy protesters into the streets across North Africa and the Middle East in the months since. In Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the Arab Spring toppled dictators. In Yemen and Syria, it has seen the launch of civil wars; leaders in Jordan and Morocco have hurried to make concessions in light of the power of popular will. (See why Tunisia’s vote could usher in more stormy weather.)
Still, the most important thing about the Arab Spring is how it all ends. And Tunisia’s transition to democracy — successful or not — will be a bellwether for all the others, which have so far traveled bumpier rides.
As political analysts predicted — and liberals across the region feared — many of Sunday’s voters said they voted for the popular Islamist party, Ennahda. Some said they chose the party almost automatically — “they’re everywhere” was a common refrain; “they’re known” was another reason for voting for a party that was heavily repressed by Ben Ali but challenged him all along. Still, many others said they found the party’s religious message inspiring. “Islamic law,” exclaimed Tawfiq Bin Mohamed, 62, listing the things that he hoped an Ennahda-led government would ban: gambling, drinking, adultery, homosexuality and bribery. “I have no problem with women voting,” he added. “They are free. What I want is Muslim women who fear God and do not do things that oppose Islam. There are many women in Tunisia who don’t know the word of God because they have European ideas.”
Even so, other parties appeared to claim large numbers of voters too. And in some predominantly liberal areas, many Tunisians said they were voting “against Ennahda,” choosing popular leftist parties like Ettakatol and the coalition called the Democratic Modernist Pole, or independent lists instead. At one Tunis polling station, Ennahda’s leader Rached Ghannouchi faced heckling by voters who called him a “terrorist” when he went to cast his vote, according to Reuters news service.
But most voters said they were happy and proud of what transpired. “This is freedom,” said Hassan Benzarte, leaving a polling station in Ariana, where he held up a blue-ink-stained finger, proof that he had cast a ballot. “I feel responsible,” smiled Fatima Zaddem, 19. Khalil el-Almi, a medical student, couldn’t believe that the protests that had gotten him jailed and beaten in January had led to this. And for the elderly Tunisians, who turned out in force — many helped along by walkers, canes or the arms of grandchildren — they said it was the sweetest end to decades of silent repression. “Of course I’m excited,” said a frail but beaming Zeinab Shenawi, 71. “It’s my first time,” she added. “It’s like I’m going to a marriage ceremony!”
See TIME’s special report “The Middle East in Revolt.”
See the world’s most influential people in the 2011 TIME 100.
William Hague has compared calls by Conservative MPs for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union to “a piece of graffiti”.
An in-out referendum was not government policy, the foreign secretary said, and “the wrong question at the wrong time”.
All Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour MPs have been instructed to vote later against a motion calling for a public vote on the UK’s place in the EU.
However, nearly 70 Tory MPs are likely to defy the party whip on the issue.
Although that will not change the result of the vote at 2200 BST, the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson said their action was being seen as a challenge to Prime Minister David Cameron’s authority.
The prime minister opposes a public vote on Britain’s EU membership and has sought to shift attention onto helping to solve the eurozone crisis.
‘Economic uncertainty’
No 10 has confirmed it is applying a three-line whip – the strongest order a party can give – on Conservative MPs, meaning that any who vote against the government will be expected to resign from government jobs.
A Downing Street spokesman said the government opposed an “in-out” referendum and “we would expect people to support government policy”.
Mr Hague said he had argued for referendums to be used more frequently on other issues but this was a “serious issue” and he believed “this proposition is the wrong question at the wrong time”.
Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin says the majority of people favour a referendum
“Clearly our whole relationship with the European Union is a matter that concerns the government as a whole and not just something for the House of Commons to put up some graffiti about,” he told BBC Radio 4′s Today.
“It (the referendum) was not in the manifestos of either of the governing parties, it cuts right across the rules for holding referendums, it will create additional economic uncertainty in this country at a difficult economic time.”
Mr Hague said the UK’s priority should be on “protecting the British national interest” during talks to resolve the eurozone crisis and to ensure the UK had a strong voice in future discussions over changes to the EU.
“The right referendum is when any government suggests handing more power from Britain to the EU.”
Mr Cameron will meet a number of Conservative ministerial aides concerned about the government’s position prior to the debate.
The PM, who will also update MPs on Sunday’s EU summit after his row with Nicolas Sarkozy, has said the focus should be on sorting out Europe’s economic problems while looking to repatriate powers back to Britain when the time is right in future.
Speaking on Sunday, Mr Cameron said the possibility of changes to the European Union’s treaty had been discussed and that could provide an opportunity for Britain to reclaim powers from Brussels.
Public opinion
Conservative backbencher Bernard Jenkin said the public had not be consulted on the issue of Europe for more than 35 years and public opinion was on the side of those seeking a referendum.
MEP Nikki Sinclaire defends her petition calling for an EU referendum, saying “this debate has gone on for too long”
“David Cameron is not just taking on the Conservative Party,” he said. “He is taking on the whole of public opinion.”
Mr Jenkin said the referendum was not a “panic exercise” but a response to what was going on in the eurozone and the “fundamental change in the nature of our relationship with the EU” being proposed.
Deputy Prime Minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said it is the worst time for a debate about Britain leaving the EU as a “firestorm” engulfs the eurozone. One Lib Dem MP, Stephen Gilbert, has said he will defy his leadership over the issue.
‘Torn apart’
Labour leader Ed Miliband, who is likely to face a small rebellion from eurosceptic MPs within his own party, said EU membership was good for British business and Mr Cameron must prevent his party from “turning inwards”.
“The prime minister only has himself to blame. He has spent the last few years pandering to eurosceptics in their party and now he is getting his comeuppance,” he said.
The UK Independence Party, which campaigns for the UK to quit the EU, said the Conservatives were “tearing themselves apart” over Europe. Its leader Nigel Farage urged MPs from all parties “to vote with their conscience, ahead of their party or career”.
Monday’s motion – which carries no legal weight – calls for a referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EU, leave or renegotiate its membership. Its supporters argue it does not commit to a referendum straight away but within the lifetime of the Parliament.
In the coalition agreement, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, a traditionally pro-European party, agreed to “ensure that the British government is a positive participant in the European Union, playing a strong and positive role with our partners”.
The Commons debate on the issue was prompted after a petition was signed by more than 100,000 people.
Libyan women celebrate in Tripoli following news of Muammar Gaddafi’s capture and death on Oct. 20, 2011
Marco Longari / AFP / Getty Images
Should Libyans care how Muammar Gaddafi died? As the debate continues over whether rebel fighters executed Gaddafi after capturing him — in violation of international rules of war — the issue has raised stark differences between Libya’s new leaders, who suffered for decades under a suffocating dictatorship, and the views of some of their closest Western allies.
In numerous interviews over the weekend in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi, not a single Libyan — including top officials of the new regime — expressed serious concern that Gaddafi might have been executed after being captured alive. Instead, the general feeling might best be summed up by Colonel Omar Hariri, a war hero, who had been a comrade-in-arms of Gaddafi during their coup in 1969, and who headed this year’s rebel military forces in eastern Libya. As Hariri greeted fighters returning to Benghazi from the front in Gaddafi’s birthplace of Sirt on Saturday, TIME asked him if he was concerned about how Gaddafi had died. “I don’t care, so long as he’s dead,” he said. In a separate interview on Sunday, the interim Finance and Oil Minister Ali Tarhouni — who told TIME he has been asked to be the new interim Prime Minister — said he felt “relieved” that Gaddafi had been killed. (See how the rebels are struggling to remake Libya from scratch.)
The great majority of Libyans are rejoicing his death too. Libyans have emerged from a very long nightmare, in which two generations lived in terror under Gaddafi’s dictatorship. The details of how he met his end seem irrelevant to most of them. In death, Gaddafi has become an object of ridicule, as though he were just a pathetic old man, rather than their omnipotent ruler. The walls in Benghazi and Tripoli, which for years were plastered with portraits of Gaddafi as the untouchable leader, are filled with graffiti portraying him as a bushy-haired clown. And thousands of people have lined up to view Gaddafi’s bloodied and beaten corpse, which has been laid out since Friday in the cold-storage room of a food market in Misratah, about 150 miles (240 km) east of Tripoli.
No one doubts the terrifying brutality of Gaddafi’s rule, which put thousands of political foes on death row with perfunctory trials. Yet on Sunday, Western officials nonetheless said they were unhappy with what they had heard of the way he died. British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC that the rebels’ reputation had been “a little bit stained” by Gaddafi’s death. And U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who visited Tripoli two days before Gaddafi was killed — told NBC’s Meet the Press that she supported the U.N.’s call to investigate how he died. (See pictures of Gaddafi’s bizarre clothes.)
On Sunday morning Libya’s chief pathologist, Dr. Othman al-Zintani, confirmed in an autopsy that Gaddafi had died from a gunshot to his head. But he told reporters he would not publish the autopsy report. Al-Zintani said it would be delivered to Libya’s attorney general. That seemed to contradict assurances from interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril on Thursday, when he told reporters he would make public all the details of Gaddafi’s death as soon as the autopsy was completed.
Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam were indicted earlier this year by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague for crimes against humanity, for having allegedly ordered their forces to kill unarmed demonstrators in eastern Libya in February, before the rebels took up arms. For months, rebel leaders assured Western governments that they intended to put the Gaddafis on trial, but had stressed that they would prefer to try him in a Libyan court, rather than transfer him to the ICC.
Boy wonder Tintin, voiced in the film by Jamie Bell, has been wildly popular since he debuted in a Belgian comic strip in 1929
Paramount
In the beginning, there was the word, and the word was Tintin. Steven Spielberg didn’t know what it meant. “Raiders of the Lost Ark had just opened overseas,” he says, “and all through the French reviews, which I couldn’t read, there was a smattering of Tintin everywhere. I didn’t understand what Tintin meant in French, or what that was referring to.”
Tintin is, of course, the first and only name of the indefatigable, incurably innocent boy reporter who has sold upwards of 200 million books worldwide since he first appeared in a comic strip in 1929 — though he’s somehow managed to do this without making himself a household name in the U.S. The French critics had a point: Tintin’s globetrotting adventures are similar to those of Indiana Jones. Once this was explained to him, Spielberg hunted down his very first Tintin book, which happened to be The Seven Crystal Balls. He still didn’t understand the French, but he understood Tintin immediately. “It was like a movie, with beautifully rendered storyboards,” he says. “I understood the story, I understood the humor, I just got it, without having to hear the words.” (See a brief history of movie special effects.)
At the time — this was 1983 — Spielberg was in London making Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He called up Hergé, Tintin’s creator, who was 75, to talk about making a Tintin movie. “He’d seen Raiders of the Lost Ark and loved it,” Spielberg says, “and he just committed, at that moment, that he wanted me to be the director to turn his stories into films.” (This is Spielberg’s account; Hergé’s biographer, Pierre Assouline, tells a much longer story involving a lot of legal wrangling over contracts.) Plans were made for Spielberg to visit Hergé in Brussels a few weeks later, but before that could happen Hergé died. Spielberg acquired the rights anyway, from Hergé’s widow, but there were script problems, and he had a lot of other movies to make, and the project stalled. It would be nearly three decades before Spielberg brought the comic-book hero to the screen: The Adventures of Tintin opens in Europe in late October, nearly two months ahead of its U.S. release.
It’s either touching or ironic — or a bit of both — that Tintin should be making his big-budget, big-screen debut at a moment when grave economic woes threaten the great pan-European dream. Tintin is the pan-European hero par excellence — he was pan-European before there was a pan-Europe — and far from fading away, he’s about to take a shot at going global, albeit with the help of an American and a New Zealander.
The Boy from Brussels Tintin didn’t start out as pan-European, let alone global. He started out as Belgian. Hergé was the pen name of one Georges Remi, who was born in 1907, the son of a worker in a candy factory in Brussels. He grew up a Catholic and an ardent Boy Scout. He began publishing Tintin’s adventures in a Brussels newspaper, and they were an instant hit: at the end of Tintin’s first adventure, a trip to the Soviet Union, the newspaper threw a welcome-back party at the train station. Thousands of fans showed up and mobbed the hapless Tintin stand-in, a local Boy Scout with his hair gelled up into Tintin’s trademark ginger quiff. It rapidly became clear that Tintin was destined to escape from his humble beginnings as easily as he shed handcuffs in the comic books. (See the 25 All-TIME best animated films.)
Tintin’s story would eventually be translated into 60 languages (he is Dingding in Chinese and Tincjo in Esperanto). He has been adapted for the radio, the stage, TV and the movies, though never on a grand scale. There are Tintin stamps and a 10-euro Tintin coin. The first comic strip to enter the modern-art collection at the Centre Pompidou in Paris was Tintin. A bronze statue of Tintin and Snowy stands in a square in Brussels.
It’s not hard to see why: the Tintin books are some of the most dependably satisfying popular entertainment ever created. He’s the eternally dogged underdog — undersized, underestimated and always outgunned, but undaunted. “Tintin can’t be dissuaded from his quests,” Spielberg says. “He’s relentless in his pursuit of the solution to these exotic mysteries.” Like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, Tintin is the one sane mind in a world of schemers, dipsomaniacs, eccentric geniuses and blithering idiots. You could look at Tintin as the dream of a small country squashed between the broad shoulders of France and Germany, eternally relying on its gumption and ingenuity to work its way out of scrapes. (In this respect, Tintin is distantly related to James Bond, who arose as the avatar of a virile, indefatigable England as if to compensate for the waning power of the British Empire.)
Apart from his determination and ingenuity, Tintin barely has two character traits to rub together, but that’s part of his charm too. He’s Everyboy. His age is hard to pin down: he looks like an adolescent, but lives by himself and doesn’t go to school. It’s even harder to figure out where and when he lives: the world he inhabits is recognizable as generically European, with green swards and quaint cities and tree-lined thoroughfares, and belonging to some moment in the early 20th century, but you’d be hard-pressed to stick a pin in a map, or a calendar. He has no ego and no politics beyond a visceral dislike of unfairness. He has no family or romantic attachments. He’s a reporter by profession, but unlike, say, Clark Kent, you rarely ever catch him doing any reporting. He barely has any facial features. Tintin is relatable to a fault: it’s easy to imagine yourself as Tintin, whether you are in Cologne, Caracas or Kolkata.
See TIME’s special report “Summer Entertainment Preview 2011.”
David Cameron: “Greater fiscal and economic integration in the eurozone is inevitable”
Prime Minister David Cameron has clashed with French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the UK’s involvement in discussions about the eurozone crisis.
Mr Sarkozy believes the final talks on Wednesday should be limited to nations which actually use the euro.
Mr Cameron said all EU leaders should be present to debate issues which could affect them in one way or another.
The clash came on the day when leaders agreed to change the Union’s treaty if necessary to help resolve the crisis.
EU president Herman Van Rompuy said after a day of emergency talks in Brussels that members would “explore the possibility of limited change”.
Mr Cameron said he had sought assurances to protect the UK’s interest if there is change.
All EU leaders are now set to attend the final meeting on Wednesday, which was originally meant to be attended by only the 17 countries that use the euro.
That prompted French leader Mr Sarkozy to speak out. He said he was sick of reading in newspapers about advice Mr Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne were offering the eurozone.
At one point in the exchanges, Mr Sarkozy was quoted as telling Mr Cameron: “We are sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do.
“You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings.”
On Sunday morning the leaders of all the European Union’s 27 members held talks about the Greek debt crisis, recapitalising banks, and bolstering the bailout fund.
Continue reading the main story
The more closely integrated the eurozone becomes, the greater the British fear will be that decisions will be taken that impacts on their major concerns such as preserving and expanding the single market”
End Quote
This was followed in the afternoon by a separate meeting of the 17 nations that use the euro.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Van Rompuy said that altering the treaty was under discussion. Although no proposed details were given, any change is likely to involve closer fiscal and economic cooperation.
“The aim is deepening our economic convergence and strengthening economic discipline,” Mr Van Rompuy said.
He said the words “limited change” meant “not a general overhaul of the institutional architecture”.
He added: We also said that we would need the agreement of all the 27 (member states) before we can decide on a treaty change.”
‘Progress needed’
Mr Cameron said he had secured safeguards to ensure that Britain’s national interest within the EU was protected as the eurozone nations moved towards greater fiscal and economic integration.
He told a news conference: “This must not be at the expense of Britain’s national interest. I have secured a commitment today that we must safeguard the interests of countries that want to stay outside the euro, particularly with respect to the integrity of the single market for all 27 countries of the EU.”
The prime minister said the EU needed to build on the progress of the work done on Saturday on recapitalising the banks.
“More progress is needed. I think we are beginning to see the elements of a strong package coming together,” he said.
Mr Cameron has cancelled visits to Japan and New Zealand this week in order to attend Wednesday’s summit.
Speaking alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a joint press conference on Sunday, Mr Sarkozy said “a quite broad agreement was taking shape on the reinforcement” of the bailout fund.
Mrs Merkel said a French idea for the fund to acquire a banking licence was dead, leaving a mix of plans to use the fund to offer insurance to eurozone bond holders, and moves to create a “fund within the fund” that would be topped up by some of the main emerging nations.
On Saturday eurozone finance ministers struck a provisional deal that will see banks raise more than 100bn euros (£87bn) in new capital to shield them against possible losses to indebted countries.
It is conditional on a wider accord, including a write-down of Greek debt.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said the 100bn euros agreed in the deal will be provided to banks by commercial investors, national governments and the EU’s bailout fund.
Debt-laden Greece has been bailed out – twice – along with the Irish Republic and Portugal.
The eurozone is working on a third package for Greece, as well as a solution that could help the much bigger economies of Spain and Italy, which are faltering.
NTC leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil: “I pray for the souls of the martyrs who were waiting for this day”
Libya’s transitional government has declared national liberation before a jubilant crowd in Benghazi, where the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi began.
National Transitional Council (NTC) leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil urged Libyans to put civil conflict behind them for the sake of the country.
Gaddafi’s capture and death on Thursday came as Nato-backed NTC forces pursued loyalists in his stronghold, Sirte.
The NTC has come under pressure to investigate how he died.
A post-mortem carried out on the former leader’s body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the head, medical sources said.
The body itself, along with that of Gaddafi’s son Mutassim, has been put on public display in a cold storage facility in Misrata.
Thousands of people were killed or injured after the violent repression of protests against Gaddafi’s rule in February developed into a full-scale civil war.
His government was driven out of the capital, Tripoli, in August.
However he refused to surrender or leave the country, urging his followers to resist the country’s new leaders.
‘United brothers’
NTC deputy head Abdul Hafez Ghoga announced from the stage that Libya had been freed, declaring: “Declaration of Liberation. Raise your head high. You are a free Libyan.”
Thousands of voices echoed him chanting, “You are a free Libyan.”
Mr Abdul Jalil bowed down to thank God for victory before making his speech.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
There is a lot of joy at the big parade ground on the edge of Benghazi that they have renamed Victory Square.
The new Libya faces a lot of challenges. Hating Colonel Gaddafi has been a great unifier. Now he is dead, the differences within the broad coalition that overthrew him are going to be much more noticeable.
The transition to the promised democracy will not be easy. And some national reconciliation between former rebels and former supporters of the regime will be necessary. But Libya has oil money, as much foreign help as it needs and a sense that they own their revolution – even though they could not have done it without the help of Nato and Qatar.
The biggest challenge – building a new system of government from the bottom up – could become their biggest advantage. Unlike Tunisian and Egyptian revolutionaries, they do not have to worry about the survival of parts of the old regime. Here in Libya, it has been smashed.
He thanked all those who had taken part in the revolution – from rebel fighters to businessmen and journalists.
“Today we are one flesh, one national flesh. We have become united brothers as we have not been in the past,” he said.
“I call on everyone for forgiveness, tolerance and reconciliation. We must get rid of hatred and envy from our souls. This is a necessary matter for the success of the revolution and the success of the future Libya.”
Mr Abdul Jalil said the new Libya would take Islamic law as its foundation. Interest for bank loans would be capped, he said, and restrictions on the number of wives Libyan men could take would be lifted.
He wished anti-government protesters in Syria and Yemen “victory”.
US President Barack Obama congratulated Libyans, saying: “After four decades of brutal dictatorship and eight months of deadly conflict, the Libyan people can now celebrate their freedom and the beginning of a new era of promise.”
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also welcomed the declaration of liberation, but added that Nato would retain its “capacity to respond to threats to civilians, if needed”.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague greeted Libya’s “historic victory”, and urged the country to avoid “retribution and reprisals”.
Elections are due to be held by June of next year, Libya’s acting Prime Minister, Mahmoud Jibril, said earlier.
The new elected body, he added, would draft a constitution to be put to a referendum and form an interim government pending a presidential election.
Death questions
The US, UN, major human rights groups and others have called for a transparent investigation into how Gaddafi died.
Video footage showed him being captured alive. Officials said he had been killed subsequently in a crossfire.
A post-mortem carried out on the former leader’s body on Sunday showed he had received a bullet wound to the head, medical sources said.
The commander of the forces that captured Gaddafi has given details of the Libyan ex-leader’s last moments to the BBC.
Omran al-Oweib said he had been dragged from a drainage pipe and had taken 10 steps before he collapsed amid gunfire between NTC forces and Gaddafi supporters.
“I didn’t see who killed, which weapon killed Gaddafi,” Mr Oweib said.
Continue reading the main story
NEXT STEPS
Elections for a Public National Conference to be held within eight months
The new body is to appoint a prime minister, an interim government and a constituent authority which will draft a new constitution within 60 days
Constitution to be put to a referendum
If the constitution is approved, general elections will be held within six months
NTC spokesman Mustapha Goubrani said Gaddafi’s body would be handed over to people from his tribe for burial.
Mr Jibril told the BBC’s Hardtalk programme he would have preferred to have Gaddafi alive, to face prosecution for his crimes, and added that he would welcome a full inquiry into his death.
One of Gaddafi’s best-known sons, Saif al-Islam, as well as his security chief both remain at large.
Another son who escaped to Niger, Saadi, was “shocked and outraged by the vicious brutality” shown towards his father and dead brother, his lawyer told Reuters.
Hardtalk with LibyanactingPrime MinisterMahmoudJibril is beingbroadcast on BBC World News on Sunday 23 October at10:30, 12:30 and 23:30 GMT.
Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
Gilad Shalit says he missed his family while in captivity and has much to do now he is free
Jubilant crowds in Israel and the Palestinian territories have been celebrating a historic prisoner swap.
Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, allowing most to go back to Gaza and the West Bank, in exchange for the return of soldier Gilad Shalit.
Sgt Shalit is spending his first night at home since he was snatched by militants in a cross-border raid five years ago.
He received a hero’s welcome in his hometown.
Both PM Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of the Islamist movement Hamas, who closed the deal, hailed it as a vindication for their policies.
But correspondents say the swap is unlikely to have a major effect on wider peace talks.
Continue reading the main story
For Israel this has been a day of great joy, but also of concern for the consequences of releasing of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners as the price for ending Gilad Shalit’s long years of captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Sgt Shalit himself does appear to be in better health than many had expected. Although pale and weak, after being locked inside for more than five years, his father said he did feel all right.
The people in his hometown here in northern Israel lined the streets to welcome him home, showering the convoy of vehicles with flowers and champagne. But so far he has not come out to meet people. His father said it was too early – he needs a period of rehabilitation to adjust to normal life.
Sgt Shalit, 25, was released early in the day and ushered over the Gaza border to Egypt, where he gave an interview to Egyptian state TV.
He seemed short of breath and disorientated, and angry Israeli officials later protested that the interview was forced on him and “violated all the basic ethical rules of journalism”.
By the end of the day, he was back in his hometown of Mitzpe Hila, where flag-waving crowds lined the streets and cheered as he sped past in a white van and was ushered into the family home.
His father, Noam, gave a news conference later, saying his son felt all right but needed time to readjust to normal life.
“Our son has been reborn. We’re concluding a long and difficult journey. We’re glad that we won our son back,” said Mr Shalit.
He said he could not give too many details of his son’s captivity, saying only that in the early years he had been subjected to “harsh treatment” which had softened over time.
Sgt Shalit was a 19-year-old tank crewman when he was captured in June 2006. His family lived in a protest tent in Jerusalem for 16 months while they campaigned for his release.
Meanwhile, 477 Palestinians were freed, in the first part of an amnesty that will eventually see 1,027 prisoners released.
Some of the Palestinians had been in prison for decades, and some had been convicted of serious crimes such as murder and orchestrating suicide attacks.
Tens of thousands lined the streets of Hamas-controlled Gaza, where most of the freed prisoners were sent.
Other prisoners were taken to the West Bank while about 40 were sent to Turkey, Syria or Qatar.
Witnesses said there were thousands of gun-toting masked Hamas militants, clad in black and green, patrolling roads in Gaza.
Hamas wanted a show of force, but many believe they have now played their trump card by handing over Sgt Shalit, says the BBC’s Jon Donnison in Gaza City.
The Islamist movement’s leader Khaled Meshaal, speaking in Cairo, praised the swap, claiming it as a victory.
“Negotiation based on power forces the enemy to pay the price. We have defeated the Israelis,” he said.
In the West Bank, where dozens more were sent, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised the former detainees as “freedom fighters”.
Mr Abbas, whose Fatah movement appeared to have been outflanked by the swap deal, promised that more Palestinian prisoners would be freed soon.
This image from video shows a girl just before she was hit by a van in a market in the Chinese city of Foshan on Oct. 13. (Photo: Reuters)
If there is a bright note to the sad story of Wang Yue, the two-year old who was ignored by more than a dozen passers-by after a hit-and-run collision, it is 57-year-old scrap picker Chen Xianmei, who stopped to help the gravely injured toddler. The incident has prompted a vast outpouring of online anger and soul searching as to how so many people could be so callous towards the suffering of a child.
Wang Yue was hit by a van in hardware market the southeastern city of Foshan on Thursday. The van that ran over her didn’t stop, and a second van that also hit the child didn’t stop either. Security camera video of the incident shows multiple people walk or drive past the girl on scooters and three-wheel carts.
Chen arrived about 10 minutes after the girl was hit, and can be seen in the footage dropping her bag of recyclables, straining to move the child out of the path of oncoming vehicles and then calling for help. The child’s mother, who was hanging up laundry nearby, came rushing to the scene after hearing Chen’s calls, which had been ignored by others, according to state media. On Monday night the child’s mother posted an online update that said Yue Yue remained in intensive care and could not breathe on her own, but that she had gained some feeling in her limbs. The drivers of both vans have been arrested.
Chinese press reports said Chen had moved to Foshan from a smaller city in Guangdong, and that she spent her mornings working as a cook and collected bottles and cans in the afternoons. In video and photos online Yue Yue’s sobbing parents can be seen bowing before their daughter’s rescuer, a skinny woman who appears not much bigger than a child herself. In an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily, Chen sounded flustered at the response her actions have received. The local government gave her a $ 3,000 reward, and a businessman reportedly offered another $ 15,000. “I only did a simple thing,” she told the newspaper.
But her actions have raised complicated questions. Recently China has seen prominent cases of bystanders ignoring injured people. In Wuhan last month an elderly man who had fallen in a market died after he suffocated from a nosebleed. While a large crowd had gathered, no one had offered to help, and he was only taken to the hospital by family members who arrived more than an hour later, according to the official China Daily. As my colleague Hannah Beech reported, one explanation is that many Chinese fear the liability they might incur, because Good Samaritans have sometimes seen the people they intend to help turn on them. In one famous 2007 case in Nanjing, a young man who helped a woman who had fallen while getting off a bus was later sued. The woman claimed that he was the one who pushed her, and a court ruled that he was partly responsible.
Other explanations include the so-called “bystander effect,” in which crowds make people less likely to help injured people. Still others discuss a decline of morality that has shadowed China’s dramatic economic reforms. But it is worth noting that such questions have been around since before the People’s Republic was founded. In his 1939 work Peasant Life in China, Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiaotong examined how social obligations were determined by the closeness of relationships. Fei “called this a concentric pattern of social relations with positions measured by how close one stood in relation to the actor,” Linda Wong wrote in her 1998 book Marginalization and Social Welfare in China. “The more distant the location from the centre, the weaker the claim, so that ultimately one did not have any obligation to people unknown to oneself.”
There are direct echoes of that description in Chen’s description of events. She told the Southern Metropolis Daily reporter that many of the people she asked for help responded that if it wasn’t her child, she shouldn’t bother with it. Thankfully, Chen had the decency to ignore that advice.
