Islamist rebels torch Timbuktu manuscript library: mayor

Reuters – 4 hrs ago

French-Malian offensive

DAKAR (Reuters) - Islamist fighters fleeing Mali's ancient Saharan city of Timbuktu as French and Malian troops closed in set fire to a South African-funded library there containing thousands of priceless manuscripts, the city's mayor said on Monday.

"The rebels sit fire to the newly-constructed Ahmed Baba Institute built by the South Africans ... this happened four days ago," Halle Ousmane told Reuters by telephone from Bamako. He said he had received the information from his chief of communications who had travelled south from the city a day ago.

Ousmane was not able to immediately say how much the building had been damaged. French and Malian troops were securing the city on Monday.

The mayor said the Islamist rebels, who had occupied the fabled trading town since a Tuareg-led rebellion captured it on April 1 from government forces, also torched his office and the home of a member of parliament.

The Ahmed Baba Institute, one of several libraries and collections in the city containing fragile ancient documents dating back to the 13th century, is named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare and houses more than 20,000 scholarly manuscripts. Some were stored in underground vaults.

Fighters from the Islamist alliance in north Mali, which groups AQIM with Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine and AQIM splinter MUJWA, had also destroyed ancient shrines sacred to moderate Sufi Moslems, provoking international outrage.

They had also applied amputations for thieves and stoning of adulterers under sharia law.

France says it secures access to Timbuktu

SEVARE, Mali (AP) — Ground forces backed by French paratroopers and helicopters took control of the airport and roads leading to the fabled desert town of Timbuktu in an overnight operation, a French military official said Monday.

The move marked the latest inroad by the two-week-old French mission to oust radical Islamists from the northern half of Mali, which they seized more than nine months ago.

Col. Thierry Burkhard said Monday that the town's airport was taken without firing a shot.

"There was an operation on Timbuktu last night that allowed us to control access to the town," he said Monday. "It's up to Malian forces to retake the town."

The Timbuktu operation comes a day after the French announced they had seized the airport and a key bridge in a city east of Timbuktu, Gao, one of the other northern provincial capitals that had been under the grip of radical Islamists.

The French and Malian forces so far have met little resistance from the Islamists, who seized northern Mali in the wake of a military coup in the distant capital of Bamako, in southern Mali.

Timbuktu, which has entranced travelers for centuries with its inaccessible mystique, is some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northeast of Bamako. During their rule, the militants have systematically destroyed UNESCO World Heritage sites in the ancient town.

A spokesman for the al-Qaida-linked militants has said that the ancient tombs of Sufi saints were destroyed because they contravened Islam, encouraging Muslims to venerate saints instead of God.

Among the tombs they destroyed is that of Sidi Mahmoudou, a saint who died in 955, according to the UNESCO website.

Timbuktu, long a hub of Islamic learning, is also home to some 20,000 manuscripts, some dating back as far as the 12th century. Owners have succeeded in taking some of the manuscripts outside of Timbuktu, while others have been carefully hidden away from the Islamists.

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Iran launches monkey into space: state news agency

Group says Israel abused crowd-control methods

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli human rights group on Monday accused the military of "extensively and systematically" violating its own rules of engagement in suppressing Palestinian demonstrators in the West Bank, contributing to dozens of deaths in recent years.

According to a report by the B'Tselem group, a total of 56Palestinians have been killed in clashes with the Israeli militarysince 2005. The vast majority — 46 of them — were killed when live ammunition was fired at stone throwers.

B'Tselem cited two "main problems" with Israeli crowd-control tactics. First, it said the wording of open-fire regulations was "problematic and deficient."

"Second, the regulations are extensively and systematically violated, and the military does not take the necessary action to end these violations," it said.

The Israeli military dismissed the report as "biased," and said it focused on incidents that are old or still under investigation. It called specific incidents in the report exceptions to military policy, not the rule.

Palestinians routinely demonstrate against Israel's occupation of the West Bank. The clashes frequently spiral into violence, with protestors hurling stones and firebombs at Israeli forces.

Israel has developed a number of what it calls "nonlethal" means of crowd control over the past two decades, including the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, paintballs and water cannons. There is also the "scream" — a device that disperses crowds by generating extremely loud sounds — and a foul-smelling spray known as "the skunk."

Israeli security officials say live fire is to be used only in life-threatening situations.

But the B'Tselem report said Israel often uses its nonlethal weapons improperly. Six Palestinians have been killed by rubber bullets since 2005, and two were killed by tear gas canisters, it said.

In addition, the group said that Israeli forces often use live fire unnecessarily.

"Over the past seven years, at least 46 Palestinians have been killed when live ammunition was fired at unarmed stone-throwers," B'Tselem said.

While the group said further investigation was needed to determine how many of these deaths involved improper use of live fire, it said it "has documented incidents in which live ammunition was fired under circumstances that cannot be described as life-threatening to the soldiers."

"In responding to demonstrations and 'disturbances of the peace' in the West Bank, the Israeli security forces employ various crowd control weapons that are supposed to be non-lethal, if used properly," it said.

"In practice, members of the security forces make almost routine use of these weapons in unlawful, dangerous ways, and the relevant Israeli authorities do too little to prevent the recurrence of this conduct," it concluded.

The group urged the military to enforce its rules of engagement, prosecute forces who violate these rules, restrict the use of live ammunition and rubber-coated bullets to instances of mortal danger, and prohibit the firing of tear-gas canisters directly at individuals.

In its response, the military said it has "clearly defined" rules of engagement determined by operational considerations and legal consultation. It said soldiers are regularly trained about these rules.

It said it "does everything in its power to ensure that the use of riot dispersal means is done in accordance with the rules of engagement, minimizing collateral damage and maintaining stability and security in the region."

Egypt: opposition rejects president's dialogue

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's main opposition coalition on Monday rejected the Islamist president's call for dialogue unless their conditions are met, a move that is likely to prolong the country's latest political crisis as violence that has left more than 50 people dead continued for a fifth day.

In the latest clashes, riot police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo on Monday, and one protester died of gunshot wounds, health and security officials said.

The violence came a day after President Mohammed Morsi vowed a tough response to the eruption of political violence, calling a state of emergency and curfew in the hardest hit areas — three cities along the Suez Canal and their surrounding provinces. The military has deployed in two of those cities, Port Said and Suez.

The opposition has painted the explosion of rioting as a backlash against attempts by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to monopolize power in Egypt — and proof that Morsi has been incapable of achieving stability or achieving reforms.

Leaders of the main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, dismissed Morsi's invitation to a dialogue on resolving the crisis. At a press conference, the front's head Mohamed ElBaradei said the call was "without form and content."

ElBaradei said Morsi must first appoint a national unity government and name a commission to amend the disputed constitution that was ratified in a referendum last month before they can join a dialogue. He also wants Morsi to take legislative powers from the Islamist-dominated upper house of parliament, or the Shura Council, a usually toothless body elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt's registered voters.

"We support any dialogue if it has a clear agenda that can shepherd the nation to the shores of safety," said ElBaradei, flanked by former Arab league chief Amr Moussa and leftist Hamdeen Sabahi.

Sabahi, who finished a close third in last year's presidential election, added conditions of his own. Morsi, he said, must state publicly his political responsibility for the violence that engulfed the country since Friday, his respect for peaceful protests and fire the attorney general he named late last year.

The violence erupted around Friday's two-year anniversary of the start of the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Protests that turned to clashes around the country on Friday left 11 dead, most of them in Suez.

The next day, riots exploded in Port Said after a court convicted and sentenced to death 21 defendants for a mass soccer riot in the city's main stadium a year ago. During the weekend, 44 people were killed in violence in the city.

Throughout the past five days, anger over Morsi's policies and the slow rate of change have helped fuel the protests and clashes.

Angry and at times screaming and wagging his finger, Morsi went on national TV Sunday night and declared a 30-day state of emergency in the provinces of Port Said, Ismailiya and Suez, which are named after their main cities. A nighttime curfew goes into effect in those areas Monday.

Morsi has struggled to address the country's daunting social and economic problems since taking power in June, and his state of emergency call sparked criticism from opponents who accused him of using the same methods as Mubarak.

A relative unknown until his Muslim Brotherhood nominated him to run for president last year, Morsi is widely criticized and ruthlessly ridiculed in the media for having offered no vision for the country's future after nearly 30 years of dictatorship under Mubarak and no coherent policy to tackle seemingly endless problems, from a free falling economy and deeply entrenched social injustices to surging crime and chaos on the streets.

The rejection of his offer for a dialogue is likely to lend more weight to ElBaradei and his colleagues in the Salvation Front at a time when protesters on the streets are increasingly showing their independence from politicians, voicing a wide range of non-political grievances.