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četvrtak, 29. rujna 2011.

Linkovi – uglavnom Palestina/Izrael, Jemen…


PALESTINA/IZRAEL:
Another 'Symbolic Victory': Abbas' New Political Gambit
… the PA itself has neither legitimacy nor credibility. Whatever remained of the latter was lost during the Israeli war on Gaza and the publishing of the Palestine Papers by Al Jazeera and the Guardian. The papers showed that the very individuals now championing a Palestinian statehood bid at the UN once regularly collaborated with Israel to crack down on Palestinian resistance. They helped Israel undermine Palestinian democracy, isolate democratically-elected Hamas, give away the refugees’ right of return, and worse, deprive Palestinians from any meaningful sovereignty in occupied East Jerusalem. As for its lack of legitimacy, the matter requires no leaked documents. In fact, Fatah's refusal to concede to 2006 election results led to the circumstances that exasperated a civil war in Gaza. Gaza's besiegement (a direct consequence of the elections and the civil war) continues to serve both Israel and the PA equally. The latter is functioning in the West Bank with no popular mandate, surviving on international handouts and “security coordination” with the Israeli Army. Even Abbas's term as a president of the PA has expired.
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Paradigm Shift: One-sided US Veto
Seeing that the settlers are undermining any future two-state solution, the Palestinians have decided not to wait any longer and are asking the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. This, they intimate, is their last attempt to salvage the two-state route before abandoning it to the dustbin of history. Their argument is straightforward: If the idea behind a two-state solution is dividing land among the two peoples, how can Israel unilaterally continue to settle the contested land while carrying out negotiations? Israeli unilateralism, in other words, has driven the Palestinians to choose the unilateral path. The only difference is that the latter's unilateralism is aimed at advancing a peace agreement, while the former's is aimed at destroying it. ... The US has never considered using its veto power to stop Israel from carrying out unilateral moves aimed at undermining peace. Instead, the US has frequently used its veto to prevent the condemnation of Israeli policies that breach international law. Now the Obama Administration wants to use the veto again, with the moral justification that unilateralism is misguided. But the real question is: Why is unilateralism bad when it attempts to advance a solution, yet warrants no response when unilateralism threatens to undermine a solution?
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'An Important Irritant': The Attack on the Mavi Marmara
The panel claimed that Israel has faced and is facing a threat to its security from militant groups within Gaza. Of course, this is true even if the threat is minimal compared to the threat Israel poses to the security of Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza. The panel argues that Israel has the right to self defence against armed attack from outside its territory. As Israel is the only state in the world which has never defined its borders, and as the territory falling within the 1949 armistice lines includes more than 20 per cent of Palestine set aside for the Arab state in the partition resolution of 1947, but seized by zionist militias in 1948, what constitutes Israeli territory remains an interesting but unresolved point. Furthermore, most Gazans are refugees (or the children of refugees) from somewhere else in Palestine. They were driven into Gaza during the ethnic cleansing of 1948. Not far from the fence penning them in, settlements have been built on their land and the ruins of their villages. Their right of return to the place of their birth has been affirmed in numerous UN resolutions specific to Palestine as well as conventions dealing with universal human rights. Israel has never complied with any of these resolutions. Yet it is Israel and not its victims to which Ban Ki Moon's panel grants the right of self-defence. Turkey has rejected this biased report out of hand. It has sent the Israeli ambassador home and will now ask the International Court of Justice to issue a legal opinion on the blockade of Gaza and thus the attack on the Mavi Marmara.
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Ibrahim Zaza: The Gaza Boy Newspapers Omitted
Ibrahim Zaza was merely a 12-year-old boy. He and his cousin Mohammed, 14, were hit by an Israeli missile in Gaza, fired from a manned drone as they played in front of their house. ... Among the dead in the first wave of attacks that targeted 'militants' were two children, one aged three and the other 13. In the media, Palestinian casualties only matter when they amount to a sizable number. Even then, they are placed within a context that deprives the victims of any sympathy, or worse, blames Palestinian militants for indirect responsibility (pushing Israel to resort to violence to defend its security). In fact, the term 'Palestinian security' is almost nonexistent, although thousands of Gazans have been killed in the last three years alone. Even the news of Palestinian children killed in the August strikes was reported with a sense of vagueness and doubt.
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SAD:
Cops turn Violent, NYPD drag girl across the street. #OccupyWallStreet (video)


JEMEN:
Over 40 killed in Yemen gun battles
“Over 40 people were killed in battles that hit neighbourhoods across Sanaa, including Change Square”, epicentre of anti-regime protests since Feb, the activist said. As gun battles raged across the capital, hundreds of thousands set out in a massive demonstration from Change Square, which came under security force gunfire, witnesses said. A dissident military spokesman said 11 of his regiment’s troops were killed and 112 wounded when elite Republican Guard troops, commanded by President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son Ahmed, attacked a camp. At least 173 people were killed in fierce fighting since last week…
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Yemeni president makes call for peace but bloodshed continues in Sana'a
The latest round of bloodshed followed a week of violence in Sana'a in which more than 100 protesters were shot dead, some by government troops using anti-aircraft guns. ... At midday a crowd of 6,000 men and women marched out of the tented protest encampment dubbed Change Square and into the city" As they marched deeper into the streets of Sana'a, a volley of bullets fired by Republican Guard troops dispersed the protesters, who fled back to their camp. "We reached the roundabout and then a group of soldiers under the bridge just started shooting straight at us without warning – they were 10 metres away," said Abulqawy Noman, a professor of chemistry at Sana'a University, as doctors in a field hospital held up an x-ray apparently showing an image of his calf with a bullet lodged below the knee. "One of my friends was shot in the chest; he couldn't speak, blood was pouring from his nostrils and his mouth." In addition to the professor, 17 others were shot, one in the forehead and another in the square of his back. Outside the hospital gates a weeping muezzin gathered protesters for a mass prayer to mourn the death of 10 people on Friday, nine of them pro-opposition tribal fighters and one of them a journalist who died after being shot a few days earlier. ... Sana'a may be sliding out of government control. Many of the city's neighbourhoods are now gripped by street battles and exchanges of shelling between Republican Guards led by Saleh's son and a division of renegade soldiers known as firqa who have been backing the pro-democracy demonstrators. Protesters are caught in the middle as both sides hurl mortars and anti-aircraft missiles at each other in a battle for the capital. ... Many in the anti-Saleh camp accuse both Riyadh and Washington of supporting Saleh, who had once been their ally against al-Qaida's Yemen-based wing. They accuse the west of adopting double standards by supporting the pro-democracy uprising in Libya but not in Yemen. ... Hospitals are struggling to find the floor space, let alone provide care, for the hundreds suffering from bullet wounds and gas inhalation. Tariq Noman, a doctor working in a field hospital, told the Guardian that people were dying because of a shortage of medical supplies. The International Committee of the Red Cross has delivered wound-dressing material to the hospital but claims that it has had equipment confiscated and been denied access to people in need of first aid by government officials.
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SIRIJA:
At least 18 people killed in demonstrations across Syria
At least 18 people were killed Saturday in demonstrations across Syria, while pro-regime protesters in Damascus attacked the French ambassador to Syria, Eric Chevallier, according to witnesses. ... An estimated 2,700 people have been killed, including at least 100 children, since the protests - calling for the ouster of al-Assad - started in mid-March, according to the United Nations. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Monday accused the Syrian regime of "crimes against humanity."
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AFGANISTAN:
Army private gets 7 years for murder of unarmed Afghan teen
Another member of the Army "kill team" accused of killing unarmed Afghan civilians for sport pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday for the murder of a 15-year-old villager in southern Afghanistan. ... Five members of the former 5th Stryker Brigade have faced murder charges in connection with what military prosecutors say were staged attacks on Afghan villagers. In the attacks, prosecutors say, U.S. soldiers fired volleys of guns and grenades at innocent people and then planted weapons to make it look as though the victims had shot first. ... Holmes was described by friends and family as a friendly young man who arrived in Afghanistan at the age of 18 and found himself unable to challenge or report his older squad mates, especially his team leader, Spec. Jeremy Morlock. Morlock pleaded guilty earlier this year to involvement in three killings and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. ... Holmes, a resident of Boise, Idaho, pleaded guilty to murder without premeditation, possession of a finger bone taken from an Afghan corpse and illegal marijuana use.
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nedjelja, 25. rujna 2011.

Linkovi – Palestina/Izrael, Jemen, Sirija


PALESTINA/IZRAEL:
Full Official Text of President Mahmoud Abbas' Speech at the UNGA
It is time for the Palestinian people to gain their freedom and independence. The time has come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestine refugees in the homeland and the Diaspora, to end their displacement and to realize their rights, some of them forced to take refuge more than once in different places of the world. At a time when the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy – the Arab Spring – the time is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence. The time has come for our men, women and children to live normal lives, for them to be able to sleep without waiting for the worst that the next day will bring; for mothers to be assured that their children will return home without fear of suffering killing, arrest or humiliation; for students to be able to go to their schools and universities without checkpoints obstructing them. The time has come for sick people to be able to reach hospitals normally, and for our farmers to be able to take care of their good land without fear of the occupation seizing the land and its water, which the wall prevents access to, or fear of the settlers, for whom settlements are being built on our land and who are uprooting and burning the olive trees that have existed for hundreds of years. The time has come for the thousands of prisoners to be released from the prisons to return to their families and their children to become a part of building their homeland, for the freedom of which they have sacrificed. My people desire to exercise their right to enjoy a normal life like the rest of humanity.
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'Irvine 11' Muslim students guilty of conspiring to disrupt Israeli ambassador meeting (video)
But the charges against the students drew an outcry from civil liberties advocates and Southern California's Muslim community, who say the students were unfairly singled out for prosecution even though similar protests are common at universities and do not result in prosecution. Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at UC Irvine, has also criticized the criminal charges as heavy-handed. The Muslim Student Union was suspended by the university for an academic quarter and put on probation for two years.
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A President Who is Helpless in the Face of Middle East Reality
For the American President who called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Arab lands, an end to the theft of Arab land in the West Bank – Israeli "settlements" is what he used to call it – and a Palestinian state by 2011, Obama's performance was pathetic. As usual, Hanan Ashrawi, the only eloquent Palestinian voice in New York this week, got it right. "I couldn't believe what I heard," she told Haaretz, that finest of Israeli newspapers. "It sounded as though the Palestinians were the ones occupying Israel. There wasn't one word of empathy for the Palestinians. He spoke only of the Israelis' troubles..." Too true. And as usual, the sanest Israeli journalists, in their outspoken condemnation of Obama, proved that the princes of American journalists were cowards. "The limp, unimaginative speech that US President Barack Obama delivered at the United Nations... reflects how helpless the American President is in the face of Middle East realities," Yael Sternhell wrote. And as the days go by, and we discover whether the Palestinians respond to Obama's grovelling performance with a third intifada or with a shrug of weary recognition that this is how things always were, the facts will continue to prove that the US administration remains a tool of Israel when it comes to Israel's refusal to give the Palestinians a state.
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Machsom Watch in sleepless in Gaza & Jerusalem (video)


JEMEN:
Yemeni president returns from Saudi Arabia
The worst violence yet erupted this week with battles between Saleh loyalists and his armed opponents that have so far killed around 100 people, mostly protesters in Sanaa. The elite Republican Guards, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, have been engaged in street battles and exchanges of shelling over the city with army units that defected to the opposition and tribal fighters who support the protesters. The fighting continued even after Saleh returned at dawn Friday. Heavy clashes and thuds of mortars were heard throughout the night in Sanaa and into morning hours. One person was killed overnight after mortars hit the square in central Sanaa where protesters demanding Saleh's ouster have been camped out for months, a medical official said on condition of anonymity. ... Yemen's turmoil began in February as the unrest spreading throughout the Arab world set off largely peaceful protests in this deeply unstable corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Saleh's government responded with a heavy crackdown, with hundreds killed and thousands wounded so far.
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SIRIJA:
Nine killed in Syria, EU imposes fresh sanctions
'So far, we know of nine protesters killed in various areas in Syria and some 40 injured,' said Syrian activists based in Beirut on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. They told the German Press Agency dpa that the casualties were likely to rise. Most of the deaths occurred in the central city of Homs that has been a focal point for the protests that started in March. Two people were killed and about 15 injured in the eastern town of Abu Kamal when security forces fired to disperse the demonstrators, activists told dpa. Meanwhile, Amnesty International reported Friday what it said could be the first known case of a Syrian woman to have been killed in custody during the widening unrest. The mutilated body of 18-year-old Zainab al-Hosni, a native of Homs, was discovered by her family in a morgue on September 13, the London-based group said. Al-Hosni had been decapitated, her arms cut off, and skin removed, Amnesty said in a statement. She had been abducted by plain-clothes men believed to be security forces members on July 27, apparently to pressure her brother into turning himself in, according to Amnesty. In more than 100 areas across the country mass protests were held, opposition activists said, and claimed that security forces fired at demonstrators, including worshippers leaving two mosques in the dissident central city of Hama. Heavy gunfire was heard in the restive southern province of Daraa, near mosques where worshippers were performing noon prayers, broadcaster Al Jazeera reported. ... An estimated 2,700 people have been killed, including at least 100 children, since the anti-government protests started, according to the United Nations.
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utorak, 22. ožujka 2011.

Linkovi o prosvjedima u Hrvatskoj, Jemenu, Libiji


Prosvjedi u Hrvatskoj:
I virovitički prosvjednici zapalili su svijeće i pomolili se za Japan
Prosvjednici, nezadovoljni stanjem u državi, gradu Virovitici i Virovitičko-podravskoj županiji, velikim brojem nezaposlenih, nemogućnosti pronalaska posla i miješanjem politike u svaku granu društva, nosili su i transparente sa porukama „HDZ izdajnici, a ne spasitelji“, „U crno ste nas zavili“, „Go away day after yesterday“, „Think, it's not illegal yet“, „Dosta tiranije i pljačke HDZ-a“, „HDZ kriminalna organizacija“ i druge, a dvojica prosvjednika nosila su i plinske maske i transparente „Što to smrdi?“, aludirajući na stanje u državi.

Prosvjednici u Čakovcu bacali toaletni papir na zgradu HDZ-a
Hrvatski građani danas traže odlazak Vlade na prosvjedima u 15 gradova. Najavljeno je da će se istovremeno od 18 sati prosvjedovati u 13 gradova dok su za ranije najavljena okupljanja u Čakovcu i Virovitici.

Prosvjednici zgradu HDZ-a gađali wc papirom
Prolazeći ispred zgrade Grada Rijeke na Korzu nisu poštedjeli ni gradsku vlast uzvikujući "SDP lopovi". Nastavili su dalje do Jadranskog trga, gdje su, uzvikujući "Jaco, odlazi", na balkon sjedišta HDZ-a objesili transparent - sliku čovjeka koji kopa po kontejnerima s ispisanom porukom - Ovako izgleda Hrvatska u režiji HDZ-a" i komentar "hoće li nam oporezivati i kopanje po kantama za smeće".

UŽIVO: 'Kad se male ruke slože' - rijeka prosvjednika kruži Zagrebom (video)
Prosvjednici su stigli do Ministarstva gospodarstva i Ministarstva poljoprivrede na Vukovarskoj ulici. Viču "Pustite traktore", "Podrška seljacima" i "Čobane, odlazi".

Prosvjednici u Osijeku "pokopali" Vladu i podigli joj križ
- Draga gospođo Kosor, mi znamo da je vlast slast, ali držite se zubima za zrak! Mi smo vaši poslodavci, mi vama zbog vašeg loše obavljenog posla danas dajemo otkaz - poručio je sa spomenika Starčeviću 16-godišnji gimnazijalac Stjepan.

U Vinkovcima 50-tak prosvjednika zapalilo svijeću za Japan
- Ljudima prijete otkazima, u Vibrobetou je 150 ljudi dobilo otkaze, a ljudi se boje izaći na ulicu. Recimo stop progonu radnika - rekao je Puškarić pozdravljen od fejsbukovaca koji su nosili transparente "1 HDZ međunarodna jedinica za mito i korupciju", "Glasovanje za HDZ auto-agresija" i "Dok HDZ ne umre, Hrvatska neće živjeti", skupina mladih je nosila na visokom jarbolu zastavu s natpisom "Volim Hrvatsku, NE u EU".

Sedamdesetak građana na trećem prosvjedu u Sisku
- Želim političarima poručiti da nas ne mogu preplašiti! Molim sve nezadovoljne da iziđu na ulice, pridruže se prosvjedima. Samo zajedno možemo nešto napraviti. Tražimo prijevremene izbore, ravnopravnost i posao za sve, slobodu govora i izražavanja nezadovoljstva, veće plaće i mirovine... - na početku provjeda kazao je 40-godišnji Nikola Vidović.

Prosvjednici pred Ministarstvom poljoprivrede: "Pustite traktore!" (video)
Prosvjednici pred Ustavnim sudom u Varšavskoj ulici skandiraju: "Hoćemo na Markov trg".

Varaždinci u maskama J. Kosor i Čehoka tražili ostavke
Prosvjednici su tražili ostavku Vlade, uzvikujući parole "HDZ lopovi", "Karamarko Jadranku", "Hoćemo izbore", ali i protiv aktualne gradske vlasti ponavljajući prošlotjednu parolu "Grad baroka bez Čehoka".

Nisu se umorili+ FOTOGALERIJA
Subotnji prosvjedi u petnaest hrvatskih gradova pokazali su da građani ne odustaju od javnog manifestiranja svog nezadovoljstva stanjem u državi. Kako je bilo za očekivati, i danas se najviše ljudi okupilo u Zagrebu gdje je, prema procjenama, između šest i deset tisuća ljudi tri sata šetalo metropolom. Sve bolja organiziranost, sve više plakata, bubnjeva, megafona, zviždaljki i grupa koje su se priključile. "Nemam novaca za faks. Zašto?", "Hrvatska režimska televizija", "Stranke su problem, ne rješenje" tek su neki od sve brojnijih transparenata.


Jemen:
Dozens of Protesters Are Killed in Yemen
Yemen's pro-democracy protests exploded into violence on Friday, as government supporters opened fire on demonstrators in this capital, killing at least 45 people and wounding more than 200. The bloodshed failed to disperse the angry throng of tens of thousands of protesters, the largest seen so far in a month of demonstrations calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. ... Protesters have been killed here in recent weeks, but the violence on Friday dwarfed that of earlier clashes. It began almost immediately after the protesters' noon prayers, conducted en masse in the street by thousands. As the protesters rose from prayer, government supporters in plain clothes opened fire from rooftops and windows on parts of the crowd, while security forces fired guns and a water cannon. ... The majority of those killed had been shot in the head or neck, doctors said. Many of the wounded were, too, and were expected to die. Despite the heavy toll, the protesters in Sana kept control of a lengthening portion of Ring Road, which stretches from Sana University to a central highway overpass, as the shooting appeared to halt in the middle of the afternoon. ... “Today is the worst day; this is a new Qaddafi,” said Khalil al-Zekry, who hunkered down in his video shop along the protest route. A coalition of Yemeni opposition parties called the JMP issued a statement saying that “this horrendous massacre” would not “discourage our people from continuing the struggle.” The group said that it held “Mr. Saleh and his family and everyone who participated fully responsible” and called on Yemeni military officers and soldiers to refuse to participate in violence against Yemeni citizens. ... But despite the risk of more violence and instability, there are positive signs in the recent turmoil, Mr. Schmitz added, including the emergence in protests of a political coalition broader and more representative than anything Yemen has seen in decades. ... Demonstrators in the capital have stressed the peaceful nature of their protests. Still, one protester, Abdul-Ghani Soliman, said he was not surprised by the violence. “I actually expect more than this, because freedom requires martyrs,” said Mr. Soliman, an unemployed tribesman from outside Sana. “This will continue, and it will grow.”

Yemen Live Blog - March 22
2:18am Two soldiers have died in clashes between Yemen's regular army and the Republican Guard, elite forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the southeastern city of Mukalla, medics said. Witnesses said the two forces clashed near a presidential palace in Mukallah late on Monday.
1:30pm Journalists at the 14 October state-run newspaper in the main southern city of Aden have joined anti-regime protesters and decided to cease publishing the paper, one of them said. The decision was taken to "protest against instructions from the Ministry of Information" determining the newspaper's editorial line, one journalist said. He added that Ahmed Hobayshi, the head of the publishing company that prints the paper, decided to stop printing and distribution operations as a sign of solidarity with the journalists.


Libija:
LIVE: Libyan Unrest: Start of day 10 of no Utilities, Water, or Communication in Misrata
10:58AM: A doctor in Misrata, who wanted to remain anonymous, tells the BBC: “This is the fifth or sixth consecutive day of shelling the city. Our clinic is full of patients. We have no more beds to treat the patients. There is no light in the city. There has been no communication for 10 days and no water for more than one week. And still the heavy shelling continues. The situation is so serious. The international community must take responsibility. Since yesterday we have received 125 injured including an entire family with four children, shot in their car while trying to leave. Even my medical resources are running out. We can’t sustain this any more.”
10:11AM: Residents in two besieged rebel-held cities in western Libya, Misrata and Zintan, said they had been attacked by Gaddafi’s forces, Reuters reported. In Misrata, residents said people had gone out into the streets to try to stop Gaddafi’s forces entering the city. Zintan, near the Tunisian border, faced heavy shelling, two witnesses said, forcing residents to flee to mountain caves. Several houses were destroyed and a mosque minaret destroyed. “New forces were sent today to besiege the city. There are now at least 40 tanks at the foothills of the mountains near Zintan,” Abdulrahmane Daw told Reuters by phone from the town.
9:51AM: Three journalists who went missing in eastern Libya more than 72 hours ago have been arrested by Gaddafi troops, the AFP news agency reports. AFP reporter Dave Clark and photographer Roberto Schmidt were arrested along with Getty photographer Joe Raedle, their driver says. The team drove from Tobruk, near the border with Egypt, to Ajdabiya, which had fallen under the regime's control. They encountered a convoy of military jeeps and transport vehicles “a few dozen kilometres” from Ajdabiya and were arrested by regime soldiers, along with other civilians who came down the road.
4:26am: Abdul Kerim, a member of the rebel National Council in Benghazi, tells the BBC that people there view the international action positively. “Everybody believes now that the United Nations resolution to protect civilians has been acted in a perfect way in Benghazi and everybody is looking now to do the same for Misrata and Zintan. Yesterday a lot of people contacted by telephone calls – different sides – begging United Nations to do the same protection for Misrata and Zintan.”
2:56am: Mohammed Abdule-Mullah, a rebel fighter in Libya, tells the Associated Press news agency that government troops stopped their resistance after the international campaign began. “But pro-Gaddafi forces are still strong,” he says. “They are professional military, and they have good equipment. Ninety-nine percent of us rebels are civilians, while Gaddafi’s people are professional fighters.”

Al Jazeera journalists missing in Libya must be released
Amnesty International has called on the Libyan authorities to release four Al Jazeera journalists held incommunicado since they were detained while trying to leave the country two weeks ago. The two correspondents and two cameramen were arrested in Zantan, near the Tunisian border, and could be at risk of torture. An Al Jazeera cameraman, Hassan Al Jaber, was killed in an ambush in Libya last week. "This is the latest disturbing example of a campaign of attacks and harassment against journalists trying to do their job of covering the conflict in Libya," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North African director. "The Libyan authorities in Tripoli must reveal the whereabouts of these journalists, protect them from torture and release them immediately." The missing correspondents are Ahmad Val Wald-Eddin from Mauritania and a Tunisian, Lutfi Al-Massoudi - both 34 years old. Norwegian cameraman Ammar Al-Hamdan, 34, has also been detained along with Ammar Al-Tallou from Britain. It is thought that Lutfi Al-Massoudi may be held in Tripoli, after a CNN correspondent posted on Twitter that one of his colleagues had been detained with a Tunisian correspondent in the capital. Many journalists have been targeted during the unrest in Libya. Three BBC journalists were tortured and subjected to mock executions while being detained by Colonel Gaddafi's forces two weeks ago. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, a journalist for the UK's Guardian newspaper, was held by the authorities for a fortnight and held in solitary confinement before being freed last week. The Libyan authorities today released four journalists from the New York Times newspaper, six days after their arrest. "Abuses against journalists seeking to report the facts are totally unacceptable and point to a deliberate effort to prevent the truth emerging through the fog of war," said Malcolm Smart.

'Road of death' links Benghazi to Tripoli (video)

Live Blog Libya - March 22
3:20pm Al Jazeera's correspondent, James Bays, who is 9km from Ajdabiya, said that rebel fighters were attacked 800m from where they are stationed. "... No one really is making any progress. The oppositon are where they were 24 hours ago ... They are lightly armed volunteers ... a professional officer on the rebel side told me they're very brave but to the point of being suicidal. Gaddafi forces are much more heavily armed. The opposition have the numbers and they seem to have the momentum but on the other side the Gaddafi forces have the power."