Haiti needs command performance from "Sweet Micky"
As president, he will have to lift up a country prostrated by a 2010 earthquake and decades of poverty and corruption, chained to foreign aid and mined by explosive politics.Buy nike running shoes online
This will require a performance of a lifetime from a 50-year-old iconoclastic entertainer and political outsider with no government experience who won a landslide run-off victory, according to preliminary results on Monday.
These results are subject to possible legal challenges before they can be declared definitive later in April.
"Martelly has asked Haitians to take a tremendous leap of faith that he can transform himself from entertainer to national leader," said Robert Maguire, director of the Haiti Program at Trinity University in Washington.
"Apparently, a significant majority of voters are willing to give him that chance," he added.
Analysts believe the margin of Martelly's victory -- nearly 68 percent of the March 20 vote compared to just under 32 percent for his rival, former first lady Mirlande Manigat -- will head off the threat of violent protests against the election outcome.buy Reebok ZigTech online
This is good news for the United Nations, with its more than 12,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Haiti, and for the United States, which does not want an imploding Caribbean state on its doorstep spilling more poor migrants on Florida shores.
Washington welcomed Monday's results as an "important milestone" for Haiti as it moved to rebuild from the quake.
Martelly's forceful head-on message promising change -- hammered home by his Creole campaign slogan "Tet Kale" meaning both "shaved head" and "all the way" -- scored with voters.
But he may need a more conciliatory approach as president.
HE CAN ENTERTAIN, BUT CAN HE NEGOTIATE?
Outgoing President Rene Preval's INITE party, irked by the removal through international pressure amid fraud charges of their candidate from the March 20 run-off, looks set with allies to maintain a dominant position in Haiti's parliament.shoes Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals black
"(Martelly's) task will be especially difficult since he will have to get support from a Parliament that is chiefly loyal to Preval," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.
"The risk of ungovernability is high, so Martelly will have to strike deals, forge alliances and produce results," he added. The negotiation may have to start immediately, over the choice of prime minister to lead the government.
Qaddafi's Regime Seeks Talks With U.K., U.S. as Rebels Fight for Oil City
A former Libyan prime minister said Muammar Qaddafi’s regime is open to talks with the U.S., France and the U.K.nike running shoes online to find an end to the conflict there as rebels advanced after calling for a cease-fire.
“We are trying to talk to the British, the French and the Americans to stop the killing of people,” Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, told Britain’s Channel 4 News yesterday. “We are trying to find a mutual solution,”
Libyan rebels recaptured the oil city of Brega as allied warplanes bombed targets in the port, Al-Jazeera reported, citing witnesses. Libyan rebels have appointed the nation’s former interior minister, Abdel Fattah Younis, as the head of the insurgency’s military efforts, Al-Jazeera reported yesterday, without saying how it obtained the information.
In London, Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to one of Qaddafi’s sons, has held talks with British authorities in recent days, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified friend of the aide.
British officials also are interviewing Moussa Koussa, the Libyan foreign minister and former intelligence chief who flew to London on March 30. Koussa may offer extensive knowledge of three decades of terrorist acts and the finances of Qaddafi’s regime.
Koussa’s Secrets“He certainly knows backward and forward what Libyan intelligence has been doing for the last several decades,” said Bruce Riedel, a former U.S. intelligence officer who negotiated with Koussa to dismantle Libya’s nuclear and chemical weapons programs.
As a condition of the cease-fire, Libyan rebels called for Qaddafi’s fighters to retreat from cities and nearby areas, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel Interim National Council, said in a news conference televised yesterday from the insurgent stronghold of Benghazi.
He said rebel demands for freedoms must also be met. There was no immediate response to the offer from Qaddafi officials. Al Arabiya reported that the Libyan government rejected the offer.
The rebels’ call for a cease-fire comes one day after Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. attack aircraft won’t be flying with NATO forces over Libya after April 2. Mullen said the warplanes would be made available only when requested by NATO. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Congress the U.S. will “significantly ramp down our commitment” to Libya except for electronic warfare, aerial refueling and surveillance. shoes Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals
Qatar Oil DealAn agreement for Qatar to market oil from territory held by Libyan rebels covers crude from the country’s southeast and excludes the areas of Brega and Ras Lanuf, said Ali Tarhuni, a member of the rebel council responsible for oil and economics, at a press conference in Benghazi.
Crude oil fluctuated after climbing to a 30-month high in New York. Futures rose above $107 a barrel for the first time since 2008. Crude oil for May delivery rose $1.22 cents to $107.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil is up 26 percent from a year ago.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in a statement it has 205 alliance jets and 21 naval vessels involved in the Libya operation.
Allied StrikeEarly today, Al-Jazeera reported that 13 rebels were killed when their convoy was mistakenly hit by allied bombing in West Ajdabiya.
A Libyan government spokesman, Mussa Ibrahim, said yesterday that the coalition air strikes constituted a “crime against humanity,” saying at least six civilians were killed in an attack on a village in the east of the country, Reuters reported from Tripoli. Mussa said six civilians were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on a village near Brega on March 31.
There was heavy fighting yesterday in the western city of Misrata, residents said.
“A number of tank shells were fired at the port area of the city in the afternoon and the rebels inside responded to the attacks,” Reda Almountasser said in the telephone interview from the city, whose residents rose up against Qaddafi and have defied efforts by his forces to regain control.
Hospitals in Misrata are “reportedly overflowing with severely injured patients,” Doctors Without Borders said in an e-mailed statement.
Arms DeliveriesRebel leader Abdel Jalil said opposition forces would request arms deliveries if Qaddafi loyalists continue to attack. cheap nike mens sandals
“Our aim for a cease-fire is primarily to end Libyan bloodshed, but the Qaddafi regime will have to leave,” he said. “We’re confident of our forces and resolve to unseat Qaddafi’s regime.”
The conflict in Libya, which began as a wave of anti- government protests similar to those in Egypt and Tunisia, escalated into armed conflict as the country’s army split and some soldiers joined the rebels.
U.K. and U.S. officials say Koussa’s defection is evidence Qaddafi’s regime is in disarray.
While dozens of Libyan diplomats have quit since the uprising against Qaddafi began, Koussa is one of the most senior officials to flee. Libya’s former deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, said more diplomats and senior-ranking Libyans are likely to defect from the Qaddafi regime “within days,” Sky News reported, adding that as many as 10 top Libyan officials may abandon the regime.
Gaddafi envoy in Britain for secret talks
Colonel Gaddafi's regime has sent one of its most trusted envoys to London for confidential talks with British officials, the Guardian can reveal.nike running shoes online
Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, visited London in recent days, British government sources familiar with the meeting have confirmed. The contacts with Ismail are believed to have been one of a number between Libyan officials and the west in the last fortnight, amid signs that the regime may be looking for an exit strategy.
Disclosure of Ismail's visit comes in the immediate aftermath of the defection to Britain of Moussa Koussa, Libya's foreign minister and its former external intelligence head, who has been Britain's main conduit to the Gaddafi regime since the early 1990s.
A team led by the British ambassador to Libya, Richard Northern, and MI6 officers embarked on a lengthy debriefing of Koussa at a safe house after he flew into Farnborough airport on Wednesday night from Tunisia. Government sources said the questioning would take time because Koussa's state of mind was "delicate" after he left his family in Libya.
The Foreign Office has declined "to provide a running commentary" on contacts with Ismail or other regime officials. But news of the meeting comes amid mounting speculation that Gaddafi's sons, foremost among them Saif al-Islam, Saadi and Mutassim, are anxious to talk. "There has been increasing evidence recently that the sons want a way out," said a western diplomatic source.
Although he has little public profile in Libya or internationally, Ismail is recognised by diplomats as being a key fixer and representative for Saif al-Islam. According to cables published by WikiLeaks, Ismail represented Libya's government in arms purchase negotiations and as an interlocutor on military and political issues.
"The message that was delivered to him is that Gaddafi has to go, and that there will be accountability for crimes committed at the international criminal court," a Foreign Office spokesman told the Guardian , declining to elaborate on what else may have been discussed.
Some aides working for Gaddafi's sons, however, have made it clear that it may be necessary to sideline their father and explore exit strategies to prevent the country descending into anarchy.
One idea the sons have reportedly suggested – which the Guardian has been unable to corroborate – is that Gaddafi give up real power. Mutassim, presently the country's national security adviser,Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals would become president of an interim national unity government which would include the opposition. It is an idea, however, unlikely to find support among the rebels or the international community who are demanding Gaddafi's removal.
The revelation that contacts between Britain and a key Gaddafi loyalist had taken place came as David Cameron hailed the defection of Koussa as a sign the regime was crumbling. "It tells a compelling story of the desperation and the fear right at the very top of the crumbling and rotten Gaddafi regime," he said.
Ministers regard Koussa's move to abandon his family as a sign of the magnitude of his decision. "Moussa Koussa is very worried about his family," one source said. "But he did this because he felt it was the best way of bringing down Gaddafi."
Britain learned that Koussa wanted to defect when he made contact from Tunisia. He had made his way out of Libya in a convoy of cars after announcing he was going on a diplomatic mission to visit the new government in Tunis.
It was also reported that Ali Abdussalam Treki, a senior Libyan diplomat, declined to take up his appointment by Gaddafi as UN ambassador, condemning the "spilling of blood". Officials were checking reports that Tarek Khalid Ibrahim, the deputy head of mission in London, is also defecting.
The prime minister insisted that no deal had been struck with Koussa and that he would not be offered immunity from prosecution. "Let me be clear, Moussa Koussa is not being granted immunity. There is no deal of that kind," Cameron said. Within hours of his arrival in Britain, Scottish prosecutors asked to interview Koussa about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The Crown Office in Edinburgh has said that it is formally asking for its prosecutors and police detectives to question him.
But government sources indicated that Britain does not believe Koussa was involved. He was at the heart of Britain's rapprochement with Libya, which started when Tripoli abandoned its support for the IRA in the early 1990s.
He was instrumental in persuading Gaddafi to abandon his weapons of mass destruction programme in 2003. One source said: "Nobody is saying this guy was a saint, because he was a key Gaddafi lieutenant who was kicked out of Britain in 1980 for making threats to kill Libyan dissidents. But this is the guy who persuaded Gaddafi to buy Reebok ZigTech onlineabandon his WMD programme. He no doubt has useful and interesting things to say about Lockerbie, but it doesn't seem he said 'go and do it'."
However there is unease among Tories about Britain's involvement in Libya. Underlining those concerns, Boris Johnson, the London mayor, told BBC Question Time that a continued stalemate in Libya could "have terrible consequences". Johnson said; "I do worry that if we get into a stalemate; and if, frankly, the rebels don't seem to be making the progress that we would like, we have to be brave, to say to ourselves that our policy is not working, and encourage the Arabs themselves to take leadership in all of this."
William Hague, the foreign secretary, said he had a sense that Koussa was deeply unhappy with Gaddafi when they spoke last Friday. "One of the things I gathered between the lines in my telephone calls with him, although he of course had to read out the scripts of the regime, was that he was very distressed and dissatisfied by the situation there," Hague said.
Libyan foreign minister
The foreign minister, Musa Kusa, was a canny adviser and seasoned diplomat whose ties with Western nike running shoes intelligence agencies helped pave the way for Libya’s renunciation of nuclear weapons in 2004. The former head of Libyan intelligence, he was long regarded as one of Gaddafi’s most trusted and loyal confidants.
Kusa’s defection was confirmed by the British Foreign Office, which reported that the diplomat had arrived at a small airport southwest of London on a flight from Tunisia. “He traveled here under his own free will,” a Foreign Office statement said.
The defection represents a major blow to the Gaddafi regime, which had managed to remain intact since the interior and justice ministers joined the rebels in the early days of the revolt more than five weeks ago. Kusa, who was Libya’s intelligence chief for 15 years before becoming foreign minister in 2009, is the most senior regime figure to abandon Gaddafi.
In addition to the interior and justice ministers, Libya’s ambassadors to the United Nations and Washington, among other officials, have broken ranks.
“It shows some of the rats are leaving the ship,” said a European official knowledgeable about Kusa’s defection. The official described Kusa’s decision as particularly significant because of his ability to provide Western governments with insight into the thinking of Gaddafi and others close to the Libyan leader.
U.S. and European officials say Kusa is among several high-ranking Libyans who have been putting out cautious feelers in recent days, inquiring about their options for moving abroad if they decide to defect.
Kusa’s departure follows weeks of quiet prodding by U.S. and European diplomats and intelligence officials, some of whom have had contact with him dating from the 1980s.
During the Libyan uprising, CIA officials had reached out repeatedly to Kusa but quickly concluded that he had been pushed from Gaddafi’s inner circle, U.S. intelligence officials said.shoes Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals CIA veterans said Gaddafi knew that the agency would make contact with Kusa and may have marginalized him out of concern that he might be turned against the regime.
As Gaddafi closed ranks, he excluded even longtime allies who weren’t connected by blood or tribal ties, intelligence officials.
Despite his reputation as practical and Western-savvy, Kusa had been deeply involved in numerous Libyan-sponsored terrorist attacks against the West, and is believed to have helped plan the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, U.S. officials say.
In the early days of Libya’s pro-democracy uprising, Kusa presented himself as a staunch defender of the regime. But hints of differences with Gaddafi began to emerge after the U.N. Security Council authorized the use of force against the Libyan military two weeks ago.
Hours after Gaddafi delivered a defiant speech in which he vowed to “show no mercy” to rebels in a final assault on Benghazi, Kusa appeared before reporters to announce a cease-fire in distinctively dovish terms. His hands trembled and he refused to look at the camera as he spoke of the need to protect Libya’s economic and social infrastructure and safeguard civilians.
Two days later, he briefly reiterated the cease-fire but had not been seen in public since. The cease-fire was ignored by forces on the ground.
Speculation is also building about the buy Vibram five fingers Sprint-Vibram fivefingers whereabouts of Gaddafi, who appeared regularly on television in the first weeks of the revolt but has not been seen or heard from since last Wednesday. Gaddafi’s powerful son, Saif al-Islam, dropped out of sight after the U.N. resolution was passed.
Toyota rationing parts to dealers
The parts supply problem for Japanese cars has extended from new cars to the one you may be driving:nike running shoes Toyota is rationing repair parts for its dealers in the U.S.
Toyota won't say which exact parts are involved in the recall, but spokesman Brian Lyons confirms to Drive On that parts needed to make repairs on Toyota's many highly publicized recalls are not involved.
The company also has told workers to expect "some production interruptions" at its 13 North American vehicle assembly and engine plants due to problems obtaining parts from Japan.
The announcements were the latest indication that problems may get worse before they get better for Japanese brands in the U.S. due the ongoing crisis in Japan:buy Reebok ZigTech online
-- Drive On reported earlier that starting tomorrow Honda "will begin to adjust production levels" at most of its North American factories, cutting hours at some plants in half.
-- Subaru plans to cut shifts in half on Wednesday, to four hours, at its Lafayette, Ind., plant to conserve parts.
-- Nissan says parts inventories are OK for now, but it will have to reassess North American production on Friday.
"Teams are working 24/7 to make a detailed assessment of the situation. A car is about 30,000 parts and we have more than 60 cars in the (global) portfolio, so you can imagine the size of the puzzle," says Carlos Tavares, head of Nissan operations in the Americas.
Toyota said it can't predict yet how deeply it might have to cut production at its 13 North American engine and vehicle plants and which plants will be most affected.
"We have no idea how bad this really is. The one thing I'm absolutely certain of is that everything is completely uncertain," says Rebecca Lindland, veteran auto analyst at consultants IHS Automotive.
The shortages have hurt Detroit automakers, too. General Motors temporarily closed a pickup factory at Shreveport, La., and a related engine line in Buffalo, N.Y., for lack of undisclosed parts from Japan.online, buy Fivefingers Kso-Vibram fivefingers Kso online
Ford Motor and Chrysler Group told dealers to expect shortages of vehicles in certain paint colors because they use a pigments that come only from a supplier in Japan.
European automakers also use some Japan-only components.
Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn said he couldn't forecast production schedules after next week because of possible shortages.
Adding to industrywide vulnerability is cost-cutting maneuver called "single sourcing." An automaker will place its entire order for a component with one supplier, trading maximum volume for a rock-bottom price.
In such cases, it doesn't matter if the finished vehicles are made in North America, only that a key part, often electronic, comes from Japan.
Gaddafi's gloss
Misrata is one of the key battlefields of the Libyan uprising. The rebels took control of it 40 days ago and have held it ever since, besieged by pro-Gaddafi forces.nike running shoes
The unsubstantiated accounts of people inside the town, and the videos they have sent out, have been the only glimpses the world has had of conditions there.
The government in Tripoli maintains that a ceasefire is now in place and offered on Monday to take the international journalists currently based in the capital to see Misrata for themselves.
But although the official version says there is no fighting there at present, we were not taken into Misrata. Instead we skirted around it and were shown a place on the edge of the town which was approximately 5km (three miles) from the centre.
There were many signs of fighting along our way and apparent evidence, too, of missile and rocket strikes by the coalition forces. Yet we saw one mobile artillery gun positioned out in the open at a roundabout, and down several side-streets armoured vehicles seemed to be parked.
Presumably it is too risky for the coalition to attack these targets.
Gaddafi loyalistsAny loss of civilian lives would be pounced on by the Libyan government, and would be a huge embarrassment to Nato. This, after all, is an operation intended to save civilian lives from the attacks of Col Gaddafi's forces.
As sometimes seems to happen with official visits laid on by the Libyan authorities, there were moments when it was legitimate to wonder if someone was trying to gild the lily. As our coach drove past the garden of a house in Misrata, there was a sudden burst of flame as something - possibly a generator - caught fire. Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals black
Maybe it was just a coincidence but if it was a deliberate effort to persuade us that the rebels, or the coalition, were carrying out attacks here, it was unnecessary. There are plenty of signs of fierce violence everywhere.
What was certainly not a coincidence was the arrival of dozens of pro-Gaddafi demonstrators, dancing, waving pictures of their leader and sometimes firing their guns in the air.
Their demonstration might have been organised but it certainly did not look as though anyone who took part had been coerced. It was a reminder that Col Gaddafi still has a sizeable number of genuine supporters in western Libya.
As final proof of the careful planning of the occasion, an entire outside broadcast unit from Libyan television was on hand to film it, complete with satellite dish to enable the pictures to be broadcast live around the country and abroad.
Crucial townThe rebels besieged in the town are thought to be in a pretty bad condition, short of food, water and medicine. But it is reasonable to assume that they are still holding out, since we were not taken to the centre of Misrata under the protection of the supposed ceasefire. Reebok ZigTech
Col Gaddafi's men badly want to recapture Misrata. It lies on the coastal road from Sirte to Tripoli, which is effectively the only route the advancing rebels can take.
If the Gaddafi loyalists can finally reduce it, virtually the whole of western Libya will form a fortress blocking the rebels' advance.
Every town and city in the west contains rebel supporters like those who are holding out in Misrata but there is no doubt that his support is far greater in the region around Tripoli than it is in the east of the country.
We were only allowed to glimpse the situation from the far edge of town, then bundled away after 40 minutes. This was, the authorities said, for our own safety.
But if the rebels still present a threat to the safety of Misrata's suburbs after nearly six weeks of fighting, then they are not finished yet. Especially since they now have the support of the coalition.