ZAWIYA, Libya //Rebels said yesterday they had seized most of Zawiya, the final hurdle on the road to Tripoli, as the UN chief's special envoy visited Tunis for talks on Libya's future.
"Basically most of the town is under the control of rebel fighters," the rebel field commander Abdul Hamid Ismail said.
The rebels claimed to have overrun the towns of Sorman, 60 kilometres west of Tripoli and Garyan, 50km to the south as they pushed an assault on three fronts.
Nassr Al Mabrouk Abdullah, the Libyan interior minister, also appeared to have defected as he flew into Cairo on his private plane with nine family members. He came from Tunisia and entered on a tourist visa in what could be a high-level defection.
"We had no idea of his arrival, but he was in Tunisia on Sunday," said a Libyan embassy official in Cairo.
The claimed rebel advances, which would put opposition forces in sight of Tripoli, came as Col Qaddafi railed against the rebels and Nato, amid new rumours that he had been preparing to flee the country.
They also came as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's envoy, Abdul Ilah Al Khatib, flew to Tunis, saying he would join talks between rebels and the Qaddafi regime.
The Jordanian former foreign minister said negotiations on Libya's future would take place in a hotel in the Tunis suburbs.
Mr Khatib has spent months shuttling between Tripoli and the rebel base at Benghazi trying to start ceasefire talks between the regime and the rebels' National Transitional Council.
Sources close to Tunisian security services said representatives of the two warring sides had met in Djerba, near the Tunisian-Libyan border. Negotiations were under way with "several other foreign parties", the national TAP news agency said, without giving details of the content of the talks.
Overnight, Col Qaddafi predicted a swift end for "the rats" and the "coloniser" - the rebels and Nato - in an audio message on Libyan television, extracts of which were published by official news agency JANA.
"The coloniser and its agents can now only resort to lies and psychological warfare after all the wars with all the weapons have failed," Col Qaddafi said. He called on his supporters to "prepare for the battle to liberate" rebel-held towns.
Rebels had on Saturday entered Zawiya, making swift advances, but became bogged down on Sunday when they suffered heavy casualties amid shelling.
Mr Ismail, the rebel commander, said battles for Zawiya had raged through the night on Sunday into yesterday, with five rebels killed, and that Col Qaddafi's forces had been pushed to the eastern outskirts. By the afternoon the fighting had died down. Rebels also battled loyalist forces around oil installations in Brega yesterday.
Rows of seaside apartment blocks that once housed the workforce in Brega were under total rebel control. The government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, meanwhile, said the regime's armed forces were capable of retaking rebel-held towns and districts. "Our mujahideen forces are capable of exterminating these gangs," he told a news conference in Tripoli.
Mr Ibrahim acknowledged problems in Sorman, 60km west of Tripoli, but "hundreds of volunteers" backed by the army were "handling the case", he said.
He said that the rebels had entered Garyan in the Nefusa mountains "to spread terror ... but there is no need for concern" since government troops would retake the town "in the next few hours".
Abdulsalam Othman, the spokesman for the rebels' western military council, said yesterday that both Garyan and Sorman were in rebel hands, as was the short stretch of road linking Sorman to Zawiya.
He said the advances meant that Tripoli's supply lines from Tunisia had been severed.
The advance on Sorman started at dawn on Sunday, Mr Othman said.
After more than 10 hours of intense battle, the rebels managed to force Col Qaddafi's troops to retreat. During the fight, more than 40 fighters, some of them sub-Saharan African mercenaries, were captured.
South of the rebel town of Misurata, 200km east of the capital, the rebels had consolidated their positions in Tuarga after taking control of it on Friday and said they faced only some pockets of resistance.
But Mr Ibrahim said pro-Qaddafi forces had "retaken control of the town and killed most of those from the Misurata-based gangs who advanced on Tuarga". Neither claim could be independently verified.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Associated Press
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
The details
Heard It in a Past Life
Maggie Rogers
(Capital Records)
3/5
Mountain%20Boy
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Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
Results
2-15pm: Commercial Bank Of Dubai – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (Dirt) 1,400m; Winner: Al Habash, Patrick Cosgrave (jockey), Bhupat Seemar (trainer)
2.45pm: Al Shafar Investment – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Day Approach, Ray Dawson, Ahmad bin Harmash
3.15pm: Dubai Real estate Centre – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Celtic Prince, Richard Mullen, Rashed Bouresly
3.45pm: Jebel Ali Sprint by ARM Holding – Listed (TB) Dh500,000 (D) 1,000m; Winner: Khuzaam, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
4.15pm: Shadwell – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Tenbury Wells, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
4.45pm: Jebel Ali Stakes by ARM Holding – Listed (TB) Dh500,000 (D) 1,950m; Winner: Lost Eden, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson
5.15pm: Jebel Ali Racecourse – Handicap (TB) Dh76,000 (D) 1,950m; Winner: Rougher, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
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