• Plans for Nato takeover of mission 'are in chaos'
• Farce as Arab jets almost run out of fuel
• Pro-war MPs out of step with public mood

Ministers admitted yesterday that they have no idea how long the military operation against Colonel Gaddafi could take.

Asked for an estimate, Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey said: 'How long is a piece of string? We don't know how long this is going to go on.

'We don't know if this is going to result in a stalemate. We don't know if his capabilities are going to be degraded quickly. Ask me again in a week.'



The comments come as a defiant Muammar Gaddafi made a speech on Libyan state television last night in which he claimed said he was ready for entrenched conflict, saying; 'In the short term, we'll beat them, in the long term, we'll beat them.'

The Libyan leader was said to have delivered the message to supporters at his residential compound near the capital Tripoli which was hit by an allied cruise missile on Sunday.

He denounced the 'unjust' action against his country and called those taking action against Libya as 'crazed fascists'.

President Barack Obama Wednesday categorically ruled out a land invasion to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi as coalition forces launched a fifth day of air strikes against government military targets in the North African nation.

And Obama said the U.S. this week will be pulling back from its dominant role in the international campaign aimed at preventing Gadhafi from attacking civilians.

In international attacks early Wednesday, missiles from F-15 fighter jets destroyed Gadhafi missile sites around Tripoli. In two cities where pro-Gadhafi troops have besieged civilians, the international force struck a government ammunition depot outside Misrata and other planes hit ground forces outside Ajdabiya, officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Residents in Misrata said coalition attacks forced government troops to withdraw tanks there.

Obama was asked in an interview with the Spanish-language network Univision if a land invasion would be out of the question in the event air strikes fail to dislodge Gadhafi from power. Obama replied that it was "absolutely" out of the question.

Asked what the exit strategy is, he didn't lay out a vision for ending the international action, but rather said: "The exit strategy will be executed this week in the sense that we will be pulling back from our much more active efforts to shape the environment."

"We'll still be in a support role, we'll still be providing jamming, and intelligence and other assets that are unique to us, but this is an international effort that's designed to accomplish the goals that were set out in the Security Council resolution," Obama said.

Obama had said last week that he had no intention of sending ground combat troops into Libya, and his statements in the interview served to reinforce that point.

As the air war in Libya achieves some of its early objectives, such as grounding Gadhafi's air force, the administration is looking for a quick way out of the front-line role it has assumed in an international operation that has yet to gain the robust participation of Arab nations that Washington wanted.

MI5 has warned that Libyan expats are plotting terrorist attacks in Britain in revenge for bombing raids on Colonel Gaddafi's regime.

The threat was exposed after intelligence officers monitored hundreds of conversations between Libyans in the UK who have 'maintained connections with Tripoli'.

It raises the spectre of a new atrocity such as the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which was ordered by Gaddafi after U.S. air raids on his palace, launched from air bases in Britain in 1986.


MI5 sent a dossier to its allies on Friday just hours before the first bombs were dropped on Libya. It warns that Islamic extremists could be bankrolled as terrorists by wealthy and respected Libyan businessmen living in the UK.

One suspected plotter was overheard saying: 'Wherever we are, we'll do it. We have to fight. We must be dedicated to give support.'

Another talked of launching 'actions against neo-colonialism'.

The threats emerged as the commander of RAF raids over Libya declared that Gaddafi's airforce has been wiped out by four nights of allied air strikes.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates has resigned after parliament rejected an austerity budget.

The defeat is likely to trigger a bailout similar to the rescue packages Greece and the Republic of Ireland had to accept last year.

All five opposition parties voted against the austerity measures, which included spending cuts and tax rises.

Mr Socrates had earlier said he would no longer be able to run the country if the budget was not adopted.

Elections are likely to take place in a few months' time.

Mr Socrates, from the centre-left Socialist Party, presented his resignation to President Anibal Cavaco Silva two hours after the vote in parliament.

EU summit

Opposition parties said the budget - the fourth package of austerity measures in a year - went too far.

"Today, every opposition party rejected the measures proposed by the government to prevent that Portugal resort to external aid," Mr Socrates said in a televised address.

"The opposition removed from the government the conditions to govern."

Witnesses said the initial attack lasted about three hours and heavy gunfire echoed through the streets all day

Syrian police launched a brutal crackdown on demonstrations in the restive city of Daraa yesterday, killing at least 15 people in a day-long operation that showed the regime's determination to quash the unprecedented numbers of protests in the south of the country.

According to local and international human rights organisations and witnesses, at least six people were killed in an early morning attack on the al-Omari mosque after hundreds gathered outside the building to stop police from storming it. One video posted on Facebook, which could not be verified, showed what activists said was a street near the mosque with the sound of shooting coming from nearby. "My brother, does anyone kill his people?" one voice asks. "You are our brothers."

Witnesses said the initial attack, which began just after midnight, lasted about three hours. Heavy gunfire echoed through the streets all day. Three more people were said to have been shot in the city centre after dusk, and another six bodies were found in the street. Residents told news agencies that those killed included a prominent doctor who had gone to the mosque to help victims, and a woman who had peered out of her window to see what was happening.

MPs back president's move to suspend constitution, ban street protests and give security agencies greater powers of arrest

Yemen's parliament has approved a sweeping set of emergency laws giving broader powers of arrest and censorship to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, despite growing calls from opponents demanding he quit to make way for a military-backed democratic transition.

The emergency law, last evoked during Yemen's 1994 civil war, suspends the constitution, allows for greater media censorship, bans street protests and gives security agencies arbitrary powers to arrest and detain suspects without judicial process.

The approval of the emergency laws came as talks between oil giant Saudi Arabia and Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a top Yemeni commander who abandoned the president on Monday, failed to yield a clear transition of power.

It's Diego Rivera Redux in Maine, as Governor Paul LePage is taking down a mural in the state Department of Labor building depicting the history of the labor movement and changing the names of conference rooms that he deems too pro-labor.

The 11-panel installation depicted such figures as Rosie the Riveter and FDR-era Labor Secretary Frances Perkins as well as events like a 1937 shoe mill strike and 1986 paper mill workers' strike. Several rooms are named after historic labor figures including Perkins and Cesar Chavez.

A spokesman for LePage told the Lewiston Sun Journal that business had complained about the piece and "The message from state agencies needs to be balanced." He added that the rooms could instead be named "after mountains, counties or something."

Progressive and labor groups are upset about the change and the artist who painted it, Judy Taylor, told the paper that the mural's message was already fair.

Governments are being forced to protect farmers and citizens from genetically modified crops (GM crops) to combat biotech corporations' stranglehold over farmers, and health scares from escalating pesticide use, according to a new report by Friends of the Earth International. [1]

On the eve of the release of industry-sponsored figures on the adoption of GM crops globally, the research highlights how even pro-GM governments in South America and the United States have been forced to take steps to mitigate the negative impacts of GM crops on farmers, citizens and the environment. [2]

Read the report here.

Just what is this Koch Industries? Should it be called a "company?" If so we need to re-think the idea of what a company and a business is supposed to be. Even the brother of Koch Industries owners David and Charles Koch called the company an "organized crime" operation.

Koch money is a key driver of the conservative movement. Almost every [1] conservative-movement rock [2] you turn over [3] has Koch money [4] crawling around [5] under it. As the movement becomes more and more of a pay-to-play operation, conservatives of every stripe do more and more to protect and enrich the Koch operation. This has included blocking, disrupting and avoiding official investigations of accusations. It also includes funding front groups to advance the political and financial interests of the company and its owners.

Jerusalem - A bomb exploded at a crowded bus stop Wednesday in central Jerusalem, killing one woman and wounding at least 25 in what appeared to be the first militant attack in the city in several years.

The blast could be heard throughout Jerusalem and blew out the windows of two crowded buses. There was no claim of responsibility, but Israeli police blamed Palestinian militants, calling the bombing a "terrorist" attack.

A woman died of wounds from the explosion, Israel Radio reported. Israel's national rescue service said 25 people were wounded, including 15 seriously and several critically. Rescuers were seen removing bloodied people from the area on stretchers.

Yitzhak Aharonovich, Israel's minister of public security, said militants planted a 2-pound device in a bag on the sidewalk. An Israeli Embassy official in Washington told NBC News that it appeared the bomb was placed in a phone booth next to the bus stop. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also believed it to be a terrorist attack.