FLASH: Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is Dead

Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi (Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (Arabic: مُعَمَّر القَذَّافِي‎ Muʿammar al-Qaḏḏāfī ) dies of wounds suffered in capture site says NTC military official.

SIRTE, Libya — Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi died of wounds suffered in his capture near his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, a senior NTC military official said.

National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters earlier that Gaddafi was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked.

“He was also hit in his head,” the official said. “There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.”

There was no independent confirmation of his remarks. — Reuters

SIRTE, Libya — Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi died of wounds suffered on Thursday as fighters battling to complete an eight-month-old uprising against his rule overran his hometown Sirte, Libya’s interim rulers said.

His killing, which came swiftly after his capture near Sirte, is the most dramatic single development in the Arab Spring revolts that have unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia and threatened the grip on power of the leaders of Syria and Yemen.

“He (Gaddafi) was also hit in his head,” National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters. “There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.”

Mlegta told Reuters earlier that Gaddafi, who was in his late 60s, was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked. He said he had been taken away by an ambulance.

There was no independent confirmation of his remarks.

An anti-Gaddafi fighter said Gaddafi had been found hiding in a hole in the ground and had said “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot” to the men who grabbed him.

His capture followed within minutes of the fall of Sirte, a development that extinguished the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the deposed leader.

The capture of Sirte and the death of Gaddafi means Libya’s ruling NTC should now begin the task of forging a new democratic system which it had said it would get under way after the city, built as a showpiece for Gaddafi’s rule, had fallen.

Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, was toppled by rebel forces on Aug. 23 after 42 years of one-man rule over the oil-producing North African state.

NTC fighters hoisted the red, black and green national flag above a large utilities building in the centre of a newly-captured Sirte neighborhood and celebratory gunfire broke out among their ecstatic and relieved comrades.

Hundreds of NTC troops had surrounded the Mediterranean coastal town for weeks in a chaotic struggle that killed and wounded scores of the besieging forces and an unknown number of defenders.

NTC fighters said there were a large number of corpses inside the last redoubts of the Gaddafi troops. It was not immediately possible to verify that information. — Reuters

 

NAIA 1 voted world’s worst airport

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 was voted the world’s worst airport for 2011 by readers of “The Guide to Sleeping in Airports,” a site that reviews the quality and facilities of the world’s airports.

Its primary audience seems to be budget travelers who see sleeping in airports as one way to save money during their journeys.

Among the array of problems cited by international passengers who managed to survive the airport were theft, bribery, and the absence of toilet seats and running water in the bathrooms.

One reader had this experience:

“A big bucket with a dipper was by the front door (of the restroom) and about four attendants hassled me for a tip. When I asked a security guard where the smoking area was he told me to follow him… and he took me outside where he then insisted on a bribe before he let me back into the terminal.”

NAIA does have a recently opened Terminal 3 with better facilities, but “The Guide to Sleeping in Airports” reminded readers that it was deemed “structurally flawed.”

NAIA-1’s ratings worsened from the site’s 2010 assessment that it was the world’s 5th worst airport and the worst only in Asia.

“Earlier this year, some bad press regarding the state of the airport made airport officials promise to clean its Terminal 1 toilets and provide running water and soap. Imagine… they actually had to ‘promise’ to offer this!” the site said.

“The Guide to Sleeping in Airports” also pointed out physical hazards that recently plagued NAIA-1, including the collapse of its Bay 7 ceiling in May.

The basic design of its facilities poses risks. According to passenger Tiffycality, “Their arrival ramp is not user friendly because it slopes downward!! If you happen to be pushing your loads of baggages through this ramp watch out or your baggage might get to the bottom of the ramp before you!!”

The woes of NAIA-1 go beyond poor facilities, the site pointed out.

“The amount of corruption and bribery is just mind-blowing,” says Shizumasa.

“Airport taxes are collected,” the site explained, “but the money does not seem to go towards the betterment of the airport. Document holders have been told their papers are not correct, but a fee of x amount should clear up the matter.”

The site seems to share the same conclusion as this reader: “The worst airport on the planet. It has to be experienced to be believed.”

Blogger: Manila ‘a dump’

NAIA’s poor ranking received media attention at a time when a blog calling Manila “a dump” was going viral in the Philippines.

The brutally negative review of Manila came from Englishman Geoffrey James Quartermain Bastin, who claimed he has worked “on-and-off” in the Philippines since 1991 and tagged Manila as the “disgrace of Southeast Asia.”

The effects of such negative publicity on Philippine tourism remain to be seen, amid Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez’s campaign for Filipinos to sell the Philippine brandthrough social media.

Earlier, Jimenez said the Philippines is not difficult to sell. “This is the most beautiful country in the world. One of the ten most beautiful countries in the world. There is no reason we won’t succeed,” he noted.

With Paterno Esmaquel II/VS/HS