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Cuba, Jan 22: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi advised President Barack Obama to give Osama bin Laden a chance to reform, telling the new president that America's most wanted man was looking for "dialogue". Gaddafi hailed what he called "positive signals" so far from the new Obama administration, including plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Speaking to students at Georgetown University via a satellite link-up from Libya, Gaddafi said Washington must review its approach to bin Laden, who is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and tops the U.S. Most Wanted List. "Terrorism is a dwarf...

KIEV, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, newly on good terms with Washington, on Thursday hailed the election of Barack Obama as the next U.S. president as "the beginning of victory for black people". But Gaddafi said he feared for Obama's safety, and said he hoped the United States' first black president would not be assassinated like John F. Kennedy or black civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Gaddafi, dressed in a white safari suit emblazoned with a map of Africa, said recent events, including Obama's victory, were "set down 30 years ago in the Green Book," a...

What do Iran's ayatollahs, Hamas terrorists, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi have in common? They are all pulling for Barack Obama to win the US presidential election. When Israel's disparate foes manage to rally behind a single candidate, it should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about the Jewish state. If you think this is just Republican scaremongering, consider the following. Last week, Ali Larijani, the hard-line speaker of the Iranian parliament, told a press conference in Bahrain that "we are leaning more in favor of Barack Obama because he is more flexible and...

Libya's state shipping company says it has halted oil shipments to Switzerland in protest at the brief arrest of leader Muammar Gaddafi's youngest son. It threatened further action if the Swiss did not apologise for the arrest. Geneva police held Hannibal Gaddafi for two days after he and his pregnant wife allegedly hit two of their staff. The couple face charges of bodily harm, threatening behaviour and coercion. They have denied any wrongdoing over the alleged incident on 15 July. COSTLY ROW? The stopping of oil shipments comes a day after the Swiss foreign ministry complained of Libya taking "retaliatory...

DAMASCUS, March 29 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi urged fellow Arab leaders on Saturday to improve ties with non-Arab Iran, saying it was not in their interest to antagonise the Islamic republic. "You have no escape from Iran. It is a neighbour and Muslim brother and it is not in your interest to be its enemy. We have no interest at all in turning Iran against us," Gaddafi told an Arab summit meeting in Damascus. A strengthening alliance between host Syria and Iran have deepened divisions in the run up to the summit, which is being attended by Iran's...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who has raised eyebrows in Washington by forging ties with Iran, said on Sunday he will travel to the country aboard a jet on loan from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Ortega, a Cold War-era enemy of Washington who is an ally of U.S. antagonist Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, told reporters he was leaving for Caracas, the first stop in a 10-day tour that will take him to Iran, Algeria, Libya and Cuba. " We want to improve relations with Iran in all fields, in all areas,"... A former Marxist guerrilla who fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels during...

CISA: Libyan leader denies Christ’s Crucifixion, denounces Christianity 4/4/2007 Catholic Information Service for Africa (www.cisanewsafrica.org/) TRIPOLI, Libya (CISA) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said that it was a mistake to believe that Jesus had been crucified and killed. "It is not correct to say that. Another man resembling Jesus was crucified in his place," Gaddafi told a March 30 mass prayer meeting in Niger to mark the birth of the Prophet Mohammed. The meeting was aired live on Libyan state television. The president, according to Reuters, also said Christianity was not a universal faith alongside Islam. "There are serious mistakes...

Columbia University’s Middle East Program had a very special guest for their conference today, noted Libyan strongman/babe magnet/erstwhile terrorist Muammar Gaddafi, who lectured them on democracy. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi lectured a U.S. audience on democracy on Thursday and said Libya is the only real democracy in the world. Via a video link, Gaddafi addressed an unprecedented gathering of U.S. and Libyan academics prompted by a thaw in relations since the former pariah state decided in 2003 to abandon nuclear weapons and took responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. He touted Libya’s political system as superior...

MUAMMAR GADDAFI has demanded that Italy pay millions of dollars in compensation for the death of thousands of Libyans under colonial rule. The Libyan leader angered Italy after he spoke of his people’s “hatred” of Italians and threatened attacks on Italian interests in Libya unless reparations were agreed. Two weeks after riots outside the Italian consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, in which 11 people were killed, Colonel Gaddafi said that Libyans were still simmering with rage over Italy’s 33 years of colonial rule. The Italian Government sought to play down the remarks. Opposition leaders however, called them unacceptable,...

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya made clear on Saturday it wanted to come in from the cold after decades as a pariah state, and the United States and Britain promised to reward its decision to abandon banned weapons programs. Almost 15 years to the day since its agents brought down a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Muammar Gaddafi's state opened the prospect of an end to sanctions and a return of U.S. oil firms with a pledge on Friday to stop seeking weapons of mass destruction. Britain said it had been close to an atomic bomb. Some U.S. officials cautioned that...

LONDON (Reuters) - Libya reached agreement with the United States and Britain on Tuesday to accept civil responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and compensate victims' relatives, a source close to the talks said. The deal would end a lingering dispute between the West and an Arab state shortly before a likely U.S.-led war against Iraq. "History is in the making. A deal could be announced at any moment," the source said after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met Libyan and British officials in London. Under the arrangement, Libya would compensate families of the 259 mostly American passengers...

Libya has said it is willing in principle to pay compensation for the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people in 1988. Speaking after talks between Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi and UK Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien, Libya's foreign minister said the government also wanted to formalise relations with the United States. Libyan Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is serving life in a Scottish prison after being convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. UK officials said the comments represented the clearest public declaration so far that Libya was prepared to meet conditions for the lifting of sanctions...