SKY NEWS– Two deaths have been confirmed following an air strike in the east of the capital, Tripoli, in the early hours of Sunday.  Libyan authorities say nine civilians were killed, including a family of five.

The military alliance said the errant strike may have been due to “a weapons system failure”.

“Nato regrets the loss of innocent civilian lives and takes great care in conducting strikes against a regime determined to use violence against its own citizens,” it said in a statement.

“Although we are still determining the specifics of this event, indications are that a weapons system failure may have caused this incident.”

Sky’s Sam Kiley, reporting from Tripoli, said the incident was a huge blow to the alliance, whose mandate for military action is to protect civilians by enforcing a UN Resolution against Col Gaddafi.

Reporters were earlier taken by Libyan government officials to the residential area in the Arada neighbourhood of Tripoli and saw a body pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed building.

Following the blast, deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told reporters at the site: “There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses.

“This is another sign of the brutality of the West.”

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© 2011 Sky News

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NPR– NATO warplanes bombarded targets in Tripoli with more than 20 airstrikes early Tuesday, striking around Moammar Gadhafi’s residential compound in what appeared to be the heaviest night of bombing of the Libyan capital since the Western alliance launched its air campaign against his forces.

The rapid string of strikes, all within less than half an hour, set off thunderous booms that rattled windows and sent heavy plumes of smoke over the city, including from an area close to Gadhafi’s sprawling Bab al-Aziziya compound.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded in NATO strikes that targeted what he described as buildings used by volunteer units of the Libyan army.

NATO said in a statement that a number of the strikes hit a vehicle storage facility adjacent to Bab al-Aziziya that has been used in supplying regime forces “conducting attacks on civilians.” It was not immediately clear if the facility was the only target hit in the barrage. Bab al-Azizya, which includes a number of military facilities, has been pounded repeatedly by NATO strikes.

As jets whooshed low over the city during the night, anti-aircraft fire crackled in response. People could be heard screaming and shouting outside a hotel where journalists are staying. Pro-Gadhafi loyalists beeped their car horns and fired guns, shouting their support for the Libyan leader.

Observers described the bombing as the heaviest attack on the Libyan capital since NATO began its air campaign on March 19 after the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution to protect civilians after Gadhafi responded to the public uprising against his rule by unleashing his military and his militias.

NATO has been escalating and widening the scope of its strikes over the past weeks, hiking the pressure on Gadhafi, while the alliance’s members have built closer ties with the rebel movement that has control of the eastern half of Libya. On Monday, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, was in the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi in a show of support.

Despite NATO bombing runs, the rebels have not been able to break Gadhafi’s grip on the west of the country, including the capital, Tripoli.

In a significant new deployment of firepower, France and Britain are bringing attack helicopters to use in the strikes in Libya as soon as possible, French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said Monday.

The use of attack helicopters would appear to mark a new strategy for NATO, which has relied on strikes by fighter planes and seen that result in a stalemate on the ground as Gadhafi forces adapted, often turning to urban fighting to make such strikes more difficult.

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© 2011 NPR

Photo by Flickr user turkairo

RIA NOVOSTI– Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Saturday called for war with Italy, citing Italy’s ‘colonization’ attempts.

In a speech delivered at the Libyan state TV, Gaddafi said that he could not prevent war with Italy since Libyans wanted it.

“We are already in a war with Italy since Italians kill our children in 2011 as they did in 1911, that is why I cannot forbid Libyans to defend their lives and carry the military actions on the enemy’s territory,” Gaddafi said.

Libya was Italian colony from 1911 to 1941. In 2008 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a so-called Friendship Treaty with Gaddafi. Under this pact Italy paid 5 billion euro reparations to Libya for its colonial rule.

In late February Italy suspended the Friendship Treaty.

“Italy insists on repeating the crimes of 1911, in keeping with the same colonialist policy. This is the violent face of Italy. My friend Berlusconi and the Italian parliament are committing a crime,” Gaddafi said.

Italy is one of the 14 NATO countries, taking part in the operation Unified Protector in Libya, which includes airstrikes, a no-fly zone and naval enforcement of an arms embargo.

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© 2011 RIA Novosti

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ALTERNET– The photograph is not easy to look at, and it’s not clear at first glance if Millicent Gaika, the woman in the photo, is dead or alive. Huge purple bruises surround both of her swollen eyes, and her neck is crisscrossed by a number of open gashes and scars. By now the bruises have subsided, some of the scars have healed, and in court testimony in November Millicent was able to tell a judge about how the man who raped her said, “I know you are a lesbian. You are not a man, you think you are, but I am going to show you, you are a woman.” That man, Andile Ngoza, is now out on the streets, despite being released and re-arrested after the attack on Millicent. His bail this time, for violating the terms of his parole, was set at 60 Rand, or just under $10 USD.

“To use a very South African term, I was just so hurtful,” Billi du Preez, a volunteer activist with Luleki Sizwe, tells me. Luleki Sizwe, a small, all-volunteer group that campaigns for LGBT people, is based in Capetown’s mostly poor black townships and rural areas. The organization works with and supports women who have been victims of what has fast become a ubiquitous form of  targeted sexual violence in South Africa: “corrective rape” against gay women or women suspected of being gay, as a form of “curing” them. The most disturbing thing about the attack on Millicent is not how rare it is in South Africa—but how common. The organization itself is named after two women who were killed from “corrective rape”-related health complications. One of those women was the fiancé of the organization’s founder, Ndumie Funda.

“These crimes have been going on for years already, and we haven’t been getting anywhere,” says Billi. “Millicent’s case has been put off and put off. When the perpetrator, who’s running free, started threatening Millicent again, I decided enough is enough.”

After years of rallying, marching, and local organizing by members of Luleki Sizwe, what Billi did next was take a shot in the dark. She drafted text to accompany the photo of Millicent’s battered face, and a few weeks ago sent it in as a petition to Change.org, a popular social action platform, demanding that the South African Ministry of Justice declare “corrective rape” a hate crime. What happened next took her, and many others, by surprise. Within a matter of weeks, the petition has garnered over 130,000 signatures from almost every country in the world and is growing quickly, making it the site’s most popular petition to date.

Continue reading about the Campaign to Stop Rape Used to ‘Cure’ South African Women of Homosexuality.

Photo by Luleki Sizwe

© COPYRIGHT ALTERNET, 2011

DEMOCRACY NOW – A general strike has been called for in the Ivory Coast today to force incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo to cede power. Gbagbo has refused to step aside following the disputed presidential election last month. Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara has been widely recognized as the winner of the vote. Meanwhile, the president of ECOWAS threatened that the West African bloc may use force to remove Gbago from power. We speak with Syracuse University professor Horace Campbell.

For transcript, visit Democracy Now.

Click to read Reuters report about UN concern for Ivory Coast on the ‘brink of genocide’.