Libya, Moammar Gadhafi | featured news

A convoy carrying ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son al-Saadi has crossed into neighboring Niger, a spokesman for Niger’s government said Sunday, the highest profile former regime figure to flee to the landlocked African nation. Al-Saadi, the fugitive ruler’s 37-year-old son, entered Niger in a convoy with nine other people, said Niger Justice Minister Amadou Morou. The vehicles were traveling south toward the outpost of Agadez, where other fleeing Libyan loyalists are believed to be holed up in a hotel.

As Interpol issued arrest warrants for the fugitive Libyan autocrat Col. Muammar Qaddafi and two others on Friday, reports came from Niger of a new convoy of high-ranking Libyan officials arriving across the desert.

Sitting on a carpet under the shade of a tree, the men say they know where Moammar Gaddafi is today — and where he will always be. “He is in our hearts,” they say, almost in unison, tapping their chests with their right hands. Two weeks ago, almost every house in the town of Ajaylat, a Gaddafi stronghold about 50 miles west of Tripoli, flew the green flag of the autocrat’s regime. Today, those flags have been taken down, but the rebels’ red, black and green banner flies over only a handful of government buildings.

Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters on Tuesday.

Chinese arms firms offered to sell weapons worth about $200 million to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's beleaguered forces in July, two newspapers reported, compounding pressure on Beijing's brittle ties with the rebels who have ousted him.

Libya's provisional government said it was closing in on bastions of support for Muammar Gaddafi on Saturday and planned to resume oil production at key fields within days.

In a message of utter anger and defiance broadcast Thursday, a man purported to be Libya's fugitive leader Moammar Gadhafi urged Libyans to continue the fight and not surrender.

A man claiming to be Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam vowed to fight to the death and said nobody will surrender.

The U.S. government has seen no indication that Muammar Gaddafi has left Libya, the White House said on Monday.

Moammar Kadafi 's wife and three of his children fled Libya to neighboring Algeria on Monday, firm evidence that the longtime leader has lost his grip on the country.