Foreigners flee Libya turmoil as anger swells

PARIS: Governments worldwide scrambled Thursday to get their nationals out of the chaos of Libya, as Italy warned of a ‘biblical’ exodus of up to 300,000 migrants and anger built among trapped foreigners.

Fears of a full-scale civil war in the North African country prompted countries from Canada to China to charter ferries and planes to get their citizens to safety despite poor communication and violent clashes.

Thousands of foreigners packed Tripoli”s airport hoping to leave the widening chaos behind, with those who managed to flee describing anarchic scenes with food and water supplies running low.

As Libya”s defiant leader Moamer Kadhafi clung to power, China ramped up a massive air, sea and land operation to evacuate more than 30,000 of its citizens, with over 4,000 transferred to the Greek island of Crete Thursday.

Thailand, which has more than 23,000 workers in Libya, said it was making preparations to get its citizens to Malta, but warned it may be safer for them to stay in their compounds than to travel to a port.

“I have received information that the route is dangerous due to looting,” said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. “They are safe in their camps now.”

Hundreds of American nationals and other foreigners have boarded a US-chartered ferry in Tripoli but high seas delayed their departure for Malta.

Turkey evacuated upwards of 6,000 of its nationals over three days by air, sea and land in a massive operation, but thousands were still waiting to leave with an estimated 25,000 Turks based in Libya.

The logistical challenges were especially acute for Asian countries with over 150,000 low-paid workers trapped — including some 60,000 Bangladeshis and 30,000 Filipinos.

Migrante International, a support group for overseas Philippines workers, said Filipinos had been left to fend for themselves, as Vice President Jejomar Binay planned to fly to the region to review emergency plans.

Migrante chairman Gary Martinez complained that the government had “really messed up”.

“When we spoke to one group of construction workers last night, they said they will try to make it across the border to Egypt by bus today (Thursday), because they haven”t heard from any government official,” he said.

India said a 1,000-capacity passenger ship had arrived on the Libyan coast to begin evacuating some of its 18,000 nationals to Egypt, adding that the operation had been hampered by poor communications.

An official at the Vietnamese embassy said it was trying to get its 10,000 nationals out, but warned that they were short of food and water.

A flight from Tripoli with 150 stranded oil workers arrived in London. Britain”s government rebuffed criticisms over its rescue mission, saying it would send as many flights as necessary, possibly including military planes.

Oil worker James Coyle said he was one of 90 Britons trapped in a desert camp among 300 people, including Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Germans, Austrians and Romanians.

“We are living a nightmare and we have asked the British government and they have just totally ignored us,” he said.

“They don”t reply to emails, they have cut off the phones to Tripoli. We told them the situation three days ago — they never even replied to us.”

Brazil, Canada and South Korea were among other countries striving to get their nationals out by ship or plane.

The EU”s executive arm said it would provide “extra evacuation capacity” including by sea to help bring out an estimated 10,000 stranded Europeans.

Two planes carrying around 500 French nationals arrived in Paris early Wednesday while more than 300 Russian railroad and oil workers and their families returned to Moscow aboard three planes.

“They burned down a police station next to our house. There is a lot of gunfire at night — rounds of machine-gun fire. We spent sleepless nights,” one woman told Russian state television on arrival.

Already grappling with a mass influx of immigrants from Tunisia since the fall of its veteran ruler, Italy warned that the exodus from Libya could be far larger.

“We know what awaits us when the Libyan regime falls: a wave of 200-300,000 immigrants,” Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.

New UK govt vows to transform politics

LONDON: The new coalition government will usher in the biggest shake-up of politics since the 19th century, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg promised on Wednesday.

His Liberal Democrats joined Prime Minister David Cameron”s Conservatives last week and immediately announced plans to reform the House of Lords and hold a referendum on voting reform.

“This government is going to transform our politics so that the state has far less control over you, and you have far more control over the state,” Clegg said in his first major speech.

The “big, sweeping changes” were designed to “persuade you to put your faith in politics once again,” after a damaging lawmakers” expenses scandal last year, Clegg said.

The government — the first power-sharing administration in Britain since World War II — will repeal “unnecessary” laws, make politics “open, transparent and decent” and radically redistribute power away from the centre.

“Britain was once the cradle of modern democracy — we are now on some measures the most centralised country in Europe bar Malta,” he said.

The House of Lords, will be made fully elected by abolishing hereditary peers, he said, lamenting: “We have been talking about reforming the House of Lords for over 150 years.”

In the House of Commons, the government has backed the introduction of fixed parliamentary terms.

Clegg dismissed critics of a proposed new requirement for a 55 percent majority of MPs to agree to a dissolution of parliament before the end of its five-year term.

Clegg said they were “completely missing the point”, arguing that the measure would help ensure stability.

He said a referendum was essential on introducing the Lib Dems” long-cherished dream of electoral reform, with voters asked to endorse the Alternative Vote system.

The current first-past-the-post system was “a major block to electoral change”.

The leaderships of both parties — although not natural political partners — appear to back the changes, but they are likely to face opposition from members who are not satisfied with what their leaders have signed up to.

FILExt.com is acquired by Uniblue

For the past few years, Uniblue’s processlibrary.com has been an invaluable source of process-related information for millions of Windows users. Having now acquired www.filext.com, Uniblue can offer more information resources than ever before.

FILExt.com is a database of file extensions and the various programs that use them. Launched in 2000, FILExt.com has become a definitive website for information on file extension names, their function and the programs they are associated with. Uniblue has now acquired the domain and has re-designed the website, so now it is even easier to use. When PC users see the pop-up stating that Windows does not recognize a particular file extension name, FILExt.com can help.

Users can simply go to the FILExt.com homepage and enter the file extension into the search box on the homepage. If it is in the FILExt database, the data we have on that file extension will be presented on a results page. If no information is found you will be given a link to a page with hints on how to do further research.

In addition to searching directly from the website’s homepage, there are several plugins that can be downloaded for ease and convenience:

• Directly from Windows. Use FILExt Direct to make Windows automatically launch a broswer search on FILExt when you click on a file Windows does not recognize.
• Google Toolbar. Add a button to your Google toolbar so when you highlight a file extension and click on the button you come directly to FILExt with your search.
• Firefox Search. Add FILExt to your Firefox search box and come directly via a search box entry.
• Google Desktop Gadget. FILExt has a Google Desktop Gadget which allows you to add basic search to your desktop with links to specific pages once you have found what you want.
• Mobile Device Browser. Using a Boopsie channel you can query the FILExt database using a mobile device like a web-enabled phone.

Uniblue believes that FILExt.com is a site that is invaluable for PC users at any level.

Uniblue FILExt.com – More information:

Homepage: http://filext.com/

Company Information and Contact Details

Uniblue Systems Ltd is a Microsoft Gold Certified provider of award-winning, software products designed to deliver superior performance, protection and stability to PC users in the home and SMB markets. The company has achieved top rated reviews for its products, including RegistryBooster, SpeedUpMyPC, DriverScanner, DiskRescue and PowerSuite. Uniblue is also a winner of 3 consecutive ICE awards.

Uniblue Labs provides the acclaimed ProcessLibrary.com, ProcessQuickLink, ProcessScanner and Filext.com resources, as free services for all PC users, as part of its program of public education in the battle against computer security threats.

Uniblue Systems Ltd, Orange Point, Dun Karm Street, B’Kara By-Pass, Birkirkara BKR9037, Malta

Press Contact: Hilary Rogers (Public Relations Manager)

Tel: +356 2327 5000

E-Mail: hilary.rogers@uniblue.com

Web: http://www.uniblue.com