Diamond, gold ATM unveiled in India
Bollywood actress Raima Sen poses with an example of what can come out of India's new diamond- and gold-dispensing ATM machine during its unveiling in Mumbai on October 22, 2011.
/ Getty ImagesLet's say, for the sake of argument, you're out one night drinking with your buddies, and you realize you forgot your anniversary. It's late, and you can plausibly say you stayed after hours at work, but getting your special someone that diamond pendant they've been hankering for probably seems impossible.
Not anymore.
The Gitanjali Group of India - self-described as the "world's largest integrated conglomerate of diamonds, jewelry and lifestyle brands" - seems intent on proving that the ever-growing class of wealthy Indians also have an insatiable appetite for outlandish luxury goods. Over the weekend, they unveiled what is most likely the world's first diamond- and gold-dispensing ATM in Mumbai.
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Qaddafi's last moments: "Don't shoot"
A Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) fighter looks through a large concrete pipe where ousted Libyan leader Moamer Qaddafi was allegedly captured, with a dead loyalist gunman in the foreground, in the coastal Libyan city of Sirte on October 20, 2011. Arabic graffiti in blue reads: 'This is the place of Qaddafi, the rat. God is the greatest.'
/ Getty ImagesUpdated 12:39 AM EST
Muammar Qaddafi's final day most likely began as it ended: In a squeeze. He was almost surely in the 700-square-yard area of Sirte where Libya's ex-rebels had penned in the die-hard forces remaining loyal to him.
The transitional government had for some time speculated that Qaddafi was out wandering the desert, recruiting fighters for a counter-insurgency. Therefore, at around 8 a.m., the ex-rebels where probably unaware that their ultimate target was actually within their grasp as they began an assault on that small final area. It was around that time that Qaddafi got in a convoy to flee, according to most accounts.
Somewhere just outside of the loyalist-held area, NATO aircraft struck Qaddafi's convoy, but didn't kill him. According to NATO officials, they were unaware Qaddafi was inside. That airstrike, however, hastened his demise.
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Flamboyant Qaddafi son captured, Libyans say
Muammar Qaddafi's sons, from left, Mutassim and Saadi, in Venice, Italy, in 2005.
/ AP PhotoAlmost all of the children of Muammar Qaddafi lived a life of largesse and eccentricity, but few more so than Mutassim Qaddafi, who Libya's ex-rebels say was captured Wednesday in their hometown of Sirte, according to Al Jazeera.
It is worth noting that Libya's ex-rebels only claim they have captured the strategically crucial Mutassim, but they also claimed earlier to have captured Mutassim's older brother Saif - the alleged successor to their father - only to have him reappear free the next day. Saif is still at large.
Mutassim was Col. Qaddafi's National Security Adviser in recent years, and was the face of Libya during the normalization of relations with the West, meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, D.C., in 2009.
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Post-Qaddafi, Jews still not welcome in Libya
David Gerbi gestures in front of the main synagogue in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011.
/ AP PhotoThe history of Jews in Libya stretches back 2,300 years, but about 40 years ago, former dictator Muammar Qaddafi kicked them all out, and demonized Israel and Judaism to further his populist support.
The legacy of that policy apparently is stronger than most Libyans' hatred for Qaddafi's ways, as an exiled Libyan Jew who helped the rebels overthrow Qaddafi has been forced to leave the country again after an angry mob demanded it.
David Gerbi, a 56-year-old psychoanalyst living in Italy, was referred to by many as the "revolutionary Jew." He returned to his homeland after a 44-year exile recently, and wanted to restore Tripoli's long-abandoned main synagogue. The day he knocked down a wall blocking its entrance, he said a prayer and cried, according to the Associated Press.
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Camila Vallejo, 23, Chile revolution leader
In this photo taken Aug. 18, 2011, University of Chile student president Camila Vallejo looks on during a protest in Santiago, Chile.
/ AP Photo/Roberto CandiaAs populist movements in several corners of the world take to the streets against the status quo, it is often the young faces in the crowd bursting to the forefront. The movements have varied in their efficacy and levels of violence, but the people standing at the front of each face some sort of detention, arrest or worse.
Egypt had Wael Ghonim, the 30-year-old, bespectacled ex-Google executive who became the face of an explosive movement against a repressive regime. Tunisia had Lina Ben Mhenni, the industrious, 27-year-old blogger who broadcast the Tunisian revolution online before most of the world knew there was one, and was even tipped as a candidate for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Now garnering international attention is 23-year-old Chilean geography student, Camila Vallejo. The 6-month-old Chilean student protests - which have seen marches and riots involving hundreds of thousands - have not drawn as much attention as many other movements, but Vallejo' persistence, outspokenness and striking looks could be changing that.
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CIA "kill list" panel shrouded in secrecy
Anwar al-Awlaki
/ CBS NewsSomewhere in the bowels of the national security apparatus, a secretive government panel is deciding which Americans can go on the CIA's so-called "kill list," according to a new report.
The "kill list" panel - a subset of the National Security Council made up of senior government officials - exists in a legal no man's land, with no public record of its proceedings and no law justifying or governing its existence, Reuters reports.
The decision to kill Americans abroad without due process has raised many questions in the wake of the drone strike that killed American-born al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
Continue »Report: Pakistan aid staff leave over CIA action
Pakistani children look out over the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday, May 3, 2011.
/ AP PhotoBefore the raid to get Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the CIA set up a fake vaccination program in the town where he was believed to be hiding, attempting to get the DNA of his family. Dr. Shakil Afridi, who ran the phony vaccination program, is being detained by Pakistani authorities, but has not been charged with any crime.
The blowback from the CIA operation extended beyond the Pakistani nationals left behind, however. Save the Children was forced to evacuate eight staff members after news of the fake vaccination program raised the level of danger for aid agencies in general there, The Guardian reports.
In addition to the eight evacuated staff, two senior staff members were moved to five-star hotels in Islamabad to help their security situation.
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Report: Woman survives live grenade in face
Karla Flores
/ El Universal TV/YouTubeMexican seafood vendor Karla Flores is being called the "Miracle Woman."
Why?
She survived having a live grenade lodged in her face.
One day relatively recently in her home state of Sinaloa, the mother of three was peacefully plying her business on the street when she heard an explosion and was knocked to the ground, Gizmodo reports.
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Al Jazeera's top exec steps down, but why?
Wadah Khanfar in 2007
/ Getty ImagesAl Jazeera's director general, Wadah Khanfar, announced Tuesday that he will step down after eight years as the network's top executive.
Khanfar told The Guardian newspaper: "We have been talking in this part of the world about change, about presidents who stay for decades in their posts. I thought maybe it is good to give an example as well, while the network is at the peak of its performance. It's the right moment."
As is the case with much Middle East news, the official reason is being widely brushed aside as the real reason for this event. According to The New York Times, Khanfar wrote on his Twitter feed: "Entertained by all the rumors of why I have resigned."
Continue »1000s of new U.K. phone hacking documents found
CBS News
"Many tens of thousands" of new documents and emails were part of the find, and Michael Silverleaf, the lawyer for News Group Newspapers, told the court "the current management were unaware of" them previously, The Guardian reports.
The documents can now be added to the growing list of evidence against the former newspaper News of the World, as well as Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the paper and who is at the center of hacking allegations.
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Report: China tried to arm Qaddafi near end
Libyan rebels run for cover during fighting against regime forces near the Gadayem forest, west of Tripoli, on August 21, 2011. A new report indicates they may have been running from Chinese-made weapons.
/ Getty ImagesEven while expressing "regret" over NATO intervention in Libya, China did not block authorization of their airstrikes when the issue came before the U.N. earlier this year. The growing superpower has for a long time tried to carefully inhabit a role in major world conflicts that does not play favorites to any one side.
A new finding from the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, indicates, however, that China may have taken that role a step too far.
An official Qaddafi regime document the newspaper found in the trash of a Tripoli neighborhood once packed with government officials indicates "that state-controlled Chinese arms manufacturers were prepared to sell weapons and ammunition worth at least $200 million to the embattled Col. Gadhafi in late July, a violation of United Nations sanctions."
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Qaddafi allegedly speaks, vows victory or death
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi stands outside a tent erected at his Bab al-Aziziya residence in Tripoli during better days for the dictator in April, 2011.
/ Getty ImagesEven with his home destroyed, his capital overrun, his days seemingly numbered, it should come as no surprise to Mideast watchers that Muammar Qaddafi would remain defiant until the end.
Al-Orouba TV reportedly broadcast a message from the for-now Libyan leader on Tuesday, and he vowed victory or death against "aggression," Reuters reports. Al-Orouba TV has long been seen as a Qaddafi mouthpiece, so it is impossible to verify when the recording was made.
In the message, Qaddafi said his heavily fortified Bab Al-Aziziya compound, taken Tuesday be rebels, had already been leveled to the ground by 64 NATO airstrikes. He called the withdrawal of his troops from there a tactical move.
The message gave no clues as the his current whereabouts, although his son, Saif Al-Islam, and others have said in the last 48 hours that he is alive and well in hiding in Tripoli.
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Reported arrested, Saif Qaddafi makes appearance
Video has surfaced of what appears to be Muammar Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam making an appearance and waving to supporters in front of a Qaddafi compound after rebels had reported his alleged capture.
Saif appeared at the Rixos hotel in a part of the capital controlled by Qaddafi loyalists, and rolled down a window in his car to show his face. The Associated Press reports Saif then took a few journalists on a ride in his convoy to visit Tripoli "hot spots," as he described them.
Continue »The unclear fate of Libya's 4 most-wanted men
Saif al-Islam Qaddafi speaks with CBS News' Mark Phillips, March 10, 2011.
/ CBSMuammar Qaddafi had ruled Libya with absolute control for 42 years, but even a dictator needs a little help.
When the International Criminal Court began preparing additional arrest warrants for Libya's other leaders after the start of the uprising there several months ago, it was Qaddafi's closest family members they targeted. They said in a statement that "the evidence shows that Qaddafi relies on his inner circle to implement a systematic policy of suppressing any challenge to his authority."
The ICC has issued a total of four arrest warrants involving Libya. In addition to a warrant for the Libyan leader himself, the ICC also has warrants for his second-eldest son, Saif al-Islam, whom they described as the "de facto prime minister"; Mohammed Qaddafi, the eldest son, who has held several senior government positions; and Abdullah Al-Sanousi, Qaddafi's brother-in-law, whom the ICC describes as "his right-hand man and the Head of the Military Intelligence."
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Concerns abound for post-Qaddafi leadership
People celebrate the recent news of uprising in Tripoli against Moammar Gadhafi's regime at the rebel-held town of Benghazi, Libya, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011.
/ AP PhotoLast updated: 10:20 PM ET
There have long been concerns about what would happen in a post-Qaddafi Libya. After 42 years of dictatorship, creating the political infrastructure and constitutional framework for a more democratic future will be a significant challenge.
Concerns about a post-Libya government reached their greatest peak when Libyan rebel commander Abdel-Fattah Younis was assassinated in late July. The rebels claimed Qaddafi's troops had infiltrated their ranks to sow discord, but since the beginning of the six-month-old uprising, there was concern that Islamic militant elements were fighting with the rebels. Tribal issues could lead to ongoing, divisive battles within a new Libyan administration.
Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, center, the head of the interim government in Benghazi, delivers his statement to the press in the rebel-held town of Benghazi, Libya, July 28, 2011.
/ AP PhotoThe Transitional National Council (TNC), made up of members from various areas and tribes, has been recognized by 32 countries as the representative of Libya's government. However, the TNC chairman, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, has not convened a cabinet meeting since August 8.
In addition, an estimated $30 billion in frozen Libyan assets to be dispersed to the new Libyan government is in play.
NATO has worked with the TNC to develop some plans, such as maintain some of Qaddafi's security forces, to maintain stability and order as a new government is formed.
Some of the more vocal rebel leaders have tried to portray confidence. Ahmed Bani, the opposition's military spokesman, told The Telegraph: "The people of Tripoli have suffering from a long time ago. We need their help with schools and hospitals and people will stay to make sure things are secure. Together we will overcome all these problems."
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