The international community may need to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to protect residents from attacks by government aircraft, a top United Nation's official told the Associated Press Wednesday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that if unconfirmed reports of aerial attacks against civilians are verified, "I think there's an immediate need for that level of protection."

Pillay said she was "appalled" by the level of violence because protesters are only demanding basic human rights.

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-- Garrett Therolf

Photo: U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay addresses reporters at a news conference in Brussels Wednesday. Credit: Reuters

Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations told Bloomberg he will ask the Security Council Tuesday to impose a no-fly zone over his nation to prevent arms and mercenaries from coming to the defense of embattled leader Moammar Kadafi.

Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, who on Monday broke with the Kadafi regime and called its attacks on peaceful protesters "genocide," told Bloomberg he also will ask the U.N. to ensure safe passage for humanitarian supplies to the country, and for an investigation of crimes committed by the regime.

The Security Council met briefly concerning Libya Tuesday morning and decided to hold a formal meeting at 3 p.m. in New York, when Dabbashi and a representative of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be invited to speak, according to Bloomberg. The meeting will produce a statement but not immediate action on Dabbashi’s requests, diplomats told Bloomberg.

Key Western nations urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to demand an immediate end to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's bloody crackdown on civilian protesters.

The Security Council met behind closed doors Tuesday morning to discuss possible council action, Reuters reported, most likely a press statement agreed to by all 15 members, as key Libyan diplomats disowned Kadafi's regime

Germany's U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig told Reuters as he headed into the meeting that his country wants "a swift and clear message of the council."

Several Western diplomats said at a minimum they want a council statement Tuesday condemning the violence against Libyan civilians, demanding an immediate end to the crackdown, and calling on all parties to act with restraint and respect human rights and international law, Reuters reported. They also want the council to demand full protection for foreign nationals and access for humanitarian assistance and human rights monitors, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meetings were private.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke with longtime Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi on Monday, Reuters reported.

Ban had an extensive discussion with Kadafi, condemned the escalating violence in Libya and told him it "must stop immediately," a U.N. spokesman told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, condemned Kadafi, saying that his regime has declared war on Libyans and was committing genocide, according to CNN reports. Dabbashi did not step down, saying he was at the U.N. to serve the Libyan people and not the regime. The whereabouts of the head of Libya's U.N. mission was not immediately clear, according to CNN.

--  Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Photo: Libya's state television shows what the channel said were supporters of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi gathering in Tripoli's Green Square on Monday. It  reported that Libyan security forces have been targeting "dens of terrorists" and urged Libyan citizens to cooperate with the operation to restore security in the country. Credit: Ho/AFP/Getty Images

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on the leaders of Bahrain not to use violence against civilians and journalists.

Ban Ki-moon said he was disturbed by the violent methods being used to disperse demonstrators, according to Reuters.

"The Arab regimes need to properly respond to the legitimate aspirations of their people," he said. "If they make promises, they need to keep them. The Arab people in the streets have been feeling largely neglected."

Meanwhile, the Bahraini opposition has called for the government to resign following the deadly police raid on anti-regime protesters in Manama, the head of a Shiite opposition block told the Al Jazeera network.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations hosted a virtual town hall at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Thursday morning to talk foreign policy with users of the online messaging service.

Ambassador Susan Rice fielded questions from around the world submitted via the Twitter hashtag AskAmbRice.

The town hall was broadcast live over the Internet on the video streaming service Ustream.

"We support democracy and we look forward to its full realization in an orderly and prompt and meaningful way," Rice said of the situation in Egypt. "This means we see a process in which all elements of opposition negotiate to bring about free and fair elections that reflect the will of the people. That process needs to be irreversible. We've supported it, and we've called for it to be a peaceful process. What is clear is that the people of Egypt are asking for and demanding a different future, where they have real economic opportunities."

Egypt has told the United Nations it is unhappy with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's public criticism of the Egyptian government and his calls for change, according to a spokeswoman for Egypt's U.N. mission.

Ban this week urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his government to take “bold measures” to address protesters' concerns and urged Mubarak's government to view the demonstrations “as an opportunity to engage in addressing the legitimate concerns of the people.”

Egypt's mission to the United Nations in New York expressed its annoyance with Ban's remarks, Reuters reported Friday.

The head of the United Nations expressed grave concern Wednesday over the violence enveloping Egypt after supporters of embattled President Hosni Mubarak charged anti-government protesters in a main Cairo square.

"I am deeply concerned by the continuing violence in Egypt. I once again urge restraint to all the sides," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to London.

The United Nations has been warning about the need for reform in the entrenched leaderships of the Middle East, Ban said, adding that the international community "should not underestimate the danger of instability" in the region.

Ban's comments, made after talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron, followed scenes of violent clashes in Cairo as Mubarak supporters charged crowds demanding his ouster, riding camels and horses and wielding clubs and whips against what had been a peaceful encampment.

"Any attack against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable, and I strongly condemn it," Ban said.

-- Carol J. Williams

An Israeli citizen was arrested Tuesday in connection with a 1995 massacre in Bosnia,  and Israel’s Justice Ministry launched extradition proceedings against him.

A Sarajevo court issued a warrant for Alexandar Cvetkovic's arrest in April, stating that he was wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity. In August, Bosnia-Herzegovina filed a formal request to Israel for his  extradition to stand trial at a war-crimes tribunal.

The extradition request was supported by extensive documentation of Cvetkovic's alleged involvement in the Srebrenica massacres, including a deposition of the chief prosecutor of the war-crimes tribunal in Sarajevo, a photo of Cvetkovic's military ID, survivors' testimony  and affidavits of soldiers of the  unit he served in, and the suspect's own testimony at the  International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or ICTY.

According to the documents, Cvetkovic was a soldier in the 10th Sabotage Unit belonging to the Vojska Republike Srpske, the Bosnian Serb Army that seized control of the Srebrenica enclave in 1995. The unit of trained commandos and snipers participated in the "systematic, wide and planned campaign against the Bosnian-Muslim population with the intent of exterminating them," the Israeli Justice Ministry says in a petition to declare the man extraditable. 

The material provided by authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina to the ministry's reveal the "chilling facts" of the massacre of Muslim civilians at the Branjevo Farm on July 16, 1995, the petition says. 

For 10 hours that day, busloads of civilians -- many blindfolded and bound -- were driven to the farm. The people were removed from the bus, lined up around 10 at a time, and shot from behind by a firing squad of eight. Some witnesses testified that approximately 700 people had been killed that day. But Bosnian authorities, relying on United Nations experts and mass graves discovered around the farm, believe the number of victims was 1,000 to 1,200. 

Cvetkovic allegedly was a member of that firing squad and actively participated in the Branjevo massacre, one of several in which about 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered in the bloodiest atrocities on European soil since World War II.

Following last week’s decision by Hezbollah to bring down the government of Saad Hariri, Lebanon has likely entered a period of extended crisis with a caretaker government. It will be marked by fitful attempts to form a new government; negotiations, scheduled to begin this week, have already been postponed.

This is the latest escalation in the long crisis over the U.N. special tribunal investigating the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

For the time being, the security situation remains calm, although tense. The crisis remains at the political level, and Hezbollah’s overwhelming military force makes it unlikely that its opponents will try to challenge it on the street.

On Monday, the tribunal announced that the prosecutor had submitted his sealed indictment to the pre-trial judge. The judge, Daniel Franson, is expected to take between six and 10 weeks to weigh the evidence. Franson can confirm or reject the indictment in whole or in part, or ask for more evidence.

Parliament remains divided between the March 8 coalition, backed by Hezbollah, and the March 14 coalition of Saad Hariri. Although the March 14 coalition has made clear that it will nominate Hariri for another term and the bulk of the opposition has said it will nominate an alternative -- probably former Prime Minister Omar Karami -- the outcome is uncertain. Druze leader Walid Junblatt and parliament speaker Nabih Berri have been urging both sides to return to negotiations. But tensions are riding high and no consensus is emerging.

Southern Sudanese are widely expected to vote for independence — splitting the largest country in Africa and the Arab world in two — in a referendum on Sunday. Secession would mark the beginning of a complicated process of creating a new African state.

The referendum was designed to be the culmination of a peace process ending decades of conflict between the north and the south in Sudan, but there are lingering fears that tensions could erupt into violence.

Tensions between the north and south have a long history, going back to pre-colonial days. The two areas have significantly different cultural, ethnic and religious makeups — the north is mainly Arab and Muslim while the south is mainly African and Christian or animist — which have complicated relations for many years.

Ismail is 38, but with his cropped gray hair and deep wrinkles, he looks closer to 58. He is the busboy at a patisserie in a Turkish town, but he may be the only busboy there who can quote 17th century poets. Ismail is a political refugee from Iran.

He was working on Kurban Bayram, however, the Islamic holiday celebrating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son (a holiday known in Arabic as Eid al-Adha and Persian as Eid Ghorban). In Turkey, and especially in the city of Afyon, the holiday is usually observed by families eating together and going to their grandparents' house.

So it is strange when someone is idling on the street, drinking tea alone with no family to be found.

“They're all in Tehran,” he said.