The comments strongly suggest that the Labour Party is unlikely to support the rescue measures during a parliamentary debate scheduled for Tuesday evening in The Hague, and that the minority coalition government may struggle to muster a majority for the latest deal.

Government parties Christian Democrats said a Greek referendum would be “undesirable,” and the Liberals said each euro zone country should meet last week’s rescue agreement, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s shock decision late on Monday to call a referendum on Greece’s bailout has drawn veiled threats from Germany and hammered markets edgy over the euro zone crisis.

European politicians complained that Athens was trying to wriggle out of the latest rescue deal, concerned not so much about the fate of Greece as the possibly dire consequences for the entire currency union.

The Dutch parliament was scheduled to hold a debate on Tuesday evening at 1900 GMT. No vote was scheduled but Prime Minister Mark Rutte was keen to muster majority support for the measures agreed last week.

“The Cabinet is concerned about the delay that can develop due to the uncertainty around Greece,” Rutte said in a letter to Parliament, adding that the bailout package agreed last month by euro zone leaders needed to be implemented swiftly.

While the package negotiated last week does not need the formal approval of euro zone national parliaments, failure to win majority support on the issue could force Rutte to return to Brussels and ask for changes to last week’s summit deal, specifically more guarantees that budget rules will be enforced in the single currency area.

The Liberal-Christian Democrat minority coalition needs opposition parties to approve euro zone bailouts because its main ally, Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration Freedom Party, is strongly opposed to such bailouts.

The debate will still go ahead, parliament said on Tuesday.

But Ronald Plasterk, a Labour Party member of parliament, on Tuesday said the Greek referendum was a deal breaker, indicating his party was unlikely to support the latest measures.

“We cannot wait for four months (to see) whether Greece will accept it or not. This is a game changer, a deal breaker,” Plasterk told reporters.

(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger and Aaron Gray-Block; Editing by Sara Webb/Anna Willard/Ruth Pitchford)

The chemical industry is particularly exposed during
economic slowdowns because of overhead costs for production
plants as well as the dependence on highly cyclical machinery
makers, car manufacturers and the building sector.

Although DSM has sold off its lower-margin bulk chemicals
businesses to concentrate on less cyclical food ingredients and
high-end plastics, Chief Executive Feike Sijbesma said DSM would
not be immune to a deterioration in the economy.

Still, the company reiterated 2011 would be a strong year.

Chief Financial Officer Rolf-Dieter Schwalb added the
slowdown in the third quarter in the electronics and electrics
sector had continued into the fourth quarter and construction
markets are expected to remain weak for the next few years.

“We clearly see a softening in demand, but that is all we can
say at the moment,” Schwalb told reporters, declining to comment
on the 2012 outlook. “The economy is not growing as fast as it
was before and we have to be mindful of that.”

DSM said third-quarter earnings before interest and tax
(EBIT) rose 37 percent to 231 million euros ($322 million),
compared with a forecast 206 million.

The group’s polymer intermediates unit, which supplies the
textiles and electronics markets, had EBIT of 96 million euros,
beating estimates of 77.8 million, boosted by price hikes and
volume growth.

ING analyst Fabian Smeets said although DSM reported good
results, this was mainly because there was no plant maintenance
shutdown in polymer intermediates as there had been in the year
ago period.

“We would not be surprised to see the stock decline during
the day as the quality of the beat is relatively low, with the
margin in nutrition below expectations,” Smeets said.

DSM shares were up 0.4 percent at 37.40 euros in early
trade, outperforming a 2.1 percent fall in the STOXX Europe 600
chemicals index .

DSM’S peers BASF SE (BASFn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Solvay SA said
last week they were bracing for slowing demand as customers run
down inventories.

To cope with the slowdown in Europe and the United States,
DSM will cut about 200 jobs at its resins unit, which provides
ingredients for paints used in the construction industry, aiming
to achieve 25 to 30 million euros in annual savings in 2013.

On top of a dip in demand, the world’s largest vitamins
maker is getting hit by the strong Swiss franc, which has led to
higher costs at its Basel-based nutrition business.

The nutrition unit’s result suffered a 25 million euro
negative impact from currencies, mainly due to the franc, which
will have a 10 to 15 million impact again in the fourth quarter.
($1 = 0.717 Euros)

(Editing by Dan Lalor and David Holmes)

The ICC in The Hague said on Friday the 39-year-old had been in touch. It urged him to turn himself in, warning it could order a mid-air interception if he and his mercenary guards tried to flee by plane from his desert hideout for a safe haven.

The ICC’s comments offered some corroboration of reports from Tripoli’s new National Transitional Council (NTC) leaders and African neighbours that he has taken refuge with Tuareg nomads in the borderlands between Libya and Niger.

“Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Saif,” ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement.

“We have learnt through informal channels that there is a group of mercenaries who are offering to move Saif to an African (state) not party to … the ICC. The Office of the Prosecutor is also exploring the possibility to intercept any plane within the air space of a state party in order to make an arrest.”

NTC officials told Reuters earlier this week that monitoring of satellite calls and other intelligence indicated Saif al-Islam was considering turning himself in to the ICC, and trying to arrange an aircraft to get him there and out of reach of NTC fighters, in whose hands Muammar Gaddafi was killed a week ago.

DESERT FRIENDS

However, surrender is only one option. The Gaddafis made friends with desert tribes in Niger, Mali and other poor former French colonies in West Africa, as well as farther afield in countries like Zimbabwe and Sudan, some of them also recipients of largesse during the 42-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi, a self-styled African “king of kings.”

France, a key backer of February’s revolt, reminded Africans of obligations to hand over the surviving ICC indictees – former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam.

“We don’t care whether he goes on foot, by plane, by boat, by car or on a camel, the only thing that matters is that he belongs in the ICC,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero. “We don’t have many details, but the sooner the better.”

Niger, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, a swathe of arid states to the south of Libya, are all signatories to the treaty that set up the ICC, established to give a permanent international tribunal for crimes against humanity after ad hoc bodies set up for Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone.

“If we reach agreement, logistical measures for his transfer will be taken,” ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said. “There are different scenarios, depending on what country he is in.”

Without its own police force, the ICC depends on cooperation from member states, which do not include world powers the United States, Russia and China.

Algeria, which took in Saif al-Islam’s mother, sister, brother Hannibal and half-brother Mohammed, is not a signatory. Nor are Sudan or Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

AFRICAN MERCENARIES

As well as enjoying protection from Tuareg allies who traditionally provided close security for the Gaddafis, Saif al-Islam may still be in the company of mercenaries from elsewhere in Africa, including possibly South Africa, NTC officials say.

A South African newspaper, in an unconfirmed report, said South African mercenaries were working to fly him out.

A bodyguard who saw Saif al-Islam as he fled last week from one of the Gaddafi clan’s last bastions near the capital told Reuters that he seemed “nervous” and “confused.” He escaped even though his motorcade was hit by a NATO air strike as it left Bani Walid on October 19, the day before his father died in Sirte.

Three of Saif al-Islam’s brothers were killed in the war. Another, Saadi, has found refuge in Niger.

The arrest or surrender of Saif al-Islam would bring a new prominence for the nine-year-old ICC, whose highest profile suspect to date is Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who remains defiantly in office, defended by many fellow Africans.

Following the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, most probably at the hands of fighters who filmed themselves battering and abusing him, Western allies of Libya’s new leaders urged them to impose respect for human rights.

NTC leaders would like to run their own trials, but acknowledge that their writ barely runs in the deep south.

Their NATO allies, now winding up a mission that backed the revolt, have expressed little enthusiasm for hunting a few individuals across a vast tract of empty continent — though French troops based in West Africa might be best placed to step in with transport if Saif al-Islam did choose to surrender.

The ICC’s Moreno-Ocampo said in his statement: “If he surrenders to the ICC, he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty. The judges will decide.

“If the judges decide that Saif is innocent, or has served his sentence, he can request the judges to send him to a different country as long as that country accepts him.”

Saif al-Islam was once seen as a liberal reformer, architect of a rapprochement with Western states on whom his father waged proxy guerrilla wars for decades. But he responded with belligerent rhetoric after the revolt erupted in Libya.

The ICC accuses him of hiring mercenaries to carry out a plan, worked out with his father and Senussi, to kill unarmed protesters inspired by “Arab Spring” uprisings elsewhere.

WARM WELCOME

Niger’s government in the capital Niamey has vowed to meet its ICC commitments. But 750 km (400 miles) north in a region where cross-border allegiances among Tuareg nomads often outweigh national ties, the picture looks different.

For now, some of the tens of thousands of people who eke out a living in the deepest Sahara, an expanse roamed by smugglers and nomadic herders, say there would be a welcome for the younger Gaddafi.

“We are ready to hide him wherever needed,” said Mouddour Barka, a resident of Agadez in northern Niger. “We are telling the international community to stay out of this business and our own authorities not to hand him over — otherwise we are ready to go out on to the streets and they will have us to deal with.”

Mohamed Anako, president of Agadez region, the size of France, said: “I am ready to welcome him in. For me his case is quite simply a humanitarian one.

“Libya and Niger are brother countries and cousins … so we will welcome him in.”

(Additional reporting by Sara Webb and Aaron Gray-Block in Amsterdam, Samia Nakhoul in London, Mark John in Dakar, Ibrahim Diallo in Agadez and Barry Malone in Tripoli; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Ralph Gowling)

The International Criminal Court at The Hague confirmed on Friday that the 39-year-old heir-apparent to Libya’s slain former leader had been in touch. It urged him to turn himself in, warning it could order a mid-air interception if he and his mercenary guards tried to flee by plane for safe haven abroad.

Though details remain sketchy of the whereabouts and state of mind of Saif al-Islam, the London-educated would-be reformer now indicted for crimes against humanity, the ICC offered some corroboration of reports from Tripoli’s new leaders and African neighbors that he has taken refuge with Tuareg nomads in the borderlands between Libya and Niger, seeking a way to safety.

“Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Saif,” ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement.

“We have learnt through informal channels that there is a group of mercenaries who are offering to move Saif to an African (state) not party to … the ICC. The Office of the Prosecutor is also exploring the possibility to intercept any plane within the air space of a state party in order to make an arrest.”

Officials with Libya’s National Transitional Council told Reuters earlier in the week that monitoring of satellite calls and other intelligence indicated Saif al-Islam was considering turning himself in to The Hague, and trying to arrange an aircraft to get him there and out of reach of NTC fighters, in whose hands Muammar Gaddafi was beaten and killed a week ago.

DESERT FRIENDS

However, surrender is only one option. The Gaddafis made friends with desert tribes in Niger, Mali and other poor former French colonies in West Africa, as well as farther afield in countries like Zimbabwe and Sudan, some of them also recipients of largesse during the 42-year rule of Colonel Gaddafi, a self-styled son of the desert and African “king of kings”.

France, a key backer of Febuary’s revolt, reminded Africans of obligations to hand over the surviving ICC indictees – former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam: “We don’t care whether he goes on foot, by plane, by boat, by car or on a camel, the only thing that matters is that he belongs in the ICC,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero.

“We don’t have many details, but the sooner the better.”

Despite reduced circumstances since his father’s overthrow in August, the younger Gaddafi, whom some have described as a playboy in his days at the London School of Economics, may have access to portable wealth in the form of bundles of banknotes and gold bars, as well as to secret, unfrozen foreign accounts.

Niger, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, a swathe of arid states to the south of Libya, are all signatories to the treaty that set up the ICC, established to give a permanent international tribunal for crimes against humanity after ad hoc bodies set up for Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone.

“If we reach agreement, logistical measures for his transfer will be taken,” ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said. “There are different scenarios, depending on what country he is in.”

Without its own police force, the ICC depends on cooperation from member states — which do not include world powers the United States, Russia and China. Its focus so far on Sudanese, Congolese and Kenyans has left some Africans disgruntled.

Powers on the continent like South Africa and Nigeria are signatories. But Algeria, which took in Saif al-Islam’s mother, sister, brother Hannibal and half-brother Mohammed, is not. Nor are Sudan, Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and a number of other nations where leaders might see advantage in giving him a haven.

MERCENARIES

As well as enjoying protection from Tuareg allies who traditionally provided close security for the Gaddafis, Saif al-Islam may still be in the company of mercenaries from elsewhere in Africa, including possibly South Africa, NTC officials say.

A South African newspaper, in an unconfirmed report, said South African mercenaries were working to fly him out.

Living conditions in the desert are spartan, though the autumn climate is relatively temperate. Smugglers and others who make a living in the desert travel in 4x4s and trucks, watching fuel gauges closely, as well as by horse and camel, resting in tents as well as simple shacks scattered close to oases.

Communications are provided by satellite phones powered by car engines and generators, but also networks of nomads.

A bodyguard who saw Saif al-Islam as he fled last week from one of the Gaddafi clan’s last bastions near the capital told Reuters that Saif al-Islam, eldest son of Gaddafi’s second wife Safia, seemed “nervous” and “confused”. He escaped even though his motorcade was hit by a NATO air strike as it left Bani Walid on October 19, the day before his father died at Sirte.

Three of Saif al-Islam’s brothers were killed in the war. Another, Saadi, has found refuge in Niger.

The arrest or surrender of Saif al-Islam would bring a new prominence for the nine-year-old ICC, whose highest profile suspect to date is Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who remains defiantly in office, defended by many fellow Africans.

INTERNATIONAL COURT

Following the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, most probably at the hands of the fighters who filmed themselves battering and abusing him, Western allies of Libya’s new leaders had urged them to impose respect for human rights, even for those accused of scorning the rights of others down the decades.

NTC leaders would like to run their own trials, but acknowledge that their writ barely runs in the deep south.

Their NATO allies, now winding up a mission that backed the revolt, have expressed little enthusiasm for hunting a few individuals across a vast tract of empty continent — though French troops based in West Africa might be the best placed to step in with transport if Gaddafi did choose to surrender.

Richard Dicker of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the killing of his father made it all the more important that Saif al-Islam end up on trial in the Netherlands:

“The gruesome killing of Muammar Gaddafi last week underscores the urgency of ensuring that his son, Saif al-Islam, be promptly handed over to the International Criminal Court for fair trial in The Hague,” Dicker said.

“This will best ensure that justice is done.”

The ICC’s Moreno-Ocampo said in his statement: “If he surrenders to the ICC, he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty. The judges will decide.

“If the judges decide that Saif is innocent, or has served his sentence, he can request the judges to send him to a different country as long as that country accepts him.”

Saif al-Islam was once seen as a liberal reformer, architect of a rapprochement with the oil-thirsty Western states on whom his father waged proxy guerrilla wars for decades. But he ran into opposition from hardliners among his brothers and had taken a lower profile before bursting back onto the world’s television screens with belligerent win-or-die rhetoric after the revolt.

The ICC accuses him of hiring mercenaries to carry out a plan, worked out with his father and Senussi, to kill unarmed protesters inspired by Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere.

However, even if arrested on charges relating to his role in attacks on protesters in February and March, Saif al-Islam could make defense arguments that might limit any sentence, lawyers said — possibly a tempting alternative to death in Libya.

WARM WELCOME

For now, some of the few tens of thousands of people who eke out a living in the deepest Sahara, a borderless expanse roamed by smugglers and nomadic herders, say there would be a welcome for the younger Gaddafi, who in better times exhibited paintings he said were inspired by his love for the desert landscapes.

“We are ready to hide him wherever needed,” said Mouddour Barka, a resident of Agadez in northern Niger. “We are telling the international community to stay out of this business and our own authorities not to hand him over — otherwise we are ready to go out onto the streets and they will have us to deal with.”

Niger’s government in the capital Niamey has vowed to meet its ICC commitments. But 750 km (400 miles) north in a region where cross-border allegiances among Tuareg nomads often outweigh national ties, the picture looks different.

“I am ready to welcome him in. For me his case is quite simply a humanitarian one,” said Mohamed Anako, president of Agadez region, itself the size of France. “Libya and Niger are brother countries and cousins … so we will welcome him in.”

Libya’s southern neighbors accepted Muammar Gaddafi’s largesse despite exasperation at his vision of a trans-Saharan people, which prompted concern over their territorial integrity.

For northern communities in both Niger and Mali, the NATO-backed Libyan war that removed him has brought nothing but trouble, with thousands of African migrant workers and armed Tuaregs who fought for Gaddafi turning up at their door.

(Additional reporting by Sara Webb and Aaron Gray-Block in Amsterdam, Samia Nakhoul in London, Mark John in Dakar, Ibrahim Diallo in Agadez and Barry Malone in Tripoli; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) charged Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and Libya’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi with crimes against humanity for the bombing and shooting of civilian protesters in February.

Abdel Majid Mlegta, a senior military official of Libya’s National Transitional Council, told Reuters on Wednesday that Saif al-Islam and Senussi wanted to surrender to the ICC in The Hague because they felt unsafe in Libya, Algeria or Niger.

A NTC source said on Thursday Saif al-Islam wanted an aircraft, possibly arranged by a neighboring country, to take him out of Libya’s southern desert and into ICC custody.

Under such a deal, Saif al-Islam would be taken to The Hague where the ICC shares a detention unit with the U.N. Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, where former Liberian president Charles Taylor is on trial.

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah on Friday declined to say where Saif al-Islam is hiding.

“If we reach agreement, logistical measures for his transfer will be taken,” Abdallah said, adding that this might take some time. “It is not possible to discuss logistics or make presumptions about what is needed at this stage. There are different scenarios depending on what country he is in.”

The ICC has no police force of its own, and therefore has to rely on state cooperation to have suspects arrested.

Some suspects remain at large, such as Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, whose government has snubbed the court.

The Dutch authorities typically assist the Hague-based courts in transferring suspects to the detention center.

For example, former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was flown to Rotterdam on a Serbian government plane and then transferred by the Dutch authorities by helicopter or car to the detention center in The Hague.

“The ICC itself is responsible for transfers to the Netherlands. Upon arrival of a suspect in the Netherlands, we give logistical support,” a Dutch foreign ministry spokesman said.

If Saif al-Islam were to slip into Niger, an ICC member state, the Niger government has an obligation to arrest him. Tunisia and Mali are also member states, whereas Algeria is not.

“The question is to what extent these countries are ready to manage the pressure that will be put on them by an ICC transfer as it will have implications for them with other African countries,” said Damien Helly at the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

The African Union has criticized the ICC’s focus on Africa and has opposed the arrest warrant for Sudan’s Bashir, who has traveled to ICC member states Malawi, Chad, Kenya and Djibouti in the past without being arrested.

Helly questioned whether Saif al-Islam was “desperately trying to save his life” or whether his offer to surrender was a way of buying time or bargaining to improve his situation.

DEFENSE

The detention center, in a leafy residential neighborhood of The Hague, is next to an old prison where Dutch resistance fighters were imprisoned by the Nazis.

Inmates stay in single-occupant cells about 10 square meters, where they can watch TV, read or work on their cases.

Each cell in the ICC wing contains a bed, desk, bookshelves, a cupboard, toilet, hand basin and a telephone, although calls are placed by the centre’s staff.

Detainees can use computers to work on their cases, but cannot access email or the internet. They can also play sports and pursue other hobbies.

On arrival, Saif al-Islam would first appear in court to be formally charged and informed of his rights.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and al-Senussi of drawing up a “predetermined plan” to kill protesters and said that Gaddafi gave the orders, while Saif al-Islam organized the recruitment of mercenaries.

Peter Robinson, a legal adviser to former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic who is on trial at the Yugoslavia tribunal, said Saif al-Islam should not try to defend himself by arguing that he was just obeying his father’s orders.

“A person is required under international law not to obey an illegal order,” Robinson said, adding that a more useful defense would be to argue that crimes were committed on orders from lower-level commanders.

Geert-Jan Knoops, a Dutch-based international criminal law attorney, said Saif al-Islam could challenge the ICC case on two main fronts — that there was an “abuse of process” or that evidence of a “political plan” to kill protesters was lacking.

He said Saif al-Islam could argue that the ICC prosecution was politically influenced and forced by the United Nations to seek regime change instead of protecting human rights in Libya.

“It can be argued that the ICC prosecution and procedures are abused; in other words: abuse of process,” Knoops said.

(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block; Editing by Sara Webb and Alistair Lyon)

The International Criminal Court had charged Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and Libya’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi with crimes against humanity for the bombing and shooting of civilian protesters in February.

A source with Libya’s National Transitional Council said on Thursday Saif al-Islam wants an aircraft, possibly arranged by a neighboring country, to take him out of Libya’s southern desert so he can turn himself in to the ICC.

If arranged, Saif al-Islam would be transported to The Hague where the ICC shares a detention unit with the U.N. Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, where former Liberian president Charles Taylor is on trial.

The court is trying to confirm with the NTC whether Saif al-Islam wants to surrender and is considering various scenarios for his transfer, ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said.

“It depends on where the suspect is and how we can get into contact with him and what would be necessary to bring him to The Hague. There are different scenarios,” El Abdallah said.

With no police force of its own, the ICC has relied in the past on state co-operation to have its suspects arrested and many of them have remained fugitives such as Sudan President Omar al-Bashir whose government has snubbed the court.

Still, the ICC assisted in transporting several Sudanese rebels to The Hague in recent years to face charges over the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur in 2007.

The Dutch authorities provide assistance to the Hague-based courts in the transfer of suspects to the detention center, such as when former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was flown to Rotterdam on a Serbian government plane.

Mladic was then transferred by the Dutch authorities by helicopter or car to the detention center in The Hague.

“The ICC itself is responsible for transfers to the Netherlands. Upon arrival of a suspect in the Netherlands, we give logistical support,” a spokesman at the Dutch foreign ministry said.

Transporting Saif al-Islam to The Hague will pose additional logistical problems, however, given the remote area where he is believed to be hiding.

One alternative could involve the United Nations, which has in the past transported an ICC suspect by helicopter within Sudan to peace talks, but this did not lead to an arrest.

If Saif al-Islam were to slip into Niger, an ICC member state, the Niger government has an obligation to arrest him, while Tunisia is also a member state. Algeria is not.

However, Sudan’s Bashir has travelled to ICC member states such as Malawi, Chad, Kenya and Djibouti and has not been arrested by authorities in those countries.

Defense

Once in The Hague, Saif al-Islam would be held at the ICC detention center, located near the beach in a leafy residential neighborhood in The Hague.

The detention center is built next to an old prison where Dutch resistance fighters were imprisoned by the Nazis and inmates have single-occupant cells about 10 square meters in size, where they can watch TV, read or work on their cases.

Each cell in the ICC wing contains a bed, desk, bookshelves, a cupboard, toilet, hand basin and a telephone, although calls are placed by the centre’s staff. Detainees can work on their cases using computers but cannot access email or the internet.

They can engage in sports activities and other hobbies.

But if he arrives in The Hague, Saif al-Islam would be also required to appear in court for an ‘initial appearance’, where he would be formally charged and informed of his rights.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accuse Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and al-Senussi of drawing up a “predetermined plan” to kill protesters and said that Gaddafi gave the orders, while Saif al-Islam organized the recruitment of mercenaries.

Peter Robinson, a legal adviser to former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic who is on trial at the Yugoslavia tribunal, also said Saif al-Islam should not try to defend himself by arguing he was just obeying orders.

“A person is required under international law not to obey an illegal order. It would not be useful for Saif al-Islam to defend himself on the grounds that he was just obeying orders from his father,” Robinson said.

He said a more useful defense would be to argue that crimes were committed upon orders from lower-level commanders.

Geert-Jan Knoops, a Dutch-based international criminal law attorney, said Saif al-Islam could challenge the ICC case on two main fronts, arguing an “abuse of process” or by proving there is no evidence of a “political plan” to kill protesters.

He said Saif al-Islam could argue that the ICC prosecution was politically influenced and forced by the United Nations to achieve a regime change instead of protection of human rights in Libya. “It can be argued that the ICC prosecution and procedures are abused; in other words: abuse of process,” Knoops said.

(Reporting By Aaron Gray-Block)

How would the legal process unfold?

WHAT IS SAIF AL-ISLAM CHARGED WITH?

The ICC charged Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and Libya’s former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi with crimes against humanity for the shooting and killing of civilians protesters in February.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and al-Senussi drew up a “predetermined plan” to kill protesters and that Gaddafi gave the orders, while Saif al-Islam organised the recruitment of mercenaries.

Moreno-Ocampo has said his office has documented how the three suspects held meetings to plan the operations.

WHERE WOULD HE BE DETAINED?

If arranged, Saif al-Islam would need to be transported to The Hague where the court shares a detention center with the U.N.’s Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal.

INITIAL APPEARANCE

Once in The Hague, Saif al-Islam would be required to make an initial appearance in court, where he would be formally charged and informed of his rights.

He has the opportunity to hire his own defense lawyer or to have defense counsel assigned to him with court funding.

CONFIRMATION OF CHARGES

At a later date, Saif al-Islam would have the opportunity to appear at a confirmation of charges hearing, where prosecutors will need to prove there is sufficient evidence for him to stand trial.

It is not compulsory for him to appear at such a hearing, but he can use the hearing to object to the charges, challenge the evidence and present his own evidence.

It is not a trial and the standard of evidence needed to have the charges confirmed is lower than that required during the trial for an accused to be convicted.

Within 60 days of the end of the hearing, including any possible written submissions, the court must decide whether to drop the charges or order Saif al-Islam to stand trial.

WHEN WOULD A TRIAL START?

If the court orders the accused to stand trial, a date will be set and the accused must be present during the trial.

There is no set deadline for when ICC trials must start, but it could take more than a year before the trial would start. War crimes trials can also span several years.

It is likely that Saif al-Islam would be kept in The Hague pending the start of the case and during the trial proceedings.

WHAT SENTENCE DOES HE FACE?

Saif al-Islam faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted. The ICC does not have the death penalty.

(Reporting By Aaron Gray-Block)

The chemical sector’s dependence on highly cyclical
machinery makers, carmakers and builders makes it especially
vulnerable to a downturn.

Germany’s Bayer (BAYGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) flagged a slowdown in China’s
robust construction sector, while global chemical industry
leader BASF (BASFn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said its construction chemicals business
was unable to fully pass on higher raw material prices to
customers.

“We see a certain weakness in Asia, mainly in China where
the construction business is declining,” Bayer Chief Executive
Marijn Dekkers said, adding that this was weighing on demand for
Bayer’s insulation foams chemicals.

Bayer posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on
Thursday, helped by cost cuts at its drugs unit and higher sales
volumes of farming pesticides and confirmed its 2011 group
outlook.

BASF, whose third-quarter earnings also beat forecasts,
warned that growth was slowing as customers run down
inventories.

“BASF’s customers planned more cautiously, reduced
inventories, and partially delayed orders in expectation of
possible falling prices,” the company said.

Belgium’s Solvay , said a slowdown in global demand
for PVC, used in construction “should be emphasised,” adding the
impact was stronger in Europe.

“Europe looks to be the worst of all. We have been fairly
downbeat on growth prospects, if we can even talk about growth
at all,” said ING analyst Jan Hein de Vroe. “They all stick to
their guidance, but these were never really challenging.”

He said underlying results for the sector are worse than the
headline consensus estimates and the companies are currently
relying on cost cuts to protect earnings.

Solvay, which bought French rival Rhodia in September, said
demand for vinyls and special chemicals has slowed, but stuck to
its full-year outlook for improved core profit at its chemicals
and plastic units.

Rhodia reported quarterly adjusted core earnings of 273
million euros ($377 million), up 16 percent from the year-ago
period.

Bayer said its MaterialScience unit — which makes the
transparent plastic for the panoramic roof in the Mercedes SLK
convertible — would see a slip in operating profit this year,
where it had previously seen stagnation, citing higher raw
material and energy costs.

Shares in cyclical sectors, such as chemicals, on Thursday
led a surge in European stocks after euro zone leaders agreed to
boost the region’s bailout fund and struck a deal with private
banks and insurers to accept a 50 percent cut on Greek bonds.

That buoyed BASF and Bayer shares, up 6.4 percent and 4.9
percent, respectively, while Solvay rose 4.6 percent at 1151
GMT.

Belgian chemicals and plastics group Tessenderlo
said its plastic pipes and window frames unit suffered a decline
in profits, hit by low demand in construction. .

Its shares jumped 5.7 percent.

Dutch group AkzoNobel , the world’s largest paints
company, last week abandoned its 2011 profit outlook citing
slowing economic growth and rising costs for some chemicals.

In contrast, U.S. chemical maker DuPont reported
higher-than-expected quarterly profit earlier this week, boosted
by price hikes for products such as pigments for paint.

($1 = 0.724 Euros)

(Editing by Erica Billingham)

Global chemical industry leader BASF (BASFn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, but warned that growth was slowing as customers run down inventories.

“BASF’s customers planned more cautiously, reduced inventories, and partially delayed orders in expectation of possible falling prices,” it said in a statement.

The chemical industry’s dependence on highly cyclical investment goods makers, car manufacturers and the construction industry makes it especially vulnerable to a downturn.

In addition, the overhead costs tied to its massive plants drag earnings lower when demand and capacity usage drop, although a dip in the price of oil since May has eased some cost inflation for some petrochemical raw materials.

“Europe looks to be the worst of all. We have been fairly downbeat on growth prospects, if we can even talk about growth at all,” said ING analyst Jan Hein de Vroe. “They all stick to their guidance, but these were never really challenging.”

He said underlying results for the sector are worse than the headline consensus estimates and the companies are currently relying on cost cuts to protect earnings.

Belgium’s Solvay (SOLB.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which bought French rival Rhodia in September, said demand for vinyls and special chemicals has slowed, but stuck to its full-year outlook for improved core profit at its chemicals and plastic units.

Solvay said the slowdown in global demand for PVC, used in construction “should be emphasized.” The impact was stronger in Europe, it added.

French specialty chemicals group Rhodia reported quarterly REBITDA of 273 million euros, up 16 percent from the year-ago period.

Germany’s Bayer (BAYGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said its MaterialScience unit, which makes the transparent plastic for the panoramic roof in Daimler’s (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Mercedes SLK convertible, would have adjusted full-year EBITDA of 1.3 billion euros.

The group had previously predicted the unit would achieve a gain on last year’s level of 1.36 billion and cited higher raw material and energy costs for the revised outlook on Thursday.

Belgian chemicals and plastics group Tessenderlo (TESB.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said its plastic pipe system and profiles unit suffered a decline in profits, hit by low demand in construction.

Even though construction and automobile markets remain weak, U.S. chemical maker DuPont (DD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, boosted by price hikes for products such as titanium dioxide, a white pigment known as Ti02 that is used to make paint.

Dutch group AkzoNobel (AKZO.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest paints company, last week abandoned its 2011 profit outlook citing slowing economic growth and rising cost, such as Ti02.

(Reporting By Aaron Gray-Block)

Bensouda, 50, of Gambia, was appointed the ICC’s deputy prosecutor in September 2004 and previously worked as a legal adviser and trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.

She has long been regarded as favourite to take over from the tough-talking Moreno-Ocampo, particularly as the ICC’s cases are largely focused on Africa at this time, and she has the backing of the African Union which has been critical of the ICC.

The other three on the shortlist are Britain’s Andrew Cayley, a co-prosecutor in the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia, Tanzania’s Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman, and Canadian Robert Petit, a war crimes counsel in Canada’s Department of Justice.

The candidates’ names were released by the selection committee of the Assembly of States Parties, which oversees the Hague-based war crimes court. The committee interviewed 8 candidates from a list of 52 before deciding on the shortlist.

ICC member states must now try to reach a consensus on one candidate, possibly by this month, followed by a formal vote at a meeting of the Assembly of States Parties in December in New York. The new prosecutor will take office next July.

Param-Preet Singh, a senior counsel at Human Rights Watch, said it was a strong shortlist.

“It’s good that there is more than one African candidate. It indicates how many applications must have come from the African continent,” said Singh.

Argentinian Moreno-Ocampo has won praise for his role in promoting the work of the ICC. He has launched seven formal investigations, issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir, and begun three trials.

But he has also been criticised because of the ICC’s slow progress in achieving results, and for failing to bring a larger number of senior government officials to trial for various atrocities.

Academic David Kaye wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine recently that the ICC head needed to conclude trials, convince governments to arrest fugitives, conduct credible investigations in difficult places such as Libya and Sudan, and expand the ICC’s reach beyond Africa.

Cayley, a British national, previously worked with Moreno-Ocampo at the ICC investigating crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region. At the Khmer Rouge tribunal, he raised concerns about alleged political interference in the court.

Othman was a senior adviser at the United Nations Development Program and chief of prosecutions at the Rwanda tribunal, while Petit was previously a co-prosecutor at Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge court.

(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block and Sara Webb; Editing by Louise Ireland and Belinda Goldsmith)