ISTANBUL (Reuters) – As Islamist groups emerge triumphant in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan seems decided to act as their mentor — and to throw its weight behind the Syrian opposition seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad, a former ally.

Ankara’s evolving response to the upheavals of the Arab Spring is broadly in harmony with its NATO and European Union allies, who had balked at the AKP’s previous “zero problems with the neighbors” policy, that indulged Syria and its ally Iran, and which some derided as a neo-Ottoman turn away from Turkey’s long-standing Western ties.

By Samia Nakhoul

(Reuters) – The chilling spectacle of Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal end last month and the capture of his son Saif al-Islam this week, far from deterring Bashar al-Assad, seem to have energized him into redoubling his efforts to crush Syria’s eight-month rebellion.

As the Arab League intensified Assad’s isolation by suspending Syria’s membership, defecting soldiers in the Free Syrian Army carried out their boldest attacks so far at Deraa in the south and on an Air Force intelligence base near Damascus.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, fearing for his life if captured in Libya, has tried to arrange for an aircraft to fly him out of his desert refuge and into the custody of The Hague war crimes court, a senior Libyan official said Thursday.

Details were sketchy but a picture has built up since his father’s killing while in the hands of ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters a week ago that suggests Muammar Gaddafi’s 39-year-old heir-apparent has taken refuge among Sahara nomads and is seeking a safe haven abroad.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, fearing for his life if captured in Libya, has tried to arrange for an aircraft to fly him out of his desert refuge and into the custody of the Hague war crimes court, a senior Libyan official said on Thursday.

Details were sketchy but a picture has built up since his father’s grisly killing while in the hands of vengeful rebel fighters a week ago that suggests Muammar Gaddafi’s 39-year-old heir-apparent has taken refuge among Sahara nomads and is seeking a safe haven abroad.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s fugitive son Saif al-Islam wants an aircraft to take him out of Libya’s southern desert so he can turn himself in to The Hague war crimes court, a source with Libya’s National Transitional Council said on Thursday.

A fearful Saif al-Islam, 39, went on the run at about the time his father met a grisly death a week ago, apparently at the hands of vengeful Libyan fighters. He has indicated he is ready to surrender to justice, as has ex-intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, NTC officials have said.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi propose to hand themselves in to the International Criminal Court, a senior official with Libya’s National Transitional Council said on Wednesday.

“They are proposing a way to hand themselves over to The Hague,” Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters from Libya.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s fugitive son Saif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi are proposing to hand themselves into the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a senior Libyan military official with the National Transitional Council said on Wednesday.

“They are proposing a way to hand themselves over to The Hague,” Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters from Libya.

ABU DHABI, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Two trusted loyalists of
Libya’s interim government were handed Muammar Gaddafi’s body to
bury secretly deep in the Sahara desert on Tuesday after a
cleric prayed over his decomposing corpse, an official said.

The National Transitional Council (NTC) had disquieted many
outsiders by putting the bodies of Gaddafi and his son Mo’tassim
on show in a meat locker in the coastal city of Misrata until
their decay forced them on Monday to close the doors.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Presidential candidate Amr Moussa said Wednesday he feared a prolonged transition to civilian rule could plunge Egypt into anarchy caused by spiraling violence and economic hardship.

An uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February has hammered the economy and has sparked a wave of sectarian and other violence that the ruling army and its interim cabinet has struggled to control. Investors and tourists have fled.

LONDON (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi is believed to be hiding near the western town of Ghadamis near the Algerian border under the protection of Touareg tribesmen, a senior Libyan military official said.

“One tribe, the Touareg, is still supporting him and he is believed to be in the Ghadamis area in the south,” Hisham Buhagiar, a senior military official of the Libya’s new leadership, told Reuters by telephone late on Tuesday.