The US has condemned the death of its ambassador to Libya and three other officials, who were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Gunmen attacked the consulate on Tuesday night (local time) using home-made bombs and rocket-propelled grenades before looting and setting fire to the building, witnesses said.

A Libyan official says ambassador Chris Stevens was being driven to a safer location when his car was hit by a rocket.

A picture taken by an AFP photographer shows what witnesses say is the injured ambassador being aided by Libyans inside the premises of the consulate.

The picture shows an injured man wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants resembling Mr Stevens being carried by several Libyans.

US president Barack Obama issued a statement on Wednesday confirming the deaths and strongly condemning the “outrageous attack”.

“ took the lives of four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens,” the statement said.

“I have directed my administration to provide all necessary resources to support the security of our personnel in Libya, and to increase security at our diplomatic posts around the globe.”

Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief has apologised to the United States over the deaths.

“We apologise to the United States, the people and to the whole world for what happened,” he told a news conference broadcast live on Al Jazeera television.

“We confirm that no-one will escape from punishment and questioning.”

The Libyan interior ministry announced the deaths of Mr Stevens and three other Americans earlier in the day.

The violence is thought to have been linked to protests against a little-known film which Muslims say denigrates Prophet Mohammad.

The film was made by an Israeli-American who describes Islam as a “cancer” and depicts the Prophet Mohammed sleeping with women.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

maybe if they had never supported the arab spring in libya they would have been cut down by natural attrition when fighting gadaffi?

the more we tamper with the middle east the worse it becomes and the more volatile it becomes.

The Norwegian general who led a 400-strong UN monitoring mission in Syria has warned that Western governments supporting the opposition risk prolonging the conflict.

General Robert Mood, who left Damascus two months ago, says countries which aided the rebels were not helping to end the conflict in Syria.

“Anyone feeding the violence with money or weapons should consider very carefully whether this brings us closer, or further away from less violence and more dialogue,” he said.

“The international community may actually prolong the terrible suffering for the Syrian people.”

His comments came as France admitted it had been helping key opponents of president Bashar al-Assad to defect from Syria.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said France had aided several defectors, including General Manaf Tlas.

“We have also – and I will not go into details – helped a certain number of defections,” Mr Fabius told the French parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

“It’s our role. Our agencies are active,” he said, referring to ongoing defections.

General Tlas, one of the most senior members of Mr Assad’s government to flee Syria, said on Monday he had defected in July with the help of French special forces.

Mr Fabius publicly confirmed for the first time that France had helped General Tlas escape Syria and said he had met the general to discuss the country’s future.

“Why? Because we think that when there is somebody senior who wants to fight against Bashar al-Assad and to leave Syria, we help them,” he said.

Meanwhile the World Health Organisation has warned that more than 500,000 people in the Syrian province of Homs need humanitarian aid.

A team from the WHO gained a rare, independent insight into the conflict when they visited Homs last week.

They say they found a “grave” humanitarian situation which “continues to deteriorate.”

Much of the civil war has been centred on Homs, which endured weeks of artillery attacks from government forces.

Now half the public hospitals and three-quarters of the private hospitals are closed.

The team estimates a quarter of the 2.2 million people who live there are in need of humanitarian aid.

Some 150 schools are being used to house people who have fled the fighting, but there is no mains electricity, water and sanitation services are unreliable, and rubbish is piling up.

Hollywood actress and UN special envoy Angelina Jolie has urged the world to help Syrians fleeing the conflict in their country.

Jolie was speaking as she visited a refugee camp in neighbouring Jordan.

Yeah that is unusual, ambassadors generally survive. Everyone knows what they are about which is essentially keeping an eye on country.

SYRIAN democracy protesters are among 274 recently-arrived asylum seekers sitting in limbo on Christmas Island who are set to be deported by the Gillard government under its new refugee policy.

The plight of Syrian protesters was highlighted recently by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who has demanded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad be brought before the International Criminal Court for atrocities against them.

The Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young has met the most recent arrivals at Christmas Island – who include 11 Syrians. She said they had been deceived by people smugglers about Labor’s new policy.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/syrian-boat-people-in-limbo-20110608-1ft7l.html#ixzz26GV7s691

now we’ll be taking thousands of these nutcases to our own bosom in the race to take in extra refugees and so set the scene of bloodshed over here as we march towards so called harmony when all groups seek to take over. we’ve already received the last intake of war crminals from sri lanka under refugee status. hell – we even took saddams wedding singer who was sent to gaol for snatching old ladies handbags recently. i look forward to more harmony.

i remember being on a student group walking the royal national park to sydneys south years ago

on the weekend you’ll find whole legions of them there at the water hole

they were holding some kind of weird islamic prayer meeting there.

the more you entertain and feed known fools and maniacs the worse things get

as i said before i’d ship out the whole lot of them back to their respective countries and let them do their killing there.

instead we are bringing whole rafts of people who for one or reason or the other can’t get on with each other. it was mentioned to me that we shifted thousands of religious maniacs from lebannon into australia.

when they do this (all of them) they then start causing trouble here and also sending money to cause trouble elsewhere and feed the factional violence in the mother country with that money. the various “community groups” from bondi to western sydney recruit here and spread violence.

they will destroy this country as surely as they destroyed their own countries

theres a story in the news now where some kosavan freedom fighter in yugoslavia cut out the heart of a serb ALIVE and concious so they could sell it on the black market – these are the refugees we have been shifting in.

its why i’ve been saving up and looking around. i don;t see any future for this country under multiculturism. as long as the circus master is strong enough everyone behaves themselves. you’ll notice that gun crime has become rampant recently

exhibit A

A fist fight between two groups of young men at a shopping centre in Sydney’s south-west was the catalyst for a shootout in which a stray bullet killed a passing truck driver, a court has heard.

Bob Knight, 66, from Macgregor in the ACT, was shot in the head as he drove his truck along Milperra Road on the night of June 25, 2009.

Mahmoud Mariam, 28, Adel Elkobali, 21, and a juvenile who cannot be named are on trial for murder and affray in the NSW Supreme Court.

The prosecution alleges that the bullet was a stray from a shootout between warring families in the car park of a KFC outlet.

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At the opening of the trial today, Crown prosecutor Pat Barrett told the jury that the gun battle was a fight between members of the Mariam and the Elkobali families.

Mr Barrett said it was the outcome of a fight earlier that night between two groups of young men associated with the families outside the Centro shopping centre in Bankstown.

Two of the men exchanged insults before one punched the other on the side of the head, sparking a brief melee, which was broken up by police.

It is the Crown case that, in the coming hours, there was a rapid exchange of phone calls between members of the families, which culminated in an organised, armed confrontation in a KFC car park nearby.

The Crown said the fatal shot was fired by Mahmoud Mariam towards the Elkobali family. It missed its intended target, going through a bunch of trees, across Milperra Road and striking Mr Knight in the head.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/fight-between-families-led-to-shooting-of-truckie-court-20120228-1u07w.html#ixzz26GYxxPkY

You’d think that someone wanting to portray the image of being a tuffkunt and be involved in a “shootout” would pick a more suitable location than a KFC carpark.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/middleeast/us-envoy-to-libya-is-reported-killed.html?_r=0

check out picture 13

this is the one of the ambassador dead surrounded by the mob

I wonder what the World’s population would be if it was inhabited only by Agnostics and Atheists, sure as hell be more peacful place.

bob(from black rock) said:

I wonder what the World’s population would be if it was inhabited only by Agnostics and Atheists, sure as hell be more peacful place.

Unless you were redhead.

Unless you were redhead.

i’m a ranga. grey up top but still red below.

>>I wonder what the World’s population would be if it was inhabited only by Agnostics and Atheists

What like Stalin Mao Tse-tung Pol Pot Skeptic Pete, people like that?

Peak Warming Man said:

>>I wonder what the World’s population would be if it was inhabited only by Agnostics and Atheists

What like Stalin Mao Tse-tung Pol Pot Skeptic Pete, people like that?

Right that’s it!

I’m going straight onto twitter to voice my disapproval

i wonder if they would be as game to go down to cronulla and demonstrate?

this is what happens when you start shipping in a fifth column into the country – its shame we can’t just send them home or back to the bosom to their associates elsewhere.

thankfully i don’t have to live with muslims anymore so its rather like looking into on the goings on in a foreign country.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-15/anti-us-protests-hit-sydney/4263372
Angry protests over a film made in the United States that mocks the Prophet Mohammed have spread to Australia, with a large demonstration outside the US consulate in Sydney.

Violent demonstrations have killed at least six people in the Middle East, while protestors have also marched through London.

The film that triggered the unrest
The film titled Innocence of Muslims mocks the Prophet Mohammed and Islam.
Touches on themes of paedophilia and homosexuality.
Features low-budget production values, with actors in false beards in front of stock desert footage.
Cast members have said they thought it was a fictional epic, and later found their lines had been dubbed over.
Reportedly written by Nakoula Bassily Nakoula, 55, an Egyptian Copt on conditional release from prison.
Directed by 65-year-old Alan Roberts.
Reportedly produced by a US religious group called Media for Christ.
Promoted by a network of right-wing Coptic and Evangelical Christians with a radical anti-Muslim agenda.
Among them is Florida pastor Terry Jones, who spoke to The World Today about his involvement.

The wave of protests have now spread to Sydney’s Martin Place.

One protester was carrying a placard that read “behead those who insult the Prophet”.

Another protester yelled: “Our dead are in paradise. Your dead are in hell.”

ABC reporter Emma Pollard is caught in the protest and says police tried to form a line in front of the demonstrators.

She says police are pepper spraying protesters, who are throwing objects and bottles of water at the officers.

“I saw one police officer get dragged out into a clear area and he had lots of blood all over his face,” she said.

The Ambulance service says paramedics have treated at least one person with head injuries.

ABC reporter Josh Bavas has described heated scenes.

Hundreds of protesters are arriving here in Hyde Park. They’re being met by equally amount of police. I’ve had someone who is in the crowd interpret what they’re yelling and saying, ‘Allah is great! There is no god greater than Allah’.
Pepper spray is being used and several protesters have been arrested. Police are passing around bottles of water and even more protesters are arriving as we speak.
It’s about the movie, discussing how bad that it was and how bad that it has been passed around.
It has quietened down. One protester was saying, ‘Who are we going to get for spraying that gas at us?’
Josh Bavas
The protest is linked to a controversial low-budget film, Innocence of Muslims, which denigrates the Islamic Prophet Mohammed and belittles the religion he founded.

The film touches on themes such as paedophilia and homosexuality, while also showing the Prophet sleeping with women, talking about killing children and referring to a donkey as “the first Muslim animal”.

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, islam, activism-and-lobbying, sydney-2000, australia