NATO loses drone helicopter

NATO acknowledged it had lost contact with one of its surveillance drone helicopters, as Libyan state television broadcast pictures of what it said was an Apache attack helicopter that had been shot down. A NATO spokesman said an "unmanned autonomous helicopter drone" had lost radio contact. He did not say whether it had crashed or had been shot down. State television said the helicopter had been downed near Zlitan, in the vicinity of the rebel-held city of Misrata. NATO deployed attack helicopters to the Libyan operation in late May and said it used them for the first time in early June. NATO said last week that it had used attack helicopters near Zlitan to destroy an anti-aircraft gun and three military vehicles. It has also said that it is using drones to do extensive surveillance.

The leader of Libya's rebel opposition arrived in Beijing for talks as a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman for the first time described the opposition as "an important political power in Libya." Mahmoud Jibril was scheduled to meet with the Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, during his two-day visit. The meeting with Jibril comes after Yang met with Moammar Gadhafi's foreign minister in Beijing this month. China's departure from its usual reticence toward opposition groups has prompted significant discussion among experts on China's foreign policy, with the main focus on the country's shift from being an oil exporter as recently as the early 1990s to importing half of its oil now. "It's unusual for them to negotiate with anyone other than the incumbent government, but clearly China has oil interests," said Ben Simpfendorfer, a political consultant in Hong Kong.

Prime Minister David Cameron rebuked Britain's military commanders in the air campaign against Libya after they warned in the last week that British forces would come under heavy strain if the air operations continued indefinitely. "There are times when I wake up and read the newspapers and think, 'I tell you what, you do the fighting and I'll do the talking,'" Cameron told a Downing Street news conference. Cameron's outburst seemed to be prompted by a lead article in the Daily Telegraph, a Conservative newspaper with strong military links, that quoted the officer in overall command of Britain's air operations in Afghanistan and Libya as warning of serious consequences for Britain's air combat capability if the Libya operation runs beyond September. NEWS SERVICES