20110225
Xinhua
BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Governments across the world continued to bring their citizens home from turbulent Libya Thursday, while Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is clinging to power despite nationwide protests.

The second chartered plane sent by the Chinese government to evacuate its nationals in Libya flew back to Beijing Friday morning with 227 Chinese on board.

Some 12,000 Chinese nationals have so far been evacuated from the North African country, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao said early Friday morning.

The government of Zambia was making arrangements to evacuate 42 of its nationals living in Libya following violence that had rocked that country, the Times of Zambia reported Thursday.

Zambian Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande said the government would continue to monitor developments in that country and in entire north Africa, adding that Zambians living in that country were safe and that precautionary measures had been put in place to ensure their security.

According to Syria's official news agency SANA, two ships left Syria Thursday for Libya to evacuate Syrians there.

The Syrian Transport Ministry is seeking to hire additional ships to secure the evacuation of Syrian nationals from the violence in Libya, Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr was quoted by SANA as saying.

Ghaida Abdullatif, director general of Syrian Arab Airlines, said the institution would continue to run flights to the airport in the Syrian capital of Tripoli, adding that additional flights would be put into operation after getting necessary permission.

Thai Labor Ministry spokesman Sutham Nathithong said Thursday that over 2,000 Thai workers had already left Libya and another 4,000 people would be evacuated within one to two days.

Most of those 2,000 Thais fled Libya by land via Tunisia and Egypt, while some were evacuated by sea from eastern Libyan city Benghazi to Istanbul in Turkey.

Two Turkish ferries carrying 3,037 passengers arrived in southwestern Turkey from Libya early on Thursday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. The ships set sail from Benghazi and were anchored in the Aegean town of Marmaris on Thursday.

Among the passengers, 59 were foreigners from Germany, Syria, Britain and other countries, the report said. Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim was quoted as saying more ships would be sent to Libya to evacuate citizens.

A plane chartered by the Polish government evacuated 61 people from Libya, and they all safely returned to Warsaw early Thursday, according to the Polish Interior Ministry.

"The plane brought 61 people, including some 20 British nationals, 15 Poles, 15 Romanians and two Danes," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak said.

The plane had been meant to carry some 80 Poles, but Wozniak said that only 15 Poles managed to reach the Tripoli airport. She added that Poles are leaving Libya in planes sent by other countries.

Around 100 Bulgarian citizens in Benghazi would be able to leave Libya on board a Turkish ship due to dock in Benghazi on Thursday, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said.

On Wednesday, 101 Bulgarians -- along with 70 Croatians, 10 Chinese, six Romanians and two South Koreans -- arrived in Bulgarian capital Sofia from Tripoli on board chartered planes belonging to the national carrier Bulgaria Air.

In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron apologized Thursday for the delay in getting nationals home, as three flights -- two chartered planes and a military transporter -- left Tripoli airport carrying more than 250 people in total. The Royal Navy's HMS Cumberland frigate also started loading stranded Britons in Libya's second largest city of Benghazi.

A third chartered flight is en route to Libya and a second military transport plane is on standby in nearby Malta.

Germany is sending a flotilla of three navy ships to Libya on Thursday to help evacuate German citizens.

Meanwhile, European Commission spokesman Raphael Brigandi told Xinhua that China had helped evacuate 500 European citizens from Libya on a ship it had in the area.

Amid the mass evacuation of foreigners, Gaddafi warned Libyans in a phone-in to state TV Thursday that protests would lead to chaos in the country, according to Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV.

"If you want to live in this chaos, it's up to you," he told Libyans, adding that he felt sorry for those who got killed in the clashes.