1632 GMT: Thousands of Yemeni anti-regime demonstrators have defiantly to keep protesting after regime loyalists shot dead two of them.
"The sit-in will continue until the fall of the regime," chanted the protesters encamped at Sanaa University in the capital.
1629 GMT: Newspapers in Saudi Arabia today highlight the significance of the king's return in the context of the regional turmoil.
"The king is the only pillar of stability in the region now," says the English-language Arab News.
"The king returns today at a time when the Arab world is experiencing frightening developments to what he had left not only stable... but an oasis of peace and security full of love and loyalty," says Okaz daily.
1619 GMT: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia "must be in a state of shock" at the transformation in North Africa and the Middle East as he returns to the kingdom after a three-month absence, Middle East analyst Neil Partrick tells.
As he flew in, the king boosted social benefits for his people, in a region where a young population and unemployment have since January combined with demands for political reform to create a cocktail for political upheaval.
"The assumption that a coalition of different elites could keep systems stable has proven not to be correct anymore," London-based Partrick says, adding: Abdullah must "be in a state of shock."
1614 GMT: "I have proof that Kadhafi gave the order on Lockerbie," former justice minister Mustapha Abdeljalil told Swedish daily Expressen, the paper reports on its website.
Libyan national Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was in 2001 convicted of the bombing of Pan AM Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 that killed 270 people, most of them Americans.
Scottish authorities released Megrahi, 58, on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after doctors said he was suffering from terminal cancer and had three months to live. He remains alive almost a year and a half after his release.
According to Abdeljalil, who stepped down Monday to protest the ongoing violence in Libya, Kadhafi "ordered Megrahi to do it (the bombing)," and had worked hard to secure his release to ensure that his role in the plot remained secret. "To hide it, he did everything in his power to get Megrahi back from Scotland," the former minister said.
Expressen said its reporter Kassem Hamade, who is in Libya, conducted a 40-minute interview with Abdeljalil at "the local parliament in a large city."
1610 GMT: The IFHR's Souhayr Belhassen tells AFP the Benghazi death toll of 230 people includes "130 soldiers who were executed by their officers in Benghazi for refusing to fire on crowds" of protesters.
1601 GMT: Khaled Khaim, Libya's deputy foreign minister says: "There are journalists who entered illegally and we consider them as if they are collaborating with Al-Qaeda and as outlaws and we are not responsible for their security."
"They will be arrested unless they surrender to the authorities," he adds.
1558 GMT: The IFHR's Libyan death toll estimate of 640 is more than double the official Libyan government toll of 300 dead, and includes 275 dead in Tripoli and 230 dead in the protest epicentre in the eastern city of Benghazi, the IFHR's Souhayr Belhassen has told AFP.
1557 GMT: Protests have also been renewed today in the northern Iraq city of Sulaimaniyah as well as Halabja to demand an end to the dominance of two parties that have lorded over Kurdistan for decades.
In Sulaimaniyah today, around 3,000 demonstrators, some carrying pictures of people killed in previous rallies, railed against the region's leadership.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of regional president Massud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani have jointly ruled the region for decades.
1553 GMT: Anti-government protests in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja deny a claim that they caused the death of a policeman.
The town's mayor, Goran Adhem, says: "The demonstrators shot and killed a policeman and wounded another."
But protesters, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest, insist that no one at their rally was carrying weapons. They say police fired into the air and the casualties were caused when the bullets fell downwards.
1549 GMT: UK charter airline Astraeus says a plane hired by private firms -- believed to be the major oil companies working in Libya -- has left London Gatwick Airport for Tripoli.
It has on board a Foreign Office rapid deployment team, who were switched from a plane chartered by the Foreign Office that was delayed due to a minor technical problem and is due to leave later.
1549 GMT: At least 640 people have been killed in Libya in protests against the regime of Moamer Kadhafi since they started on February 14, the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) says.
1547 GMT: At least 640 dead in Libyan unrest: rights group
1547 GMT: Journalists who have entered Libya illegally are considered "outlaws," the country's deputy foreign minister says.
1534 GMT: Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, former justice minister Mustapha Abdeljalil told Swedish daily Expressen, it reported on its website
1531 GMT: Libya's Warfalla tribe, the country's largest, has come out against Kadhafi's regime, Al Jazeera says.
1527 GMT: Opponents of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi are continuing to make progress and moving west towards Tripoli, Ibrahim Sharquieh of the Brookings Institute says on Al Jazeera.
1522 GMT: US stocks dropped in opening trade in the wake of falls in European and Asian markets as the turmoil in Libya kept investors on edge.
At 1500 GMT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 39.85 points (0.33 percent) at 12,172.94, while the broader S&P 500 lost 2.64 (0.20 percent) at 1,312.80. The Nasdaq Composite index pared 9.12 (0.33 percent) to 2,747.30.
However, blue chips remained fairly steady in early trading. "Corporate profits are acting generally as a counterweight to the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East," said Kimberly DuBord of Briefing.com.
"While the unrest continues to raise the risk of regional contagion, it is unlikely these events will destabilize the US economic recovery," said Dubord.
1519 GMT: The EU is gearing up for a potential humanitarian crisis in Libya by dispatching officials to the nation's borders with Egypt and Tunisia to assess the situation on the ground.
EU experts based in Algeria and Jordan have been ordered to the borders with Libya "to do our own assessment of the situation and the needs", Raphael Brigandi, a spokesman for humanitarian aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva says. The EU also hopes to send an expert to Tripoli, he says.
"At the moment we are not facing a humanitarian crisis, which does not mean we are not concerned," Brigandi says. "The situation is evolving very rapidly. It's an unstable situation".
1517 GMT: A policeman died today of gunshot wounds during anti-government protests in the Kurdish town of Halabja, north Iraq, the town's mayor says.
1516 GMT: Al-Qaeda has set up an Islamic emirate in Derna, in eastern Libya, headed by a former US prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, the country's deputy foreign minister tells a meeting with EU ambassadors in Tripoli.
1514 GMT: Sucden analyst Myrto Sokou tells AFP: "Following news that a Libyan air force plane crashed near Benghazi after its crew bailed out as they refused to carry out orders to bomb the city, crude oil prices spiked and Brent surged above $110 per barrel, while WTI almost tested $98 level.
"The oil market reacted straight to the news that raised further worries and frustration about the political unrest in the MENA (Middle East North Africa)."
1512 GMT: Qaeda sets up 'Islamic emirate' in eastern Libya: minister
1510 GMT: In afternoon deals, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April rallied as high as $110.35, touching the highest level since September 2, 2008.
1508 GMT: Policeman killed in Iraq Kurd anti-govt protest: town mayor
1506 GMT: "Pilot Abdessalam Attiyah al-Abdali and co-pilot Ali Omar al-Kadhafi ejected with parachutes after refusing orders to bomb the city of Benghazi," a military source said, quoted by Quryna newspaper.
The Russian-made Sukhoi 22 crashed near Ajdabiya, 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of the city which has fallen to anti-regime protesters, the source was reported at saying.
1501 GMT: A Libyan fighter pilot disobeyed orders today to bomb the opposition stronghold of Benghazi and ditched his plane after ejecting, a Libyan newspaper reports on its website.
1459 GMT: A draft resolution to be discussed by the UN Human Rights Council next week will seek to "strongly condemn the... extremely grave human rights violations committed in Libya, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of peaceful demonstrators, which if widespread and systematic, may amount to crimes against humanity," according to a text seen by AFP.
1456 GMT: London Brent oil reaches $110 per barrel for the first time since early September 2008, driven by fears about the impact of Libyan violence on global energy supplies, analysts say.
1452 GMT: Phil Sperinck, 51, from Dartford, Kent, who lives an hour from central Tripoli, tells AFP at Gatwick airport: "We've heard lots of gunfire, we've seen Chinook helicopters going across. There was lots of banging and lots of shooting. It got closer to us last night."
Jane Macefield, 52, originally from Zimbabwe, says she heard "20 blasts at least" from bombs or grenades and "the droning of planes" overhead as fighting raged in Tripoli last night.
"Last night I've never been so scared in all my life. I didn't know if I was shivering from cold or from fear."
Sperinck, who has been in Libya since april, adds: "The airport is horrendous. There are thousands of people sitting outside."
1449 GMT: "All I could hear at night was gunfire. Last night there was something... that sounded a lot more powerful than gunshots, something that sounded like mortars," a British man arriving at London's Gatwick airport from Libya tells AFP. He says most of fighting appeared to be taking place at night. "During the day the streets are relatively quiet. I think it is because they are up all night and then go to bed."
1448 GMT: Brent oil price hits $110 for first time since September 2008
1443 GMT: "Again today, the news and pictures from Libya show that Colonel Kadhafi has declared war on the Libyan people. Such a government has lost all legitimacy," says Christoph Steegmans, Chancellor Angela Merkel's deputy spokesman.
"The federal government condemns in the strongest possible terms the mindless brutality and disrespect for human dignity," he says at a news conference in Berlin.
1439 GMT: "Benghazi was attacked last Thursday. Our ambulances counted 75 bodies the first day, 200 the second then more than 500. On the third day I ran out of morphine and medications," Dr Buffet told Le Point.
"To start with the forces of repression fired at the legs and abdomen. After that at the chest and the head," he says.
1435 GMT: "From February 16 peope were in a frenzy. People were certain the army would attack. The repression forces included police and the army but also mercenaries from Chad and Niger," Buffet told Le Point.
"From Tobruk to Darna they carried out a real massacre... In total, I think there are more than 2,000 deaths. We filled two hospitals of 1,500 beds. We used the children's hospital for the less seriously injured."
1429 GMT: As many as 2,000 people may have died in the uprising in Libya, according to a French doctor interviewed by Le Point magazine.
The 60 year old, who has been anaesthetist at Benghazi medical centre for a year and a half, says "We have come from hell," according to the magazine.
1420 GMT: UK Prime Minister David Cameron says: "The situation remains greatly concerning and ... we are doing everything we can to protect British nationals and to assist them in leaving that country."
"We've been very clear with respect to Libya that what is happening there is unacceptable, that the use of violence against their own people ... is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to stand," Cameron tells a news conference in Doha.
"There will be planes and also the use of ferries and other means to get people out of Libya and we will do everything we can to make that happen," he says.
1411 GMT: Lebanon has refused a request to accept an aircraft from Libya with members of the Kadhafi family on board, a Lebanese security official tells AFP.
"Last night Beirut airport received a request to accept an aircraft belonging to the Kadhafi family with several people on board including Aline Skaff, Lebanese-born wife of Kadhafi's son Hannibal," the official said.
"Lebanon rejected this request," the official adds.
1403 GMT: Ashok Kumar, protester and education officer of the London School of Economics student union tells AFP about a dozen students are still occupying director Howard Davies' office in protest at the university's links with Khadafi's son Saif al-Islam.
"The protesters have occupied Howard Davies's office and are refusing to leave until the university meets our demands, which are as follows:
"The university must develp an ethical policy for donations.
"Secondly, LSE must return the £300,000 stolen from the Libyan people and return it to them, either in the form of scholarships for Libyan students from low-income backgrounds, or to the families of the victims of the recent crackdown.
"Thirdly, we want Saif al-Islam Kadhafi's status as an alumnus of the university to be removed."
1358 GMT: Major General Suleiman Mahmoud, commander of troops in the Libyan city of of Tobruk, says on Al Jazeera he is supporting the uprising.
"We are supporting the people. We are against any aggressions," he says.
He says there were no demonstrations in Tobruk so he did not have to carry out acts of suppression but adds that in Benghazi the military attacked demonstrators with artillery fire and air strikes.
1351 GMT: Driving west from Tobruk in the afternoon, the AFP news team has repeatedly seen the red, black and green flag of the Libyan monarch that Kadhafi overthrew in a coup d'etat in September 1969.
The 1951 independence flag has been embraced by Kadhafi's opponents as the standard of their movement, in lieu of the plain green one that represents the regime.
"Driving down the highway, people flash victory signs," one of the news team said. "They seem overjoyed. They say that are confident that Kadhafi will be toppled."
1347 GMT: Several thousand foreign migrants from Libya have crossed the Tunisian border in the first exodus to Tunisia since the Libyan turmoil began, the International Organisation for Migration says.
The agency said it was also trying to organise the evacuation of other nationals from poor nations from inside Libya, including many from Asia.
"It's a first group of migrants. Many crossed the border by car, especially with hired vehicles, and there were two buses," IOM spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy told AFP.
They included "4,700 Tunisians, 120 Turks and a dozen Lebanese nationals, some west Africans," he added. IOM staff on the border also reported several Syrians and three Germans had crossed the border.
"The arrival of migrants is carrying on today. We have information on hundreds of migrants but that hasn't been confirmed yet," Chauzy says.
1342 GMT: London Brent oil prices have climbed back towards $108 per barrel today, propelled once again by heightened concerns about unrest in Libya and fears of spreading turmoil in the Middle East.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April rallied $1.73 to $107.51 per barrel in midday London trade, one day after rocketing to $108.57 -- highest since September 2008.
New York's light sweet crude for April delivery increased by 68 cents to $96.10 a barrel. .
"This morning, crude oil prices continued their upside rally following ongoing growing concerns across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)," said analyst Myrto Sokou at the Sucden brokerage in London.
She adds: "Prices rallied on Tuesday and hit a two-and-a-half year high, as political unrest in Libya raised serious concerns about a potential oil supply disruption."
1339 GMT: German oil firm Wintershall says it has stopped oil production in Libya due to the security situation in the violence-hit country.
The company which has 400 employees there, mostly Libyans, had earlier said its daily production of 100,000 barrels per day would be reduced, but that a small group of core workers would remain on site.
1334 GMT: Kadhafi has relied on political and tribal rivalries to rule over Libya since 1969, but traditional power structures are crumbling as a popular uprising gains momentum, analysts say.
"With urbanisation and development, tribal leaders have less influence on their tribe members," Mohamed Fadel, an independent Libyan analyst based in London, has told AFP.
"Kadhafi had managed to create a balance between all the tribes and clans, but this system had already started to erode," says Delphine Perrin, an expert on North Africa at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
"Today, that power structure is crumbling with some tribes turning against him," Perrin said.
1325 GMT: Here's a quick recap of today's momentous developments in Libya as Moamer Kadhafi's regime totters:
- Kadhafi's regime has lost vast swathes of Libya's east to an insurrection, as pressure mounted on the strongman to step down amid growing evidence of a "bloodbath."
- Condemnation of the brutal crackdown has grown and foreigners are fleeing the oil-rich country.
- Opponents of Kadhafi seem firmly in control of Libya's coastal east, from the Egyptian border through to the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, with government soldiers switching sides to join the uprising.
- An AFP news team travelling into Libya saw rebels, many of them armed, all along the highway that hugs the Mediterranean coast.
- Streets of the capital Tripoli are mainly empty, barring a few dozen Kadhafi backers, despite his nationally televised call last night before for a show of popular support.
- Only Green Square, a Kadhafi stronghold since the revolt against his four decades of iron-fisted rule began on February 15, pulsed with activity as pro-regime supporters began arriving.
- Italy's foreign minister Franco Frattini says Libya's eastern province of "Cyrenaica is no longer under the control of the Libyan government and there are outbreaks of violence across the country."
- Rome fears an immigrant exodus of "biblical proportions" if Kadhafi is ousted, predicting up to 300,000 Libyans could try to flee their country, Frattini says.
- The Libyan government says 300 people, including 111 soldiers, had been killed in the protests, which erupted after the rulers of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt were ousted in similar uprisings.
- Numerous high level Libyan officials, including ministers, diplomats and military officers, have abandoned the regime and announced their support for the rebellion.
- All Libyan ports and terminals are temporarily closed because of the deadly unrest, the CMA CGM shipping group says.
1322 GMT: Kadhafi's regime will collapse in coming days, the country's former envoy to the Arab League says, while predicting "massacres" in the run-up to Kadhafi's downfall.
"I think it is a matter of days, not more," Abdel Moneim al-Honi, who quit his position on Sunday, told the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.
"But unfortunately I also think that this is going to cost Libya and the Libyans dearly," he added, while ruling out civil war. "I think horrible massacres will take place."
1319 GMT: The Red Crescent says it fears a "catastrophic" exodus of Libyans into Tunisia. "Some 5,700 Tunisians and Libyans fleeing Libya crossed the border between the two countries at Ras Jedir Monday and Tuesday. They keep arriving," Hadi Nadri, a Red Crescent official for Tunisia's Ben Guerdane region, has told AFP.
"After what (Libyan leader Moamer) Kadhafi said yesterday, we fear a massive, catastrophic exodus. We expect thousands of Libyan refugees to pour into Tunisia. We are bracing for the worst," he says.
1316 GMT: The BBC reports that students at the London School of Economics are staging a sit-in in protest at the university's association with the Libyan regime.
They have taken over the offices of LSE director, Sir Howard Davies.
The students are demanding the university pays back the 300,000 pounds it from a charity wing of the regime.
The students also want the university to revoke the LSE alumni status of Libyan leader Col Gaddafi's second son Saif al-Islam, who studied at the university from 2003 to 2008, gaining both a Master of Science degree and a doctorate, the BBC says in a report on its website.
1313 GMT: At the Abu Dhabi defence fair, the United Arab Emirates has announced 11.68 billion dirhams (3.09 billion dollars/2.249 billion euros) in defence deals in three days, the official WAM news agency reports.
Major General Obaid al-Ketbi announced 3.68 billion dirhams (about $1 billion) today, according to WAM.
"With the 8 billion dirhams worth of defence deals... on the second and third day of the event, today's announcements brought to 11.680 billion dirhams the total value of contracts" announced at a defence expo in Abu Dhabi, WAM said.
Among other contracts announced today, the "Abu Dhabi Ship Building Company was awarded an 800.5 million dirham ($218.1 million) contract for purchase of RAM missiles," Ketbi said.
1305 GMT: At Sallum, on the Libya-Egypt border, terrified Egyptian migrant workers are pouring over the border in their thousands, an AFP correspondent reports from the scene.
Clutching their few belongings as they passed beneath the white concrete gateway that marks the frontier, they told of shooting in the eastern towns where they worked and the protection given them by protesters.
One man, who gave his name as Amr, tells AFP he has seen "lots of gunfire... They definitely want us out," and while his family depends on his income in Libya, he intends never to return.
Another expatriate, Mohammed, who worked in Tobruk, the last major Libyan city on the highway that runs along the Mediterranean to Egypt, said protesters who have seized control there went out of the way to protect foreigners.
"Before the Libyans wanted to exploit us," he said, alluding to the 1.5 million Egyptians -- among many other nationals from the developing world -- on whom the oil-rich Libyan economy depends. "Now they wanted to help us."
Many of the Egyptians who spoke with AFP at dawn Wednesday came from southern Egypt, where jobs are few, poverty widespread and families dependent on the remittances sent from abroad.
One such worker, Mahmud Aguni, in his 40s, said he did not get involved in the mass protests in Egypt that saw the downfall of longtime president Hosni Mubarak and inspired the Libyan uprising.
"But now we have nothing," he said, worrying about how he would feed his family without work in Libya. "Someone has to find a solution before we have to start eating each other."
The Egyptian army, which beefed up its presence at the border on Tuesday, chartered minibuses in large numbers to transport the migrant workers, and their luggage piled high on the roofs, closer to their hometowns.
Over the border gates -- bearing the words "Salloum Land Port" in English -- a big Egyptian flag flaps in the southerly breeze, the AFP correspondent reports.
To the side is parked an Egyptian battle tank, as rifle-toting soldiers in camouflage fatigues fade from view among the endless stream of compatriots lugging dusty suitcases and, occasionally, wearing blankets on their shoulders.
1257 GMT: An AFP news team entering Libya from Egypt says opponents of Moamer Kadafhi's regime appear firmly in control of the coastal east of Libya, with government soldiers switching sides to join the uprising.
The AFP team has seen rebels -- many of them armed -- all along the highway that hugs close to the Mediterranean from the Egyptian border to Tobruk city.
Local residents said that in Bayda city, militia men loyal to Kadhafi have been executed -- a measure of the violence that has gripped the oil-producing east of the country.
Residents also told AFP that the anti-Kadhafi movement is in firm control from the Egyptian border through Tobruk and Libya's second city Benghazi until Ajdabiya, further west along the coast.
Soldiers in the east are declaring their support for the uprising, the residents said, but the regime asserted it was still in control via a text message sent on the Libyan national mobile telephone network.
"God give victory to our leader and the people," the text message said, promising a credit in cellphone time if it was forwarded to other mobile telephone users.
1254 GMT: Governments around the world are struggling to evacuate nationals from violence-hit Libya, with Asian countries facing a "mammoth" task of rescuing more than 150,000 low-paid workers.
Fears of a full-scale civil war in the North African state have spurred countries from Canada to China to charter ferries and planes to secure their citizens' safety despite poor communication links and growing violence.
The majority of Asian expatriates are low-paid contract workers, with 60,000 Bangladeshis, 30,000 Filipinos, 23,000 Thais and 18,000 Indians among those living under the tottering regime of Moamer Kadhafi.
"This is going to be quite a mammoth operation," India's foreign secretary Nirupama Rao has told reporters.
1253 GMT: 'Catastrophic' exodus of Libyans into Tunisia feared: Red Crescent
1251 GMT: In Aden, Yemen's main southern port city, Renewed clashes have broken out today between police and separatist demonstrators who have gathered in front of a police station.
Thousands of anti-government demonstrators protested overnight in the city calling for the fall of the regime, chanting "the people want to topple the regime" and "no work, no teaching until the fall of the president."
Thousands more are maintaining a sit-in in the Al-Mansura neighbourhood of Aden, chanting: "No talking, no dialogue until the system falls."
Protests have also surfaced in north Yemen, where tens of thousands demonstrated in the Huthi stronghold of Saada to demand the president step down, AFP correspondents say.
1249 GMT: In Yemen, thousands of anti-regime demonstrators are chanting defiantly after government loyalists shot two of them dead, and eight ruling party MPs have resigned over the suppression of protests.
"Enough! Enough! The criminal attacks during the night!," chanted the mostly young demonstrators encamped at Sanaa University in the capital, after gunmen attacked them during the night, killing two of them and wounding 23, according to witnesses and medics.
"I presented my resignation with seven others to protest the methods used by the General People's Congress to quell protests in the country," MP Abdu Bishr said, after two others had done so earlier in the week.
He added that "59 over party members are getting together to present a collective resignation."
1241 GMT: Ratings agency Moody's says it has today placed Bahrain on credit watch over the political unrest in the tiny Gulf state, warning that it will consider downgrading its sovereign debt rating.
1239 GMT: Paris to freeze Mubarak clan's French assets: ministry
1239 GMT: Spain condemns Kadhafi's use of force to quell a popular uprising as "absolutely unacceptable" and says he has lost the right to lead the country.
"A political leader who has decided to bomb his own citizens has lost all legitimacy to continue to lead his country," Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez says.
"The situation we are witnessing in Libya is absolutely unacceptable from every point of view," she tells reporters.
1234 GMT: In the Tripoli neighbourhood of Tajura, streets have been blocked by residents who used chopped down palm trees to build barricades, disregarding Kadhafi's message to remove roadblocks.
Army and police forces are absent today in the main avenue of Gargares, a residential neighbourhood where witnesses told AFP yesterday that they saw tanks patrolling.
1229 GMT: The AFP correspondent says the capital got off to a quiet start with people queuing up in front of bakeries and cars lined up at petrol stations as usual.
Later in Green Square the government supporters began arriving. Men and children poured out of minibuses while some Kadhafi supporters perched on the roofs of vehicles.
Two or three police cars patrolled the area while police and a few men in civilian clothes armed with Kalashnikovs were deployed at the square.
1225 GMT: All is quiet in Tripoli's Green Square at midday amid pouring rain, an AFP journalist reports.
A few dozen cars are driving round blasting their horns while pro-government demonstrators wave flags and pictures of Kadhafi, the journalist says.
1217 GMT: More tweets from The Guardian's Martyn Chulov: Seen anti aircraft shell casings on streets in Benghazi... Damage on nearby buildings shows they were widely used... Everything closed. Feels abandoned. Comms down. Hospitals still full. No sign of ghaddafi's people.
1215 GMT: German Chancellor Angela Merkel describes Kadhafi's televised address last night as "very scary".
"We are calling on the Libyan authorities to stop the violence against their own people," Merkel says.
"If the violence does not stop ... we will consider sanctions," she adds.
1213 GMT: European equities have fallen again, as traders keep a watchful eye on simmering Middle East tensions, after an overnight Wall Street slump that was sparked by violent unrest in Libya.
"Stocks are lower again during the European session as investors continue to fret about the prospect of an escalation in Middle East tensions," says analyst Kathleen Brooks at Forex.com
1207 GMT: More about the closure of Libya's ports: The CMA CGM shipping group says: "Due to a general insurrection in some Libyan cities since last week, all ports and terminals are temporarily closed."
A spokeswoman for the group has told AFP Wednesday she has no information on when the ports might reopen.
The group said it is represented in Libya by its agent, OSCL, whose office in Tripoli remains open with a skeleton staff. Its offices in Misurata, Khoms and Benghazi are all temporarily closed, the statement says.
Pending the ports' reopening, the group is using storage capacity in Malta "which is only 12 hours away from Libyan ports," it says.
1204 GMT: Cameron, shown on Sky News, says: "We should send a very clear warning to Kadhafi and the Libyan armed forces that what they are doing is wrong."
The best way of doing this would be through an UN Security Council resolution, he told students.
1200 GMT: "We should send a clear warning to Kadhafi," UK Prime Minister David Cameron says as he answers questions from students at Qatar University, BBC TV reports.
1158 GMT: 'Horrible' Libya crimes must be punished: EU president
1150 GMT: Israeli President Shimon Peres has condemned violence by Libyan forces against civilians, saying Libyans "will not forgive" Moamer Kadhafi for the killing of hundreds of people.
"The fact that he used arms and brutally killed hundreds of people, people will not forgive him because the right to demonstrate is a human right," Peres told a conference in Madrid.
"He has been the most brutal person in response to the demonstrations (sweeping the Arab world). Kadhafi makes a joke out of all of us. People take him in a humouristic way, but it is not a laughing matter, it is serious."
1148 GMT: All Libyan ports and terminals are temporarily closed because of the revolt by opponents of Kadhafi's regime, the CMA CGM shipping group says in a statement on its website.
1145 GMT: Asian stock markets have mostly extended losses and oil remains after Kadhafi warned he would fight "to the last drop of my blood".
Despite the sell-off, Macquarie Private Wealth division director Martin Lakos in Sydney says heavier falls are unlikely.
"Most Asian equity markets have already seen a lot of de-risking because of the Libyan crisis, while Wall Street has played catch-up after the US holiday" on Monday, he said.
1141 GMT: All Libyan ports temporarily closed: shipping group
1140 GMT: More from Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who says Kadhafi has lost control of the eastern province of Cyrenaica.
Speaking at a meeting organised by the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Christian organisation, Frattini says there have been recent proclamations in Cyrenaica that it is now an Islamic emirate and calls to break with the West.
"It is a worrying development if radical Islam is only a few hundred kilometres away from the European Union's front door, but nothing can justify the violent death of hundreds of innocent civilians," Frattini added.
1 137 GMT: In Cairo, former Egyptian police officers protesting outside the interior ministry set fire to an adjacent administration building, a security official as told AFP.
The police officers -- demanding reinstatement into the police force -- hurled firebombs at the smaller building, which is also used by the ministry. Several cars outside were also set alight.
Soldiers who remain deployed in the heart of the capital in the wake of the 18-day uprising against president Hosni Mubarak put the fire out, and there were no reported casualties, the official said
1135 GMT: EU says ready to evacuate 10,000 citizens from Libya, including by sea
1132 GMT: CNN says correspondent Ben Wedeman and a crew found no-one in charge when they entered Libya from Egypt.
As Wedeman and his crew were entering the country, a young man at the border in civilian clothing and toting an AK-47 asked them for their passports. "For what?" responded Wedeman's driver. "There is no government. What is the point?" They then drove in, the TV network said.
On the Libyan side, there were "no officials, no passport control, no customs," Wedeman reports.
1127 GMT: CNN cites a woman in Tripoli as saying several more checkpoints have been set up, especially near the city centre, restricting residents' movements.
The food shortage is getting worse, she says. When her family members went to get bread this morning, the shops were closed, CNN quotes the woman as saying.
1121 GMT: Spain's government says it has sent a plane to Libya to evacuate its citizens, and also plans new economic measures to cope with a hike in oil prices due to the escalating unrest in the country.
The foreign ministry says between 60 and 90 Spaniards still want to leave the country, following the departure of about 50 people.
The government also plans on Friday to discuss whether to pass a new energy law if the tension in Libya, from which it imports 13 percent of its oil, leads to a new hike in the price of oil.
1116 GMT: Some 15,000 Chinese nationals trapped in Libya's insurrection against strongman Moamer Kadhafi will be evacuated by four ferries chartered from Greece, a Greek government source says.
The four vessels -- the Venizelos, Express Santorini, Hellenic Spirit and Olympic Champion -- should reach the Libyan coast by Wednesday night, the official tells AFP.
1114 GMT: Sources tells AFP the charter plane hired by Britain's Foreign Office is still waiting for an answer from the Libyan authorities as to whether they can fly to Tripoli to rescue British nationals.
1100 GMT: The Guardian's Martin Chulov is filing by Twitter from Benghazi. Here are some of his tweets today:
Mass defection of the military here. Beyond a critical mass.... Air force major tells me of witnessing 4k african mercenaries arriving from feb 14 'that's why we turned against them'... Looted weapons still arriving... 3 african mercenaries being held prisoner upstairs... Amazing scenes in yard of ransacked police hq in benghazi... Massive armoury looted from barracks by defecting troops... Camp site set up at benghazi... Large anti-ghadaffi demo here... Effigies of him hanging from looted govt buildings...
1052 GMT: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expresses outrage at what he says is "unimaginable" repression in Libya, urging world leaders to listen to their people.
"It is unimaginable that someone is killing his citizens, bombarding his citizens," Ahmadinejad says on state television when asked about the situation in Libya.
"How can officers be ordered to use bullets from machine guns, tanks and guns against their own citizens?"
1048 GMT: Jordan's Islamists and other parties say Friday's planned demonstration will also seek "to denounce violence," in which eight people were hurt last week when a mob wielding batons waded into a pro-reform march in Amman.
"Our protest will be a response to the thugs who attacked the protesters and to pressure the government to implement promised reforms," IAF's Bani Rsheid says.
"If the government or its supporters commit acts similar to last Friday's, we will demand the downfall of the government."
Supporters of leftist parties told AFP that they plan to spend the night on Thursday outside Al-Husseini Mosque, in the city centre where they were attacked last Friday.
1044 GMT: Saudi King Abdullah has boosted social benefits for civil servants, students and others ahead of his return to Riyadh after three months of absence, the Saudi Press Agency says.
The king ordered the implementation of a 15 percent pay rise for state employees as well as an increase in the cash available for Saudi housing loans, according to SPA, the official news agency.
The 86-year-old monarch also granted pardon to some prisoners indicted in financial crimes and announced plans to tackle unemployment.
Abdullah is heading home from Morocco, where he had been recuperating after back surgery in the United States, returning to a Middle East rocked by anti-regime uprisings.
1042 GMT: Jordan's powerful Islamist opposition says it plans to stage a "day of anger" demonstration with other parties on Friday to demand reforms, in what they hope will be the largest protest since January.
"Around 10,000 members of the Islamist movement as well as supporters of 19 political parties will take part in the march to call for reforms," Zaki Bani Rsheid of the Islamic Action Front (IAF) executive committee announced.
1037 GMT: Reports today that large parts of Libya are no longer under Kadhafi's control contradict claims overnight by the president of the country's parliament that the army have re-established their positions.
Calm "has been restored in most of the large cities" in Libya, Mohamed Zwei, president of the General People's Congress, said late last night, adding that "security forces and the army have re-established their positions."
Zwei also told a press conference that a commission of enquiry has been set up to investigate the eight-day revolt against Kadhafi.
At the same time, he said "current conditions do not permit holding a meeting of parliament to discuss the reforms" announced earlier this week by Seif al-Islam.
Meanwhile, Jebril el-Kadiki, deputy air force chief of staff, said that arms and ammunitions depots had been bombed in Rajma, near the eastern city of Al-Baida; in Ajdabia and Al-Gueriet in the south and near Zenten and Mezda in the southwest.
Kadiki said all of the facilities are located in desert areas, away from any inhabitation.
1032 GMT: Kadhafi's son Saif al-Islam is expected to hold a news conference today.
1030 GMT: The Financial Times reports that the strongman's family is feuding over the vast business empire his regime has built up since coming to power in 1969. It cites communications between US officials obtained by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Another British daily, The Times, says it has footage of severely wounded and dead protesters in a hospital in the eastern city of Benghazi proving heavy weapons were being used to crush the revolt.
1026 GMT: China's State Council has "decided to immediately deploy chartered civil aircraft, COSCO cargo ships in nearby waters, and Chinese fishing vessels carrying needed living and medical supplies", the foreign ministry says.
China will also look to hire "large-scale passenger cruise ships and buses" to get Chinese works out of Libya, it adds.
1024 GMT: Asian nations are preparing "mammoth" evacuation plans for more than 100,000 migrants trapped in Libya, many of them low-paid labourers toiling on construction sites.
Arrangements to use passenger ships, planes and land routes to Egypt are being considered as governments try to secure their citizens' safety despite poor communication links and growing violence.
The majority of expatriates are contract workers, with 60,000 Bangladeshis, 30,000 Filipinos, 23,000 Thais and 18,000 Indians among those living under Khadafi's tottering regime.
"This is going to be quite a mammoth operation," India's foreign secretary Nirupama Rao tells reporters. "We will have to not only put in place arrangements for aircraft or ships, but also obtain permission from Libyan authorities for our aircraft to land there."
1021 GMT: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the EU to adopt "swift and concrete sanctions" and suspend economic and financial relations with Libya.
"I call on the foreign ministry to propose to our European Union partners the swift adoption of concrete sanctions so that all those involved in the ongoing violence know that they must assume the consequences of their actions," Sarkozy told a cabinet meeting.
"These measures concern notably the possibility of bringing them to face justice, barring them from the Union's territory and surveillance of financial movements," Sarkozy said, according to a text published by his office.
"I would also like to be examined the suspension until further notice of economic, commercial and financial relations with Libya," he adds.
1017 GMT: AFP's Sylvie Lanteaume has looked up the London School of Economics thesis written by Khadhafi's son Saif al-Islam. It's title is: "THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS"
As Sylvie says: "You couldn't make it up."
1013 GMT: Saudi king boosts social benefits for citizens: news agency
1007 GMT: In Manama's Pearl Square one woman shouts:"We shall never be humiliated," evoking a traditional Shiite slogan that blares out of megaphones across the square, now renamed "Martyrs' Roundabout" by demonstrators to honour those killed in a deadly police raid.
1004 GMT: In Bahrain, protesters are vowing not to budge from Pearl Square, epicentre of anti-regime demonstrations, despite the release of leading Shiite opposition activists and renewed calls by the king for talks.
One day after a mass demonstration clogged the main roads of Manama, Shiite protesters have again crowded Pearl Square, chanting: "We are brothers, Sunnis and Shiites. We shall not abandon this country."
1000 GMT: Italy's Frattini says: "Cyrenaica is no longer under the control of the Libya government and there are outbreaks of violence across the country."
The Italian government is calling for an immediate end to "this horrible bloodbath" that "the Kadhafi government has announced and is continuing to carry out," Frattini added.
0957 GMT: Oil company BP tells AFP that all families and dependants of its Libya-based expatriate employees have arrived safely at various European locations.
The remainder of the company?s employees in Libya will leave the country in due course and in accordance with enforced curfews, a spokeswoman says.
0952 GMT: Libya's eastern province of Cyrenaica is no longer under the control of Moamer Kadhafi, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini announces.
0951 GMT: Sarkozy calls for EU sanctions against Libya
0947 GMT: Alessandro Marra, an official at the UN human rights office, tells AFP: "We received the request for a special session this morning, filed by the European Union."
"Forty seven states are supporting the request, not all of them are members of the human rights council," he says. The meeting and debate is due to begin at 10.00 am (0900 GMT) in Geneva on Friday.
0945 GMT: UN rights council to hold special session on Libya on Friday: official
0943 GMT: Libya's eastern Cyrenaica province no longer under Kadhafi control: Italy
0940 GMT: "We have started to suspend some of our production capacity in Libya," a Total spokesman tells AFP, asking not to be named and without providing further details.
Total produced an average of 55,000 barrels per day from its Libyan wells in 2010 or 2.3 percent of the giant's production.
0936 GMT: French energy giant Total says it is "starting to suspend" part of its oil production in Libya where protests against Moamer Kadhafi's rule have killed hundreds.
Follow this live report for a minute-by-minute update of events as they happen in Libya, North Africa and the Middle East. We'll bring you events as they develop after Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's dramatic call for his supporters to confront the protesters today.
Here's a reminder of some of Kadhafi's statements yesterday:
"If I were a president I would have resigned but I have no position to resign from."
"I will die a martyr in the land of my ancestors" and "I will fight to the last drop of my blood."
"The Libyan people are with me. Capture the rats. Go out of your homes and storm them" wherever they are.
"Do you want Libya to be like Somalia? It will lead to civil war if you do not apprehend them."
"Libyan oil should be distributed to all the people. You can take it and do whatever you want to do."
"A small group of people are circulating money and drugs to young people and trying to push them" to rebel.
"We have fought the might of America and Britain and all the nuclear countries. We have fought the might of NATO. We will not surrender."
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