Sunday, February 27, 2011

Middle East Protests Live Blog

1517: The FCO says it believes the "vast majority of British nationals who want to leave have now left Libya, through commercial means". Where people want to stay on, the FCO will "take measures available to assist them".
1516: The British Foreign Office says that as its embassy in Libya has been temporarily closed, the Turkish embassy is now representing British interests in the country.
1511: Our correspondent Paul Moss is in the Tunisian capital, Tunis. Earlier, he described "very ugly scenes" in Tunisia, with police beating protesters who had gathered there.
1510: Back to Tunisia, Baki 7our tweets: "The big problem of Ghannouchi's govt was its lacking of any legitimacy. Elections soon ?"
1509: Libyan Youth Movement tweets: "Reports coming from Sebha of unrest will try to confirm soon."
1503: Tunisia is where the unrest began in earnest back last year, after a young vegetable trader set himself on fire in protest at his standard of life. The unrest quickly escalated and protesters across the country focused their anger on Mr Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years. He resigned, and fled the country, on 14 January.
1502: He was speaking at a news conference in Tunis, after making a lengthy speech defending his record in government.

0:07 Residents of Zawiya fear attack as government tanks surround the city.

Gaddafi opponents in eastern Libya tell Reuters they have formed a National Libyan Council - this is not an interim government, they say, but the face of the revolution.

1451: People in Zawiya have told the BBC's Jeremy Bowen that the government forces have attacked them a few times, but have been unable to break through into the town centre, which is held by Gaddafi opponents.

The BBC's Mark Dummett in the southern Indian city of Kochi has more on the Indian evacuation: "The first Indian to make it back home was 63-year-old Mohammed Sali. His escape from Libya wasn't a straightforward matter. He explained that as he reached Tripoli airport, he was looted of all his possessions at knife point. Another man said that even as the passengers lined up to collect their tickets, they were robbed of their mobile phones."
1441: The Indian government has begun the evacuation of its 18,000 citizens working in Libya. The first special flights, carrying 530 people in all, have landed in Delhi, and a passenger ferry has arrived in the Libyan city of Benghazi to collect others.


3:50pm
AFP reports that while Libyan leader Gaddafi may be reviled by many of his own people and the international community, he's enjoying an unexpected surge of popularity - as a music video star. The clip was created by Israeli musician and DJ Noy Alooshe and appears to be wildly popular in the Arab world despite its origins in the Jewish state.

A remix of a rambling 75-minute speech Gaddafi delivered on Tuesday, set to dance music and featuring the strongman alongside footage of two gyrating girls, has gone viral on the Internet....racked up almost half a million views on the video-sharing website YouTube since it was posted three days ago. Called "Zenga Zenga," the music video mixes Gaddafi's quotes with club beats, using lines in which he vows to fight "inch by inch, home by home, alley by alley" as the chorus for the song.
3:25pm
Some updates on evacuations by country. Reuters reports that China's Eastern Airlines will send eight chartered flights in the coming days to evacuate the Chinese from Malta. Military sources said Germany is sending three ships to Libya to help evacuate German citizens.Croatia said 28 Croatian workers have left Benghazi on an Italian military ship bound for Malta.The Greek passenger ship Nisos Rodos with 390 evacuees on board, mainly Brazilians and Filipinos but also Thai, Portugese, Dutch and Britons, has docked at the port of Piraeus. More than 530 Indian nationals arrived from Tripoli at New Delhi International airport on two Air India flights on Sunday.


From The BBC
1425: More from the UNHCR's Liz Eyster on the Libyan-Tunisian border: "We're experiencing a bit of a bottleneck in getting the Egyptians back home. There's not enough buses and planes and boats to get people moving. The Tunisian people have mobilised an amazing relief effort - they've been accommodating people in shelters, schools and places of their own. But we're now aware of the fact that they're very much stretched and they need the support of the international community."
1414: Mr Mitchell adds: "Those who have come out so far are by and large migrant workers, not Libyans. But we have in Dubai a large amount of stores which are at six hours' notice to fly in to the border areas if Britain can help and assist with that. We don't know precisely where or what will be needed, but it is at six hours' notice to do so."
1411: UK International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, who spoke to the BBC's Politics Show earlier, said the UK was ready to make a "very significant contribution" in humanitarian aid to Libya if necessary, but pointed out there wasn't a humanitarian crisis there yet: "We must be careful not to over-state that, but we are making significant plans on both borders to help and protect people who may be coming out."
1407: Feras Kilani adds: "It became very difficult to continue the trip toward Misrata as a result of the large number of checkpoints; so we took a sub-rural road to return to Tripoli and we found the same number of checkpoints until we were about 20km (12 miles) from the capital. This is the image from the centre of Tripoli and east of the city for approximately 56km (35 miles)."


Major Tribes in Yemen have joined in the call for the President to step down.

In Oman two protesters have been killed by riot police using rubber bullets with a police station on fir in the second largest city. Rubber Bullets are not made from rubber but are hard spun plastic which when fired at close range can kill

in Libya the former Justice Minister has formed an interim government in the Eastern city of Benghazi.

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