6:52pm
The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration said it helped evacuate a group of 1,450 Egyptians from Libya earlier today, and has chartered five flights to carry a further 900 from the Tunisian island of Djerba. Marc Petzoldt, IOM's Chief of Mission in Tunisia, said:
With thousands of migrants still awaiting authorization to enter Tunisia, there is an urgent need to decongest the border area which lacks adequate facilities to host large numbers of people.
6:37pm
Libyan residents had some US$62.1billion deposited in overseas bank accounts at the end of last year, says the bank for Internation Settlements. Much of it is in the form of investments made by Libyan banks - but individuals account for US$8.2billion of cash held overseas.
A third of Libya's 6million people live on less than $2 a day, reports
Arab News6:25pm
Libyan state TV has been showing soldiers inspecing weapons they say were handed in by opposition forces in Az Zawiyah.
They say the men "felt guilty for what they had done after listening to lies on foreign media". They also said the surrender was peaceful and that the men were not arrested nor were their names taken...
6:06pm
Gaddafi troop commander General al-Mahdi al-Arabi has told protesters staging a sit-in in a square in Zawiyah, west of Tripoli, that Gaddafi has threatened an airstike against them if they did not disperse, reports Al Jazeera Arabic.
6:02pm
The UN High Commission for Refugees says 140,000 have fled Libya to Egypt and Tunisia since February 20th. - with 14,000 crossing the border into Tunisia yesterday alone.
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Yesterday UNHCR erected 500 tents, and last night each was sheltering between six to eight people. This morning work continues on erecting a further 1000 tents so that a total of 12,000 people will have shelter by the evening. An additional two airlifts are planned for Thursday with tents and supplies for up to 10,000 people. The water and hygiene situation remains precarious. UNHCR has requested ICRC and UNICEF to help with improving these facilities. Tunisian civilians, the Tunisian Red Crescent and the Tunisian military have been offering what our staff have described as 'unprecedented support', but are seriously overstretched ...
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We are very concerned that a large number of sub-Saharan Africans are not being allowed entry into Tunisia at this point. UNHCR is in negotiations with self-appointed volunteers from the local community who are guarding the border.
5:53pm
James Mattis, the US general in control of US Central Command, syas establishing a no-fly zone over Libya "would be challenging". He said:
You would have to remove the air defence capability in order to establish a no-fly zone - so no illusions here - it would be a military operation, it wouldnt simply be telling people not to fly airplanes.
5:49pm
We mentioned earlier the Libyan pilots who flew to Malta instead of bombing protesters in Benghazi. Well, Malta has just announced it's not going to give the planes back.
The island nation's government on Wednesday refused to let a Libyan passenger plane land, because the passengers included two pilots sent to fly the Mirage jet fighters back to Libya, said the office of the Maltese prime minister.
Martin Bugelli, head of information for the prime minister's office, said they were abiding by the UN arms embargo imposed on Gaddafi.
The jet fighters are understood to be of comparable capability to the MiG-21, with a top speed of around Mach 2.2 - and capable of carrying sidewinder missiles and up to 4,000kg of bomb payload.
5:37pm
We're expecting a US military press conference shortly. Officially, it's not to give a statement about Libya - but Gaddafi is likely to be the subject of the first question. We'll bring you details right here...
5:32pm
Austrian officials have just announced they are freezing Gaddafi's assets in the country. The country's central bank said some US$1.66billion of Libyan assets were held by Austrian institutions. However, a bank source said:
Very little of it is likely to be Gaddafi's directly and, if it is, it is not going to have Gaddafi written all over it.
Saif al-Islam studied in Veinna - and Austrian media reports that he kept his two pet white tigers in the city's zoo while he was there.
[ Bericht 0% gewijzigd door doeterniettoezegiktoch op 01-03-2011 18:37:32 ]