Van AJE-Blog
8:12pm The Libyan national transitional council, based in Benghazi, says it will respect all oil contracts signed by Libya. Council spokesman Hafiz Ghoga said:
We are seeking to increase our production of oil but the bombardment of certain oil industry locations will definitely affect our levels of production.
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8:07pm US officials say they are planning to shut down Libya's embassy in Washington DC, but has stopped short of formally cutting diplomatic ties. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers:
We are suspending our relationships with the existing Libyan embassy. So we expect them to end operating as the embassy of Libya.
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7:55pm It seems that the various homes of the Gaddafi family around the world are becoming the focus of renewed solidarity protests. Danish police have moved to block plans for a giant party at Gaddafi's US$2.6million villa near Copenhagen.
The Facebook page set up as an open invitation to the March 25 bash had received 3,700 "confirmed attendees" within days. But police in the upmarket Gentofte suburb said they would also turn up. Danish police told the AFP news agency:
They do not have the authorisation, so they might as well stop planning it, because there won't be a party. If they try, we'll be there.
Undeterred, party planners siad they would instead hold a pub-crawl-style "dictator's crawl", writing on Facebook:
Because the house is occupied, we'll be having a dictator's crawl instead. We'll gather in front of the entrance of embassies to party and support uprisings in the Middle East, North Africa, and the rest of the world!
Police said the event was being organised "by a pair of anarchists".
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7:41pm Italian energy group ENI says it will only hit its yearly profit growth target if "normal production" resumes in Libya. Italy's largest industrial company - in which the Italian government holds a 30 per cent stake - revealed it has had to cut its oil and gas production in Libya by over 50 per cent due to the "ongoing unrest".
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7:31pm Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's second-oldest son, goes on:
We will never ever give up. We will never ever surrender. This is our country. We fight here in Libya. The Libyan people, we will never ever welcome NATO, we will never ever welcome Americans here.
Libya is not a piece of cake.
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7:30pm In the interview with Reuters, Saif al-Islam says Libya is "committed to introducing democracy and freedom".
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7:28pm Saif al Islam Gaddafi says "the time has come for full-scale military action" against Libyan rebels. He goes on to say that Libyan forces loyal to his family "will never surrender, even if western powers intervene".
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7:18pm Al Jazeera Online's very own Evan Hill, reporting from northern Libya, has filed this piece for us, detailing how the opposition forces are being pushed back by mortar and sirstrikes, after making swift progress toward Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte. Click here to read: Rebel push stalls outside Ras Lanuf.
You can follow his exploits on Twitter, @evanchill
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