Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Qaddafi Hangs On With Fighter Jets and Bluster

2055 GMT: Al Jazeera is reporting two killed and 10 injured in an attempt on protesters at Sanaa University in Yemen.

2050 GMT: Another quote from former Minister of Interior (and former close Qaddafi friend) Abdul Fattah Younis, "(The bombing of civilians) pained me deeply, it is the main reason I decided to join this revolution."

2035 GMT: Here's a twist on this afternoon's Qaddafi speech....

The Libyan leader said, in his 90-minute ramble, that Minister of Interior Abdul Fattah Younis had survived an assassination attempt but was missing.

Well, tonight Younis has said, "Qaddafi's men came to shoot me but the bullets missed me."

2030 GMT: The office of Algerian President Addelaziz Bouteflika said he approved a Government decision to lift the 1992 State of Emergency.

The brief statement said the change was "imminent" but gave no date.

2028 GMT: Speaking to Al Jazeera, Libyan Minster of Justice Mustapha AbdalJalil, who has also resigned, is praising protesting youth.

2020 GMT: Abdul Hakim Walidi of the influential Werfala tribe says, "We have organised a march of anger heading towards Tripoli."

2012 GMT: Al Jazeera reports that Libya's Minister of Interior, Major General Abdul Fatah Younis, has resigned, urging the army to join the people and respond to their "legitimate demands".

2010 GMT: Well, Muammar Gaddafi still has some friends, it appears. Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega has offered support and the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a phone call. Qaddafi told Berlusconi, "Everything in #Libya is fine. State TV is telling the truth."

2000 GMT: Al Jazeera English summarises the march by "tens of thousands" in Manama in Bahrain today, moving through the capital to the symbolic focus of the protests at Pearl Roundabout. The main chant was "we want the fall of the government" was the most common chant among mainly Shia Muslim demonstrators challeging the Sunni-led regime.

Another picture of the march:

1950 GMT: Back from an academic break to catch up with a surreal evening in Libya....

The ramble of Muammar Qaddafi's remarks to camera, intercut with images of an audience which wasn't actually there, continued for almost an hour. Amidst the invective, the references to foreign-based subversives plying youth with drugs and money to carry out attacks, readings from his Green Book, and even his poetry, there were some sharp points. Conspiring with foreign entities under the pretext of reforms is something else, he concluded.

And there were the not-very-coded threat. Just as the Russians had put down the Chechnyan separatists, as the Americans had bombed Fallujah in Iraq, and even as Chinese tanks had quelled the Tiananamen uprising, so those faithful to the Libyan nation and the Leader of the Revolution could....

As the British intellectual Stephen Fry commented, "Qaddafi appears to have separated himself from any semblance of reality, which would be funny if it didn't mean slaughter, pain, and horror."

1627 GMT: As Qaddafi rambles on about others who have used force --- the Russian Federation taking out Chechnyan separatists appears to be one case, the Americans flattening Fallujah in Iraq --- in what appears to be a warning to Al Qa'eda and "Islamists" challenging him, an EA correspondent gets to the point....

"I believe him when he says he hasn't used violence properly yet."

We will be back with an analysis this evening.

1623 GMT: "I haven't given the orders to use bullets" (but I could). He continues with the threat of the death sentence.

1622 GMT: Qaddafi is now reading from his Green Book to say that when he catches the culprits who have challenged him, "We will not be merciful and forgiving this time."

Under the Constitution and the Green Book, the punishment for setting explosions or spying will be death.

1615 GMT: This I understand --- "Your children are dying, but for what purpose?", manipulated by gangs of rats who live in the US and Europe.

And extracted from the stream of consciousness, this: "Get out of your homes, chase them. Do you want Benghazi destroyed? These rats can reach the oil fields and blow them up."

1613 GMT: Sorry, Qaddafi completely lost me, but it appears his "Who are You?" is a "Where Were You?" addressed to those who did not support Libya in key moments like the 1969 Revolution that put him in power and the struggle against the colonialists, but who now criticise him and support the uprising.

1609 GMT: Qaddafi calls on people to form new municipal committees, as suggested by his son Saif Al Islam in a speech on Sunday night, but this brief moment of substance dissolves into another rant against abstract enemies, "Who are you?"

1608 GMT: A long passage about fighting colonialists.

1606 GMT: Qaddafi is rambling about the situation in Benghazi, but I honestly cannot make any sense of what he is sense. I think he is blaming the situation on "mercenaries" backed by "five American bases".

1603 GMT: Now, more quietly, Qaddafi starts talking about how some young people, "with their criminal records" and emulating Tunisia, attacked barracks. "But I do not blame them."

Apparently there is a group given these youth "money and tablets" to be violent. The people who were killed were police; those responsible lived in big houses outside the country, hoping that Libyans "would slaughter each other".

1602 GMT: Qaddafi is shouting, pounding the podium, shaking a fist, "We are resilient."

1600 GMT: A stream of words --- "Resistance. Freedom. Revolution." And then into a passage of denunciation of the US attack on Libya in 1986, which killed Qaddafi's adopted daughter.

1559 GMT: "I will not leave this country and I will die as a martyr in the end."

1558 GMT: "I am a revolutionary." Qaddafi harks back to his background to claim leadership and dedication: "We cannot hinder the process of this Revolution from these greasy rats and cats." (Yes, that was the translation.)

1555 GMT: This is close to incoherent, either because of Qaddafi, the translator, or both. He is moving between his tirade against Arab media and his call for "revolution as sacrifice and the end of life".

Qaddafi, like former President Mubarak in Egypt, is playing the "I gave my life for this country" card, but it soon strays back into the anger with "Arab media" and defiance of "We challenge America with its mighty superpower."

1554 GMT: Qaddafi's voice is rising to a shout as he talks about the true Libya being shown in the pro-regime rally in the Green Square in Tripoli: "All other nations consider Libya as Mecca."

1552 GMT: Muammar Qaddafi is now speaking on Libyan State TV: "I salute you...people of challenge, generation of challenge. I salute you and put before you the real pictures of the Libyan people...the truth which agents of cowardice try to distort."

Qaddafi takes aim at Al Jazeera, "Some Arab media are betraying you and trying to portray you as a bad people...a people of turbans and low beards".

1520 GMT: A defecting Libyan Air Force captain has told Al Jazeera that high-ranking officers asked Libyan leader Qaddafi to step down, but he replied he will give them "burnt land". The captain reportedly claimed that officers who refused to follow orders were shot dead.

1445 GMT: Egypt's Ministry of Health said at least 384 people died and 6,467 were injured in the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak.

1425 GMT: In Algeria, Laâmri Riadh, one of the leaders of the National Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Unemployed, was arrested this morning by police in Skikda, 500 km (310 miles) east of Algiers.

1420 GMT: Shipping officials says the ports in Benghazi, Tripoli and Misurata are now closed.

1340 GMT: The Iranian newspaper Mehr reports that Iran will suspend its oil operations in Libya in the next 48 hours, removing its personnel from the country.

1335 GMT: More Libyan diplomats have resigned, including the Ambassador to France and the representative to UNESCO.

1330 GMT: A Dutch military plane has evacuated nationals from Libya.

1320 GMT: The French newspaper L'Express claims that President Nicolas Sarkozy's office has removed photographs of Sarkozy welcoming Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2007 from the Presidential website.

1250 GMT: A spokesman for Jordan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on the Libyan authorities to stop the “bloodshed”.

1240 GMT: Reports say more than 30,000 people, challenging the regime, are in today's demonstration in Manama in Bahrain (see 0645 GMT). Another picture:

1237 GMT: Air Force v. Army. The primary targets of last night's aerial bombardment may have been dissident military units --- following the defection of numerous ground forces --- rather than protesters. Fighter jets bombed ammunition depots and command centres.

Helicopters did aim at civilians, firing to disperse demonstrators.

1235 GMT: Turkey has sent two ships to collect nationals from Libya. One has been turned away from Tripoli, the other is trying to reach Benghazi.

1230 GMT: The Egyptian Stock Exchange, shut since 27 January, will remain closed until next week.

1226 GMT: The Libyan Ambassador to the US has resigned, telling Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi "to go and leave our people alone".

Yesterday Ali Oujali told Al Jazeera, "We are disappointed by the way that the government has handled this matter. The use of the heavy weapons against unarmed people isn't something that the most ferocious regimes do." However, he said he was remaining in his post to help Libyans in the US, although not as a representative of Qaddafi.

1211 GMT: Yesterday Nouri al-Mismari, the Head of Protocol, denounced Muammar Qaddafi. Speaking from Europe, told Al Jazeera, "After I spoke to the media yesterday my eldest daughter was arrested by Libyan authorities at home."

Al-Mismari continued, "If Gaddafi's personal Security Battalion known as the 'Mohammed Al Migraif' deserts him, he will be finished."

1210 GMT: Al Jazeera English correspondent, Jamal El Shayyal, able to cross into Libya from Egypt after border guard left, confirms that the border is now in the hands of the opposition.

1200 GMT: Back from a break to find these developments....

Libya has given permission to two planes from Egypt to fly out Egyptian nationals --- a small advance given the 1 million+ Egyptians in the country.

Interfax reports Libya has allowed Russian planes to land in Tripoli, and France has sent three Air Force planes to evacuate its nationals.

Al Jazeera has reported the claim of political activist Al Montaser Zeydan that Army General Abdul Rahman Al Sayd has been arrested.

0940 GMT: The Libyan ambassador to India, who resigned Monday, has told Al Jazeera he is afraid to return to his country after he confirmed the use of fighter aircraft on protesters.

A.H. Elimam, the Libyan Ambassador to Bangladesh, has dropped out of sight after he resigned last night. Sources have told an Al Jazeera correspondent that Elimam felt threatened by an intelligence officer in the Libyan Embassy and was concerned about the safety of his family in Libya.

Al Jazeera English summarises statements from the protesting diplomats.

0905 GMT: Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has ordered the release of some political prisoners.

The King did not give a number. A leading member of the Shiite opposition, Abdul Jalil Khalil, said the release was "a good step" and a "positive gesture," but he added that the move would only lead to dialogue if 25 Shiite activists, on trial since last year for plotting against the state. are among those freed.

It was not clear how many prisoners the king would release.

0900 GMT: The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has said that airport runways in Benghazi in eastern Libya have been destroyed, so planes cannot land.

As we reported yesterday, there is chaos over the fate of more than 1 million Egyptians, many of them without passports, in Libya.

0725 GMT: An Egyptian military source says the border with Libya will be reinforced.

According to Ben Wedeman of CNN, the military said 15,000 people had recently crossed the border, which has reportedly been abandoned by Libyan guards, to reach Egypt.

0705 GMT: Ben Wedeman of CNN has crossed with a crew into eastern Libya and reports:

"Welcome to free Libya," said one of the armed young men now controlling the border.

"Free Libya" was surprisingly normal, once we got out of the border area. We stopped for petrol - there were no lines - and saw some stores were open. The electricity was working. The cell phone system is still functioning, though you can't call abroad. The internet, however, has been down for days.

On the other hand, we did see regular groups of more armed young men in civilian clothing, stopping cars, checking IDs, asking questions.

0700 GMT: In Algeria, police used batons to break up a protest --- claimed to be more than 4000 students outside the Ministry of Higher Education on Monday.

0645 GMT: Photographs this morning of a rally in the capital Manama in Bahrain:

0625 GMT: Kicking Qaddafi....

0620 GMT: Overnight, the United Nations released a statement by an "outraged" Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in which he condemned the assault on protesters as "a serious violation of international humanitarian law":

As I said extensively to Colonel [Muammar] Gaddafi this morning over the phone, I urged him that human rights and freedom of assembly and freedom of speech must be fully protected. 

This is a fundamental principle of democracy. I sincerely hope that the current situation will be resolved peacefully through dialogue -- a broad-based dialogue involving all the parties concerned.

The UN Security Council is meeting later today, as is the Arab League.

0605 GMT: Al Jazeera English somehow got through the phone blockade during the night to speak to a protester in Tripoli. She said Tripoli was "quiet at the moment".

The protester had been in a hospital yesterday. She recounted the horrific injuries of the dead, all men between 17 and 35, claiming it came from gunfire from African mercenaries.

0550 GMT: We awake to find that Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi appeared on State TV just after 0000 GMT.

It was an unusual setting, even for Qaddafi: he sat inside a "TokTok" vehicle, holding aloft a massive umbrella. The speech lasted all of 22 seconds with Qaddafi declaring, ""I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Do not believe the channels belonging to stray dogs....I wanted to say something to the youths at the Green Square (in Tripoli) and stay up late with them but it started raining. Thank God, it's a good thing."

Far more significant than Qaddafi's appearance, which appeared to have no more purpose than to confirm that he was still in Libya, was the apparent introduction of aerial bombardment against the protesters. Unable to rely on his ground forces in much of the country, the Libyan leader unleashed fighter jets and helicopters on the opposition. It is impossible to get even an approximation of the death toll, given the black-out imposed on communications early in the day, but the pictures which did come out --- too graphic to be posted on EA --- are evidence of ruthless killing.

Despite the bombardment, it appears that the regime has lost the east of the country, including Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city. The battle is now in the capital Tripoli. Some video evidence came out overnight of anti-regime demonstrations, while State TV focused on what appeared to be a large pro-Qaddafi rally with the flying of Libya's green flag.

And there was crumbling of the regime throughout the day. Several high-ranking diplomats resigned, including some who did so on-air with denunciations of Qaddafi's "genocide", and those who remained loyal --- such as the Deputy Foreign Minister --- were reduced to calling into Al Jazeera to make allegations that all of this was the fault of foreign media.