Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Rallying

1930 GMT: Our live blog coverage ends here. We will be back tomorrow morning.

1920 GMT: Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a former foreign minister of Nicaragua, has been named by Qaddafi as Libya’s ambassador to the UN.

1900 GMT: CNN reports a rebel spokesman in Benghazi, Libya saying that fighters are executing a "tactical withdrawal" from territory they previously controlled. It is reported that rebels withdrew towards Brega, prepared to defend Ajdabiya. Other sources report that rebels are leaving their places in Ajdabiya to defend Benghazi!

Al-Jazeera says that Libyan rebels are fighting in Brega now.

1830 GMT: Reuters correspondent Michael Georgy was expelled by Libyan authorities today. 

"We regret the decision of the Libyan authorities to expel our correspondent and we regret the fact that no reason has been given for his expulsion," Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler said.

1810 GMT: Libyan rebels are preparing to launch a television channel, broadcasting from Qatar. The channel is named "Libya". Its 20 staff were recruited via Facebook and is funded by the diaspora. It is scheduled to broadcast tonight. 

1800 GMT: France 24's journalist Philip Crowther says that Libyan were caught in an ambush today. Several injured, at least one dead. On the other hand, though it is not confirmed, it is claimed that 18 civilians were killed in Misrata by Qaddafi's artillery and tank attacks. 

1750 GMT: Libyan families are fleeing the eastern town of Ajdabiya towards the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. 

 

1745 GMT: Coalition strike comes near the eastern city of Ajdabiya. The AFP said huge plumes of smoke rose into the sky.

1740 GMT: The Netherlands announced on Wednesday it has frozen more than €3bn ($4bn) of assets as part of EU sanctions against Gaddafi's government.

1730 GMT: After Bashar's speech, hundreds of people took to the streets in the port city of Latakia chanting "freedom".

Meanwhile, 'gunfire was heard in the southern quarter of Sleibi but the source has not yet been identified,' Issam Khoury, a Latakia-based journalist, told AFP.

1720 GMT: Press TV claims that its broadcast is down in Bahrain.

1700 GMT: President of the Bahrain Center of Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, claims that CNN crew who were in his house were arrested in Bahrain.

1645 GMT: Asked about the possibility of arming Libyan rebels, President Obama said: "I'm not ruling it out but I'm also not ruling it in."

1630 GMT: Libya's Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "Providing military assistance to armed gangs is contrary to Security Council resolutions, and is in support of terrorism as it has been proven that the armed gangs in Benghazi belong to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups."

1610 GMT: Syrian President Bashar's car was blocked by a woman, probably a protestor, after his speech.

1600 GMT: Around 300 Gazan students who rallied to mark both Land Day and to issue a call to end the divisions within the Palestinian national movement were stopped by Hamas police. An unknown number of them were arrested, say witnesses. 

Land Day is an annual day of commemoration for Palestinians of the events took place in 1976 when the Israeli government announced to to expropriate thousands of dunams of land; in return of which six Palestinians were killed and hundreds were wounded in confrontations with the Israeli army.

1545 GMT: You can find the whole articles of the Constitutional text of Egypt here - http://bit.ly/hSa4Ne

1530 GMT: Al-Jazeera's Cal Perry was in Daraa, trying to get reaction of Syrians while Assad was delivering his speech. 

1500 GMT: Bahrain's Shiite opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman urged Iran "not to meddle in Bahraini internal affairs" and demanded a withdrawal of Saudi-led Gulf troops. 

1445 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke in favor of a regime change in Libya yet questioned the coalition forces. He said: "It is clear that there must be another, democratic, leadership. But the Libyans have to decide that for themselves without any foreign meddling."

1430 GMT: Transitional military government says that Egypt will hold a presidential elections will be held in one or two months after the parliamentary elections. So, presidential elections will be either in October or November.

Some articles of the new Constitutional decree (which has 62 articles in total) announced by military council:

Egypt is a democratic country and Islam is the religion of the state.

The state ensures freedom of religion and expression.

Presidential elections to be scheduled after Parliamentary elections.

The president is obliged to appoint a vice president within 60 days.

Elected president to assume powers of the head of military council.

State of emergency to be lifted before parliamentary elections.

1415 GMT: Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass is named minister of antiquities. 

1410 GMT: Hamas denied being asked to leave Syria. German news agency DPA quoted Ezzat al-Rashq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, as saying "News circulated by media channels are untrue. It was fabricated by agencies that seek to disturb the Palestinian resistance movement leaders who preserve good relations with Syrian people and authorities."

1405 GMT: The best summary of Assad's speech: "Assad spent 20 min talking about "foreign conspiracies," 20 min talking about evil Sattelite channels, and one minute on Deraa."

1400 GMT: Foreign Secretary William Hague said in London:

There are currently 16 nations contributing assets to coalition operations, including nations from the middle east region. Over 340 planes from fourteen nations have been involved, and vessels from 10 nations are supporting the arms embargo.

1355 GMT: A spokesman for Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni says Uganda would welcome Qaddafi if he were to seek asylum there.

1350 GMT: According to Reuters, the United Kingdom has expelled five Libyan diplomats, including the embassy's military attache. 

1335 GMT: Al-Jazeera's Ali Hashem said that Qaddafi brigades hit 40 km east to Brega and rebels are retreating towards Ajdabiya. 

1330 GMT: Libyan government says will sue any international company which concludes energy deals with rebels. 

1320 GMT: According to Assad, protests are enforcing an Israeli agenda! On the other hand, The Washington Post asks whether West Jerusalem would prefer Assad, who has continued his father's decades-lasting policy of keeping the border with Israel quiet, in power. 

1310 GMT: According to Bashar Assad, the reforms started since 2000 yet "had to be postponed" due to other reasons. Assad believes that there is a conspiracy going on backed by external powers. Apart from the lift of emergency laws and a new law for political parties that were announced last week, nothing new came out of his speech. Here are some key sentences from Assad's speech:

No one can defend and conspire against the nation. Not at the same time!

People in Daraa are responsible in ending the division. People of Dara are the people of patriotism. 

All victims are our brothers and sisters. 

What happens today is not different from 2005 surrender statement. We need to boost people's awareness. 

The root of reforms began in 2000. 

Syria was hurt economically with the beginning of 9/11, invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Syria was wanted to pay for this. If reforms were not our priority, we wouldn't have set them in 2005.

What kind of reforms do we need to achieve? They should cover ten years of the past and ten years of the future. the package announced on Thursday did start from zero.

Satellite channels want to distort the facts and they believe in their own lies. 

U.S. wanted domino effect after the invasion of Iraq. It had a reverse effect and we are on our feet. 

1230 GMT: Syria's Bashar Assad is speaking now. You can listen his speech live. 

Assad says: "We are not Tunisia and Egypt. There are conspiracies targeting Syria. Syria is facing a test to our unity."

1150 GMT: Human Rights Watch claim that Bahraini authorities are targeting wounded anti-government protesters and sometimes denying them crucial medical care. 

1140 GMT: After Hillary Clinton said it would be legal to send arms to support the uprising, legal experts warned Washington. 

"The embargo appears to cover everybody in the conflict which means you can't supply arms to rebels," said Philippe Sands QC, professor of international law at University College London.

1115 GMT: According to Reuters, rebels claim that the coalition warplanes are bombing Qaddafi forces near Ras Lanuf.

1110 GMT: SKY News said that one of their correspondents has witnessed air strikes near Ugayla, a village between Ras Lanuf and Brega. 

1100 GMT: The AFP news agency says Qaddafi's forces have taken Ras Lanuf, but Reuters says rebels are still withdrawing and the fighting is ongoing. According to AP reports, warplanes have "buzzed" fighting near Ras Lanuf today but have not fired on Qaddafi's troops.

1030 GMT: Egypt's Finance Minister Dr. Samir Radwan said that the country had predicted a deficit of 7.9 per cent of GDP for fiscal 2010/11 before the unrest and its budget deficit is growing to 9.1 per cent of GDP for the year to the end of June 2012. 

1020 GMT: Qatar news agency said that Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani will send ships to evacuate around 3,000 Egyptians from Libya.

0725 GMT: Another claimed video of Tuesday's protest in Daraa (see 0530 GMT):

0625 GMT: The last Twitter message of blogger Mahmood Al-Yousif, seized this morning by Bahraini security forces (see 0515 GMT):

0555 GMT: Thousands of teachers are expected to protest in Rabat, Morocco's capital, over the suppression of an earlier demonstration, in which they claim 65 colleagues were seriously injured by police.

The teachers union of Morocco claims that one injured protester died on Monday while five suffered very serious injuries, including broken limbs.

The regime denies he claims. A spokesman for Minister of Interior Taib Cherkaoui, said, "In reality only 17 were actually hurt, as most who went to hospital were just going there to get a doctor's certificate.It's normal in Morocco that protesters exaggerate the figures of those hurt, or actual incidents."

0530 GMT: Claimed footage of an anti-regime rally in Daraa in southern Syria on Tuesday --- the gathering was later dispersed by security forces:

0515 GMT: In Bahrain, police have seized prominent blogger Mahmood Al-Yousif in a raid on his home. The news came in a Twitter message from his son.

Blake Hounshell summarises the latest statements of Al-Yousif, such as, ""We need to be first and foremost Bahraini and believe in each other regardless of any noise."

0415 GMT: While high-level officials from 40 countries gathered in London to discuss Libya, some meeting the leaders of the opposition National Transitional Council, the regime was making its own statement on Tuesday. 

Pushing back in the military struggle, regime forces --- using mortars and artillery to avoid coalition airstrikes --- took back much of the opposition's gains across north-central Libya. Only two days after talks of the insurgents seizing the regime stronghold of Sirte, Qaddafi's troops reclaimed Bin Jawad and Ras Lanuf and threatened Brega.

In Tripoli, despite more coalition airstrikes near the Qaddafi compound and in the eastern suburb of Tajoura, supporters of the regime turned out in Green Square:

Photo: Reuters

In Syria, President Bashar Al-Assad is expected to address the nation, a day after he dismissed his Cabinet. Attention will focus on which substantial reforms, if any, Assad proposes.

Meanwhile, large rallies were staged on Tuesday --- some outlets said "tens of thousands", some said "hundreds of thousands" --- across the country.