Libya Snapshot: The Hidden Workshops of Misurata (Chivers)

When the bloody siege of this isolated city began, the rebels who rose against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s conventional army had almost no firearms. Many of them relied on hands, knives and stones.

Now they roam the streets as a paramilitary force built around hastily armored trucks that have been fitted with captured machine guns set on crude turrets and mounts.

The transformation, evident in an offensive late last month that chased many of Colonel Qaddafi’s forces from Misurata’s center to its outskirts, is in part the result of a hidden side of this lopsided ground war: a clandestine network of rebel workshops, where these makeshift weapons have been designed, assembled and pushed out.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: What to Do With the Opposition?

2000 GMT: The head of the United Nation's World Food Programme has warned that Libya's food supplies could be exhausted soon unless plans are put in place.

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said Supply concerns are particularly acute in the oppsoition-held east: "The challenge in Libya is that this is a centrally controlled food system that was run by the government, and it's not being restocked now. That whole system could run out of food in six to eight weeks."

"If we do not address the larger gaps in the food system in Libya -- particularly eastern Libya -- we'll have to envision a fairly massive humanitarian operation."

1940 GMT: Video of destruction in the southern Syrian town of Daraa, recorded after the withdrawal of military forces earlier today:

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Libya Snapshot: How the Opposition Held Misurata

"All of a sudden I became responsible for macaroni and onions," said Majdi Shibani, a telecommunications professor put in charge of food distribution — a daunting task in a sprawling city where all phone lines have been cut. His team oversees distribution of 400 tons of food per week from a room in the back of a hookah lounge, where customers smoke water pipes.

Donations of food have streamed in on boats from the Libyan diaspora, foreign countries and international organizations. There's little coordination, resulting in huge surpluses of, say, canned corn — which Shibani said Libyans hate.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Welcoming Calm?

1915 GMT: Claimed footage of a demonstration by university students in Aleppo in Syria today:

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Now, Back to the News

At Funeral of Qaddafi's Son (Photo: Reuters)

1852 GMT: A Bahraini official has denied that the government is targeting Shi'ite mosques for destruction. Bahrain's Justice and Islamic Affairs minister, Shaikh Khalid Bin Ali Al Khalifa, claims that many buildings that were built illegally are being destroyed, but mosques were not being singled out:

"By taking action against illegal buildings that have accumulated over the years, the municipality should be praised, not criticised," he said. "We are not targeting mosques, but any building that was put up in violation of the laws and regulations. Claims that some of the buildings were more than 200 years are also untrue because under Bahrain's laws, any real estate that is more than 60 years old is duly recorded in the country's registers. We should not fall for baseless allegations and should learn to co-exist peacefully," he said.

He also took offense to the classification of Shiite and Sunni mosques.

1830 GMT: Algeria has approved a big wave of government spending, subsidies for food staples and the removal of duties, in order to pacify growing discontent there as well. The move will increase public spending by 25%.

1620 GMT: Switching to Bahrain, 47 medical professionals are facing prosecutions, some of them for the death of two protesters. The two deceased were injured during the anti-government protests, and some of the medical professionals are being accused of providing "unnecessary" treatment on them, leading to their deaths.

It is widely thought that the government is cracking down on the doctors and other medical professionals because they have credibility, and have witnessed many of the wounds that the protesters have suffered at the hands of government security forces.

Also, two former MPs, both members of the opposition group Wefaq, have been arrested.  

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Libya First-Hand: A Scout Oath in Brega "Duty to God and to Your Country, and to Help Others” (Anderson)

“Before I left Libya, there was nothing left for me here,” Osama ben Sadik said. “Now, when I see the sea, I smell a different air. I can see the sky, blue; I have never seen it so beautiful.” He said that his friends in Martinsville, Virginia, had appealed to him not to go to Libya. “I reminded them that Henry County was named after Patrick Henry --- and remember what he said, ‘Give me liberty or give me death’? Well, that’s what we’re facing here. I’d like to see my country have some of the freedom that America has.” Osama’s eyes shone. “You know, my son Muhannad has showed me what it is to be a man. He woke me up.” On February 25th, a ship had evacuated American citizens to Malta. “I told him to go and join his mother in the States, but he said, ‘No, Dad, I must stay.’ He’s a great guy, a basketball player, you know. And a Boy Scout.”

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Qaddafi Son, 3 Grandsons Reportedly Killed in Airstrike

2150 GMT: Back to the start of our busy Sunday --- Libyan State TV has shown footage of what it claims is the body of leader Muammar Qaddafi's son Seif al-Arab, reportedly killed by a NATO airstrike:

2140 GMT: Activists, residents, and a prominent lawyer have said that Syrian authorities are rounding up busloads of young men in the occupied city of Daraa.

"They are arresting all males above 15 years. They only have old security tactics and they are acting on revenge," said the lawyer. "Bullets are their response to the people's revolt. The security forces who came to Deraa told us 'Go buy bread from a bakery called Freedom. Let's see if it feeds you.'"

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Libya First-Hand: Cut Off from Reality in Tripoli (Daragahi)

It's not just that Moammar Kadafi's portrait adorns every square and roadway; that he and his family dominate all aspects of the country's political and economic life; that his security forces have infiltrated society through multiple layers of "committees" that replace civic life.

It's not just that Moammar Kadafi's portrait adorns every square and roadway; that he and his family dominate all aspects of the country's political and economic life; that his security forces have infiltrated society through multiple layers of "committees" that replace civic life.

It's also that state television shows nonstop coverage of rallies in support of Kadafi; that his enforcers stand in traffic and demand that taxi drivers unfurl banners; that every single song on the radio is about Kadafi, the 1969 coup that brought him to power, and how happy and blessed Libyans are for all that he has bequeathed them.

"All the people of the world know that we are happy," go the lyrics of one song set to the catchy rhythms of Arab wedding music, "because we are following our leader."

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Persistence

Benghazi Residents Celebrate Claimed Death of Qaddafi Son (Photo: Reuters)Because of the developing news of the NATO airstrike that reportedly killed Seif al-Arab Qaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, and three of Muammar Qaddafi's grandson, we have moved the LiveBlog to an entry at the top of the page.

Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Demonstrations and Deaths

2030 GMT: Thanks to Ali Yenidunya for handling the LiveBlog while I was away on academic business.

Reuters reports that a large candlelit protest is taking place in the Syrian town of Baniyas this evening.

1610 GMT: After UNHRC had called for an urgent investigation by the UN high commissioner for human rights into killings and other human rights violations in Syria, Human Rights Watch said today that Syria should end its violent repression of peaceful protests following unequivocal condemnation of its actions by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

1600 GMT: An update regarding the latest situation in Syria.

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