"Free Libya": A Report from Benghazi (Chulov)

Photo: ReutersAt the heart of the city where he launched his rise to power, Muammar Gaddafi's indignity is now complete. In little more than three days of rampage, the rebels in Libya's second city have done their best to wind the clock back 42 years --- to life before the dictator they loathe.

Benghazi has fallen and Gaddafi's bid to cling on to power, whatever the cost, has crumbled with it. There is barely a trace of him now, except for obscene graffiti that mocks him on the dust-strewn walls where his portraits used to hang.

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From Tunisia/Egypt to Libya/Iran: Notes of Caution on Sudden Change

Events will move to the breaking point, when someone holds a gun to someone else's head, and everyone is forced to react. With Mir Hossein Mousavi under house arrest, Mehdi Karroubi under the constant guard of security forces in his own home, Hashemi Rafsanjani's power being challenged on the Assembly of Experts, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's term expiring, and the 2009 spirit of dissent reviving, the question is when that point is reached.

The earthquakes of Egypt and Tunisia built up for a long time on softer ground. It has taken, and will take, much longer for the fault lines to break the foundations of Iran's government. When it happens, the regime is likely to go quickly, and like a high-magnitude earthquake, the results will be felt far and wide.

We're already feeling the foreshocks, but the whole world is waiting for the big one.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Standoffs

2205 GMT: Al Jazeera English has posted video of wounded men being treated in Az Zawiyah, where fierce battles took place between regime forces and the opposition today.

2155 GMT: The first edition of the newspaper in "free" Benghazi has been published

2150 GMT: Text messages to Libyans declare that a local cleric has issued a fatwa against watching television channels "like Al Jazeera" that incite bloodshed.

2145 GMT: Libya's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, who broke with the regime earlier this week, has appealed to key Brigadier Generals Mahdi Al Arabi and Mohamed Al Esawi to turn against Muammar Qaddafi.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Into the Abyss?

2255 GMT: We are going to take an overnight break and resume early Thursday morning. Coverage continues on the Live Feed from Al Jazeera English.

2210 GMT: Barack Obama has just made his statement on Libya, "We strongly condemn violence in Libya...express our condolences...bloodshed outrageous...violence must stop." He continued, "These are human rights. They are not negotiable. It's important for the international community to speak with one voice."

Obama did make an advance beyond Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's silence (see 2023 GMT) on action: he said he had asked his administration for a full range of options to respond to this crisis --- with allies or other institutions.

Those last words are importantly, as they indicate that the US President is wary of moving unilaterally.

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Libya Video: Qaddafi's 90-Minute Speech

A portion, in three videos, of Libya leader Muammar Qaddafi's 90-minute stream of consciousness on Tuesday:

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An EA Caption Competition: 4 Regime Leaders in Happier Times

Four gentlemen in happier times: deposed Tunisian President Zine Abedine Ben Ali, current Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, still-current Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, and ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Over to you, dear readers, for the appropriate inscription/epitaph: 

Libya Feature: In His Last Days, a Cruel Dictator Seeks a Facelift (Fisk)

So even the old, paranoid, crazed fox of Libya --- the pallid, infantile, droop-cheeked dictator from Sirte, owner of his own female praetorian guard, author of the preposterous Green Book, who once announced he would ride to a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Belgrade on his white charger – is going to ground. Or gone. Last night, the man I first saw more than three decades ago, solemnly saluting a phalanx of black-uniformed frogmen as they flappered their way across the sulphur-hot tarmac of Green Square on a torrid night in Tripoli during a seven-hour military parade, appeared to be on the run at last, pursued --- like the dictators of Tunis and Cairo --- by his own furious people.

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Latest Libya (and Beyond) Video: Qaddafi's 22-Second Speech

Latest claimed footage from North Africa and the Middle East: see also Libya and Beyond Video: Last Act of a Regime?

Claimed Footage of Youth Protest in Tripoli in Libya

A Scene from Benghazi, Libya's 2nd-Largest City, after "Liberation"

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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.

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Libya, Bahrain (and Beyond) Video: Filming Protest and Violence

The latest footage to come out of Libya, Bahrain, and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa: see also Libya Video: A Bloody "Day of Rage" and Bahrain Video: The Attack on Pearl Roundabout.

Yemen: Protests in Aden today

After the Shootings: Protests at the Hospital in Bahrain:

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