- Libyan jets 'fire on protesters in Tripoli'
- Protesters appear to have taken control of second city Benghazi
- Up to 400 feared dead after dozens killed in clashes
- Two Libyan fighter jets land in Malta as pilots request asylum
- Gaddafi's own diplomats at the UN turn on dictator and say he should go
- Justice minister resigns over 'excessive use of violence'
- David Cameron declares regime response is 'appalling and unacceptable'
- Gaddafi's son says: 'We will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet'
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has fled Libya and may be heading for Venezuela, William Hague said today.
The Foreign Secretary said he had seen 'information' that suggests Gaddafi is on his way to the South American country - as Libya was up in flames today with reports of around 400 dead.
The dictator was said to have fled as Tripoli descended into chaos after anti-government demonstrators breached the state television building and set government property.
Libyan fighter jets reportedly fired on protesters in the capital today, with bombing runs leaving 'many, many dead'.
Even Gaddafi's own Libyan diplomats at the UN are calling for him to step down. Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said that if the dictator does not relinquish power, 'the Libyan people will get rid of him'.
But officials in Venezuela, where president Hugo Chavez is an ally of the Libyan dictator, denied any suggestions that Gaddafi was seeking refuge there. Information minister Andres Izarra said the reports were 'false' .
Scroll down to watch a video report of the unrest in Libya
Popular fury: Government buildings have been set ablaze by anti-regime protesters in Tripoli
Taking power: Benghazi residents stand on a tank inside a security forces compound
Victory: A young Libyan girl celebrates after protesters took control of Benghazi
As the dust settles: Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi on Monday, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting
Mr Hague spoke after a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday which sharply condemned Libyan authorities for their crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.
'I have seen some information that suggests he is on his way there [Venezuela] at the moment,' he said.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton dismissed Hague's claim, saying she knew nothing about it and other officials described the report as 'rumours'.
Protesters appear to have gained a foothold in Tripoli today as banks and government buildings were looted while demonstrators have claimed they have taken control of the second city Benghazi.
It is thought up to 400 people may have died in the unrest with dozens more reported killed in Tripoli as protests reached the capital for the first time and army units were said to have defected to the opposition.
The Libyan justice minister has now resigned in protest at the 'excessive use of violence' against the protesters, according to the Quryna newspaper, while two fleeing Libyan fighter jet pilots landed their aircraft in Malta today.
The pilots asked for political asylum from the air before landing their Mirage jets at Malta International Airport shortly after two civilian helicopters landed carrying seven French citizens.
A source said the fighter pilots had left from a base near Tripoli and had flown low over Libyan airspace to avoid detection.
It was a sign of the deepening crisis in Libya as the country's own diplomats at the UN in New York said Gaddafi should go.
Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi also urged the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent mercenaries, weapons and other supplies from reaching Gadhafi and his security forces.
Fleeing: A Libyan Mirage fighter jet touches down at Malta International airport after the pilot requested political asylum from the air
Safety: A Libyan airforce pilot next to his Mirage F1 fighter jet after landing at Malta International. Two Libyan fighter jets and two civilian helicopters landed unexpectedly in Malta
The diplomat says the Libyan delegation is also urging the International Criminal Court to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed against the Libyan people during the current protests.
A coalition of Libyan Islamic leaders has issued a fatwa telling all Muslims it is their duty to rebel against the Libyan leadership and demanding the release of all jailed protesters.
The Network of Free Ulema of Libya also demanded the release of fellow Islamic scholar Sadiq al-Ghriani, who was arrested after criticising the government, and 'all imprisoned demonstrators, including many of our young students'.
As Europe and the U.S. condemned the regime's handling of the unrest, Gaddafi's son Saif said his family would 'fight until the last bullet'.
Colonel Gaddafi was earlier today said to have left Tripoli to prepare for a last stand in Sebha, the small desert town where he grew up.
A source at Tripoli's Mitiga Airport said he saw three planes leaving early this morning.
Uprising: Libyans brandish a pre-Gaddafi era national flag after fighting in Benghazi
United in opposition: Protesters chant against the regime in Benghazi
Wounded: A Libyan carries away partial remains of a man's body at Al-Jalaa hospital in Benghazi
The aftermath: A damaged vehicle lies beside the roadside in Benghazi, where protesters are believed to have seized control
Gaddafi was on one, said the source. The planes were heading down south - to Sebha.
The claim was supported by at least two pro-democracy campaigners who said they had also seen the aircraft leaving.
More than 300 victims were massacred – many by foreign mercenaries – during the government crackdown in Libya’s second city, Benghazi.
The state TV headquarters in the capital Tripoli were also damaged during protests on Sunday while the AFP news agency reported several public buildings had been set alight.
Al Jazeera television quoted medical sources as saying 61 people had been killed in the latest protests in Tripoli.
It said security forces were looting banks and other government institutions in Tripoli, and protesters had broken into several police stations and wrecked them - pictures of the clashes in the capital are yet to emerge, however.
The building where the General People's Congress, or parliament, meets when it is in session in Tripoli was on fire on Monday morning while demonstrators also set light to the headquarters of the Olympic committee.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the dictator's son, gave a defiant address on state television last night saying his family's 'spirits are high' and warning: 'We will eradicate them [enemies] all'.
'FIGHT UNTIL THE LAST BULLET'
The son of Colonel Gaddafi warned that continued anti-government protests could lead to a civil war that could send Libya's oil wells up in flames.
Appearing on Libyan state television after midnight on Sunday, Saif Gaddafi said the army still backed his father, although he added that some military bases, tanks and weapons had been seized.
'We are not Tunisia and Egypt,' the son said.
'We will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet.
'We will keep fighting until the last man standing, even to the last woman standing...We will not leave Libya to the Italians or the Turks.'
He acknowledged that the army made mistakes during protests because it was not trained to deal with demonstrators.
But he added that the number of dead had been exaggerated, giving a death toll of 84.
Saif Gadhafi offered to put forward reforms within days that he described as a 'historic national initiative' and said the regime was willing to remove some restrictions and begin discussions for a constitution.
He offered to change a number of laws, including those covering the media and the penal code.
He said Libya's oil reserves would be 'burned by thugs, criminals, gangs and tribes' and said the populace would be left in poverty.
Libyan protesters and security forces battled for control of Tripoli's city centre overnight, with snipers opening fire and Muammar Gaddafi supporters shooting from speeding vehicles, witnesses have said.
The protests appear to be the heaviest in Libya's capital after days of deadly clashes in eastern cities.
Three witnesses say protesters moved into Tripoli's central Green Square and nearby squares last night. Plain-clothes security forces and militiamen attacked in clashes that lasted until dawn.
One witness said snipers opened fire from rooftops. Two others said gunmen in vehicles with photos of Col Gaddafi sped through, opening fire and running people over. The witnesses reported seeing casualties, but the number could not be confirmed.
It has also been reported that 17 were wounded when Libyans stormed a South Korean-operated construction site 18 miles from the capital, with two Bangladeshi workers stabbed.
Output at one of the country's oil fields was reported to have been stopped by a workers' strike and some European oil companies withdrew expatriate workers and suspended operations.
With autocratic governments already toppled by popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, there was a sense that Gaddafi's iron grip was being severely tested.
'Libya is the most likely candidate for civil war because the government has lost control over part of its own territory,' said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, protesters appeared to be largely in control after forcing troops and police to retreat to a compound. Government buildings were set ablaze and ransacked.
'People here in Benghazi are laughing at what he is saying. It is the same old story (on promised reform) and nobody believes what he says,' a lawyer in Libya's second city told the BBC after watching Saif al-Islam's speech.
Firepower: Libyan hold aloft guns and rocket grenades believed to have been taken from foreign mercenaries in Benghazi yesterday
Iron fist: Colonel Gaddafi, appearing yesterday on state television, is accused of ordering the slaughter of his own people
'Youths with weapons are in charge of the city. There are no security forces anywhere,' University of Benghazi professor Hanaa Elgallal told Al Jazeera International television.
Salahuddin Abdullah, a self-described protest organiser, said: 'In Benghazi there is celebration and euphoria ... The city is no longer under military control. It is completely under demonstrators' control.'
BAHRAIN PROTESTERS CALL FOR OUSTING OF MONARCHY
A group of protesters today called for the removal of Bahrain's entire ruling monarchy as part of sweeping demands to call off the week-long uprising in the tiny, but strategically important Gulf nation.
Tensions are still running high in Bahrain after seesaw battles that saw riot police open fire on protesters trying to reclaim landmark Pearl Square last week.
The manifesto Monday from a group calling itself 'Youth of Feb. 14' - after the day of the first marches - stated: 'We demand the overthrow of the oppressive Al Khalifa regime.
'The people will choose the system they will be subjected to.'
It is unclear how much weight the group, made up mostly of the hundreds of youth camped out on Pearl Square, carries.
Nor is it clear what their relationship is with the official Shiite opposition that includes 18 members of the 40-member parliament who resigned in protest on Thursday.
In Al Bayda, a town about 200 km (125 miles) from Benghazi, which was the scene of deadly clashes last week between protesters and security forces, a resident told Reuters protesters were also in command.
As BP suspended operations in Libya and planned to evacuate its expattriate staff, oil prices rocketed to two-year highs on Monday due to the ongoing turmoil in Libya - a key global oil producing region. London Brent oil jumped to £64 a barrel.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, as he flew into Egypt on a surprise visit, launched an angry attack on the treatment of protesters in Libya.
‘Our message, as it has been throughout this - I think we have been extremely consistent in saying that the response to the aspirations people are showing on the streets of these countries must be one of reform not repression,' he said.
‘We can see what is happening in Libya which completely appalling and unacceptable as the regime is using the most vicious forms of repression against people who want to see that country - which is one of the most closed and one of the most autocratic - make progress.
‘The response they have shown has been quite appalling.’
City on fire: Al-Bayda local council building ablaze in Libya's third biggest city Al-Bayda
Call for change: Placards in Arabic read at top left 'Strike, strike until the fall of the regime', and at top right 'The people want to topple the regime'
Massacre: More than 300 pro-democracy demonstrators have been killed in Libya
The worst unrest of Gaddafi’s 41-year rule comes seven years after Tony Blair’s controversial Deal in the Desert, when the Labour Prime Minister ushered Libya in from the cold in exchange for billions in British business deals.
Britain has faced growing condemnation over its courting of Gaddafi after the Libyan dictator ordered the slaughter of hundreds of his own people.
The United Nations and the U.S. Ambassador to London questioned the UK’s cosy trade links with Tripoli yesterday.
British weapons are believed to have been used to murder more than 300 Libyan pro-democracy demonstrators.
Relatives of those killed during the Lockerbie massacre condemned the ‘shameful’ British dealings with Gaddafi.
And Mona Rishmawi, legal adviser for the UN High Commission on Human Rights, warned that Britain might be guilty of ‘complicity’ in the killings.
Since sanctions were lifted in 2004, UK firms have sold sniper rifles, tear gas, wall-breaching projectile launchers and crowd control ammunition to a regime found guilty of ordering the Lockerbie bombing, Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity.
It paved the way for the near doubling of exports to Libya, worth almost £500million in 2009 alone.
Mr Blair’s deal is widely seen as having paved the way for the controversial release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
SILVER PRICES SOAR TO 30-YEAR HIGH AFTER MIDDLE EAST UNREST
Silver has risen to its highest price for more than 30 years as investors exploited the growing upheaval in the Middle East.
Cash silver rose by 1.5 per cent to $33.1425 an oz, its highest price since March 1980, while gold bullion was up its highest level in seven weeks.
'Gold, silver, platinum and palladium are all riding on investor interest against the backdrop of intensifying violence in the Middle East,' said KEB Futures Co trader Hwang Il Doo told Bloomberg.
'I wouldn’t be surprised to see gold rising above $1,500 in the coming month.'
The price rises follow a warning from Gaddafi's son that civil war would jeopardise Libya's oil wealth.
Foreign Secretary William Hague revoked all trade licences to the regime on Saturday.
At least 150 British firms operate in Libya, including British Airways, Bhs, Marks & Spencer, Monsoon Accessorize, HSBC, Corus International, KPMG, GSK, AstraZeneca, JCB, Rentokil, Ernst & Young, PWC, Land Rover, Mott MacDonald, AMEC and Biwater.
The UN’s Mona Rishmawi said there was a ‘real question mark’ over selling weapons to regimes such as Gaddafi’s.
‘We are very concerned about any possibility of complicity in human rights violations,’ she said.
The chaos in Libya is the worst example of clashes sweeping the Middle East after proteters succeeded in toppling Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.
Bahrain, Algeria, and Yemen have all seen clashed between security forces and pro-democracy protesters.
Next month's Bahrain Grand Prix has been cancelled as protesters continue to camp out in Pearl Square after clashes with security forces.
Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh today rejected demands to step down,, saying widespread demonstrations against his regime are unacceptable acts of provocation.
However, the U.S.-backed leader, in power for three decades, offered to begin a dialogue with the protesters.
However, the U.S.-backed leader, in power for three decades, offered to begin a dialogue with the protesters.
The proposal was quickly rebuffed as insincere by an opposition spokesman, and an influential group of Muslim clerics called for the establishment of a national unity government until elections can be held.
A region in turmoil: A burning car during a demonstration in Marrakech in one of a string of nationwide protests that brought thousands to the streets across Morocco
Ongoing protest: Bahraini anti-government demonstrators sleep outside their tents after nearly a week of unrest
Yemeni protest: Anti-government demonstrators surround a government backer as they scuffle with him during a protest in Sanaa
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