Live Blog - Libya March 4 By Al Jazeera Staff in Africa on March 3rd, 2011.

By Al Jazeera Staff in

Africa

on March 3rd, 2011.

[GALLO/GETTY]

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As the uprising in Libya continues, we update you with the latest developments from our correspondents, news agencies and citizens across the globe. Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

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(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

• 7:13pm

  Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught interviews Gaddafi's Saif al-Islam
• 4:08pm

  Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children said:

  
  

  "The use of children in conflict is completely unacceptable, and constitutes a war crime. It is essential that all such reports are thoroughly investigated and that anyone found to be responsible for such blatant violations of children’s rights is held to account."

  "Children who are used as soldiers are exposed to high levels of violence, and risk being killed or wounded. They are victims in this crisis, and should be treated as such. They need psychological support to overcome the very traumatic events they have experienced. These reports underline the precarious situation of children in Libya, and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid organisations to be given access to the worst affected areas in the country."

  Read More
• 3:53pm

  In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, Abdel Rahman Shalgham, the Libyan ambassador to the UN, says he is representing the intern council, not Gaddafi.

  " We ask Gaddafi to step down like Mubarak or leave the country like Ben Ali." He also said that at least 80 per cent of those who are still supporting Gaddafi are mercenaries. " We are going to put the mercenaries and their countries on trail.  I asked all the people to support the interim council," Shalgham said.
• 3:46pm

  A spokesperson from HM Treasury, the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy, said:

  "A vessel which had been heading to Libya returned to the UK on Wednesday morning. The ship was escorted into the port of Harwich by the UK Border Agency cutter HMC Vigilant. A number of containers were offloaded from the boat and have been taken under control of UK Border Agency and have been moved to a secure location.
  
  "The cargo is understood to contain a significant quantity of Libyan currency which is subject to a UN sanction."
• 1:14pm

  Shadi Hamid, of the Brookings Doha Centre, tells Al Jazeera:

  Gaddafi has made it unequivocally clear that he is not going to step down. The pro-democracy forces in the east of the country want to move into Tripoli, [but] they don't have the fire power, they don't have the troops.

  He adds that a "no fly" zone could shift the balance, but acknowledges that the move is not without its risks. "Bold action is often risky," he said.
• 1:03pm

  Our web producer, Evan Hill, is reporting from the eastern city of Benghazi. He tweets:

  The call to prayer has begun in Benghazi amid rainy, windy conditions. Demonstrations expected afterward.

• 11:49am

  One of Al Jazeera's producers in Libya, Tristan Redman, just tweeted this:

  Sand storm blowing in #ajdabiyah and braygah. Little chance of gaddafi air strikes in these conditions #libya

• 11:07am

  Ahmed Radwan is an Egyptian vascular surgeon working as a volunteer in eastern Libya. In this video sent to Al Jazeera, he describes the kinds of injuries he's been treating in the last few days.
• 10:20am

  The Reuters news agency is now reporting a new air attack in eastern Libya, citing witnesses who say a Libyan warplane dropped a bomb near a rebel-held base in the eastern town of Ajdabiyah.

  We are working to confirm that report.
• 8:09pm

  Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Benghazi on the thousands of migrant workers who have been left jobless and without a way to leave Libya since the uprising began.
• 9:11am

  Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez continues to push his mediation plan despite the idea being rejected by Libyan opposition groups and Western governments.

  Protesters in Venezuela have added their voices to the uprising, chanting slogans in support of the Libyan people and condemning Chavez's proposal to work with Gaddafi, whom they labelled a murderer.

  This photo, provided by the Reuters news agency, shows a protest in support of the Libyan people in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas:

  
• 8:27am

  Jacky Rowland attended funerals held for opposition fighters killed when Gaddafi's forces attacked the town of Ajdabiya yesterday and sent this report.
• 8:08am

  Saif Al Islam Gaddafi has accused the international media, including Al Jazeera, of blowing the crisis out of proportion. 

  In an interview with Anita McNaught, he repeated the allegation claiming the West was trying to take over Libya's oil. 

  Here's a sneak peek at that interview, which you can watch in full at 15:30 GMT on Friday:
• 7:48am

  More on Libya's interception of what it said was 37 million units of a painkiller aimed at altering the minds of young people to revolt. (See our earlier post.)

  The Reuters news agency cites Mahmoud Ali, who said he was the head of Libya's anti-narcotics department, as saying authorities intercepted shipments of Tramadol which had originated in Dubai and were purchased by a Libyan drug dealer with ties to al-Qaeda.

  "The target was the distribution of the drugs among young people through drug traffickers," Abdel Haqim Giniwa, another anti-narcotics official, told a news conference.

  "Thanks to all the hard work of the security forces, this quantity of the drug was intercepted. It would have caused social and economic disorder."

• 7:12am

  Graphic video has emerged of what appears to be a group of soliders, massacred in Libya. The video was posted to Facebook on Thursday.

  It cannot be independently verified but appears to show the bodies of at least 21 men in military clothing, bound and blindfolded.  One seems to still be alive.

  The Facebook page says the video was first run on state TV, which identified the dead as soliders, killed by anti-government fighters. 

  But the Facebook posting says the men were actually killed by pro-government forces, for refusing to fight.
• 5:11am

  South Korea says 32 of its nationals evacuated from Libya by a naval destroyer will arrive at the Mediterranean island of Malta later today. 
• 5:04am

  Twitter is abuzz with reports of "air strikes" being carried out in the western city of Misurata within the last hour. These reports remain unverified, but we will keep you updated on the situation as it develops.
• 4:50am

  After Muammar Gaddafi's consistent claims that those rebelling against his rule are drug-addled youths being manipulated by al-Qaeda, the Libyan anti-narcotics force now says it has intercepted 37 million units of  Tramadol, a painkiller, that had been allegedly bought by a Libyan drug dealer "with links to al-Qaeda".
• 4:12am

  David Wyss, the chief economist at the Standard & Poor's ratings agency, tells Al Jazeera that the reason for the spike in global oil prices is not so much the loss in actual supply from Libya (it has currently cut production by about 1million barrels, which is being made up by Saudi Arabia), but because of the wider implications if the unrest in the country spreads.

  He says that if unrest were to spread to the Persian Gulf, oil prices could "quite easily be back to the [2008] $148/barrel" level, the highest level oil prices have ever climbed to.

  At the moment, he says with oil priced at about $101/barrel, the markets can cope, but it would be a problem if they approached those 2008 levels.

  As for Libya, a supply disruption for a couple of months will not impact too badly either domestically or internationally, but anything longer than that would have more serious implications both for international oil prices but also for Libya's income.
• 3:46am

  Saif al-Islam Gaddafi says bomb attacks at Brega were intended to "frighten" rebels into retreating.In an interview with Sky News, Gaddafi said:

  The bombs were just to frighten them to go away. There is no city there, the city of Brega is miles away. I'm talking about the harbour, only oil refinery there."

  He also stressed that the government would do everything in its power to maintain control of the oil refinery.

  This is the oil and gas hub of Libya. All of us, we eat, we live because of Brega. Without Brega, six million people have no future because we export all of our oil from there.

  "There are militia and they were filming themselves. They came with three tanks and heavy machine guns. There is a red line, you cannot control the harbour. Excuse me!

  "Nobody will allow the militia to control Brega, it's like you allowing somebody to control Rotterdam harbour." 

• 3:41am

  Austrian anti-terrorism police have grilled Mustafa Zarti, one of Muammar Gaddafi's close confidantes, the interior minister said on Thursday.

  Zarti was interrogated for several hours and then released, Maria Fekter told a public television channel. The vice-chairman of the Libyan Investment Authority looked after Gaddafi's assets in Austria and left Tripoli to take refuge in Vienna on February 21.

  The Austrian central bank had earlier said that Libyan assets in Austrian banks that could be affected by EU sanctions amount to 1.2 billion euros.
• 3:25am

  More pictures from the International Medical Corps:

  
• 3:19am

  These pictures, taken by the International Medical Corps, show refugees who have gathered at the Libya-Tunisia border. International agencies have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in border towns,with particular concerns for the safety of migrants who remain trapped in the country.

  

   
• 3:12am

  This audo message left with the Voices of Feb 17 group describes how anti-government activists in Az Zentan launched an offensive on a military outpost outside the city. The situation in Az Zentan is described as being close to normal, with supplies relatively undisrupted, though people do say that disappearances of youth activists continue.
• 2:20am

  On a government-hosted tour of Tripoli, Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reported that there were no signs of the kind of protests that have been seen across the rest of the country, though the city was struggling with the mass exodus of many migrants who work in the service and business sectors. As for demonstrations, there were none, save for a small government-sponsored pro-Gaddafi one near Green Square.
• 2:07am

  Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son, has been speaking to Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught in Tripoli. An excerpt from the interview:

  
  

  It's a joke, please. We are not kids, stop calling us ... we have no money outside. [...] Give me a single evidence that we- show me our bank accounts [you allege that we have abroad]. Show me. [...]

  "The west, we know them very well. When you are strong, they run after you. They are like, you know, they are like cats. If you are weak, they want to be like tigers. We know this game... we know them for a long time. The West, the Americans, the NATO ... we don't pay attention to them.

  "Please, come on. We know the organised media campaign against Libya. This country will survive. I know they want to split the country. They want to just destroy it. They want to control its assets, it's a very rich country. Small population. This will not happen. So we are telling those people: be happy. This will never happen. Because the Libyan people are so united. And please, wait for surprises."

  Wondering what those surprises are? Tune in to Talk to Al Jazeera today at 1530GMT.

  
  
• 1:40am

  According to a message posted on the Voices of Feb 17 site, things in the city of Az Zawiyah have been quiet just recently, with opposition forces who control the city organising committees to ensure that the city keeps running.

  While people in the city have been singing, chanting slogans and even writing political poetry against Gaddafi, medical supplies in the city are reportedly running low. According to the person who recorded the message, pro-Gaddafi forces are not allowing medical supplies to pass through checkpoints if those carrying them say they are bound for Az Zawiyah. He said that one person falsely claimed that he was headed for Sabratha, and was allowed to pass.

  There are calls in the city for a large demonstration and march after Friday prayers, when anti-government protesters say they will walk across the city to where Gaddafi's troops are stationed.

  
  
• 12:01am

  Welcome to our Live Blog of events in Libya for March 4, where we'll be bringing you updates on the situation in real-time, as ever.

  If you'd like to catch up on what's been happening over what has been an eventful day (with highlights including Barack Obama, the US president, declaring that Muammar Gaddafi must leave office and the International Criminal Court declaring that it will be opening an investigation into charges of crimes against humanity by the government), you can always go through yesterday's Live Blog.