Worldloverpeace Aisha
36 NTC cabinet members are expected to be announced at about 16:00 GMT today. feb17.info/news/live-liby… #Libya” #Libya rt@feb17libya
2:10pm: Yesterday, the citizens of the city of Zwara got the chance to vote for the members of their local transitional council. A privilege not exercised in other cities.
“By that they would like to ensure a representation that takes into account all different ethnic groups and all different cities.”They do understand that the stakes ahead and the challenges facing this pro-Gaddafi Libya are going to be incredibly high, and for this they want people who no affiliations with the Gaddafi time.”
11:27am: Italy unfroze 2.5 billion euros ($3.4 billion) of Libyan assets last week, Banca UBAE SpA General Manager Biagio Matranga told Il Corriere della Sera in an interview.The Rome-based trade finance bank, owned by Libya’s central bank, has 3 billion euros of assets, Matranga said.
10:57am: Moammar Gadhafi’s fighters have fired several mortars and tried to ambush revolutionary forces at the northern gate of the loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid.Sunday’s attack came after the two sides clashed through the night inside the town as Libya’s new rulers face fierce resistance to their efforts to crush the dug-in fighters loyal to the fugitive leader.
The mortars targeted a building where revolutionary forces were taking cover as well as the town’s northern entrance, kicking up sand and filling the sky with black smoke. Anti-Gadhafi fighters returned fire with machine guns and rockets.
Former rebels from nearby Tajoura have arrived to reinforce the overstretched revolutionary forces on the Bani Walid front.
10:15am: Powerful explosions and sustained machinegun fire rattled the Libyan desert stronghold of Bani Walid on Sunday as fighters loyal to Muammar Gaddafi shelled positions held by interim government forces around the town.Forces backed by Libya’s new rulers said fighting had continued overnight on the outskirts of Bani Walid, one of the ousted leader’s last bastions, as their opponents put up strong resistance.
“We fought all night. We have surrounded the city from all sides with the range of 40 km (25 miles),” anti-Gaddafi field commander Absalim Gnuna told Reuters at the northern gate of Bani Walid.
“Most areas north of the central valley are clear. It is a big fight,” he said, as his fighters squatted behind walls and vehicles to shield themselves from heavy shell fire.
10:01am: In Libya, interim government forces have encountered strong resistance in the towns still loyal to the ousted leader, Muammar Gaddafi.Gaddafi’s spokesman has told a news agency that 354 people were killed in a NATO air strike on Sirte last night. Whether this is true or not is impossible to tell.
In Bani Walid, another Gaddafi stronghold, there were chaotic scenes as injured fighters were rushed to a field hospital. They say they were ambushed by pro-Gaddafi forces 20 kilometres outside the town.
8:26am: Documents show former British prime minister Tony Blair made two private trips to see Muammer Gaddafi in the run-up to the release of the Lockerbie bomber, The Sunday Telegraph revealed.Blair, who left office in June 2007, used a Libyan regime jet to visit Gaddafi in June 2008 and April 2009, the newspaper said, citing documents discovered in Tripoli since Gaddafi was ousted from power.
Blair played a major role in trying to bring Gaddafi in from the cold in exchange for giving up his nuclear weapons programme and first visited him in March 2004 in what was dubbed the “deal in the desert”.
A spokesman for Blair acknowledged that the visits took place and that the Libyans had raised the issue of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi but the former premier simply told them that it was a matter for the Scottish authorities.
8:20am: Two Libyan fighter jet pilots who had defected to Malta in February will reportedly return to their home country.The men say they were ordered to bomb protesters in Benghazi, but diverted their planes to Malta at the last minute.
Months later, they are expected to receive a hero’s welcome upon their return.
