Libya: rebels demand return of Gaddafi's family - live updates
Gaddafi's wife and three of his children flee to Algeria
NTC says it seeks to extradite Gaddafis from Algeria
Leaked memo: UN plans to send police and observers
10.20am: Below the line in the comments section BrownMoses does a great job of rounding overnight tweets and blogs from journalists in Libya. Subjects include: celebrations to mark the departure of Gaddafi's family to Algeria, the continuing loyalty of some to Gaddafi, and an update on the road between Tripoli and Tunisia.
Derek Stoffel, from the Canadian broadcaster CBC, described the scene in Martyr's Square.
Video has also emerged of the celebrations in the square.
Fireworks replaced gunfire in Tripoli's Martyrs Square last night.
9.46am: The end of Ramadan in Libya will be marked by "Eid of victory" celebrations. Supporters of the Libyan revolutions prepared a Eid al-Fitr cake decorated with an icing Gaddafi being chased off by rebel rats.
This Eid will live in Libyans' memory, despite the shortages of basic services in Tripoli, Reuters reports. Tripoli resident Adel Kashad said:
Every year we celebrate Eid with new clothes, big meals and home-made sweets. There are shortages this year. But we have managed so far. Thank God this Eid has a special flavour. This Eid we have freedom.
G! uma el-G amaty the London spokesman for the National Transitional Council, tweeted this:
I should say, this eid is bitter sweet. We will never forget the loved ones we lost whom we owe our freedom for all eternity. #Libya
9.30am: Eid al-Fitr celebrations in Syria have been marred by the shooting dead of at least seven people this morning, writes Nour Ali.
Four people were shot dead in the southern province of Deraa and another in Homs following demonstrations which came out across the country after morning prayers, activists from the Local Coordination Committees say.
Meanwhile, diplomatic machinations continue. A Russian envoy was in Damascus yesterday hours before ambassadors to the UN Security Council met in New York to discuss a new draft introduced by Russia.
The Russian draft resolution calls for a halt to violence but does not mention sanctions favoured by a US and EU sponsored draft circulated earlier this month. So far the security council has issued a statement but has been unable to agree on a resolution due to Russian and Chinese objections.
Protesters are beginning to turn on the opposition. Frustration on the streets is being vented against the fragmented groups who have come up with myriad conferences and statements but have not yet offered any form of authoritative alternative to the Assad regime.
Yesterday a list of 94 names for a new national council was released from an unknown source. Those on the list were not consulted and members of a conference on 23 August in Turkey who proposed setting up a national council have said this initiative is not linked to theirs.
But there are some signs that the figures on the list, which is roughly equally divided between people inside and outside the country, may coalesce and consent to the initiative. Burhan Ghalioun, a professor at the Sorbonne has been proposed a! s head o f the council.
Meanwhile, activists are warning against growing calls by some protesters to pick up arms or for international intervention such as a no-fly zone, an increase of which was seen in protests on Friday.
The Local Coordination Committees is one group that has rejected the calls. "Militarising the revolution would minimize popular support and participation," it said in a statement.
Nour Ali is the pseudonym for a journalist based in Damascus
9.07am: While the rebels insists they are trying to negotiate a surrender of Gaddafi's stronghold of Sirte, Nato jets have continued to bombard the town.
In it latest update on the bombing campaign, Nato said it hit 35 targets in the town on Monday [pdf].
It also said it hit targets in Bani Walid and Hun.
Here are the details:
Key Hits 29 August:In the vicinity of Sirte: 3 Command and Control Nodes, 4 Radars, 1 Surface to Air Missile System, 22 Armed Vehicles, 2 Military Supply Vehicles, 1 Command Post, 1 Anti Aircraft Missile System, 1 Military Facility.
In the vicinity of Bani Walid: 2 Command and Control Node, 1 Military Ammo Storage Facility.
In the vicinity of Hun: 5 Anti Aircraft Artillery, 1 Multiple Rocket Launcher, 1 Radar, 1 Anti Aircraft Gun.
Nato has now given details of 115 targets hit in Sirte in the last five days. On Sunday, Nato said it hit 30 targets in Sirte. On Saturday just one surface to supply vehicle was hit in the town, but the day before 19 targets were hit, including two military shelters. On Thursd! ay 25 Au gust, the bombardment of the town appeared to began in earnest, when 30 targets were hit.
8.55am: Rebels say they have "almost certain" information that Gaddafi's son Khamis, and his intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, were killed in fighting over the weekend.
Similar reports in the past turned out to be unfounded.
Reuters treats the claim with caution:
If true, their deaths would mark the highest-profile casualties on the Gaddafi side since an uprising began six months ago aimed at ending Muammar Gaddafi's 42-years in power.
"We have almost certain information that Khamis Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi were killed on Saturday by a unit of the national liberation army during clashes in Tarhouna (90 km southeast of Tripoli)," spokesman Ahmed Bani told Al Arabiya television.
"Khamis Gaddafi was buried in Bani Walid," Bani told the pan-Arab channel.
However, Khamis has been reported dead twice before during the uprising, only to reappear, and Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who heads the rebel National Transitional Council, told Al Jazeera television on Monday that he did not have any official information about Khamis's death.
Human Rights Watch has evidence that a force commanded by Khamis Gaddaif carried out summary executions of prisoners in a warehouse in Tripoli.
8.38am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Here's a round up of the latest developments.
Libya
Gaddafi's wife Safiya, daughter Aisha and sons Hannibal a! nd Moham med and their children have fled to Algeria. They were received on "humanitarian grounds" Algeria's ambassador to the UN told the BBC World Service. The NTC accused Algeria of an "act of aggression" against the Libyan people. There were reports on Monday night that another of Gaddafi's sons, Khamis, had been killed in an airstrike south of Tripoli, but this could not be immediately confirmed.
The National Transitional Council said it will seek to extradite Gaddafi's family from Algeria. "We have promised to provide a just trial to all those criminals and therefore we consider this an act of aggression," spokesman Mahmoud Shamman told Reuters. "We are warning anybody not to shelter Gaddafi and his sons. We are going after them ... to find them and arrest them."
The rebels claim they are seeking a negotiated surrender of Gaddafi's two remaining urban strongholds of Sirte, his coastal birthplace, and Sabha in the south. Mahmood Shammam, the NTC's information minister, dismissed claims that major military offensives against the towns were about to start. "We don't know that these two cities are revolting against us. We are negotiating to enter these cities peacefully. We will continue to do so," he said. Over the weekend Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim suggested the fugitive leader was willing to discuss a transitional government.
The UN is prepared to send police, military observers and elections monitors to Libya, according to a leaked memo. The document, unearthed by Inner City Press, provides a broadly upbeat assessment of Libyan's ability! to rest ore order.
Abdelbasset al Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, has been falling in and out of a coma for up to three months, according to his family. Speaking outside Megrahi's Tripoli home, Abdelnasser Megrahi, described his brother's condition. He said: "He is very sick. The coma came two or three months ago. Sometimes he speaks to his wife or mother, sometimes he is in a coma. His life is in danger now." He refused journalists access to the home, after CNN had filmed Megraphi attached to a drip and oxygen mask. He also insisted his brother was not responsible for the bombing. "From day one I believed he was innocent. The case was more political than a crime. There is no actual evidence. The world knows my brother is innocent."
Libyan rebels may be indiscriminately killing black people because they have confused innocent migrant workers with mercenaries, according to the chairman of the African Union Jean Ping. According to an AP report published by the Washington Post, he said: "NTC seems to confuse black people with mercenaries. If you do that, it means (that the) one-third of the population of Libya, which is black, is also mercenaries. They are killing people, normal workers, mistreating them."
I would rather they had just taken me out and beat me, even every day, than go through the solitary confin! ement, b ecause what it does psychologically is astonishing. I had no idea that the brain could work in the ways that it did in my case.
Syria
Dozens of soldiers, possibly encouraged by events in Libya, defected to the opposition near the central city of Homs, activists claim, according to the New York Times. The claim coincided with a government assault on Rastan, near Homs. A resident told the paper: "Gunfire and explosion rang across the town early this morning, and we heard that tanks are surrounding the town. We are so scared, too scared to leave the house. We don't know what they are preparing for us."
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