Libya Live Blog - May 4

Libya Live Blog - May 4

As the uprising in Libya continues, we update you with the latest developments from our correspondents, news agencies and citizens across the globe.  

• Timestamp: 

  5:03pm

  Moreno-Ocampo said there was evidence that Gaddafi forces attacked unarmed civilians.

• Timestamp: 

  5:00pm

  Moreno-Ocampo said there will be no immunity for Libyan leaders involved in commissioning crimes.

   

• Timestamp: 

  4:50pm

  The ICC prosecutor said that he was also investigating the deaths of dozens of sub-Saharan Africans in the rebel capital of Benghazi by an "angry mob" who believed they were mercenaries for Gaddafi.

• Timestamp: 

  4:45pm

  Moreno-Ocampo said the crimes such as the murder and persecution of civilians were still being carried out by Gaddafi's regime. He did not name the targets of the warrants he is calling for.

• Timestamp: 

  4:37pm

  ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the UN Security Council that he will seek three arrest  warrants for crimes against humanity in Libya.

• Timestamp: 

  4:30pm

  ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said Gaddafi's soldiers committed crimes against humanity in #libya.

• Timestamp: 

  4:28pm

  Luis Moreno Ocampo, ICC chief prosecutor says charges against Libyan government may include murder and unlawful detention, use of cluster bombs and rape as a weapon.

• Timestamp: 

  1:52pm

  Jean-Philippe Chauzy, International Organisation for Migration spokesman, told AFP that Red Star One, the ship docked at the port of Misurata, was unloading 180 tonnes of relief aid supplies.
  
  Chauzy also said that it would embark the migrants, mainly from Niger, who have been marooned in Misurata as well as about 40 Libyan civilians wounded in fighting for control of the city.

• Timestamp: 

  12:32pm

  Reuters reports that a ship aiming to rescue 1,000 African and Asian migrant workers as well as people injured in fighting in the rebel-held Libyan port of Misurata docked there on Wednesday, the agency that chartered it said.
  
  A spokeswoman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the vessel, the Red Star One, which had been waiting offshore since Saturday as Libyan government forces shelled the city, would soon start loading.
  
  The spokeswoman said that the details of the ship's arrival in the port would be released later. Other rescue ships have been waiting offshore but there was no immediate news of their movements.

• Timestamp: 

  12:05pm

  According to Reuters, securing financing for Libyan opposition rebels and facilitating contacts with defectors from Muammar Gaddafi's government will be the focus of Libya talks in Rome on Thursday, Alain Juppe, French foreign minister, said.
  
  Juppe told France 24 television the meeting of the so-called "Contact Group" on Libya, including Western and Middle Eastern countries, the United Nations, the African Union and the Arab League, would discuss setting up a financing mechanism.
  
  The rebel national council has said it hopes for as much as $3bn in credit from Western governments to help them meet pressing needs for food, medicine and state salaries.
  
  Franco Frattini, Italian foreign minister, said last month the Rome talks would look at ways to free assets belonging to Gaddafi and enabling oil from rebel-held areas to be sold.

• Timestamp: 

  11:00am

  Reuters reports: Libya's army fired volleys of rockets at the rebel-held town of Zintan in the Western Mountains.
  
  Rebels said more than 40 Grad rockets hit Zintan late on Tuesday, and aid deliveries to the western port of Misurata were hindered by artillery fire and mines near the harbour entrance.
  
  Rebel spokesmen said fighting had flared again in Misurata's eastern suburbs, but that intense air strikes by NATO planes appeared to have won the port, the city's lifeline, a respite in shelling by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

• Timestamp: 

  9:55am

  According to AFP news agency, international forces are seeking to weaken but not to kill Muammar Gaddafi by bombarding his strategic sites, Alain Juppe, French foreign minister said on Wednesday.
  
  "Our aim is not to kill Gaddafi," Juppe said on news channel France 24, describing as "collateral damage" the death of one of the ruler's sons in a recent NATO air strike.
  
  "We are targeting military sites in Tripoli" in an attempt to weaken Gaddafi's regime, which is in a fierce fight against rebels who are recognised by France.

• Timestamp: 

  8:36am

  Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he will pursue up to five warrants over crimes against humanity committed against civilians.

  Read our latest story: ICC finds evidence of crimes by Libyan regime

• Timestamp: 

  7:48am

  The International Criminal Court says 327, 000 people have been displaced by the fighting inside Libya. 
  
  Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reports from one refugee camp near the Tunisian border.

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:09am

  Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Tuesday, he will pursue up to five crimes against humanity warrants in Libya for shooting civilians and mass arrest of opponents of Muammar Gaddafi.
  
  Moreno-Ocampo also said there were also allegations that Africans from other nations had been attacked in rebel territory because they were thought to be mercenaries.
  
  "We have been collecting evidence about crimes against humanity committed in Libya," Moreno-Ocampo told AFP. He said he believed he has enough evidence for cases to be launched.

• Timestamp: 

  4:45am

  More images of the site of the car bomb in Benghazi, which local  fighters appear to be blaming on "Gaddafi cells" in the opposition stronghold. [Photo credit: Reuters]

  

  

• Timestamp: 

  1:41am

  Khaled Kaim, the Libya deputy foreign minister, says that an amnesty that had been announced to any Libyan rebels who laid down their arms expired at midnight.

  He has, however, called on the justice minister to extend it for "at least another day or two, because there are good signs among people there in Misurata".

  On Gaddafi's physical condition after the government said he narrowly escaped a NATO air strike on Saturday, Kaim said: "He is very well". He added that Gaddafi had met on Tuesday with tribal leaders. 

• Timestamp: 

  1:16am

  The Libyan government has once again denied that Muammar Gaddafi has any personal funds in Swiss bank accounts. It says that any money held in that country is the property of the government's foreign investment agency.

  On Monday, Switzerland said that it had found $418.4 million of assets linked to Gaddafi and his inner circle.

  Khaled Kaim, the country's deputy foreign minister, said the money belongs to the government.

• Timestamp: 

  1:03am

  Pictures coming in from AFP of the blast site in Benghazi, and angry demonstrators chanting slogans against Gaddafi.

  

  

  

  

  

• Timestamp: 

  12:59am

  AFP reports that three explosions have been heard in Tripoli, after jets were heard flying over the Libyan capital. 

  A witness told the news agency that smoke was seen rising from an area in eastern Tripoli. 

• Timestamp: 

  12:55am

  Officials say a car bomb in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi has slightly injured two people.

  The blast caused hundreds of men, many carrying weapons, to come out onto the street and climb on top of the twisted wreckage of the car to yell slogans against Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.

  Nasser Warfuli, a local journalist, identified the car as a white Chevrolet, and said it exploded just before evening prayers.

  Doctors at al-Jalaa hospital say two people suffered superficial shrapnel wounds.

• Timestamp: 

  12:01am

  Welcome to Al Jazeera's live blog, tracking events in Libya as they happen. To get up-to-speed on what's been happening in the last 24 hours, check out our May 3 live blog.