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Syria Live Blog - May 15

Thousands continue to take to the streets across Syria, despite reform pledges by President Bashar al-Assad. Activists say hundreds have been killed by security forces. We bring you the latest news from various sources.

• Timestamp: 

  May 16 - 11.20am

  For all of you looking to follow our Syria live blog for May 16: We've actually moved to a new system for continuous liveblogging, and will no longer be creating new live blogs for each day. You can find the Syria Live Blog here. 

• Timestamp: 

  12:03am

  That's it for today's Syria liveblog - but we'll continue to being you all the latest news and reports as they happen - which you can keep up to date with by clicking here.

• Timestamp: 

  11:30pm

  Activists group coordinating demonstrations against Assad's autocratic rule have rejected a "national dialogue" announced by the authorities - saying the military must first stop shooting protesters. In a statement, the Local Coordination Committees said:

  The peaceful demonstrations and civic disobedience will continue ... It is morally and politically unacceptable to have national dialogue before stopping all forms of killings and violence against peaceful protesters ... lifting the siege on cities and releasing all political prisoners.

• Timestamp: 

  10:09pm

  Protesters attempt to infiltrate the Israel-Syria border near the Druze village of Majdal Shams earlier today.

  

  [Photo: GALLO/GETTY]

• Timestamp: 

  9:31pm

  More on that updated death toll: At least seven Syrian civilians were killed when Syrian troops shelled Telkelakh to quell a pro-democracy uprising, said the Local Coordination Committees.

  The shelling concentrated on al-Burj, Ghalioun, Souk and Mahata neighbourhoods, said the activists' protest group in a statement.

• Timestamp: 

  8:01pm

  At least seven people were killed today in Talkalakh, as the Syrian army raided the town, an activist has told the AFP news agency. Al Jazeera can't confirm the exact number, but our sources have been telling us there has been shooting there throughout the day.

• Timestamp: 

  7:45pm

  More video footage from Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, as eyewitnesses say soldiers are going from home to home in Talkalakhm killing many.

• Timestamp: 

  6:05pm

  As at least three people are reportedly killed by Syrian snipers in the border town of Talkalakh, thousands of residents flee to neighbouring Lebanon.
  
  The military crackdown in the town followed a protest held against the government of president Bashar al-Assad.
  
  Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, has more on the story.

• Timestamp: 

  5:43pm

  Syria's state TV says four Syrian protesters were shot dead by Israeli troops during a demonstration on the Syrian side of the border with the occupied Golan Heights.
  
  Dozens were injured by the shooting after hundreds walked across minefields, overwhelmed border guards and attempted to cross the border near the village of Majdal Shams.
  
  Eyewtiness Salman Fakhreddin describes the scene to Al Jazeera.

• Timestamp: 

  5:13pm

  Syria has condemned Israel's "criminal activities" in the Golan Heights, the occupied Palestinian territories and southern Lebanon - where eyewitness Matthew Cassel told Al Jazeera Israeli forces shot into protests held by Palestinian refugees.

  Israeli troops shot at protesters in three separate locations to prevent crowds from crossing Israeli frontier
  lines, leaving at least eight dead and dozens wounded, says Reuters.

  Syria's state news agency SANA quoted the foreign ministry as saying it called on the international community to hold Israel responsible for the incidents, the deadliest such confrontation along the borders in years.

• Timestamp: 

  5:01pm

  More on that latest shooting: Syrian state television reported that Israeli forces killed four Syrian citizens who had been taking part in an anti-Israeli rally on the Syrian side of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights border on Sunday.

  Israeli army radio said dozens were wounded when Palestinian refugees from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border were shot for trying to break through the frontier fence.

  Israeli army spokepersons' office said an Israeli army patrol shot in the air in an effort to desist "people trying to cross into Israel and trying to damage the fence." There was no comment on reports of the injured.

  About 20,000 people are expected to gather by the end of Sunday at Ras Maroun, a Lebanese border town.

  Matthew Cassel, a journalist en route to Lebanon's southern border with Israel, tweeted that dozens of buses were departing Nahr al-Bared and Baddawi refugee camps in northern Lebanon.
  
  Some activists tweeted that the Lebanese and Jordanian authorities were prohibiting protesters from nearing the borders. The information could not be independently verified.

  Check out more details on the protests commemorating what Palestinians call the "nakba" - "the catastrophe" - the anniversary of Israel's 1948 declaration of independence - by clicking here.

  

• Timestamp: 

  3:06pm

  Israeli troops opened fire on a mass of protesters near the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, killing at least four and injuring 10 to 20 others after some breached the Israeli border fence. Between 400 and 1,000 people approached the fence to mark Nakba Day, the anniversary of the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians from Israel in 1948. Majdal Shams is a Druze village on the Israeli side of the disputed Golan Heights and is separated from the Syrian border by the reportedly heavily mined Ayn al-Tineh valley.

• Timestamp: 

  11:30am

  Our correspondent Zeina Khodr, outside Beirut, the Lebanese capital, reports:

  Tension along the Lebanon-Syria border, particularly in the Wadi Khalid region, that's in the north. I just got out off the phone with some residents in that area, they are reporting gunfire and now we're getting reports that there have been three injuries, three people suffering from gunshot wounds. One of them a Lebanese army soldier who was manning a checkpoint at an unofficial border crossing. A Lebanese civilian also wounded, as well as a Syrian woman who was trying to cross into Lebanon, fleeing the unrest across the border.

  Over the past 48 hours we've seen dozens of families escape the border town of Talkhalak, that's approximately five kilometres from the border with Lebanon. There [has] been unrest there, it's one of the protest hubs.

  I can't give you exact figures on how many people actually crossed, but some say up to 2,000 in the past 48 hours alone. 

  People who crossed into Lebanon say that there is alot of violence in their town, the Syrian army encircled the town, blocking off all entrances, and yesterday four people died - four protesters were killed and up to 20 wounded - in that town.

   

• Timestamp: 

  11:27am

  Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera's correspondent, reports that there have been three more people injured near the Lebanese border with Syria. More details coming.

• Timestamp: 

  4:04am

  This cartoon of Bashar al-Assad was posted by @CarlosLatuff:

  

• Timestamp: 

  3:01am

  Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday that he had "no information" on the whereabouts of an American journalist working for Al Jazeera after Damascus said she was sent to Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
  
  "I have no information," Salehi said when asked whether Syria, Iran's main Arab ally, had handed over the journalist.

• Timestamp: 

  2:01am

  Turkey's prime minister says he fears possible "sectarian tensions" and "divisions" in Syria.

  The state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan telling reporters on Saturday the situation in Syria is of deep concern for Turkey because the two share a 850km border.

• Timestamp: 

  12:09am

  A quick catch up on yesterday's events. A day after protests in the town, Syrian troops surrounded Talkalakh, in the west of the country. 

  As shooting began, residents face a desperate scramble to the border with Lebanon, 5km away. Several who made it into Lebanon had gunshot wounds, and at least four people died in the exodus.

• Timestamp: 

  12:02am

  Welcome to today's liveblog, bringing you all the latest reports, pictures and videos coming out of Syria. But if you feel like you've missed out on something, check out yesterday's blog by clicking here.

Libya Live Blog

Al Jazeera staff and correspondents update you on important developments in the Libya uprising.

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(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

• Timestamp: 

  5:10pm

  South African President Jacob Zuma has arrived in Tripoli.
  
  Al Jazeera's Cal Perry in Benghazi said that there was a lot of confusion around the South African president's visit to Tripoli.
  
  "We heard initially that [President's Zuma's] visit was to "find an exit strategy for Colonel Gadaffi", [but] his aides have since knocked down these reports, calling them misleading and framing this visit as more of a regional visit to discuss humanitarian concerns.
  
  "One of the issues that this visit raises is a political question ... certainly here in the eastern part of the country, or what they might call liberated Libya ... people here are fearful that if a political deal is struck, what would the cost of that political deal be and would this mean a divided Libya ... there is a concern on the ground that this could potentially happen".

• Timestamp: 

  May 16 - 11.20am

  Important Update:

  We are implementing changes to the way that we Live Blog events here at Al Jazeera. To stay up-to-date with events in Libya, follow our new Libya live blog, here. We hope you approve of the changes, more of which will be coming every day as the new system is rolled out.

• Timestamp: 

  9:41pm

  Several loud explosions shook the east of Tripoli and columns of smoke rose into the sky in many locations, residents reports from Tajura, an outlying suburb of the Libyan capital.

  Earlier one resident told AFP that two loud explosions were heard to the east. The official JANA news agency reported that NATO air raids targeted "military and civilian" sites in the city of Zuara, 120 kilometres west of Tripoli.

  The report referred to "human losses and material damage," without  providing any more details.

  Watch 42 seconds of what Libyans have seen for 42 years! - tweets @4Adam

• Timestamp: 

  9:22pm

   

  Fuel crisis takes toll on Libyans

  In an oil rich country, the car doesn't drive to the gas station, it must be pushed!  tweets @LibyaInMe

   

  

   

   

• Timestamp: 

  9:05pm

   

  Sources tell Al Jazeera Arabic that the Arab League have voted for Libyan TVs to be banned from all Arab owned satellites  - pic tweeted @4Adam

  

• Timestamp: 

  8:34pm

   

  Libya's biggest oil company, the Arab Gulf Oil Co will not resume production until the war ends, and that probably holds good for producers across the country, the firm's information director told The Associated Press on Sunday.

   

  In this dated photo, the SARV - the first ship to export oil out of Libya with the Resistance flag - left Tobruk for Italy with 600,000 barrels of oil on March 7, 2011. [image | feb17.info]

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:23pm

   

  NATO aircraft blasted an oil terminal in a key eastern city at nightfall Sunday, says Libyan TV, after Britain urged the alliance to widen its assault on areas controlled by ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

   Libya TV says the bombs hit methanol tanks at the oil port of Ras Lanouf, causing leaks. This comes as the conflict appears to have reached a stalemate, with each side claiming gains one day, only to be turned back the next. NATO officials had no immediate comment. 

   

  [image | escalatoroverthehill.wordpress.com]

   

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  7:11pm

   

  UK urges NATO to intensify Libya campaign

  NATO must expand its air campaign in Libya and begin targeting the infrastructure of leader Muammar Gaddafi's government, not just military assets that threaten civilians, Britain's armed forces chief has said.

  Al Jazeera has more.

  
  

  [image | gallo]

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:37pm

   

  The Tunisian Coast Guard rescued 222 Italy-bound African illegal migrants off the southern town of Zarzis.

  Coast Guard units rushed to the scene Saturday when the migrants, who had departed from strife-torn Libya, issued an SOS after their vessel sprang a leak.

  The Africans were transferred to a camp at Choucha, on the Tunisian-Libyan border, state news agency TAP reported Sunday, without giving further details.

  The Italian government this week gave Tunisia four modern gunboats to curb the massive influx of Tunisian illegal migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:30pm

   

  The United Nation's special envoy to Libya Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib has arrived in Tripoli to urge a ceasefire between Muammar Gaddafi's troops and rebels seeking to topple the strongman, as an anti-regime revolt entered a fourth month.

   

  Shock, Libya has turned in to an Iraq situation. We aren't good at intervening so why do we keep doing it? tweeted @ harry_fraser

   

   

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:23pm

   

  Amateur video uploaded to social media websites on Sunday purports to show Libyan rebels advancing west towards Zlitan after taking control of the western gate of the city of Misurata, known as the Al-Dafniyah Gate, reports RTV.

• Timestamp: 

  5:17pm

   

  Civilian volunteers of the rebel army clear an obstacle course during training in Benghazi May 15, 2011.[image| reuters]

  
  

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  5:13pm

  Tunisia says it has arrested an Algerian and a Libyan in possession of explosives, in the country's first arrests of  suspected members of Al-Qaeda's north African offshoot.

• Timestamp: 

  4:40pm

   

  NATO cannot bring peace & democracy to Libya from the skies. This MUST come from the people, & the people only!!!!!! - tweeted by @David_Harney

• Timestamp: 

  4:24pm

   

  Picture from yesterday's rally in solidarity with Libya in Doha - tweeted by @ehkayy

  
  

  

• Timestamp: 

  4:04pm

   

  Senior officials in the embattled government of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi have come forward to offer evidence to the International Criminal Court in its investigation of widespread murder and persecution, prosecutors said Sunday.

  Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he will file a 74-page document with nine annexes outlining allegations that the Libyan regime has systematically attacked civilians since launching a brutal crackdown on anti-government rebels in February.

  The document will ask judges to issue arrest warrants for the three Libyan leaders considered most responsible for crimes against humanity. Moreno-Ocampo has not revealed the names of the three, but Gaddafi is widely expected to be among them.

   

• Timestamp: 

  3:42pm

   

  Tunisian soldiers have prevented more than 200 troops loyal to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi from infiltrating Tunisia, the official TAP news agency reported Sunday.

  The soldiers deployed along Tunisia's border with Libya beat back at dawn on Saturday, TAP said. The Libyan troops tried to enter their north African neighbour aboard 50 4x4s, a high-ranking military source told TAP, adding that there was no combat and the Tunisian soldiers had returned to barracks.

  The pro-Gaddafi soldiers were hoping to surprise insurgents who control the Wazen-Dehiba border post around halfway along the two countries' common border, the report said.

• Timestamp: 

  3:42pm

   

  Pope Benedict called for dialogue to prevail over violence in both Libya and Syria on Sunday (May 15) denouncing bloodshed and the killing of civilians in an address in St. Peter's Square today.

  "I continue to follow with great concern the dramatic armed conflict which, in Libya, has caused a high number of victims and suffering, mostly among the civilian population. I am renewing a pressing appeal because the path of negotiation and dialogue prevails over that of violence, with the help of the international organizations that are working towards finding a solution to the crisis. I assure you, also, of my prayerful and compassionate participation in the commitments with which the local church assists the population, in particular among the blessed people in hospitals."

   

• Timestamp: 

  2:13pm

  The latest developments in Libya - tweeted by @Libyamap

  

• Timestamp: 

  2:05pm

  David Richards, the head of Britain's armed forces, has called for NATO to expand its air strikes to target Libyan government infrastructure, according to an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.

• Timestamp: 

  4:04am

  The following picture was posted by @4Adam:

  

• Timestamp: 

  4:01am

  The special United Nations envoy for Libya, Abdul Ilah al-Khatib, said in Athens on Saturday that he would be going on to Tripoli on Sunday.
  
  UN chief Ban Ki-moon had said on Wednesday he was dispatching Khatib for talks with Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi.
  
  Speaking after talks with Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas, Khatib said he thanked Greece for its support for his flight to Tripoli "tomorrow". A Greek foreign ministry source said Khatib would be flying aboard a Greek military aircraft.

• Timestamp: 

  3:40am

  NATO late on Saturday carried out air strikes in the Libyan regions of Bir Al-Ghanam, Njila and the city of Al-Azizya, southwest of the capital Tripoli, state news agency JANA reported.
  
  Citing a military source, the agency reported that "civilian and military" sites had been targetted and that the strikes had caused "human and material damage." It provided no further details.

• Timestamp: 

  3:10am

  The head of Britain's armed forces urged NATO to "up the ante" in Libya by widening its bombing campaign to include infrastructure targets, in an interview with a Sunday newspaper.
  
  General David Richards, chief of the defence staff, added that if Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in a strike on a command and control centre, that would be "within the rules" set out by the UN Security Council.
  
  "The vice is closing on Gaddafi, but we need to increase the pressure  further through more intense military action," he told the Sunday Telegraph.
  
  "We now have to tighten the vice to demonstrate to Kadhafi that the game is up and he must go."
  
  The general said he wanted NATO member states to support the targeting of  Gaddafi's regime, not just targets which pose an immediate threat to civilians,  such as tanks and artillery.

• Timestamp: 

  2:25am

  NATO said on Saturday it cannot confirm a Libyan government claim that 11 Muslim clerics were killed in an airstrike in eastern Libya but regrets "any loss of life by innocent civilians" whenever it occurs.

• Timestamp: 

  1:30am

  Greece says it will send diplomats next week to the Libyan city of Benghazi to act as liaisons with rebels, while also maintaining relations with Tripoli.

  Dimitris Droutsas, the Foreign Minister, said "Greece's role is to talk and have a dialogue with all sides in this crisis".

  He made the comments to reporters on Saturday after talks with UN envoy to Libya Abdul Ilah Khatib. Khatib, a former Jordanian foreign minister, will travel to Tripoli on Sunday aboard a Greek air force plane. It will be his seventh trip to Libya. He also met with Prime Minister George Papandreou.

  Live Blog Updates for May 15 are above:
  
  _________________________________
  
  Live Blog Updates for May 14 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  8:17pm

  In Libya, opposition leaders have been pushing ahead with their fight to be acknowledged as the legitimate government.
  
  The Transitional National Council has been meeting in Benghazi. Opposition figure Mohamed Shebani says the aim is to build a free and democratic country.
  
  Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna has the latest from the rebel stronghold:

• Timestamp: 

  6:30pm

  Mahmoud Jibril, who serves as the foreign minister of the opposition National Transitional Council (NTC), met  French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris for talks in a bid to garner further international support for the fight against Gaddafi.

  No statement was released after their talks.

• Timestamp: 

  4:19pm

   

  Sky News reports that NATO struck a government bunker underneath a guesthouse in the Libyan town of Brega.

  A Dutch engineer says he built the bunker for Col Muammar Gaddafi in Brega in 1988 and confirmed that its coordinates match those of the area Nato targeted.

  Freek Landmeter said the bunker had been designed to resist an atomic bomb and to be used as a communication hub.

  Libya's government provided details:

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  4:15pm

   

  A senior leader of Libya's rebels, Mahmud Jibril, has arrived in Paris where he met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the conflict and prospects for transition. The pair last met in early March.

  Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon welcomed Jibril on the steps of the Élysée Palace, the president's official residence. 

  Jibril, the prime minister of the rebels’ National Transitional Council, is one of the few outside powers, along with Italy, Qatar and Gambia, to have formally recognised the Council as the Libyan people’s legitimate representative.

  Jibril held his first talks at the White House on Friday, meeting with where the US made it made clear that US recognition would not be immediately forthcoming.

• Timestamp: 

  2:29pm

   

  Libyan opposition leaders meet in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi looking for ways to build a new government post Gadhafi.  The conference hopes to bring together leaders from across the country, including areas still under the control of the Libyan strongman.
  
  Mustafa Abdeljalil, the head of Libya's National Transitional Council, urged the delegates to help bring forward a new Libya - a nation that was "free and democratic and that respects human rights."

• Timestamp: 

  1:56pm

   

  I live in a place where you can't get to and kill me. I live in the hearts of millions. - Muammar Gaddafi 

• Timestamp: 

  1:42pm

   

  The head of a French military contracting company was shot and killed by an accidental discharge in the rebel headquarters of Benghazi as he argued about his team getting arrested, an internal security commander said on Friday.

  
  Four other Frenchmen are being detained in "a secret place" on suspicion of spying, rebel commander Abdel-Basat Elshaheibi told The Associated Press.

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:34pm

  

• Timestamp: 

  12:35pm

   

  The Transitional National Assembly, which controls the east of Libya said on Friday it had appointed officials to take a number of leadership positions, including defense in his efforts to form a unified management and effective.  - tweeted by @Medo8777 

• Timestamp: 

  12:30pm

   

  A Romanian military vessel monitoring the weapon embargo against Libya rescued about 150 African refugees fleeing the conflict by boat, the defence ministry said Saturday.

  African migrants among whom 10 women and 15 children were on a small civilian boat that left the Libyan harbour of Misrata on May 9 but due to engine problems, the boat was threatening to sink about a 100 marine miles north of Tripoli.

  Up to 1,200 people fleeing  Libya have died in the Mediterranean Sea - The UN Refugee Agency.

• Timestamp: 

  10:09apm

  Video shows a bombed mosque in Libya's Nalout.

• Timestamp: 

  9:25am

   

  “I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?” - Eve Merriam

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  9:12am

   

  A Libyan government spokesman described the killing 11 Muslim clerics in their sleep by a NATO airstrike in Brega as a "barbaric crime".

  The spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, says the clerics were among a large group of imams who had gathered in Brega to pray for peace in conflict-ridden Libya. 

• Timestamp: 

  8:40am

  Citizen video shows building in Abu Sita - post NATO shelling in Tripoli

  While Gaddafi's Hamza battalion lies in ruins after a NATO strike

  
  

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:32am

   

  US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon (2nd R) meets with Dr. Mahmoud Gibril (3rd L) and the delegation from the Libyan Transitional National Council in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, in this handout photograph taken and released on May 13, 2011.

  

  President Barack Obama gave his stamp of approval to Libya's anti-Gaddafi forces on Friday, bringing leaders of the rebel group to the White House where they were deemed credible and legitimate.

  Dennis Ross (R), senior director for the Central Region Directorate, and US ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz (3rd R) also attended the meeting.

  This, while people rallied after Friday prayers near the courthouse in Benghazi  [images | Reuters]

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:19am

  Video of mass graves in Libya - tweeted by @acarvin

• Timestamp: 

  7:33am

   

  

  A man holds a poster honouring the work of internationally acclaimed photojournalist and film-maker Tim Hetherington's work in Libya after his funeral at the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception on May 13, 2011 in London, England.

  Hetherington was killed in a suspected mortar attack while covering the conflict in the Libyan city of Misrata on April 20, 2011. [image | Getty]

• Timestamp: 

  7:26am

  All appears quiet on the Libyan front at the moment, but here are a couple of reports filed by our correspondents in Washington DC and Benghazi respectively on the diplomatic and other developments in the last 24 hours.

• Timestamp: 

  4:55am

  Libyan rebels said on Friday that a French ex-paratrooper they shot dead and his four compatriots were not private security contractors but were in Benghazi to sabotage the anti-Gaddafi revolution.

  The rebel National Transitional Council said:

  On the evening of 11 May, local security forces in Benghazi were instructed to arrest a group of five Frenchmen for illicit activities that jeopardised the security of Free Libya.

• Timestamp: 

  4:25am

  Four loud explosions rocked Tripoli early on Saturday as jets flew overhead, after witnesses reported two explosions in eastern Tripoli late on Friday.
  
  Smoke could be seen rising from one of the sites in eastern Tripoli, witnesses said.

• Timestamp: 

  3:20am

  The picture shows a graffiti in downtown Benghazi. It was posted by @SumayyahG:

• Timestamp: 

  3:01am

  The White House has said the United States and NATO will continue military operations in Libya as long as Muammar Gaddafi keeps attacking his people.
  
  Obama on Friday met privately Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO Secretary-General, in the Oval Office, and the White House said the two agreed that the military action would go on until Gaddafi's assault on civilians had stopped.

• Timestamp: 

  1:30am

  The US has stepped up its support of anti-Gaddafi rebels, with Obama authorising $25m in non-lethal assistance and $53m in humanitarian aid.
  
  The White House said it was looking for ways to increase US financial support to the opposition, in part through congressional legislation that would free up a portion of the more than $30bn in frozen Gaddafi regime assets in US banks so it could be used to aid the rebels.

  Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said:

  We believe that if we could access and use blocked government of Libya assets it could make a significant amount of money available to alleviate the suffering of the Libyan people.

• Timestamp: 

  12:20am

  The United States on Friday stopped short of full diplomatic recognition of Libya's rebel movement but the White House said it was a "legitimate and credible interlocutor."

  Mahmoud Jibril, the number two in the rebels' National Transitional Council, met earlier at the White House with President Barack Obama's national security advisor, Tom Donilon.

  The White House said:

  During the meeting, Mr Donilon stated that the United States views the TNC (National Transitional Council) as a legitimate and credible interlocutor of the Libyan people.

• Timestamp: 

  12:01am

  Taunting NATO, Muammar Gaddafi said on Friday that he is alive despite a series of airstrikes and "in a place where you can't get to and kill me."
  
  The defiant audio recording was broadcast after the Libyan government accused NATO of killing 11 Muslim clerics with an airstrike on a disputed eastern oil town.

  Live Blog Updates for May 14 are above:

  _________________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 13 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  8:52pm

  Libyan state TV has aired an audio message from Gaddafi in which he denies reports that he's been wounded, and condemns a recent NATO attack as cowardly.

  He says he is in a place where NATO bombs cannot reach him.

• Timestamp: 

  8:45pm

  We mentioned the possible ICC arrest warrant for Gaddafi yesterday.

  Now, the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, citing ICC sources, is reporting that the International Criminal Court prosecutor will request arrest warrants for Muammar Gaddafi, his son and Libya's head of espionage on Monday.

• Timestamp: 

  8:33pm

  Libyan state TV says it will air a statement by the Libyan leader 'shortly', the Reuters news agency reports.

• Timestamp: 

  5:40pm

  But Reuters, citing Al Arabiya TV, now says a Libyan government spokesman has denied reports about Gaddafi being injured, calling them "nonsense".

  Arabiya said that a Libyan government spokesman telephoned the Dubai-based satellite channel to deny that Gaddafi had been wounded, Reuters reported.

• Timestamp: 

  5:37pm

  More on the Italian foreign minister's comments on Gaddafi - Frattini stressed that Italy has "no hard information on the current fate of Gaddafi".

  But Frattini said "international pressure has likely provoked the decision by Gaddafi to seek refuge in a safe place.''

  His comment came during a TV interview with Corriere della Sera that was posted on the newspaper's website.

  I lean toward the solution of an escape from Tripoli, not an escape from Libya,'' Frattini said. "Libya is a big country, with desert areas.'' 

• Timestamp: 

  5:30pm

  The Reuters news agency, citing Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini, reports Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has likely left the capital Tripoli and has most likely been wounded.

  
  Frattini told reporters in Tuscany today that he believed what he had been told by Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Catholic bishop in Tripoli, that "Gaddafi was most probably outside Tripoli and probably even wounded" by NATO airstrikes.

• Timestamp: 

  1:41pm

  The UN Security Council must decide how to free up and distribute Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's frozen assets. They should not be used to arm any side in the war-torn country. -  Russia

• Timestamp: 

  1:36pm

  The solution to Libya's bloody uprising must be based on political action and not only military might, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

  "The solution to the problems in Libya are political, they cannot be solved by military means alone," Stoltenberg told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Oslo.

  "We are very much supporting all efforts to find a political solution to the challenges we are facing in Libya," he added.

  Norway's government this week pledged to scale down its role in NATO-orchestrated air strikes on Libya after its current three-month commitment ends on June 24.

• Timestamp: 

  1:29pm

   

  Libya's pro-democracy fighters have taken up a new line of defence in the Western Mountains where from their high vantage point they can easily observe the movements of Muammar Gaddafi's troops on the plains far below. It has been a successful last few moves for the NATO-aided rebels who have repelled attacks on land and sea in the last few days – but things are far from over. As the pawns make their move across the desert, the movement’s leaders are meeting with world leaders to make sure that when the dust settles a new regime will see light of day. Al Jazeera's Erica Wood reports.

• Timestamp: 

  12:43pm

   

  There is concern that the fighting in Libya is blocking access to the Western mountains area, where the World Food Programme believes there are severe food shortages. - United Nations

• Timestamp: 

  12:37pm

  Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday warned against foreign intervention in Syria, calling on the Syrian opposition not to seek a repeat of the "Libya scenario". 

• Timestamp: 

  11:38am

  Video of tank destroyed in Misurata - tweeted by @hominoid555

• Timestamp: 

  11:35am

  Libyan men attend the funeral of people said to have been killed in various NATO airstikes in Tripoli. [image | AFP]

  

• Timestamp: 

  11:13am

   

  Mahmoud Jibril, the prime minister and chair of the Libyan National Transitional Council's executive board, speaking at the White House estimates at least 11,000 people have been killed in the last 12 weeks and 750,000 others have fled the country.

• Timestamp: 

  10:49am

  A Frenchman has died from a gunshot wound after he and four other French nationals were stopped at a police checkpoint in Benghazi.

  A ministry spokesman said France’s representative hoped to get more details on Friday about the circumstances of the man’s death. He had no explanation as to who the French citizens were or why they were in Benghazi.

• Timestamp: 

  10:19am

  This video from a Gaddafi loyalists phone shows Yefren city center shops completely looted. [ video | feb17.info]

   

• Timestamp: 

  10:11am

  US Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the cost of the air war in Libya for the United States is estimated at roughly $750 million.

• Timestamp: 

  8:25pm

  Mahmoud Jibril, Libyan Transitional National Council:

  Please don't forget that this whole uprising started as a peaceful legitimate process of the Libyan people trying to look for a better future. It was crushed inhumanely, and they are forced to resort to whatever they can get to defend themselves. So, I would rather not get indulgent in talking about military plans because this is not a military struggle. The nature of this, this is a peaceful revolution. 

• Timestamp: 

  7:59am

  A Libyan diplomat has been arrested near Paris. Toraia Ben Saleem is one of the 14 diplomats declared personae non grata in Paris last Friday, giving them two days to leave.

  Ben Saleem's daughter and lawyer are calling the arrest a "kidnapping." They say the police did not have an arrest warrant. They are filing a complaint in the Paris courts. 

   

• Timestamp: 

  6:17am

   

  Russia TV speculates around the reason for NATO's attack

• Timestamp: 

  5:59am

  Schematic battlefield plan of the Misrata Siege as of May 12th | tweeted by @FunGuerillaz

  

• Timestamp: 

  5:57am

   

  Italy's foreign minister says he expects the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the end of the month.

  Franco Frattini said: “from that moment on an exit from power or from the country will no longer be imaginable because after the arrest warrant is issued all the international community would have legal obligations.''

  Italy has long maintained the future of Libya cannot include Gaddafi or family members. The UN Security Council voted unanimously on February 26 to refer the Libyan crisis to the International Criminal Court.

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:37am

   

  Canadian and British warships patrolling waters off Libya beat back a boat attack on the port of Misurata hours after the city's airport fell to rebels, says NATO.

  The attack by an unspecified number of fast, small boats came as rebels celebrated following a siege by regime forces going back nearly two months.

   The boats were forced to abandon their attack and regime forces ashore covered their retreat with artillery and anti-aircraft cannon fire directed towards the allied warships - NATO. 

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:08am

  Rebel troops , seen here checking rocket launchers, near Zintan, south-west of Tripoli, call for more sophisticated weaponry to battle troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. [image: Reuters]

  

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  5:35am

  First group of police officers graduate in Benghazi. Picture tweeted by @ChangeInLibya:

  

• Timestamp: 

  5:27am

  Britain has promised to provide Libyan opposition with police gear.

• Timestamp: 

  5:20am

  The price of black market fuel had reached 100 dinars for 5 gallons (20 litres) of gas - in comparison to the government price of 3 dinar for the same amount. The government sells gas for 15 Libyan cents a litre, sources told Associated Press news agency.

• Timestamp: 

  4:01am

  Pressure is mounting on Muammar Gaddafi from within his stronghold in the Libyan capital, with increasing NATO airstrikes and worsening shortages of fuel and goods.

  An activist said o Friday that there has also been a wave of anti-government protests in several Tripoli neighborhoods this week - dissent that in the past has been met with zero tolerance and brutal force.

• Timestamp: 

  3:10am

  A Libyan opposition leader made a plea on Thursday for the United States to free up some of the billions of dollars in frozen Libyan assets, saying the Benghazi-based rebels were in a financial crisis.
  
  Mahmoud Jebril, a US-educated technocrat who has become the public face of the rebel Transitional National Council, is making the rounds in Washington seeking greater support for rebels struggling to end Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year rule.

• Timestamp: 

  2:40am

  This picture was tweeted by @ChangeInLibya:

  

• Timestamp: 

  2:10am

• Timestamp: 

  12:10am

  Mahmoud Jibril, the chief of the opposition National Transitional Council, is expected to meet Michele Flournoy, the US under secretary of defense on Friday at the Pentagon.

  Live Blog Updates for May 13 are above:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 12 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  11:05pm

  Add a stop at the Pentagon to Mahmoud Jibril's Washington DC itinerary. The head of the opposition National Transitional Council's "crisis team" will meet with Undersecretary Michele Flournoy of the Defense Department on Friday.

• Timestamp: 

  8:11pm

  YouTube user freeeeelibyan posted the following video, claiming it shows a mercenary loyal to Muammar Gaddafi "killing Libyans" as he fires an assault rifle out a window. The video was found on a mercenary after their defeat in Misurata, the description says.

  The man filming the video asks the shooter what he's doing, and the shooter responds: "Wait and you'll see."

  "Show me how you're going to do it," the cameraman says.

  The shooter then points his gun out the window.

  "Can you see him now?" the cameraman asks. "Today is the 14th, they said its liberation day, it's you or us."

  Then: "Fire! Fire"

  The video cuts, then the shooter says, "He's gone, gone." It's unclear who they're talking about, but both men ask Allah to have mercy on him.

• Timestamp: 

  8:03pm

  The French Foreign Ministry has released a statement confirming the death of a French man in Benghazi on Wednesday:

  During a police checkpoint in Benghazi last night, five nationals French was arrested.

  One of them was shot and died in the night in hospital Benghazi.

  Our representative on site demands to meet our compatriots. He remains in contact with local authorities to review their situation.

• Timestamp: 

  7:51pm

  Muammar Gaddafi was apparently able to sneak into the Rixos - the best hotel in Tripoli, where most of the foreign media resides - to make a videotaped meeting with tribal elders on Wednesday. Now, Sky News' Mark Stone speculates on how Gaddafi managed to do so without being spotted.

  Stone also relays another theory - that Gaddafi is actually staying at the Rixos. It would make sense in at least one big way: NATO would never hit a hotel full of journalists.

• Timestamp: 

  6:53pm

  Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the National Transitional Council's "crisis team," a kind of cabinet, will visit the White House on Friday afternoon with a delegation from the NTC.

  He'll meet with Tom Donilon, President Barack Obama's national security advisor, but not Obama himself. It's Jibril's first official visit to Washington DC. We mentioned earlier that he'll be meeting senior members of Congress as well.  

• Timestamp: 

  12:43pm

  At least three rockets struck the strategic rebel-held crossroads town of Ajdabiya in eastern Libya on Thursday but no casualties were reported, residents and a medic told AFP.

  The first hit a house in an eastern neighbourhood of the town shortly before 6:00 am (0400 GMT), residents said. "The rocket came through the roof of the kitchen. We were sleeping but were not injured," said Mohamed Awad, pointing to the debris littering the ground.

  A second rocket struck near a rubbish heap and a third partly destroyed two cars in the same neighbourhood. It was not possible to determine where the rockets had been fired from.

  Doctor Ahmed Al-Ignashi, head of Ajdabiya ambulance services, confirmed the  rocket attacks. "They did not cause any casualties," he said. Ajdabiya, 160km south of the rebel bastion of Benghazi, has been under rebel control for several weeks now, but there is continuing fighting with government forces who hold the oil town of Brega, 80km to the west.

  For several days, the rebels have been positioned 20mk west of Ajdabiya, while Muammer Gaddafi's forces are 20km further west.

  On Monday, six rebels were killed in heavy fighting between the two towns  and on Wednesday, a small loyalist force conducted a raid six kilometres from Ajdabiya, killing one and wounding two.

• Timestamp: 

  12:28pm

  

  The bodies of what Libyan officials say are those of civilians killed by Western forces are seen in a hospital in Tripoli on May 12. The images are taken on a guided government tour. [image: Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  12:14pm

   

  Libyan rebels, bouyed by their capture of Misurata airport, geared Thursday for an assault on the town of Zlitan that would take them another step closer to the capital Tripoli.

  Zliten is a town in the Misrata District of Libya. It is located on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea west of the Gulf of Sidra. The name is given to both the town and the whole area and is situated 160km east of the capital, Tripoli.

  The airport at Misrata, Libya's third-largest city fell to the rebels on Wednesday after long and intense fighting with troops loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, an AFP correspondent said.

   

• Timestamp: 

  12:03pm

  Libyan state television says North Korean embassy in Tripoli has been damaged by NATO air strike on sites in the city on Thursday.

  The news, which was flashed up in a caption on al-Jamahiriya TV, said the embassy suffered major damage in NATO strikes on military and civilian sites in the Libyan capital. 

  It did not say if the embassy was hit directly, or when the damage occurred.

• Timestamp: 

  11:52am

    Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council leaves 10 Downing Street in London May 12.

• Timestamp: 

  8:45am

  Four apparent NATO air strikes have rocked Tripoli as jets flew overhead, soon after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appeared on state television for the first time in almost two weeks:

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  7:42am

  Libyan officials said two people had been killed in Nato strikes and showed foreign journalists at least one body and injured at a hospital in the Libyan capital,Tripoli on Thursday, May 12.

  Staff at Al-Khadra Hospital said they had treated more than 20 people who had been wounded.

  Since NATO took over command of air strikes on March 31, its aircraft had conducted 6,091 sorties, including 2,414 strike sorties by Wednesday, May 11.

• Timestamp: 

  7:38am

  

  A man, who officials said was wounded in an air strike by coalition forces, lies on a bed at a hospital in Tripoli May 12. [Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  7:00am

  The employer of one of two American journalists being detained by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says they've been allowed a visitor for the first time after more than a month in captivity.

  James Foley was covering the conflict in Libya for the Boston-based news agency GlobalPost when he was captured April 5. Foley has been detained with Clare Morgana Gillis, a freelance journalist who wrote for The Atlantic and USA Today.

  A GlobalPost spokesman said Wednesday an intermediary visited Foley and Gillis in Tripoli and said they were in good health and being treated well. Dozens of relatives, friends and well-wishers attended a candlelight vigil Wednesday evening on the steps of Harvard University's Memorial Church.

• Timestamp: 

  2:16am

  Libya's consul in Cairo told Al Arabiya television in remarks aired on Thursday that he was quitting his post to join rebel ranks.

  "In response to the souls and blood of the martyrs of the February 17 revolution, I, Faraj Saeed al-Aribi, the Libyan consul in Cairo, declare my resignation and my joining of the February 17 revolution," al-Aribi told the television channel.
• Timestamp: 

  2:04am

  Libyan state TV showed footage of an apparently healthy Muammar Gaddafi meeting officials in a Tripoli hotel on Wednesday, ending nearly two weeks of doubt over his fate since a NATO air strike killed his son.

  Gaddafi, who had not appeared in public since the April 30 strike on his Bab al-Aziziyah compound killed his youngest son and three of his grandchildren, appeared in his trademark brown robe, dark sunglasses and black hat.

  "We tell the world: 'those are the representatives of the Libyan tribes,'" Gaddafi said as he pointed to his visitors and then named a few of them.
• Timestamp: 

  1:46am

  The leader of the Libyan rebels will visit London on Thursday to drum up more aid for their cause in resisting Muammar Gaddafi. 

  Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) will meet Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and finance minister George Osborne.

  Live Blog Updates for May 12 are above:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 11 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  8:49pm

  Iman al-Obeidi, the Libyan woman who stormed into a government hotel in Tripoli in March to tell journalists she was raped by more than a dozen regime troops, has fled to Qatar.

  Ali Zaidan, a former Libyan diplomat who now helps represent the opposition overseas, confirmed that Obeidi had flown to Doha, the Qatari capital, during a conference of rebel represenatives in the city on Wednesday.

• Timestamp: 

  8:15pm

  The first English-language radio station based in Libya is now broadcasting via website out of the eastern rebel stronghold in Benghazi,  according to the opposition National Transitional Council.

  "Tribute FM is the brainchild of a number of British Libyans who understand the importance of reaching out to the Libyan diaspora around the world as well as Libyans at home," said a statement by the NTC.

  You can listen to Tribute FM here. The station begins broadcasting at 8pm and lasts until the early morning.

• Timestamp: 

  6:47pm

  More clarification on the fight for Misurata: Mohamad Jaber, a rebel spokesman in Misurata, told Reuters that the remaining fight is for the military airbase attached to the civilian airport.

• Timestamp: 

  6:13pm

  While Libyan opposition spokesmen and some rebels on the ground in Misurata are saying the airport (including its military annex) have been completely taken from Gaddafi forces, New York Times reporter CJ Chivers writes in his latest dispatch that some pockets of fighting remain.

  A rebel military spokesman also claimed that rebels had taken Zlitan, around 50 kilometres west of Misurata, but we are waiting for more information to confirm that report.

• Timestamp: 

  5:38pm

  Members of the Armed Services Committee in the US House of Representatives have passed a measure asking the Defense Department to provide documents on communications between the department and the White House ahead of the military intervention in Libya.

  Some US lawmakers have complained that President Barack Obama didn't coordinate closely enough with Congress before authorizing the action. In the United States, only Congress can authorize war, but presidents have historically launched more limited actions without seeking approval. 

• Timestamp: 

  2:15pm

  Libyan rebels captured the airport in the western city of Misurata after fierce fighting with Muammar Gaddafi's forces on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.

  The rebels were in full control of the airport, with hundreds celebrating in the streets, the correspondent said.

• Timestamp: 

  1:21pm

  Muammar Gaddafi has until the end of May to agree his exile before an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court is issued, the AFP news agency reported Franco Frattini, the Italian Foreign Minister, as saying.

  "There are countries that in recent weeks have indicated... a willingness to welcome him," Frattini said in an interview with RAI public radio, AFP reported.

  "It's clear that if there is an international arrest warrant it would be more difficult to find an arrangement for the colonel and his family," Frattini said. "This will happen by the end of May," he added.

• Timestamp: 

  12:09pm

  The following images, dated 08 May 2011 and released by the British Ministry of Defence on 10 May 2011, shows post strike battle damage assessment (BDA) of a building near Misurata which was used by Gaddafi forces to attack the city.

  British Royal Airforce (RAF) Tornados were ordered to destroy only the top two floors of the building and did exactly that, in an attack that demonstrated great levels of precision.

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

  [Images by EPA]

• Timestamp: 

  11:43am

  UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he had urged Libya's prime minister - Baghdadi Mahmudi - to immediately stop attacks on civilians.

  "I told him the Libyan authorities must stop attacking civilians, I said there must be an immediate verifiable ceasefire negotiations towards the peaceful resolution of the conflict and unimpeded access to humanitarian workers," Ban told journalists.

  "The prime minister agreed to receive my envoy Mr Al Khatib and I have instructed him to travel to Tripoli as soon as possible again."

• Timestamp: 

  11:13am

  Gaddafi is a legitimate target if he is inside a military installation, Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said in an interview published by Il Messaggero daily.

  Military targets are not identified and hit based on who might or might not be inside.

  If, for example, it's a place from which orders are being issued to strike against civilians then a raid is legitimate.

• Timestamp: 

  10:48am

  Explosions rocked eastern Tripoli for almost an hour on Wednesday morning as jets flew overhead, a witness told the AFP news agency.

  The explosions began about 7:30 am (0530 GMT) and continued sporadically until 8:15 am (0615 GMT), according to the witness.

• Timestamp: 

  10:27am

  The AFP news agency reports that Mahmoud Jibril, foreign affairs chief for the Libyan National Transitional Council, will meet with key US lawmakers on the Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing conflict in Libya, US Senator John Kerry said in a statement.

• Timestamp: 

  10:08am

  The European Union plans to open an office in the rebel-held Libyan city of Benghazi to facilitate assistance to the rebel council based there, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

  "I intend to open an office in Benghazi so that we can move forward on the support we've discussed to the people... to support civil society, to support the Interim Transitional National Council."

• Timestamp: 

  8:25am

  Gazprom Neft, Russia's No.5 crude producer, says it still hopes to return to Libya where its deal to buy a stake in the Elephant oil project from Italy's Eni was halted by the ongoing civil war, Reuters reported.

  "We still hope that, when the situation in Libya stabilises, we will return to the Elephant project ... We sit and wait, we had great plans for Libya," he said.

• Timestamp: 

  7:41am

  Libyan rebels gain ground in Misurata and NATO announces the start of a second phase of its military operation aimed at command centers of the Gaddafi regime.

• Timestamp: 

  4:08am

  NATO's Brigadier General Claudio Gabellini spoke to reporters via videolink from the operation's headquarters in Naples, Italy:

  All NATO targets are military targets, which means that the targets we've been hitting, and it happened also last night in Tripoli, are command and control bunkers. NATO is not targeting individuals.

• Timestamp: 

  2:52am

  A Libyan rebel fighter mans his post before the front line outside the Libyan eastern city Ajdabiya as fighting between rebel forces and those loyal to Gaddafi continues.

  

• Timestamp: 

  1:28am

  First shipment of non-lethal US aid for Libyan rebels arrives in Benghazi. (AP)

• Timestamp: 

  1:00am

  Libyan government officials on Tuesday held a ceremony in Tripoli, in which they released around 150 men who they said were detained rebels.

  Video shot by AP Television on Tuesday, under the supervision of the Libyan Government, showed a ceremony at the "Scouts Theatre" in Tripoli where the men were apparently handed over to tribal leaders.

  The officials said the handover was a gesture to encourage other rebels to give themselves up to government forces or tribes leaders.

• Live Blog Updates for May 11 are above:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 10 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  10:53pm

  Mahmoud Jibril, who serves as a kind of chief of staff for the Libyan opposition in his role as head of the "crisis team," will visit the US capital on Wednesday to meet with legislators there, Senator John Kerry said on Tuesday. 

  "The Foreign Relations Committee and the American people are eager to learn more about the opposition movement in Libya and Mahmud Jibril is well positioned to answer our questions," he said in a statement.

  The two will make a public appearance at 3:30pm, local time.

• Timestamp: 

  2:05pm

  Norway has refused asylum to an Ukrainian ex-nurse of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, a tabloid website said.

  The newspaper Verdens Gang quoted several unnamed sources as saying 38-year-old Galyna Kolotnytska, who has been described as a "voluptuous blonde" by diplomatic cables, was still in Norway despite the rejection of her asylum claim, the AFP news agency reported.

• Timestamp: 

  2:00pm

  West Tripoli rebel fighters hoist the independence flag at Meaitiga airbase in Tripoli, and NATO bombards new sites, including Aziziya compound, Al Jazeera reports.

• Timestamp: 

  11:36am

  The United Nations refugee agency has appealed to European countries to step up efforts to rescue people fleeing Libya in overloaded and unseaworthy boats.

  "Any boat that is leaving Libya should be considered, at first glance, as a boat in need of assistance," Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva on Tuesday.

• Timestamp: 

  9:41am

  NATO warplanes launched a new round of airstrikes in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, witnesses said.

  They told Al Jazeera the attacks targeted several sites, including Muammar Gaddafi's compound.

  Monica Villamizar reports.

• Timestamp: 

  9:19am

  Trabulsia, a resident of Tripoli, spoke to Al Jazeera about NATO's airstrike on the capital early on Tuesday:

  It started off at the [Libyan state] TV station.. After that, about 2 and a half hours ago there was six big hits, two were at the compound where Colonel Gaddafi stays and the other four were at an intelligence building in Zawiyyah Street. First it was a bombard from the air from the NATO airplanes and the others were rockets where you can hear them very very loudly. After you hear the rocket you hear a huge explosion and even some of the civillians reported the reflection of those bombardments and the sounds were very very heavy and there was smoke reported after every strike. 

• Timestamp: 

  7:37am

  NATO has been bombing pro-Gaddafi forces on an almost daily basis but they've been unable to stop the shelling of rebel-held centres in east and west Libya. Neither side appears to be making any headway.

  Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Ajdabiya.

• Timestamp: 

  3:55am

  Jets carried out eight strikes in roughly three hours in an unusually heavy bombardment of Tripoli, which is usually hit by at most two or three strikes at a time.

  Four explosions rocked the Libyan capital shortly after 2:00 am (0000 GMT) on Tuesday, shaking the windows of a hotel housing journalists.

  They were quickly followed by two more blasts. Sirens and shouts could be heard in the distance following the air strikes, as sporadic shots from assault rifles and heavier weapons rang out and jets continued to overfly the city.

• Timestamp: 

  3:26am

  Delegates from 25 Libyan councils have declared their support for the Transitional National Council, Libya's opposition party.

  The leaders who were elected under Muammar Gaddafi's rule have been meeting in the United Arab Emirates, marking the first time delegates from the western and southern regions including tribal figures have met to discuss Libya's future.

  Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh reports from the meeting.

• Timestamp: 

  2:43am

  Jets screamed in low over Tripoli early on Tuesday, carrying out a series of strikes in quick succession, after witnesses reported two others near state media offices a few hours before (AFP).

• Timestamp: 

  2:26am

  Libyan officials took foreign journalists to see what they said was the result of a second NATO strike in just over a week on a government building housing the high commission for children.

  The old colonial building, situated in Tripoli's Dahmani neighbourhood, was completely destroyed but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

  The officials said the NATO strike occurred on Monday night and involved a missile.

  Two telecommunications towers are sited 100 metres (330 ft) and 700 metres (2,300 ft) from the building, which had been damaged in what Libyan officials said was the previous strike on April 30. Neither of the towers appeared to have been damaged.

• Timestamp: 

  1:02am

  Two explosions rocked Tripoli as jets flew overhead, witnesses said, with smoke rising from the site near the offices of Libyan television and state news agency JANA - AFP

• Timestamp: 

  12:25am

  A Libyan opposition newspaper says rebels were leading an uprising in the suburbs of Tripoli after being supplied with light weapons by defecting security service officers.

  The Libyan government denied the report. A Reuters reporter said he could hear no gunfire and was unable to verify the report, posted on the website of the opposition newspaper Brnieq.

  Brnieq quoted witnesses who said a full-scale uprising against  Gaddafi was taking place in the suburbs of Tripoli. A government official in Tripoli denied the report. "It's peaceful out there," he said.

• Live Blog Updates for May 10 are above:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 9 are available here.

Syria Live Blog - May 14

Thousands continue to take to the streets across Syria, despite reform pledges by President Bashar al-Assad. Activists say hundreds have been killed by security forces. We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

Blog: Apr18 - Apr19 - Apr20 - Apr21 - Apr22 - Apr23 - Apr24 - Apr25 - Apr26 - Apr27 - Apr28 - Apr29 - Apr30 - May 1 -May 2 - May 5 - May 6 - May 7 - May 8 - May 9 - May 10 - May 11 - May 12 - May 13

Syria Spotlight - Free Dorothy Parvaz - Timeline: Bashar al-Assad in power

All times given are local (GMT+3)

• Timestamp: 

  11:59pm

  That's it for tonight on our liveblog for May 14. But we're not going to bed yet, and you can follow all the latest news reports, photos and videos as they happen on our liveblog for May 15 - by clicking here.

• Timestamp: 

  11:58pm

  As Syrian troops surround the town of Talkalakh in the west of the country, residents face a desperate scramble to the border with Lebanon, 5km away. Several who made it into Lebanon had gunshot wounds, and at least four people died in the exodus.

• Timestamp: 

  10:19pm

  The Associated Press news agency says that Britain has summoned the Syrian ambassador to the UK to "deliver a warning" over the violent crackdown on protests.

• Timestamp: 

  7:41pm

  Protesters in the village of Wadi Khaled in northern Lebanon - near the Lebanese-Syrian border - chant slogans against Assad's continuning rule in Syria.

  

  [Photo: Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  7:21pm

   

  Representatives of Syria’s Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in the country, today called on all opposition forces inside and outside the country to join together to form a single political body responsible for overseeing a transition from dictatorship to democracy.

  “We demand the toppling the security regime and an end to the monopoly of the Baath Party’s rule,” said Ismail Hammo, head of the Kurdish Yakiti Party, one of 12 Kurdish parties which issued the joint statement today in the north-east city of Qamishli in the name of the National Kurdish Initiative.

  “We want a new constitution and acknowledgement of the diversity of Syrian people politically, socially and ethnically.”

  As Al Jazeera reported earlier this week, debate has been raging among Syria’s Kurds over whether to throw the full weight of their community behind the uprising against Assad. Hammo said:

   

  This coalition and other opposition parties share the aspiration for democratic change with the people in the street. Until now there have been no tools and both internal and exiled opposition programmes have been vague - so this initiative is necessary.

   

  He also called for the regime to stop violence against protesters, release all political prisoners and end the army’s intervention in civilian affairs.

  Hammo dismissed the call by the regime for a national dialogue as an attempt to buy time: “It is clearly that, because they have not even stopped the violence.”

   

• Timestamp: 

  7:15pm

  This video has appeared online today and purports to show protesters in Deraa shouting slogans against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad at Major General Mohammed Aalgirat. Al Jazeera has no way of verifying this footage.

• Timestamp: 

  6:10pm

   

  Political analysts in Damascus close to regime thinking have told Al Jazeera that President Assad has nominated Vice-President Farouk al-Sharaa and his assistant Mohammad Nasief, Vice-President for Cultural Affairs Najah al-Attar and Presidential Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban to take part in dialogue with Syrian opposition figures inside the country in order to reach a political solution to the crisis.

  A political analyst close the the regime told us:

   

  We are at the beginning of the dialogue process. The Syrian authorities should sit with serious figures to make strong and serious dialogue, not a cosmetic session of talks. All good Syrians should support the dialogue to find a solution. We want stability and security for our country. Syrians are not used to living under these conditions for a long time.

   

  However, he warned that what he called the “armed salafist groups” in Talkalakh showed that “there are some sides who want to block the political solution to the crisis.”

  A member of the established Syrian political opposition, which the regime hopes to engage in talks, said the killing of protestors must end and political prisoners be freed before any dialogue could begin. Asking not to be identified, he said:

   

  The real dialoguers are in jail, those who were demonstrating in streets. They were arrested so the first condition is to release those who are in jails and to give freedom of expression to all Syrians.

   

   It is not a good time to sit and negotiate with the regime while thousands are in jails and peaceful protesters are still being killed.

• Timestamp: 

  5:37pm

   

  A funeral was held this afternoon for a man in his 20s shot dead yesterday by Syrian security during a protest in Qaboun, seven kilometres north-east of Damascus.

  According to an eyewitness who spoke to Al Jazeera, a group of 300 to 400 protestors had clashed with soldiers on Friday, throwing stones at them during a demonstration. After the soldiers pulled back, plain clothes security and pro-regime thugs opened fire, he said, killing one and wounding up to ten. Mohammad, a 24-year-old university student who took part in the funeral, said:

   

  A month ago, the security killed six young men from Qaboun and yesterday they killed one. Two weeks ago, security came at five in the morning and arrested about 80 pro-democracy activists. That’s a big number from a small suburb.

   

  But however much they kill and arrest us they couldn’t stop us.

• Timestamp: 

  5:31pm

  Talkalakh has been declared an Islamic emirate by salafist Nasser Murae, justifying the assault on the city by Syrian troops which today killed at least four people, according to a report by Hezbollah’s Al Manar television, quoted in Asharq al Awsat.

  Al Manar has consistently repeated claims by Hezbollah's allies in the Syrian regime that the popular uprising in Syria has been driven by salafists, the regime’s label for Sunni extremist militants.

  Little is known of Murae, who has reportedly already appointed followers to run the Defence and Finance ministries of his new Islamic emirate - and has even established a radio station, according to Al Manar - repeated on several pro-regime Syrian news sites such as Damas Post and Cham Press. 

  “The government paved the way for its military operation when it began talk about a salifist emirate in Talkalakh,” said an activist who has been gathering reporting on the city today.

  “In the coming few days we will hear a lot of these stories in Hama and Idleb to prepare for the military operations there.”

  When the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood declared Hama an Islamic emirate in 1982, late President Hafez al-Assad responded by sending tanks, artillery and troops to raze the city, killing between 10,000 and 30,000 civilians.

• Timestamp: 

  5:26pm

  An eyewitness to the assault on Talkalakh near the Lebanese border today has told Al Jazeera that shelling has hit the city’s water tank and blamed the deaths and injuries there today on troops commanded by Maher al-Assad, President Assad’s brother. Referring to the Fourth Division - which he said is surrounding the city -the witness, who wished to remain nameless, said:

   

  Our army is a national army and we are brothers. But I blame Maher al-Assad’s soldiers and thugs for all of this.

   

  I can see the tanks at Talkalakh bridge.

  Four people have been confirmed killed and 23 - 26 have been wounded. The wounded have been taken to private homes and clinics for medical care.

  He said thousands of protestors had come under fire from the army and "pro-regime thugs" after they took  to the streets of Talkalakh today, calling for an end to the siege on Homs - where many have relatives living in Baba Amrou, a suburb of Homs which has also been shelled.

  He said there are checkpoints everywhere in the city and no public transport connecting the city to the rest of Syria. All communication has been cut.

  The eyewitness also said that tens of families in Talkalakh have headed to the border to flee the shelling by the army today.

  Yesterday 30 members of the Baath party in Talkalakh resigned, including doctors, lawyers and engineers protesting over the shelling by the army and the continued siege of Deraa, Banias and Homs. “It is not through security measures these issues should be solved,” their statement said.

• Timestamp: 

  5:21pm

  A Facebook page has been set up by friends and colleagues campaigning for the release of Catherine Altalli, a prominent Syrian lawyer and human rights advocate who was arrested yesterday.

  Activists and human rights organisations confirm that Altalli was taken by secret police from a minibus in Berze, a Damascus suburb at around 6pm to an unknown location.

  The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) said it fears Altalli could be submitted to ill treatments or torture and urged the Syrian authorities to cease arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, and to release all prisoners of conscience.

• Timestamp: 

  3:20pm

  More on the violence in Talkalakh:

  The Associated Press reports that the wounded who crossed the border in Lebanon included a 26-year-old man with a gunshot wound in his back, and two women, also suffering from bullet wounds.

  The man who died in hospital was 30 years old.

  The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, says that Syrian lawyer and human rights activist Catherine al-Talli was held by the authorities on Friday, while poet Ali Dirback was also held in the coastal city of Baniyas for reading a poem during an anti-government protest.

• Timestamp: 

  2:53pm

  One of the people who was injured when the military opened fire on people fleeing the Syrian city of Talkalakh has died of his wounds in a northern Lebanon hospital, our correspondent reports. That brings the death toll from that shooting to four.

• Timestamp: 

  2:46pm

  These videos, posted by the Shaam News Network to YouTube, show anti-government demonstrations that took place on Friday in the cities of Hama and Maart respectively.

• Timestamp: 

  1:22pm

   

  

  [image tweeted from @ermac]

• Timestamp: 

  1:17pm

   

   

  Syrian army personnel are now being deployed in the eastern city of Talkalakh, activists said after officials said troops and tanks were being pulled out of Banias and Deraa.

  These military operations aim to quell anti-government protests that began on March 15.

  Security barriers were set up at the entrances of the Talkalakh and heavy gunfire was heard, according to activists' accounts.

  Security forces deployed in surrounding villages as well. 

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:04pm

   

  More than 8,000 people are attending the funeral in Homs of one of three protesters killed by security forces there yesterday, an eyewitness told al-Jazeera.

  Mourners for Fouad al Rajoub gathered around one o’clock near Bab al-Dreib, said the eyewitness, and had begun making their way through the city chanting for the martyr and for an end to the siege on Homs, Banias and Deraa.

  The eyewitness said that due to the size of the procession the military had removed and relocated some of the checkpoints it has established throughout the city since mass anti-regime protests erupted there last month.

  “Everything is peaceful now but we will be passing government buildings and I fear the snipers will open fire on us,” he said.

   

• Timestamp: 

  12:52pm

   

  Lebanese security officials say scores of Syrians have crossed into Lebanon fleeing violence in their country. Cracks of gunfire in the western Syrian town of Talkalakh could be heard on the Lebanese side of the border.

  Syrians crossing that border say three have been killed and 19 others are wounded. Some of the wounded have been taken by the Lebanese Red Cross to hospitals.

  The shooting in Talkalakh comes a day after Syrian security forces opened fire on thousands of protesters, killing at least six people. 

  Human rights groups say more than 775 people have been killed since the start of the protest movement in Syria in mid-March. 

• Timestamp: 

  12:13pm

  In an interview published in al-Hayat, a pan-Arab newspaper, Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister has said: "The use of tanks to respond to the demands of the people for more freedoms and democracy is unacceptable."

   

• Timestamp: 

  11:44am

  These stills from YouTube videos have been distibuted by AFP, and show anti-government demonstrations that took place on Friday. The first is of a rally in Kafr Nabl, where protesters are carrying a sign praising international news networks for their coverage of the protests in Syria.

  

  The second shows demonstrators in Hama tearing down a poster of President al-Assad from outside the town hall.

  

• Timestamp: 

  11:33am

  Syrians living in Athens, Greece, held protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule on Friday. Here are some photographs of those protests [Photo credits: AFP]

  

  

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  10:15am

  This video, also released by the Syrian Free Press group, purports to show a demonstration held last night in the town of Ibta. Demonstrators are chanting "The people want the fall of the regime!", and "Exit! Exit!".

• Timestamp: 

  10:09am

  This video, released by the Syrian Free Press group, purports to show a demonstration against the government held yesterday in Daraa.

• Timestamp: 

  8:40am

  The United States has expressed "outrage" over Syria's violent crackdown on pro-reform protests, adding that the US is continuing to look for ways to apply pressure on the Syrian government.

  "We continue to look at ways to apply pressure on the Syrian regime," Mark Toner, the spokesman for the US state department, told reporters.

  "We continue to express clearly our consternation about the ongoing violence there and continue to make the point that the window is narrowing for the Syrian government to make any attempt to address the legitimate aspirations of its people," he said.

  Responding to a question, Toner said that "consternation" may not have been "strong enough" a term, and said instead that it was the US' "outrage" that was being expressed.

• Timestamp: 

  5:50am

  Up to 850 Syrians may have been killed in a two-month military crackdown and thousands of demonstrators have been arrested, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday.
  
  Rupert Colville, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said:

  We again call on the government to exercise restraint, to cease use of force and mass arrests to silence opponents.

• Timestamp: 

  5:10am

  Britain summoned the Syrian ambassador on Friday in coordination with other EU nations to warn of fresh sanctions against the regime if it fails to stop a crackdown on protesters.
  
  In a statement, the Foreign Office said it had "called in the Syrian Ambassador Dr Sami Khiyami... to express the UK's strong concerns about the ongoing situation in Syria”.
  
  Last month Britain withdrew Khiyami's invitation to the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine.

• Timestamp: 

  4:10am

  The following picture was tweeted by @alkh81:

• Timestamp: 

  3:50am

  Three US senators have urged President Barack Obama to expand sanctions against top Syrian officials including President Bashar al-Assad and call for him to quit power.
  
  "At this critical moment, we believe President Obama's leadership is vitally important," said Republican Senators John McCain and Marco Rubio, as well as Independent Senator Joe Lieberman.
  
  The senators denounced Assad's "ferocious and desperate attempt" to quell anti-government protests and urged Obama to say that his Syrian counterpart "has lost the legitimacy to lead, and that it is time for him and his regime to go."

• Timestamp: 

  3:30am

  The United States on Friday expressed its "outrage" over Syria's crackdown on protests, saying chances were narrowing for Damascus to respond to its people's demands for democracy.
  
  Mark Toner, State Department spokesman, said:

  We continue to look at ways to apply pressure on the Syrian regime. We continue to express clearly our consternation about the ongoing violence there and continue to make the point that the window is narrowing for the Syrian government to make any attempt to address the legitimate aspirations of its people.

• Timestamp: 

  2:30am

  Syria said on Friday it would hold a "national dialogue" after two months of protests against President Bashar al-Assad and a military crackdown that has killed hundreds of people.

  Adnan Hasan Mahmoud, information minister, said in a televised remark:

  President Assad has met with local dignitaries and heard their views and opinions regarding what is happening in Syria. The coming days will witness a national and comprehensive dialogue in all the Syrian provinces.

• Timestamp: 

  12:30am

  Syrian security forces and snipers opened fire on thousands of protesters on Friday, killing at least six people as mass arrests and heavy security kept crowds below previous levels seen during the two-month uprising against President Bashar Assad, activists have told Associated Press news agency.
  
  A leading human rights activist said three people were killed in Homs, two in Damascus and one in a village outside Deraa, the southern city where the revolt began two months ago. He asked that his name not be used for fear of government reprisal.
  
  An eyewitness told AP by telephone from Homs:

  At first they opened fire in the air, but the people continued on their way, and then they shot directly into the crowd.

Syria Live Blog - May 13

Thousands continue to take to the streets across Syria, despite reform pledges by President Bashar al-Assad. Activists say hundreds have been killed by security forces. We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

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Syria Spotlight - Free Dorothy Parvaz - Timeline: Bashar al-Assad in power

All times given are local (GMT+3)

• Timestamp: 

  7:39pm

  In the coastal cities of Lattakia and Baniyas, small protests in neighbourhoods cut off from one another by security and the military tried to congregate together, but were beaten back.

  Live fire was used in Lattakia, according to two eyewitness accounts, with several injured and fatalities feared, according to Insan, a Syrian human rights group.

  In Baniyas, which is under a military lockdown, a small protest was dispersed by secret police, with another wave of arrests including the imam of a local mosque and a 78-year-old man, according to reporting gathered by Insan.

• Timestamp: 

  6:22pm

  In Dumayr, a small town 30km east of Damascus, Al Jazeera has learned that several hundred protestors braved a massive police presence to call for an end to the siege on neighbouring Duma, which the military has kept ringed by checkpoints and cut off from Damascus and surrounding areas for over three weeks. 

• Timestamp: 

  5:41pm

  The following video is of protesters in Berze, chanting in support of local residents in Deraa.
  
  
  
   

• Timestamp: 

  5:33pm

  Several hundred protestors in Berze, a suburb north-east of Damascus, chanted for their neighbours to join them in protest against the government, evidently frustrated that more people had not turned out onto the streets. 
  
  “Shame on you, standing along the pavement!” they chanted, “For you just coming to watch, it’s better to walk back home!”
  
  “Two hours before prayer security men, soldiers and riot police were waiting here to finish any demonstration,” a local resident told Al Jazeera.
  
  “Some young people tried to demonstrate but they couldn’t organise a big one. Two or three hundred demonstrated in Berze’s old suburb, but the number of security men was more than us.” 
• Timestamp: 

  5:09pm

  Thousands of security personnel have successfully crushed a protest in Midan, a Sunni neighbourhood of Damascus which two weeks ago saw the largest anti-government protests in the capital since the unrest began.
  
  A witness who has protested in Midan over the past several weeks described to Al Jazeera how a combination of riot police, secret police and paid thugs have been used to swamp Midan and the surrounding area, making protest there all but impossible.
  
  “Around the mosque I must have seen about 3,000 different security men. On the checkpoints they carry guns, but most carry sticks. The journey is usually ten minutes, but today it took an hour and a half. There were also dozens of buses full of armed security," the witness said.
  
  The witness added that worshippers, who last month poured onto the streets calling for toppling the regime after their imam denounced the killing of protestors, this week appeared frightened.
  
  “This week people were very scared for some reason, more frightened than before. Even the imam of the mosque gave a very general speech. You couldn’t say he was with or against the government.
  
  From the speech and their tactics I think it is obvious the regime have got control over Midan. It is no longer going to be a central place for protests. They’ve learned how to surround and contain it.

  
  There were 3,000 people ready to arrest us. That’s more than we fit inside the mosque. It was impossible to stand against them.”
• Timestamp: 

  4:28pm

  Two eyewitnesses in Homs confirmed to Al Jazeera that secret police opened fire on a crowd of some 2,000 protestors as they attempted to march into a central neighbourhood.

  The first eyewitness said he joined protestors from the Grand Mosque who gathered in the Bab Dreib and Bab Hud areas.
  
  He added the protestors were surrounded by plain clothes secret police and watched over by snipers hidden on roof tops.

  As they began to march down a street toward the central Bab Sebah neighbourhood the secret police opened fire on the crowd. The army, which has tanks and troops deployed in and around the city, was not involved in the attack, which left one confirmed injured, said the eyewitness.

  A second eyewitness who spoke to Insan, a Syrian human rights group, confirmed shooting had taken place around Bab Sebah.

• Timestamp: 

  3:08pm

  An activist tells Al Jazeera that about 50 people have been arrested when leaving the al-Hassan mosque in the Damascus district Midan, a protest flashpoint for several Fridays. 

• Timestamp: 

  3:04pm

  Syrian families fearing fresh violence during protests after Friday prayers have fled into the area of Wadi
  Khaled in northern Lebanon, a local official tells AFP.

  "Around 50 Syrian families from Homs, Tall Kalakh and Bab Sabaa entered Wadi Khaled via the illegal Naura crossing," Fayez Abdullah, mayor of the village of Amayer in Wadi Khaled, said.

  Hundreds of Syrians have entered Wadi Khaled on foot from villages near the border since last week, bringing with them mattresses and other basic provisions.

• Timestamp: 

  2:53pm

  Protesters in Homs chant "Bashar is the biggest thief" and other slogans against President Assad.

• Timestamp: 

  2:50pm

  A rights activist tells AFP news agency that security forces have fired warning shots to disperse thousands of demonstrators in Deraa.

  "The security forces fired machineguns into the air in the town of Deraa in order to disperse thousands of protesters who had gathered after prayers," the activist said.

• Timestamp: 

  2:45pm

  People in this video chant "The people want to topple the regime" in the town of Marat al-Numan, 40km north of Hama.

• Timestamp: 

  2:20pm

  A document which Al Jazeera cannot verify the authenticity of, addressed to Damascus’ Attorney General, appears to confirm the mass arrests of males, including children, from Deraa and the direct link between the security services and the Syrian judiciary.

  Radwan Ziadeh, head of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies and a visiting scholar at George Washington University, told Al Jazeera he obtained the document directly from the Attorney General’s office in Damascus.

  The paper, dated May 8, comes from the head of Political Security and includes the official stamp of the interior ministry. The document lists the names of 27 detainees, aged between 54 and 15 years old, who have been imprisoned for "organising demonstrations, chanting slogans and banners depicting the symbols of the nation."

  "This shows lifting emergency laws has meant nothing. Syria was supposed to return to its Constitution where peaceful demonstrations are allowed," Ziadeh said. "This shows the mentality that is still in place." 

  The majority of those on the list are family members sharing the same last name, while five of the 27 are children under 18 years old.

  Under the terms of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Syria ratified in June 1993, under 18 should not be jailed with adults nor put at risk of torture, which Human Rights Watch has said is "rampant" in Syrian prisons. 

  

   

• Timestamp: 

  2:13pm

  Another video said to be from today, from Amouda in the northeast:

• Timestamp: 

  2:01pm

  This video was just posted from Qamishli. Protesters chanting "In blood and soul we sacrifice for you Deraa" and "The Syrian people are one".

• Timestamp: 

  1:55pm

   

  Thousands of Kurds and Arabs are protesting across the Kurdish-majority northeast of Syria, according to eye witnesses speaking to Al Jazeera.

  Demonstrators chanting "Syria for all its sons," "Long live independent, free Syria," and  "Syrian people are one," have taken to streets in Qamishli, Amouda, Ras al-Ain, and Derbassieh in Hassake governorate, while hundreds have also turned out in Ain al-Arab, on the eastern edge of Aleppo governorate. 

  Organisers estimated 3,500 people, mainly Kurds, protested in Amouda and up to 4,000 marched in Qamishli, including Arabs and members of Syria’s Christian Assyrian sect. 

  Debate has been raging among Syria's Kurdish leaders over how much to rally their communities behind the protest movement.

  "The Kurds are now expanding their participation in demonstrations calling for freedom in the country, along with other fellow Syrians. The army's intervention is condemned," Ismail Hami, Secretary General of the Kurdish Yakiti Party, told Al Jazeera. 

  "This national army is only there to protect the borders and not to open fire on citizens."

  A Kurdish political activist in Ain al-Arab said: "The president should order the army to go back to barracks and he should release the thousands of prisoners captured recently and end the siege on the cities. Then we might have better circumstance for dialogue."

   

• Timestamp: 

  1:43pm

  Activist Suhair Atassi says 3,000 people are protesting in Qamishli, a mainly Kurdish city in the northeast, and there are reports of protests in nearby towns including Amuda.

• Timestamp: 

  1:41pm

  Demonstration reported in Hama, with protesters demanding freedom and lifting of the siege of Deraa and Baniyas.

• Timestamp: 

  1:00pm

  Activists in Syria say authorities are taking measures to try to stop anti-government protests after Friday prayers at the country's mosques. They say security forces closed off areas and set up checkpoints after calls for protests throughout the country, the AP reports.

• Timestamp: 

  12:48pm

  The UN's human rights office says it is "extremely concerned'' about the situation in Syria. Spokesman Rupert Colville says his office is poised to send a high-level fact finding team to the country as soon as it receives government permission, the Associated Press reports.

• Timestamp: 

  12:43pm

  Rupert Colville, a spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Syria's death toll of 700-to-850 - based on information provided by human rights activists - was "quite likely to be genuine," Reuters reports.

• Timestamp: 

  11:40am

  Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, spoke about Syria on a visit to Kazakhstan. He warned against the repeat of a 'Libya scenario' in the country. Russian news agencies quoted him saying:

  We are very worried that the process of reconciliation, the process of the start of dialogue ... is being slowed down by a desire of some participants to attract foreign forces to support their actions.

  The betting is that outside players will appreciate the problem and will not only discuss but also subsequently repeat the Libyan situation, for example, interfere using methods of force among other things.

  It is a great pity that the Libyan situation has created a huge temptation for many opposition members in that region to create a similar situation and expect that the West will not stand aside but will be interfering in the conflict in favour of one of the sides.

• Timestamp: 

  11:20am

  The following video, posted on Youtube, claims to be footage of a protest in Homs on Thursday evening. Demonstrators there marched from the city's Omar Mosque.

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  11:05am

  President Bashar al-Assad has ordered Syrian troops not to fire on pro-democracy demonstrators, a rights campaigner told the Reuters news agency. Read the full story on our website here.

• Timestamp: 

  10:09am

  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against foreign intervention in Syria, calling on its opposition not to seek a repeat of the "Libya scenario", the AFP news agency reports.

• Timestamp: 

  7:07am

  Russia is attempting to suppress a United Nations report that says Iran has been breaking a UN arms embargo by shipping weapons to Syria, Western diplomats told Reuters on Thursday.

  The confidential report, obtained by Reuters, said most of Iran's breaches of the embargo have been deliveries of weapons to Syria.

  Russia is able to block the Iran report because decisions about such reports are made by consensus among the 15 members of the Security Council.

• Timestamp: 

  5:30am

  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has ordered troops not to fire on pro-democracy demonstrators ahead of Friday prayers that have become a rallying point for protesters in an eight-week uprising, a rights campaigner said.

  Louay Hussein said Assad's adviser Bouthaina Shaaban told him in a phone call on Thursday that "definitive presidential orders have been issued not to shoot demonstrators and whoever violates this bears full responsibility".

  In a statement sent to Reuters Hussein said:

  I hope we will see (no firing at demonstrators) tomorrow. I still call for non-violent form of any protest regardless of the response of the security apparatus.

• Timestamp: 

  3:30am

  Australia is ramping up sanctions against Syria in protest against the regime's violent suppression of demonstrators.
  
  Kevin Rudd, the Australian foreign minister, said on Friday his government is ramping up targeted financial sanctions initiated in April against key regime figures responsible for human rights abuses and is also imposing an embargo on arms and other equipment used for internal repression.

• Timestamp: 

  2:10am

  

  Clinton, in Greenland for talks about Arctic cooperation, repeated US denunciations of the crackdown, which she said has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people since March [GALLO/GETTY]

• Timestamp: 

  1:30am

  In some of her strongest remarks yet on Syria, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said on Thursday that the brutal crackdown against protesters demonstrated the government's weakness, though she stopped short of saying President Bashar al-Assad must quit.

  Clinton said:

  They engage in unlawful detention, torture and the denial of medical care to wounded persons. There may be some who think that this is a sign of strength. But treating one's own people in this way is in fact a sign of remarkable weakness.

• Timestamp: 

  12:09am:

  US embassy in Damascus issued a statement on Thursday calling the Syrian government to allow peaceful protests.
  
  The embassy in its statement said:

  The United States Embassy witnessed, on the evening of May 12, the third peaceful demonstration this week of protesters who disagree with American policy towards Syria.  The United States respects the right of these demonstrators to express themselves in peaceful marches.
  
  The U.S. Embassy regrets that the Syrian Government has denied the rights of thousands of other Syrians to demonstrate peacefully to criticize Syrian policy.  Most recently, on the evening of May 11, Syrian security forces, using clubs and batons, brutally assaulted a group of Aleppo university students who sought to march peacefully to demand an end to Syrian security operations targeting some Syrian cities.
  
  The United States believes there should be no double standard.  The Syrian Government should grant all Syrians the right to express themselves peacefully, as required of it by its signature on the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Syria Live Blog - May 12

Thousands continue to take to the streets across Syria, despite reform pledges by President Bashar al-Assad. Activists say hundreds have been killed by security forces. We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

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Syria Spotlight - Free Dorothy Parvaz - Timeline: Bashar al-Assad in power

All times given are local (GMT+3)

• Timestamp: 

  5:33pm

  Rights group Avaaz is reporting that residents in Baniyas and Bayda are being forced to sign confessions in which they absolve their political demands, and pledge to stop protesting under the threat of being collectively tortured.

• Timestamp: 

  5:24pm

  AFP - Syrian security forces have arrested prominent rights campaigner Najati Tayara.

  "Security forces arrested activist Najati Tayara today on a street in Homs... and he was taken to an undisclosed location," said Khalil Maatuk, president of the Syrian Centre for the Defence of Prisoners of Conscience.

  The arrest came one day after Tayara reported shelling and gunfire had rocked Homs.

• Timestamp: 

  4:30pm

  Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from northern Lebanon, said that residents from Homs are fleeing the violence and crossing into Lebanon. 

• Timestamp: 

  1:41pm

  An uncomfirmed video posted on youtube shows post-crackdown destruction in the city of Daraa.

• Timestamp: 

  12:36pm

  Syrian troops are deploying tanks around central city of Hama, known for a bloody 1982 revolt which was crushed by government forces.

• Timestamp: 

  12:31pm

  The Associated Press says that two days after the European Union put put into effect a broad range of sanctions against Syria, China says that the outside world should not interfere in the country's internal affairs.

  Instead, China says other countries should play a "constructive role" in helping it return to peace and stability.

  Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters that Syria should be able to maintain its independence while dealing with its internal uprising.

  Syria is an important country in the Middle East. We hope it can remain stable, and that all sides can, via political dialogue, resolve their differences and avoid bloodshed.

  She added,

  We also think that the outside world should not interfere in Syria's internal affairs so as to avoid adding complicating factors. We hope the international community can play a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East.

  U.N. envoys said last month that Russia, China and Lebanon had blocked the UN security council's condemnation of Syria's violent crackdown.

  Analysts have said that Beijing will carefully foster ties and trade with new governments across the region, while being sure to present itself as a steadfast friend of governments that ride out the unrest.

  Of course, China has major interests in oil production in the region.

• Timestamp: 

  12:14pm

  Syrian activists got a copy of what they say are lists of wanted persons by Syrian authorities.

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  10:45am

  European Union Chief Catherine Ashton is open to extending sanctions against Syria to include President Bashar al-Assad.

  Ashton pressed Assad on an Austrian radio show this morning.

  President Assad is not on the list but that does not mean the foreign ministers won't return to this subject.

  On Tuesday, the EU put 13 Syrian officials on its sanctions list, including a brother of Assad.

  EU diplomats said that Assad was excluded from the list for now in order to introduce punitive measures gradually, despite the French government calling for freezing Assad's assets.

  The EU's most recent asset freezes and travel bans were part of a package of sanctions including an arms embargo.

• Timestamp: 

  9:54am

  Many journalists have been kicked out or not allowed to enter Syria, so citizens are finding innovative ways to tell their stories in their own voices.

  Al Jazeera's newest programme, the Stream, explores the importance of crowdsourcing in Syria through Crowdvoice, a grassroots digital network that leverages new media to support popular protest.

• Timestamp: 

  7:52 am

  Syrian police have come out in force, again cracking down on protests, now targeting students in Aleppo.

  Thousands of protesters have been detained and around 750 killed, including at least 19 people since Wednesday.

  Emike Umolu reports.

• Timestamp: 

  7:01am

  A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows supporters of President Bashar al-Assad protesting outside the US embassy in Damascus yesterday amid world anger over the government's bloody crackdown on anti-regime protests in the country:

  

  [Image by AFP]

• Timestamp: 

  6:57am

  Syrian tanks shelled residential areas in two towns and at least 19 people were killed across the country on Wednesday, rights campaigners have told the Reuters news agency.

• Timestamp: 

  6:36am

  Our live blog for May 12 continues here. If you missed anything on yesterday's blog, you can access it here.

Syria Live Blog - May 11

Thousands continue to take to the streets across Syria, despite reform pledges by President Bashar al-Assad. Activists say hundreds have been killed by security forces. We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

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Syria Spotlight - Free Dorothy Parvaz - Timeline: Bashar al-Assad in power

All times given are local (GMT+3)

• Timestamp: 

  10:09pm

  The US State Department said on Wednesday that it is looking for details and when and why Al Jazeera journalist Dorothy Parvaz was deported from Syria to Iran. A spokesman said the United States has had no contact with her and is very concerned.

• Timestamp: 

  5.56pm

  Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports on the surge of weapons being smuggled into Syria.
  
   

• Timestamp: 

  3:22pm

  This video, uploaded on YouTube by Sham News, an opposition outlet, purports to show pro-government gunmen on a rooftop of a building this morning in Gasem:

• Timestamp: 

  1:37pm

  Heavy gunfire was heard as at least three residential neighborhoods were hit by tank fire in Homs, which has experienced some of the largest anti-government demonstrations in recent weeks. A frightened resident told The Associated Press by telephone:

  There were loud explosions and gunfire from automatic rifles throughout the night and until this morning. The area is totally besieged. We are being shelled.

  Activists in Damascus who were in touch with residents also reported shelling in Homs, Syria's third-largest city and home to one of its two oil refineries.

  The witnesses and activists, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals, said the shelling was targeting the Bab Sbaa, Bab Amr and Jouret el Aris neighborhoods.

• Timestamp: 

  12:51pm

  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Syria on Wednesday to halt mass arrests of anti-government protesters and to heed calls for reform.

  Ban also told a news conference in Geneva that he had spoken with Libya's Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi and called for an "immediate, verifiable ceasefire" and a halt to attacks on civilians.

  Ban said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should "heed the calls of the people for reforms and freedom".

• Timestamp: 

  9:04am

  Army tanks shelled the Bab Amro residential district in Syria's third city of Homs, Najati Tayraraa, a human rights campaigner in the city said. 

  Homs is shaking with the sound of explosions from tank shelling and heavy machineguns.

• Timestamp: 

  5:49am

  Video from Jasim in Syria - shows the bodies of two men who are apparently dead. The cameraman says that the video was taken at 6.30pm on May 10.

   

• Timestamp: 

  3:50am

  The Syrian military has been sealing off various areas and conducting house-to-house raids in search of people whose names are on wanted lists, with many people fleeing for fear of detention by President Bashar Assad's regime, activists say.

• Timestamp: 

  2:19am

  Syrian security forces have released 300 people detained in the coastal city of Banias and restored basic services, a rights group said, within hours of the government saying the threat from protests was receding.

• Timestamp: 

  1:49am

  Syrian ethnic Kurds light candles during a rally marking the anniversary of the kidnapping of the martyr Sheikh Muhammad Khaznawi in Qamishli on May 10. (REUTERS)

  Debate rages among Syria's opposition Kurds, as after years of Kurdish exclusion in Syria by the ruling Baath regime, there is hope for unity and justice once again.

  

• Timestamp: 

  1:25am

  Our live blog for May 11 continues here. If you missed anything on yesterday's blog, you can access it here.

Syria Live Blog - May 10

Thousands continue to take to the streets across Syria, despite reform pledges by President Bashar al-Assad. Activists say hundreds have been killed by security forces. We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

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Syria Spotlight - Free Dorothy Parvaz - Timeline: Bashar al-Assad in power

All times given are local (GMT+3)

• Timestamp: 

  11:17pm

  The Flash Syria Network has posted three videos of what it says are demonstrations in Homs today. Homs, in western Syria, has been one of the main flashpoints in the uprising: In April, dozens of people reportedly died there after thousand staged a sit-in at one of the city's main squares.

  In the first video, you can hear protesters chant, "The people want to overthrow the regime!"

   

  The message in this video is clear even to those who don't speak Arabic: "Bye bye Bashar":

   

• Timestamp: 

  10:39pm

  We mentioned in our news story on Syria today that the regime's military activity has reportedly continued unabated across the country, including Baniyas and towns near the embattled city of Deraa. Recent citizen video appears to show that activity.

  This first video purports to show tanks and other military vehicles in the town of Jassem, around 30 kilometres outside of Deraa:

   

  This one, acquired by the activist Shaam News Newtork, shows what the network says is a sniper on a rooftop in Deraa itself:

• Timestamp: 

  8:51pm

  The US state department says it has requested consular access to our journalist Dorothy Parvaz, who hasn't been heard from since she flew to Damascus on April 29, but that the Syrian government has declined let anyone see her, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Rosiland Jordan. Syria has not given the US any news on Parvaz's location or condition, she said.

• Timestamp: 

  8:19pm

  Under pressure from fellow member states, Syria has withdrawn its candidacy for membership on the UN Human Rights Council, diplomats said on Tuesday.

  The council is charged with monitoring compliance with international human rights law.

  "It is not really the time for Syria to become a member of the council of human rights," French UN Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters on Monday.

• Timestamp: 

  4:39pm

  The non-governmental National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria says 757 civilians have died since the countrywide protests against President Bashir al-Assad began on March 18. 

  Ammar Qurabi told the AP news agency that his group has the names, ages, cause and location of death for all 757 killed. Around 9,000 people are in government custody after being arrested in the unrest, he said. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:07pm

  Syrian troops and tanks entered villages around the southern city of Daraa on Tuesday, said an activist who spoke with the AP news agency. He said heavy gunfire was heard in Inkhil, Dael, Jassem, Sanamein and Nawa when the troops entered sometime shortly after midnight.

• Timestamp: 

  2:55pm

  More footage of last night's protest. This one, also from Sham News, allegedly shows a demonstration in Qatana:
  
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  2:51pm

  More YouTube video, uploaded by Sham News, an opposition outlet, shows last night's protest in Bukamal: 

• Timestamp: 

  2:49pm

  The sound of heavy gunfire was heard on Tuesday in the southwesten Damascus suburb of Mouadhamiya, which had seen intensifying demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad's rule, a witness said.

  "I tried to get in through Mouadhamiya's main entrance but there were scores of soldiers with rifles turning cars back," said the witness, who was in the area at 1000 GMT.

  Unconfirmed reports by activists in the last two days said tanks had entered the large suburb. Mouadhamiya lies on the main road to the occupied Golan Heights, which overlook Damascus.

• Timestamp: 

  12:09pm

  The UK daily The Telegraph speculates on the whereabouts of Asma al-Assad, the president's wife. According to journalist Nabila Ramdani, the Syrian first lady might have fled to London.

  Is Asma Assad in London?

  The wife of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad may have fled to London with the couple’s three young children, it has been claimed.

  Asma Assad, 35, was said to be living in a safe house in or near the capital. British-born Mrs Assad, who is considered to be one of the most glamorous first ladies in the world, has not been seen in public since the start of the Arab Spring.

  As the violence in Syria increases, Mrs Assad is said to have been warned “to get out as soon as you can".

• Timestamp: 

  11:06am

  The European Union listed 13 Syrian officials under the bloc's sanctions list, including influential  businessman Rami Makhlouf, a brother of President Bashar al-Assad and the country's intelligence chief.

  The measures - asset freezes and travel bans - are part of a package of sanctions that also include an arms embargo which went into effect on Tuesday as part of EU efforts to force Syria to end violence against anti-government protesters.

  Makhlouf, a cousin of Assad, owns Syria's largest mobile phone company, Syriatel, and several large firms in the construction and oil sectors. 

  The EU said in its official journal that he "bankrolls (Assad's) regime, allowing violence against demonstrators".

  In 2008, the United States imposed sanctions against him because of corruption allegations. The list includes the president's brother, Maher al-Assad, who commands Syria's Republican Guard and is the second most powerful man in Syria. 

  Also affected is Ali Mamlouk, head of the General Intelligence Service.

• Timestamp: 

  10:33am

  The New York Times interviewed Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to president Assad. The reporter was allowed in Syria for only a few hours for this interview.
  
  

  Syria Proclaims It Now Has Upper Hand Over Uprising

  By ANTHONY SHADID

   DAMASCUS, Syria — The Syrian government has gained the upper hand over a seven-week uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, a senior official declared Monday, in the clearest sign yet that the leadership believes its crackdown will crush protests that have begun to falter in the face of hundreds of deaths and mass arrests. 

• Timestamp: 

  9:58am

  Syrian security forces arrested hundreds of activists and anti-government protesters in house-to-house raids across the country Monday. The government's punishing response triggered new international sanctions Monday, as the European Union imposed an arms embargo. 

  The measure, which followed US sanctions, also prohibits 13 Syrian government officials from traveling anywhere in the 27-nation EU and freezes their assets.

  The United Nations said a humanitarian mission had not been allowed access to the southern city of Deraa, which has been cut off for the past two weeks after Syrian forces put down anti-government demonstrations.

• Timestamp: 

  4:57am

  The European Union warned President Bashar al-Assad to end violence against protestors or face punitive action Monday as it officially adopted a wide range of sanctions due to take effect on Tuesday.

  The measures, including an arms embargo and a visa ban and assets freeze on those deemed responsible for repressing protests, "respond to the escalation of the Syrian authorities' violent crackdown," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

  This is clearly inconsistent with the universal principles of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The sanctions aimed to achieve an immediate change of policy by the Syrian leadership, ending violence and swiftly introducing genuine and comprehensive political reform. Failing that, the EU will consider extending the restrictive measures in light of the developments, including at the highest level of leadership.

• Timestamp: 

  3:00am

  Video uploaded on Youtube that purports to show protesters being arrested in in Arnos in Damascus yesterday.

• Timestamp: 

  1:50am

  UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos says a United Nations aid mission to the southern Syrian city of Deraa has been postponed until later this week because the country failed to provide access.

  UN spokesman Farhan Haq said that Bashar al-Assad had indicated a "willingness"' to give the humanitarian mission access to Deraa during a telephone conversation last week with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

  But Haq said as of Monday, no access had been given. Deraa is a key city where armed Syrian forces have put down anti-government demonstrations influenced by the wave of protests in the Arab world. Amos said later Monday that she's trying to find out why the mission was not allowed in Sunday as scheduled.

Libya Live Blog

Al Jazeera staff and correspondents update you on important developments in the Libya uprising.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

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AJE Live Stream - Special Coverage: Libya Uprising - Operation Odyssey Dawn - Twitter Audio - Tweeting revolutions

(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

• Timestamp: 

  8:16pm

  The first shipment of halal MREs - Meals Ready to Eat, a kind of reheatable food used by the military - have been delivered by the United States to opposition officials in Benghazi, the US State Department said today.

  The US will next ship in uniforms, boots, and other non-combat, excess equipment from the Defense Department.

• Timestamp: 

  6:38pm

  The Guardian newspaper has posted some video from NATO's press conference today regarding its operations in Libya. In it, you can see some examples of what NATO is promoting as highly specific targeting by its strike aircraft.

   

• Timestamp: 

  3:14pm

  Libyan expat activists on Twitter have long hoped that the opposition National Transitional Council would use social media tools to spread information, and it looks like the Council has finally taken notice: It now has a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

  The NTC has used its Twitter voice in the past 24 hours to say it has paid all March salaries for public sector workers and that Egypt has reversed a decision that had required fleeing Libyans to obtain travel visas before entering the country.

• Live Blog Updates for May 10 are available here:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 9 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  10:00pm

  Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, told the UN Security Council that all parties should pause fighting in Libya to allow food, medical supplies and other aid to be delivered to those in need.
  
  Amos said sanctions against Libya are causing "immense human suffering" but did not go so far to call for a change in the sanctions imposed.

  The last months of fighting, the breakdown of state infrastructure, and sanctions, are causing immense human suffering ...  Sanctions are causing widespread shortages, paralyzing the country in ways which will impact gravely on the general population in the months ahead, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable.

  You can watch the Security Council meeting here:

• Timestamp: 

  9:54pm

  @ChangeInLibya tweets the following:

  

• Timestamp: 

  9:36pm

  In a live interview with Al Jazeera, a Libyan rebel commander claims rebels have killed 57 pro-Gaddafi soldiers and destroyed 13 military vehicles during a major battle in Ajdabiya, a city in west Libya.

  Hamed al-hafi said fighting happened on the periphery of a small outpost half way between Ajdabiya and the strategic oil port of Brega, where Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces control.

  Over the past 20 days, we had reorganised our forces. The real clash happened two hours ago, on the outskirts [of] al-Arbaeen[, the outpost].

  Al-Hafi said two rebels were killed in the fight, during which Moatassem, one of Gaddafi's sons, was leading the government forces in Brega. His claims could not be independently verified.

   

• Timestamp: 

  8:13pm

  C.J. Chivers of the New York Times blogs about the scenes migrant workers left behind when fleeing "war-torn" Libya.

  

  (Photo by the New York Times)

• Timestamp: 

  8:01pm

  NATO warships bombed "military and civilian targets" in the rebel stronghold Misurata in western Libya and the neighbouring town of Zlitan, Libyan state television reported Monday, according to Reuters news agency.

• Timestamp: 

  7:08pm

  Christina Adam, a legal officer at the International Organisation for Migration, comments on recent accusations against NATO forces in the Mediterranean of having ignored dozens of migrants fleeing north Africa by boat. Adam says international law strictly requires ship masters to rescue all persons found in distress at sea. But the situation "often becomes more difficult after the actual rescue happens."

  Watch Adam's interview with Al Jazeera:

• Timestamp: 

  6:27pm

  Signs of daily NATO strikes against pro-Gaddafi forces are everywhere in Ajdabiya but there is no change militarily and diplomatically. Much fear remains in the eastern city as well as a deepening sense of frustration.

  Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports:

• Timestamp: 

  5:20pm

  

  Delegates from 25 local councils and tribes in west and south of Libya have met on Monday for the first time in a show of unity with rebels battling pro-Muammar Gaddafi forces in the country's east. Read our latest story on the Abu Dhabi meeting here. (Photo by Reuters)

• Timestamp: 

  4:43pm

  Norway will cut back its involvement in NATO-orchestrated air strikes against Libya next month when its three-month commitment ends, Norwegisan Defence Minister Grete Faremo said Sunday, according to the Reuters news agency.

  Norway was one of the first European states to be willing to implement a no-fly zone over the African country per UN resolution 1973, aimed at protecting Libyan refugees from the country's bloody uprising against leader Muammar Gaddafi. The scandinavian country currently has six F-16 fighter jets flying missions over Libya.

• Timestamp: 

  5:01am

  Two loud explosions were heard overnight in Tripoli as jets flew overhead, witnesses said. More details soon.

• Timestamp: 

  3:04am

  A Libyan refugee who fled unrest in Libya stands at a refugee camp near the southern Libyan and Tunisian border crossing of Dehiba. (Reuters)

  

• Timestamp: 

  12:37am

  The UK's Guardian newspaper reports that dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean Sea after a number of European and Nato military units ignored their cries for help. Read the full story here.

• Live Blog Updates for May 9 are above:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 8 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  11:59pm

  Shelling by Gaddafi's forces is choking off supplies to the rebel-held city of Misrata, leaving only enough food and water for about a month, a rebel spokesman said on Sunday.

  Shipments of food, water and medical supplies arrived two to five times a week until two weeks ago, when they dropped to once a week or stopped due to sustained shelling of the city's port, Saddoun El-Misurati, a Misrata-based rebel spokesman, said.

  The city will have supplies of basic foodstuffs and water supply that will last for another month or so without really having to ring the alarm bell, but it really depends on the flow of further shipments. If this deliberate attack on the port area continues without something done about eliminating that kind of threat, we might come to a really bad situation as far as food supplies, especially water supplies, are concerned.

• Timestamp: 

  10:00pm

  The NATO chief said he was confident that time was running out for Gaddafi, despite the prolonged stalemate between his forces and rebels who seek his ouster.

  But Anders Fogh Rasmussen also acknowledged the brutal war that has raged for nearly two months would be resolved politically, not militarily. The NATO secretary-general told CNN's "State of the Union" program:

  The game is over for Gaddafi. He should realize sooner rather than later that there's not future for him or his regime. We have stopped Gaddafi in his tracks. His time is running out. He's more and more isolated.

• Timestamp: 

  6:46pm

  Rebels in the Libyan city of Misurata have been engaged in intense fighting with government forces near the airport, and a NATO air strike hit the east of the city, a rebel spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

  "Fierce fighting is taking place now at the airport and in the air force college area [near the airport]. We are still hearing sounds of artillery and rockets," the spokesman, called Abdelsalam, said from Misurata.

  "NATO struck an area in the east of Misuata today but we do not have details," he said.
  
  

  Misurata is the last remaining city in the west under rebel control.

  It has been under siege for more than two months and has been the scene of some of the war's fiercest fighting between the rebels and Gaddafi loyalists.
  
  Click here to read our latest Libya news story.

  Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Benghazi, said Libya "is showing that it is ready for any kind of foreign aggression ... they know that it is extremely important to keep the momentum in what appears now to be a very long and protracted conflict."

• Timestamp: 

  1:42pm

  The Reuters news agency, citing Libyan state television, says groups of rebels in the city of Misurata have "turned themselves in to government forces".

  Al-Jamahiriya television gave no exact numbers but quoted a military spokesman as saying that some of those who had surrendered made recorded "confessions" which will be broadcast on television later, Reuters said.

• Timestamp: 

  1:40pm

  More on that report from last night on the boat that sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

  Italian police and coastguard officials rescued some 400 African migrants coming from Libya after their boat was tossed against rocks off the tiny island.

  Images of the rescue showed people jumping in panick or falling into the choppy waters as their boat heaved in the waves on Sunday.

  Read about it here.

• Timestamp: 

  1:30pm

  Libyan state television says NATO warplanes have launched air strikes on several government targets.

  It came after pro-government forces started a fuel fire in the western city of Misurata.

  Gaddafi loyalists attacked an oil depot - wiping out a key fuel source for the pro-democracy fighters still clinging onto control of the city.

  Witnesses told Al Jazeera that three helicopters that bombed the storage tanks were painted with Red Cross emblems.

•  

  Live Blog Updates for May 8 are above:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 7 are below:

   

• Timestamp: 

  11:00pm

  Forces loyal to Gaddafi attacked the remote eastern oil town of Jalu in the Libyan desert on Saturday, but the town remains in rebel hands, a rebel spokesman said.

  The town, south of the eastern frontline near Adjdabiyah, has been attacked by Gaddafi forces more than once since the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi's rule began in mid-February.

• Timestamp: 

  8:54pm

  Fierce clashes near the western Libyan town of Zintan killed at least nine rebel fighters and wounded 50 others on Saturday, an AFP correspondent and medics said.

• Timestamp: 

  8:17pm

  Tunisia warned Libya that it considered the shelling of a border town on Saturday "extremely dangerous" and said it would take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty.

  Close to 100 shells or mortar rounds fell on or near the Tunisian border town of Dehiba on Saturday, causing no injuries but doing damage to one house, a Reuters witness said.

  The shelling sent residents scurrying for safety.

• Timestamp: 

  7:59pm

  Italy denied it had reached any agreement with Libyan rebels to supply them with arms in their battle against Gaddafi.

  "There has been no agreement to supply them with weapons," a foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters. He was responding to a claim by a rebel spokesman in Benghazi who said Italy had agreed to supply the anti-Gaddafi forces with whatever weapons they needed.

  The foreign ministry spoksman said Italy would only offer the rebels "equipment for self defence" as agreed by the so-called Libyan "contact group" at a meeting in Doha last month.

• Timestamp: 

  6:56pm

  Libya's rebel government said Saturday that Italy has agreed to supply it with weapons "very soon" to fight against Gaddafi. (AFP)
• Timestamp: 

  6:50pm

  NATO forces launched air strikes on several targets across western Libya on Saturday, state television reported.

  Al-Jamahiriyah Television quoted a Libyan government military spokesman as saying the raids included areas near the Western Mountain town of Yafran, al-Hera, west of the capital Tripoli and installations in the rebel-controlled city of Misrata. It gave no further details. There was no independent confirmation of the report.

• Timestamp: 

  6:36pm

  Unconfirmed reports that a migrant boat laden with 600 men, women and children, mostly African refugees has sunk off the coast of Tripoli.

  Most are feared dead but a rescue operation is said to be underway and some bodies have been already recovered.

• Timestamp: 

  5:40pm

  The acting foreign minister of Libya's rebel government cancelled a trip to Qatar on Saturday after Saudi Arabia refused to allow his plane to use its airspace, Cairo airport officials said.

  The officials said Ali al-Isawi's plane stopped in Cairo to refuel on its way from Rome when Saudi Arabia informed the crew that they would not be allowed to fly through its airspace.

  Isawi returned to Benghazi, the rebel's stronghold in eastern Libya, after waiting several hours in Cairo, they said.

  They did not explain why Saudi Arabia barred the plane. 

• Timestamp: 

  4:44pm

  NATO said aircraft under its command conducted 149 sorties on Friday, including 56 "strike" sorties designed to hit military assets.

  Among the targets were tanks, ammunition storage depots, military trucks and "command and control" facilities in and around Sirte and Ras Lanuf.

• Timestamp: 

  3:50pm

  Forces loyal to Gaddafi fired on the lifeline port in the besieged city of Misrata and hit several fuel depots, rebels said. 

  "There are still attacks by Grad missiles and our fighters are still resisting," said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, military spokesman of the National Transitional Council. 

  "They tried again to destroy the Misrata port but our fighters didn't allow them to do that," he said. "They want to leave the revolution without fuel," he said.

• Timestamp: 

  3:39pm

  Rebels accuse Gaddafi of using helicopters bearing the Red Cross emblem of dropping mines into Misurata's harbour.

  NATO confirmed that helicopters had flown over the city on Thursday in breach of the no-fly zone its war planes are supposed to enforce, but it could not confirm that the choppers were marked with the Red Cross sign.

• Timestamp: 

  2:36pm

  Libyan government forces dropped bombs on four large oil storage tanks in the contested western city of Misurata, destroying the tanks and sparking a fire that spread to four more, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday.

  Government forces used small, pesticides spraying planes for the overnight attack in Qasr Ahmed close to the port, said spokesman Ahmed Hassan.

  This Youtube video purports to show the burning fuel tanks:

• Timestamp: 

  1:13pm

  Rebel spokesman Hassan said that rebel forces informed NATO of the aircraft, but that the alliance did not act.

• Timestamp: 

  1:11pm

  More on the alleged bombing by warplanes in Misurata.

  Ahmed Hassan, a rebel spokesman, says that Libyan government forces used small aircraft, typically used for spraying pesticides, to drop bombs on four oil storage tanks in Qasr Ahmed, close to Misurata's port. The bombs sparked a fire which spread to four more tanks. 

• Timestamp: 

  1:02pm

  British prime minister David Cameron's office has said that both he and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, will be "increas[ing] the pressure militarily, politically and economically" to isolate Muammar Gaddafi's government..

  Cameron and Sarkozy spoke on the phone on Friday .

• Timestamp: 

  1:00pm

  A rebel spokesman has told Reuters that Libyan government warplanes have bombed four oil storage tanks in Misurata. If this is the case, the Libyan planes will have violated the no-fly zone established over Libya under UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

• Timestamp: 

  11:19am

  Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis advisor, has just been speaking with Al Jazeera. Here's what she told us:

  The findings of our investigation so far are that the forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi have committed widespread violations of international law in Misurata as well as elsewhere in the country. Notably, the attacks, which are indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population - that is to say, rocket attacks, attacks with artillery, with mortars as well as the use of cluster bombs in civilian populated neighbourhoods within Misurata. 

  "Now obviously rockets are indiscriminate, they can never be used in civilian areas. The other weapons used ... are weapons that are designed for the battlefield, and again, should not be used in residential areas."

  Rovera also said that Gaddafi forces had been using residential areas to shield their tanks from NATO air strikes.

  Yes, indeed, I was able to go into neighbourhoods from which the Gaddafi forces had just evacuated, and I saw for myself tanks that were parked right between the houses in areas which are quite dense. Now apparently that was to shield the tanks from NATO attacks. That again is a serious violation of international law.

  "Shielding is a war crime."

• Timestamp: 

  11:16am

  Reuters reports that at least four shells have fallen inside Tunisia near Dehiba, after clashes erupted between pro- and anti-government forces on the Libyan side of the border.

   

  "At least four shells have fallen inside Tunisia, but not in a built-up area," said Reuters correspondent Tarek Amara in the Tunisian border town of Dehiba.

   

• Timestamp: 

  10:17am

  Libya's ambassador to Rome says that he is now on the side of the opposition.

  "I am with the people, with the rebels and against Gaddafi's regime," Abdulhafed Gaddur, who has been a Libyan diplomat in Italy since 1990, told the Corriere della Sera daily in an interview.

  Gaddur says he will continue to serve in his position "until a new Libya and its new government make their choices".

  Gaddur had earlier signed a document drafted by other diplomats who had abandoned Gaddafi's government, but had not publically signaled his exact position on the issue.

• Timestamp: 

  9:47am

  Italian coast guard officials on the island of Lampedusa say that hundreds of refugees fleeing the violence in Libya have landed on the island in two boats.

  One boat carried 655 people, including 82 women and 21 children, while the second carried 187 people, including 19 women and a child. 

  Television images have shown a rusted, overcrowded fishing vessel arriving in Lampedusa, which has in recent months been inundated by refugees fleeing violence in North Africa following uprisings in Tunisia and Libya.

  Live Blog Updates for May 7 are above:

  _______________________________

  Live Blog Updates for May 6 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  9:10pm

  Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, on possible plans to release frozen Libyan assets to the opposition in Benghazi:

  Libya still, according to the international law, is one sovereign state and any use of the frozen assets, it's like piracy on the high seas.

• Timestamp: 

  2:54pm

  France has expelled 14 Libyan diplomats who served the government of Muammar Gaddafi, giving them two days to leave and saying it will no longer recognise the group's diplomatic status.

• Timestamp: 

  1:15am

  AFP - An international plan to fund rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi's forces with frozen government assets is "like piracy on the high seas," the country's deputy foreign minister said.

  "Libya still, according to the international law, is one sovereign state and any use of the frozen assets, it's like piracy on the high seas," Khaled Kaim told a news conference in the capital Tripoli.

• Timestamp: 

  1:10am

  Reuters - More than a dozen mortar rounds fired from Libya landed near the Tunisian border town of Dehiba on Thursday, a Tunisian security source said, as Libyan government troops fought rebels in the Western Mountains.

  A resident of Dehiba said one of the mortar rounds landed near a reservoir supplying the town with drinking water.
  
  Artillery fire from Libya has landed in or near Dehiba several times in the past week, as forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi try to wrest control of a key border post from rebels.

  Live Blog Updates for May 6 are above:

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  Live Blog Updates for May 5 are below:

• Timestamp: 

  10:40pm

  AFP: Canada on Thursday said rebels trying to overthrow Gaddafi are a "valid interlocutor," but denied the fighters' claims that Ottawa has formally recognised them as the new government.

  "There has been no change in Canada's position on recognition. Canada recognises states, not governments. Libya, as a state, continues to exist," foreign affairs spokeswoman Lisa Monette told AFP.

• Timestamp: 

  9:22pm

  On Thursday, Libyan troops fired Grad rockets toward the outskirts of the rebel-held town of Nalut in a remote western mountain area.

  Al Arabiya television, citing rebels, reported that NATO launched air strikes on Gaddafi forces in the oil town of Brega, in eastern Libya. It did not give details.

• Timestamp: 

  8:30pm

  Coalition to create fund for Libya rebels: Countries involved in military campaign pledge money to provide food, medicine and supplies to opponents of Gaddafi.

  Read more here

• Timestamp: 

  4:48pm

  Foreign medics face siege in Libyan town of Nalut 

  Our Live Blog for May 5 starts here. If you missed out our May 4 blog, please click here.

Syria Live Blog - May 9

Thousands continue to take to the streets across Syria, despite reform pledges by President Bashar al-Assad. Activists say hundreds have been killed by security forces. We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

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Syria Spotlight - Free Dorothy Parvaz - Timeline: Bashar al-Assad in power

All times given are local (GMT+3)

• Timestamp: 

  12:23am

  This blog is being wrapped up for now, but full coverage of developments in Syria can be found here.
• Timestamp: 

  10:11pm

  Here is the full statement put out by the Council of the European Union:

  COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

  Brussels, 9 May 2011

  EU imposes restrictive measures against Syria

  The Council has adopted1 a regulation and a decision providing for an embargo on exports to Syria of arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression, as well as a visa ban and an assets freeze.

  The visa ban and the assets freeze targets 13 officials and associates of the Syrian regime who have been identified by the Council as being responsible for the violent repression against the civilian population in Syria.

  The decision and the regulation, together with the list of persons subject to the restrictive measures, will be published in the Official Journal on 10 May 2011.

  To read the full document click here.

• Timestamp: 

  10:05pm

  The European Union is imposing an arms embargo on Syria, where the government is conducting a lethal crackdown on protesters.

  
  A statement late on Monday said the EU also is prohibiting 13 Syrian government officials from traveling anywhere in the 27-nation union and freezing the assets of those officials.

  
  The statement said the EU is banning the shipment of "arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression."

  EU envoys recommended the actions last week, but Monday's decision was required by all member governments for formal approval.

  
  Assad's government appears determined to crush the uprising by force and intimidation, and rights groups say hundreds of civilians have been killed since the unrest began.
• Timestamp: 

  9:00pm

  Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr has been reporting from neighbouring Lebanon - and gives us the latest on some of the unverified footage uploaded to the internet by activists inside Syria:
  
   
• Timestamp: 

  8:00pm

  Government forces including snipers on rooftops tightened their grip on Homs after Assad sent in tanks in a sharpening crackdown on protests against his authoritarian rule.

  A human rights campaigner in Syria's third largest city said the snipers deployed in several residential neighbourhoods as the sound of gunfire died down in districts of the city that tanks stormed on Sunday.

  "There are snipers visible on rooftops of private and public building in al-Adawiya, Bab Sebaa and al-Mreijah neighbourhoods. Hundreds have fled from three villages just to the southwest of Homs where tanks had deployed," the campaigner said.

  The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three civilians were killed on Sunday in Homs, a merchant city of one million people 165km north of Damascus. One of Syria's two oil refineries is in Homs. 
  
  Scores of people were arrested in Homs and in Baniyas on the Mediterranean coast, the latest focus of Assad's escalating military swoop on protesters, as well as in other regions, the Observatory said.
  

  "Across Syria it has continued today, swelling the numbers [of detainees], which are already in the thousands," a spokesman for the Britain-based group said, adding that up to 500 people have been arrested in Baniyas since tanks entered on Saturday.

• Timestamp: 

  7:45pm

  Syrian authorities have stopped a UN humanitarian team from visiting the protest city of Deraa where hundreds are said to have been killed in a government crackdown, a UN spokesman said.

  "The [UN] humanitarian assessment mission has not been able to get into Deraa,'' spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.

  "We're trying to clarify why it hasn't had access, and we're also trying to get access to other areas of Syria.''
  
  Asked if the United Nations felt that Syria had reneged on a prior agreement to allow it into Deraa, Haq said: "We're trying to get the clarification as to why it hasn't gotten in. Let's see whether they can get in in the coming days."

• Timestamp: 

  6:00pm

  Syrian state television broadcasts the funerals of four soldiers reportedly killed over the weekend in the western city of Homs.
  

  State TV said the troops were killed in armed clashes with what it described as "armed terrorist groups".

  President Bashar al-Assad has sent tanks deep into Syria's third city Homs, escalating a military campaign to crush a seven-week-old uprising against his autocratic rule.
  
   

• Timestamp: 

  4:40pm

  A Jordanian detained by Syrian security is released and handed over to his family at the Syrian-Jordanian border.

  
  Jordanian activists say dozens of fellow nationals are being detained in Syria as forces there crack down on

  anti-government protesters.
• Timestamp: 

  4:30pm

  Here is a round-up of developments today:
  
  * Syrian security forces have arrested hundreds of activists and anti-government protesters in house-to-house raids across the country, part of an escalating government crackdown aimed at stamping out the nationwide revolt engulfing the country.
  
  Click here to read our story on this.
  
  * President Bashar Assad has dispatched army troops and tanks to crush the seven-week uprising that has posed the most serious challenge to his family's 40-year rule.
  
  The videos below, uploaded on Monday to YouTube, purports to show army tanks heading towards Homs: 
  
   
  
  
  * Monday's arrests, which zeroed in on the protests' organisers and participants, were focused in four areas; the central city of Homs, the coastal city of Baniyas, some suburbs of the capital Damascus and villages around the southern flashpoint city of Deraa, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
  
  He said the crackle of gunfire could be heard in the Damascus suburb of Maadamiyeh. 
  
  * By early afternoon, scores of women were demonstrating in Baniyas, demanding the release of hundreds of detained men who were being held at the city's soccer stadium, Abdul-Rahman said. He added that security officers had promised the women that all men over the age of 40 will be soon freed. 
  
  * In an indication that the regime shows no sign of folding, Assad was quoted as saying in comments published Monday that "the current crisis in Syria will be overcome and that the process of administrative, political and media reforms are continuing".
  
  * Meanwhile, the Al Baath newspaper of Syria's ruling Baath party said "cautious calm" has been restored to Baniyas. It said the showdown in the city "will end within a few hours". The Al-Watan newspaper said Baniyas has been under the full control of the Syrian army after "fierce" battles with "armed terrorist" groups. It said the groups used heavy weapons and mortar rounds.

  Syria has also banned foreign media and restricted access for reporters to many parts of the country, making it difficult to independently confirm witness accounts of the violence. 

   

• Timestamp: 

  12:07pm

  Ironically at times when the government has shut down mobile phone services in protest hubs such as Baniyas, Saudi Telecom Co says it is optimistic about winning Syria's third mobile license 

  "We are very optimistic ... we connect Syria with the rest of our portfolio, which is 70 to 80 per cent of the Muslim world." Saud al-Daweesh, the Saudi carrier's chief executive, said. 

  There are only two mobile phone operators in Syria, Syriatel and MTN, and there have been several campaigns in the past calling for boycotts of the companies because of high prices. 

  When pro-reform protests erupted in March in Deraa, demonstrators burned not only President Assad's portrait, but also the local office of Syriatel, a company owned by Rami Makhlouf, first cousin of the president. 

  Makhlouf is Syria's most powerful businessman and to many, he has become the face of the country's widespread corruption. He has been under US sanctions for several years.

• Timestamp: 

  11:46am

  The BBC will be discussing the case of the Al Jazeera journalist held in Syria in today's World Have Your Say show.

  Dorthy Parvaz has not had any contact with the outside world since she was detained upon arrival at Damascus airport on April 29.

  The BBC show airs at 11:00GMT and will also discuss the difficulties for media to report from Syria.

• Timestamp: 

  11:33am

  Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says security forces are conducting house-to-house raids to detain dissidents, with raids focused in Homs, Baniyas, some Damascus suburbs and villages around Deraa.

• Timestamp: 

  11:17am

  The Red Cross and the Red crescent delivered aid to Deraa on Thursday after the army lifted its siege of the southern city.

  Marianna Gasser, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria, was part of the delegation. 

  She tells Al Jazeera that the visit lasted only for a few hours but that the government had not restricted the aid groups' access to the city.

  The situation was rather calm. The visit was short.... There was no restricted access, there was just lack of time.

  "We were bringing some assistance, mainly food parcels, some dressing kits and baby milk.

  "There was electricity and water in the city centre. We will be able to go back in a couple of days to provide further assistance."

• Timestamp: 

  9:17am

  There are reports that Moadamiya, west of Damascus, has been cut off by troops.

• Timestamp: 

  7:22am

  Two people have reportedly been killed after security forces opened fire on a night rally in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour yesterday. This video is said to show the rally before it was dispersed.

• Timestamp: 

  7:11am

  Syria's ally Iran is playing an increasingly active role in helping the Syrian government in its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, The Guardian newspaper is quoting a "western dplomatic source in Damascus" as saying.

   The diplomat pointed to a 'significant' increase in the number of Iranian personnel in Syria since protests began in mid-March. Mass arrests in door-to-door raids, similar to those that helped to crush Iran's 'green revolution' in 2009, have been stepped up in the past week [...]

  "Activists and diplomats claim Iran's assistance includes help to monitor internet communications such as Skype, widely used by a network of activists, methods of crowd control, and providing equipment such as batons and riot police helmets."

• Timestamp: 

  6:00am

  The Syrian government has said that 10 civilian workers were killed by an "armed terrorist gang" in a bus ambush near the city of Homs on Sunday. Read the full Al Jazeera report here.

• Timestamp: 

  3:07am

  Syrian women living in Jordan painted their faces with the Syrian flag and chanted slogans against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a demonstration in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman yesterday.

  [Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  1:22am

  Our live blog on Syria continues here. If you missed anything from May 8, click here to have a look.