Streaming from Libya. UPDATE. The site manager for this stream has stated that Benghazi is in the hands of the revolutionary groups. He also adds that they are determined to move to Tripoli to free it. Among other things, he appealed for professional doctors who can do operations.
The UK government has revoked eight export licences to Libya since the violence broke out, the prime minister’s spokeswoman has said. She was unable to say what the export licences were for, but said they usually cover such things as arms. Mr Cameron has described the sitiuation in Libya as “completely appalling and unacceptable”. He said: “The protesters want to see the country make progress. This is one of the most closed and autocratic regimes, the response they’ve shown is really quite appalling.”
The London School of Economics says it is reconsidering its links with the Libyan government “as a matter of urgency”. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi received a PhD from the LSE in 2009 and also gave the university’s Global Governance Research Unit a grant of £1.5m in the same year.
A number of European oil companies – Norway’s Statoil, Austria’s OMV and Royal Dutch Shell – have moved some staff following the violence in Libya, Reuters reports. Production at the Murzaq oil field run by Spain’s Repsol has been unaffected so far, as has output from Eni’s operations.
Portugal’s government says it has sent a military plane to Tripoli to begin evacuating EU citizens from Libya. In Brussels, Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said a second plane was on standby to evacuate some 50 Portuguese nationals from the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
The situation in Libya is becoming increasingly confused and chaotic, says the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Cairo. There are several reports Col Gaddafi has now left Tripoli, possibly to his hometown of Sirt or to his desert base of Sabha.
