1150 GMT: Israeli President Shimon Peres has condemned violence by Libyan forces against civilians, saying Libyans "will not forgive" Moamer Kadhafi for the killing of hundreds of people.
"The fact that he used arms and brutally killed hundreds of people, people will not forgive him because the right to demonstrate is a human right," Peres told a conference in Madrid.
"He has been the most brutal person in response to the demonstrations (sweeping the Arab world). Kadhafi makes a joke out of all of us. People take him in a humouristic way, but it is not a laughing matter, it is serious."
1148 GMT: All Libyan ports and terminals are temporarily closed because of the revolt by opponents of Kadhafi's regime, the CMA CGM shipping group says in a statement on its website.
1145 GMT: Asian stock markets have mostly extended losses and oil remains after Kadhafi warned he would fight "to the last drop of my blood".
Despite the sell-off, Macquarie Private Wealth division director Martin Lakos in Sydney says heavier falls are unlikely.
"Most Asian equity markets have already seen a lot of de-risking because of the Libyan crisis, while Wall Street has played catch-up after the US holiday" on Monday, he said.
1141 GMT: All Libyan ports temporarily closed: shipping group
1140 GMT: More from Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who says Kadhafi has lost control of the eastern province of Cyrenaica.
Speaking at a meeting organised by the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Christian organisation, Frattini says there have been recent proclamations in Cyrenaica that it is now an Islamic emirate and calls to break with the West.
"It is a worrying development if radical Islam is only a few hundred kilometres away from the European Union's front door, but nothing can justify the violent death of hundreds of innocent civilians," Frattini added.
137 GMT: In Cairo, former Egyptian police officers protesting outside the interior ministry set fire to an adjacent administration building, a security official as told AFP.
The police officers -- demanding reinstatement into the police force -- hurled firebombs at the smaller building, which is also used by the ministry. Several cars outside were also set alight.
Soldiers who remain deployed in the heart of the capital in the wake of the 18-day uprising against president Hosni Mubarak put the fire out, and there were no reported casualties, the official said
1135 GMT: EU says ready to evacuate 10,000 citizens from Libya, including by sea
1132 GMT: CNN says correspondent Ben Wedeman and a crew found no-one in charge when they entered Libya from Egypt.
As Wedeman and his crew were entering the country, a young man at the border in civilian clothing and toting an AK-47 asked them for their passports. "For what?" responded Wedeman's driver. "There is no government. What is the point?" They then drove in, the TV network said.
On the Libyan side, there were "no officials, no passport control, no customs," Wedeman reports.
1127 GMT: CNN cites a woman in Tripoli as saying several more checkpoints have been set up, especially near the city centre, restricting residents' movements.
The food shortage is getting worse, she says. When her family members went to get bread this morning, the shops were closed, CNN quotes the woman as saying.
1121 GMT: Spain's government says it has sent a plane to Libya to evacuate its citizens, and also plans new economic measures to cope with a hike in oil prices due to the escalating unrest in the country.
The foreign ministry says between 60 and 90 Spaniards still want to leave the country, following the departure of about 50 people.
The government also plans on Friday to discuss whether to pass a new energy law if the tension in Libya, from which it imports 13 percent of its oil, leads to a new hike in the price of oil.
1116 GMT: Some 15,000 Chinese nationals trapped in Libya's insurrection against strongman Moamer Kadhafi will be evacuated by four ferries chartered from Greece, a Greek government source says.
The four vessels -- the Venizelos, Express Santorini, Hellenic Spirit and Olympic Champion -- should reach the Libyan coast by Wednesday night, the official tells AFP.
1114 GMT: Sources tells AFP the charter plane hired by Britain's Foreign Office is still waiting for an answer from the Libyan authorities as to whether they can fly to Tripoli to rescue British nationals.
1100 GMT: The Guardian's Martin Chulov is filing by Twitter from Benghazi. Here are some of his tweets today:
Mass defection of the military here. Beyond a critical mass.... Air force major tells me of witnessing 4k african mercenaries arriving from feb 14 'that's why we turned against them'... Looted weapons still arriving... 3 african mercenaries being held prisoner upstairs... Amazing scenes in yard of ransacked police hq in benghazi... Massive armoury looted from barracks by defecting troops... Camp site set up at benghazi... Large anti-ghadaffi demo here... Effigies of him hanging from looted govt buildings...
1052 GMT: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expresses outrage at what he says is "unimaginable" repression in Libya, urging world leaders to listen to their people.
"It is unimaginable that someone is killing his citizens, bombarding his citizens," Ahmadinejad says on state television when asked about the situation in Libya.
"How can officers be ordered to use bullets from machine guns, tanks and guns against their own citizens?"
1048 GMT: Jordan's Islamists and other parties say Friday's planned demonstration will also seek "to denounce violence," in which eight people were hurt last week when a mob wielding batons waded into a pro-reform march in Amman.
"Our protest will be a response to the thugs who attacked the protesters and to pressure the government to implement promised reforms," IAF's Bani Rsheid says.
"If the government or its supporters commit acts similar to last Friday's, we will demand the downfall of the government."
Supporters of leftist parties told AFP that they plan to spend the night on Thursday outside Al-Husseini Mosque, in the city centre where they were attacked last Friday.
1044 GMT: Saudi King Abdullah has boosted social benefits for civil servants, students and others ahead of his return to Riyadh after three months of absence, the Saudi Press Agency says.
The king ordered the implementation of a 15 percent pay rise for state employees as well as an increase in the cash available for Saudi housing loans, according to SPA, the official news agency.
The 86-year-old monarch also granted pardon to some prisoners indicted in financial crimes and announced plans to tackle unemployment.
Abdullah is heading home from Morocco, where he had been recuperating after back surgery in the United States, returning to a Middle East rocked by anti-regime uprisings.
1042 GMT: Jordan's powerful Islamist opposition says it plans to stage a "day of anger" demonstration with other parties on Friday to demand reforms, in what they hope will be the largest protest since January.
"Around 10,000 members of the Islamist movement as well as supporters of 19 political parties will take part in the march to call for reforms," Zaki Bani Rsheid of the Islamic Action Front (IAF) executive committee announced.
1037 GMT: Reports today that large parts of Libya are no longer under Kadhafi's control contradict claims overnight by the president of the country's parliament that the army have re-established their positions.
Calm "has been restored in most of the large cities" in Libya, Mohamed Zwei, president of the General People's Congress, said late last night, adding that "security forces and the army have re-established their positions."
Zwei also told a press conference that a commission of enquiry has been set up to investigate the eight-day revolt against Kadhafi.
At the same time, he said "current conditions do not permit holding a meeting of parliament to discuss the reforms" announced earlier this week by Seif al-Islam.
Meanwhile, Jebril el-Kadiki, deputy air force chief of staff, said that arms and ammunitions depots had been bombed in Rajma, near the eastern city of Al-Baida; in Ajdabia and Al-Gueriet in the south and near Zenten and Mezda in the southwest.
Kadiki said all of the facilities are located in desert areas, away from any inhabitation.
1032 GMT: Kadhafi's son Saif al-Islam is expected to hold a news conference today.
1030 GMT: The Financial Times reports that the strongman's family is feuding over the vast business empire his regime has built up since coming to power in 1969. It cites communications between US officials obtained by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Another British daily, The Times, says it has footage of severely wounded and dead protesters in a hospital in the eastern city of Benghazi proving heavy weapons were being used to crush the revolt.
1026 GMT: China's State Council has "decided to immediately deploy chartered civil aircraft, COSCO cargo ships in nearby waters, and Chinese fishing vessels carrying needed living and medical supplies", the foreign ministry says.
China will also look to hire "large-scale passenger cruise ships and buses" to get Chinese works out of Libya, it adds.
1024 GMT: Asian nations are preparing "mammoth" evacuation plans for more than 100,000 migrants trapped in Libya, many of them low-paid labourers toiling on construction sites.
Arrangements to use passenger ships, planes and land routes to Egypt are being considered as governments try to secure their citizens' safety despite poor communication links and growing violence.
The majority of expatriates are contract workers, with 60,000 Bangladeshis, 30,000 Filipinos, 23,000 Thais and 18,000 Indians among those living under Khadafi's tottering regime.
"This is going to be quite a mammoth operation," India's foreign secretary Nirupama Rao tells reporters. "We will have to not only put in place arrangements for aircraft or ships, but also obtain permission from Libyan authorities for our aircraft to land there."
1021 GMT: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the EU to adopt "swift and concrete sanctions" and suspend economic and financial relations with Libya.
"I call on the foreign ministry to propose to our European Union partners the swift adoption of concrete sanctions so that all those involved in the ongoing violence know that they must assume the consequences of their actions," Sarkozy told a cabinet meeting.
"These measures concern notably the possibility of bringing them to face justice, barring them from the Union's territory and surveillance of financial movements," Sarkozy said, according to a text published by his office.
"I would also like to be examined the suspension until further notice of economic, commercial and financial relations with Libya," he adds.
1017 GMT: AFP's Sylvie Lanteaume has looked up the London School of Economics thesis written by Khadhafi's son Saif al-Islam. It's title is: "THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS"
As Sylvie says: "You couldn't make it up."
1013 GMT: Saudi king boosts social benefits for citizens: news agency
1007 GMT: In Manama's Pearl Square one woman shouts:"We shall never be humiliated," evoking a traditional Shiite slogan that blares out of megaphones across the square, now renamed "Martyrs' Roundabout" by demonstrators to honour those killed in a deadly police raid.
1004 GMT: In Bahrain, protesters are vowing not to budge from Pearl Square, epicentre of anti-regime demonstrations, despite the release of leading Shiite opposition activists and renewed calls by the king for talks.
One day after a mass demonstration clogged the main roads of Manama, Shiite protesters have again crowded Pearl Square, chanting: "We are brothers, Sunnis and Shiites. We shall not abandon this country."
1000 GMT: Italy's Frattini says: "Cyrenaica is no longer under the control of the Libya government and there are outbreaks of violence across the country."
The Italian government is calling for an immediate end to "this horrible bloodbath" that "the Kadhafi government has announced and is continuing to carry out," Frattini added.
0957 GMT: Oil company BP tells AFP that all families and dependants of its Libya-based expatriate employees have arrived safely at various European locations.
The remainder of the company?s employees in Libya will leave the country in due course and in accordance with enforced curfews, a spokeswoman says.
0952 GMT: Libya's eastern province of Cyrenaica is no longer under the control of Moamer Kadhafi, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini announces.
0951 GMT: Sarkozy calls for EU sanctions against Libya
0947 GMT: Alessandro Marra, an official at the UN human rights office, tells AFP: "We received the request for a special session this morning, filed by the European Union."
"Forty seven states are supporting the request, not all of them are members of the human rights council," he says. The meeting and debate is due to begin at 10.00 am (0900 GMT) in Geneva on Friday.
0945 GMT: UN rights council to hold special session on Libya on Friday: official
0943 GMT: Libya's eastern Cyrenaica province no longer under Kadhafi control: Italy
0940 GMT: "We have started to suspend some of our production capacity in Libya," a Total spokesman tells AFP, asking not to be named and without providing further details.
Total produced an average of 55,000 barrels per day from its Libyan wells in 2010 or 2.3 percent of the giant's production.
0936 GMT: French energy giant Total says it is "starting to suspend" part of its oil production in Libya where protests against Moamer Kadhafi's rule have killed hundreds.
Follow this live report for a minute-by-minute update of events as they happen in Libya, North Africa and the Middle East. We'll bring you events as they develop after Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's dramatic call for his supporters to confront the protesters today.
Here's a reminder of some of Kadhafi's statements yesterday:
"If I were a president I would have resigned but I have no position to resign from."
"I will die a martyr in the land of my ancestors" and "I will fight to the last drop of my blood."
"The Libyan people are with me. Capture the rats. Go out of your homes and storm them" wherever they are.
"Do you want Libya to be like Somalia? It will lead to civil war if you do not apprehend them."
"Libyan oil should be distributed to all the people. You can take it and do whatever you want to do."
"A small group of people are circulating money and drugs to young people and trying to push them" to rebel.
"We have fought the might of America and Britain and all the nuclear countries. We have fought the might of NATO. We will not surrender."
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