1400 GMT: Residents in Zawiyah, just 60 kilometres (40 miles) west of Tripoli, have been telling AFP how heavily-armed pro-Kadhafi militiamen attempted to retake control of the middle-class dormitory town overnight. The fighters fell back when they met resistance from armed opposition supporters in control of the city centre.
"Today, it's very calm, I'm able to get around town as normal," one resident said, reached by telephone. "The militiamen did not enter the city centre. They are still on the outskirts. They are heavily armed and have tanks with them."
1356 GMT: Here's a roundup of today's main events so far:
-- The UN's refugee agency says the situation on the Libya-Tunisia border is reaching crisis point. Between 70,000 and 75,000 people have crossed the border since February 20, with between 10,000 and 15,000 more expected on Tuesday. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says two US relief teams are being sent to Libya's borders with Egypt and Tunisia, adding that Washington has set aside $10 million in emergency assistance.
-- On the ground, the cities of Misrata, east of Tripoli, and Gherian to its south remain in opposition hands, as does virtually all of the east of the country including several key oil fields.
-- Austria has announced a freeze on the assets of Kadhafi and his close associates, while Germany says it is freezing an account at a German bank held by Moamer Kadhafi's son containing two million euros ($2.8 million). British publisher Pearson, which owns the Financial Times newspaper, has frozen the Libyan state's shares in the company.
Elsewhere in the region:
-- In Yemen, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of the capital Sanaa to demand the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh has blamed the US and Israel for the wave of Middle Eastern unrest.
-- Tanks have dispersed demonstrators in Oman's industrial city of Sohar, who had been occupying a roundabout for three nights. Clashes had erupted at the intersection on Sunday, killing at least one protester.
1342 GMT: In Tunisia, the country that sparked the wave of unrest spreading across the Arab world, two more ministers have quit the interim government. This follows the resignations of the prime minister and two other ministers after weeks of protests about the caretaker authority.
1335 GMT: The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, representing 57 Muslim countries, says it is against any military intervention in Libya. "All options should be utilised for the settlement of disputes through peaceful means and without resorting to the use of force," OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has told the UN Human Rights Council. The United States on Monday positioned naval and air forces around Libya.
1328 GMT: European Union leaders are to hold an extraordinary summit on March 11 to agree a response to the crisis in Libya and events across North Africa, an EU diplomat has said.
1318 GMT: Paul Wolfowitz, the USA's former deputy defence secretary, tells the British broadcaster Sky that the US "went too far" in welcoming Kadhafi as a legitimate leader after he gave up weapons of mass destruction.
1314 GMT: The London School of Economics has confirmed it is investigating claims that Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, a former student at the prestigious university, plagiarised his doctorate thesis. LSE has cut its ties with Seif, whose International Charity and Development Foundation donated �1.5 million ($2.4 million, 1.8 million euros) over five years to the school. The LSE has only received �300,000 so far.
1307 GMT: World oil prices continue to rise. Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April has risen 67 cents to $112.47 per barrel, while New York's light sweet crude for April, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), gained 35 cents to $97.32. But tension among traders remains lower than last week, when fears about supply disruption due to unrest in the Middle East sent Brent soaring close to $120.
1255 GMT: More strong words about Moamer Kadhafi from the USA's UN ambassador, Susan Rice. "We are going to squeeze him economically in conjunction with the rest of the economic community. We'll squeeze him militarily," she told NBC television's "Today Show". Rice yesterday said Kadhafi was "delusional" after the embattled leader claimed the Libyan people loved him and would die to protect him.
1250GMT: India says it has evacuated more than 3,000 nationals from Libya so far, with 1,100 en route from Benghazi to Alexandria on a passenger ship. But more than 14,000 Indians remain in Libya.
1242 GMT: Saudi shares have dived 6.8 percent at close, amid a panic sell-off by investors concerned by unrest in the Middle East.
1239 GMT: More on those protests in Yemen. The crowd in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, has swelled to tens of thousands, an AFP correspondent says. President Ali Abdullah Saleh -- who the protesters demand quits power -- has blamed the US and Israel for the wave of revolts that has spread across the Arab world. "The events from Tunisia to Oman are a storm orchestrated from Tel Aviv and and under Washington's supervision," Saleh said in a speech at Sanaa's university campus.
1234 GMT: "HMS York on its way to Benghazi to pick up British nationals. Those who can travel easily to Benghazi should make their way to port," reads a tweet on the British Foreign Office's Twitter page, @britishabroad.
1206 GMT: Moamer Kadhafi is a "living political corpse" who has no place in the civilised world and must quit power, the Interfax news agency quotes a Kremlin source as saying.
1203 GMT: Protesters in the rebel-held Libyan city of Benghazi have been describing their struggle to defend themselves against pro-regime forces. Volunteer night watchmen patrol the city in the darkness, manning roadblocks and guarding the infrastructure. "We take turns from 3 pm to 8 am," Ahmed Abdelrahim, 32, told AFP's Patrick Baz. "We are all civilians without any military training," he said, a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder and his face masked with a balaclava.
1154 GMT: A few more details coming through on Pearson's freeze of shares in the company held by the Libyan state. The British publisher -- which owns the Financial Times newspaper -- says the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) owns 3.27 percent of the company's issued share capital worth around �250 million ($407 million, 295 million euros). The company said this was in response to a UN Security Council resolution against Kadhafi, and the British government's freeze on Libya's British-held assets.
1135: Germany says it is freezing an account at a German bank held by Moamer Kadhafi's son, containing two million euros ($2.8 million).
1132 GMT: British publisher Pearson has frozen shares in the company held by the Libyan state, saying it had taken the action after examining a UN Security Council resolution on Moamer Kadhafi's regime.
1129 GMT: Italy is considering freezing Libyan state assets, the Il Sole 24 Ore financial daily reports. Libya has up to 3.6 billion euros ($4.9 billion) worth of shares in Italian businesses, the newspaper said last week. Tripoli is the biggest shareholder in the Italian bank UniCredit.
1125 GMT: In Oman, tanks have dispersed protesters who were blocking the port in the industrial city of Sohar and the coastal road to the capital Muscat, an AFP reporter says. At least one protester was killed in clashes in Sohar on Sunday.
1121 GMT: The latest from AFP's Mariano Rolando, in the eastern city of Benghazi: 'Military forces loyal to the opposition are working to protect east Libya from possible aerial attacks by the Kadhafi regime. "The first priority is to protect the cities, defend ourselves, and avoid losing what we've already seized. The next stage is to prepare a battalion to liberate Tripoli," explains Hadel, a reservist who has joined the opposition forces in Benghazi.'
1105 GMT: The Egyptian Red Crescent is to transport medical supplies and food provided by the UN's refugee agency into East Libya in response to requests from tribal leaders, the agency has announced on its Twitter page, @Refugees.
1051 GMT: Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has added his voice to those calling for a no-fly zone. There is "a danger of genocide" in Libya, he said at a conference in Brussels. US and European leaders are considering whether to use NATO air power in a no-fly zone against Kadhafi.
1037 GMT: More on the UN refugee agency's statement on the situation at the Libya-Tunisia border, which between 70,000 and 75,000 people have crossed since February 20.
"Our staff on the Libya-Tunisia border have told us this morning that the situation there is reaching crisis point," said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She said 14,000 people fled across the border on Monday, and that 10,000 to 15,000 people are expected on Tuesday.
1031 GMT: A French minister warns that the Libyan regime owns stakes in several large European firms, and says it must not be allowed to sell shares in order to "hire mercenaries" to crack down on the uprising. "France, on this point, is in favour of the European Union going further than it is so far planning to go," European affairs minister Laurent Wauquiez told RMC radio.
1026 GMT: Elsewhere in the region, vast numbers of protesters have poured into a square in Yemen's capital Sanaa for a massive anti-regime rally. Anger at authoritarian Arab regimes, sparked in Tunisia, is now raging from Algeria to Yemen -- and has spread to the previously unaffected Gulf states of Kuwait and Oman, both strategic Western allies.
1019 GMT: The UN's refugee agency says the situation on the Libya-Tunisia border is reaching crisis point.
1016 GMT: Austria has become the latest country to announce a freeze on the assets of Kadhafi and his close associates. The central bank says Libyan deposits worth around 1.2 billion euros ($1.65 billion) are held in Austrian banks. But it's yet to be determined how much is held in the country by Kadhafi or the 25 Libyan officials targeted in the EU's assets freeze.
1003 GMT: Here's a summary of the latest developments:
-- In an interview with Western journalists in Tripoli on Monday, a defiant Moamer Kadhafi insisted he is loved by the Libyan people and laughed of suggestions that he may leave the country.
Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the interview showed "how unfit he is to lead and how disconnected he is from reality".
-- The United States says it has blocked around $30 billion in Libyan assets, the largest amount ever frozen, while the European Union has also imposed its toughest international sanctions yet on the crumbling Kadhafi regime.
-- US and European leaders are mulling the use of NATO air power to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to stop Kadhafi from using air strikes against his own people.
-- Meanwhile fears of a humanitarian crisis on the country's borders are growing as thousands try to escape the unrest. More than 100,000 people have already fled into Egypt and Tunisia.
-- Human rights groups say at least 1,000 people have been killed in the regime's harsh crackdown on protesters.
1000 GMT: Welcome to AFP's live coverage of the events in Libya, where embattled leader Moamer Kadhafi defiantly clings to power as the unrest enters its 15th day.
Follow this live report for a minute-by-minute update of events as they happen.
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