Good website for Libya news

[muriel_volestrangler]

Based in the US; many links are Arabic, but it's also got the main news reports in English:

http://www.libya-watanona.com/

Found via this London Review of Books blog from 3 days ago (so slightly out of date, but interesting to read itself):

Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya?
Hugh Miles 16 February 2011

Demonstrations by hundreds of people in Libya’s second city of Benghazi yesterday were met with rubber bullets and water cannon: at least one person died and around 14 were injured, including 10 police officers, according to media reports. Yesterday also saw the first mass demonstrations by Libyan women against the regime. ‘No one is clear what is going to happen or what is being planned,’ a Libyan opposition figure told me. ‘There are no opposition movements inside Libya but many young people have had enough of the regime.’
...
Yesterday’s demonstrations took the authorities by surprise: Libya’s ‘Day of Rage’ was not scheduled to take place until tomorrow, the anniversary of the 2006 Benghazi Uprising in which 11 demonstrators were killed and the Italian consulate was burned down. But the regime is determined to hold onto power and is fighting back any way it can.

Last week Colonel Gaddafi called a meeting in Tripoli of the so-called ’social leadership’ and told them to stop the Day of Rage taking place. Meetings have also been held with journalists and media figures in an attempt to disperse the gathering storm. There are no foreign media correspondents in Libya, and the al-Jazeera bureau has been closed down. Gaddafi has said that he will personally appear at the head of pro-regime demonstrations tomorrow, but whether he does remains to be seen.
...
Chinese and Indian computer experts have been hired to bring down opposition websites. Nearly every major Libyan opposition website has been affected and many are down. Only Libya Watanona, based in the US, is currently functioning normally. The regime has been cracking down on cyber-activists inside the country. Earlier this month, Jamal al-Hajji was arrested by ten plain-clothed security officials in a car park for alleged driving offences after posting a call on the internet for peaceful demonstrations. There are reports of other bloggers and activists being targeted or abducted by police.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/02/16/hugh-miles/tunisia-egypt-and-now-libya/

[malaise]

1. Thanks

Rec for others to see