Riots break out in Libyan city of Benghazi

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

A crowd of people angry at the arrest of a rights campaigner clashed with police and government supporters overnight in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, a witness and local media said.

Libyan state television said separately that rallies were being held across the oil exporting country Wednesday in support of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The online edition of Libya's privately-owned Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi, said the crowd were armed with petrol bombs and threw stones.

It said they protested outside a local government office to demand the release of the human rights activist, and then went to the city's Shajara square where they clashed with police and government supporters.


Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/02/16/uk-libya-rioting-benghazi-idUKTRE71F16J20110216?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

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Libya: Protests 'rock city of Benghazi'
There are reports of protests by hundreds of people in the Libyan city of Benghazi.

Source: BBC

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that the unrest had been triggered by the arrest of a lawyer who is an outspoken critic of the government.

The lawyer was later said to have been released but the protests continued.

Pro-democracy protests have swept through several Arab countries in recent weeks, forcing the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt from power.

A call has been put out on the internet for protests across Libya on Thursday.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12477275

[Joanne98]

1. Libyan Gathering Flares Into Antiregime Protest .

Source: WSJ

A small gathering of protesters demanding the release of a human-rights lawyer flared into a violent anti-regime demonstration in the Libyan city of Benghazi late Tuesday, according to local press reports and a human-rights group monitoring the event.

Tawfiq Alghazwani, a human-rights activist now based in Dublin, said people on Tuesday gathered in front of the town's police station to demand the release of a human-rights lawyer arrested the day before. The demonstrators were mostly relatives of victims of an alleged massacre of 1,200 political prisoners at the Abu Sleem prison in the capital Tripoli in 1996, he said.

As the gathering moved to the center of town, it was joined by local youth, demanding the end of the regime of long-time leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, according to local media and Mr. Alghazwani. Police and a group of up to 500 pro-government supporters massed and dispersed the crowd violently, said Mr. Alghazwani, head of the National Congress of Libyan Opposition, citing eyewitnesses.

Libyan state media reported pro-government demonstrations in the capital and in other cities, but didn't mention the unrest in Benghazi, a city in the northeast of the country that has been the site of large-scale, anti-Gadhafi protests in the past.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703373404576147910314574814.html

[Xenotime]

2. It will be good when democracy reaches the whole middle east region