Libya Updates

Reports are emerging that Kadhafi's troops have retreated from the city of Misrata. The Libyan Youth Movement posts on Twitter: "We are getting reports from Misrata that the city is free and they have captured some of the pro gaddafi forces #Libya #Feb17."
A resident in the city told AFP earlier that tanks had shelled the centre of rebel-held Misrata and warned of "carnage" if the international community did not intervene.

Sustained artillery fire has been heard on the road to the Libyan flashpoint of Bin Jawad, the site of deadly clashes between rebels and regime loyalists earlier today, an AFP reporter there says.
From a position about 10 kilometres (six miles) east of Bin Jawad, smoke could be seen rising and artillery fire reverberated for around 30 minutes as vehicles full of rebel fighters sped away from the hamlet.
The convoys were headed towards Ras Lanuf, the town captured by rebels in heavy fighting with supporters of Libyan ruler Moamer Kadhafi on Friday.

From Tripoli the BBC reports that gunfire continues to hammer through the capital where Kadhafi supporters have been celebrating.
"They have been told -- and seem to believe without question -- that his forces have scored important victories," Jeremy Bowen reports. He says a couple of thousand people are now on the streets which are "crackling with feverish celebration".

Britain is repatriating 500 Bangladeshis who fled Libya for Tunisia, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell says after recently visiting a border camp.
He claims the UK's evacuation of more than 6,000 Egyptians so far has averted a humanitarian crisis but adds that " Britain is not complacent".

Further to reports that British special forces had been captured in Libya, this in from our correspondent in Benghazi...
Several British soldiers and a London diplomat were detained after landing in rebel-held Libya but are "safe and well", a Libyan opposition spokesman says.

The Red Cross and the United Arab Emirates say they are planning to build two new camps on Tunisia's border with Libya in anticipation of a fresh arrival of refugees.
"We are preparing ourselves for the worst, if ever we need to receive 100,000 people, other foreigners or Libyans," regional Red Cross director Monji Slim tells AFP.
The new camp, two kilometres (1.2 miles) south of Choucha is expected to be completed within the week and should accept some 5,000 refugees but has a capacity of up to 15,000, he adds. Meanwhile, he says, the UAE has offered to open a separate camp nearby and build a hospital.