Libyan crackdown 'escalates' as Arab world rage in protest

Egyptian evacuees wait in an airshed after fleeing from Libya yesterday near the Tunisian city of Ben Guerdane. More than 30,000 Tunisian and Egyptian migrants have fled to their home countries from Libya since Monday, the International Organisation for Migration said Thursday, adding that it expects tens of thousands more to leave.Photo: AFP

The escalating revolt in Libya yesterday emboldened protesters across the Arab world, where tens of thousands flooded streets from Tunisia to Yemen to demand better lives and greater freedom.
Reports from Libya indicate thousands may have been killed or injured as the government crackdown escalates 'alarmingly', UN human rights head Navi Pillay has said.
Witnesses in Tripoli say pro-Gaddafi forces have opened fire on protesters.
Nato ambassadors are holding emergency talks.
Around the capital, Tripoli, an elite brigade commanded by Col Gaddafi's son Khamis is believed to be dug in.
"The violence we have seen is appalling and unacceptable," said Prime Minister David Cameron. "People working for this regime... should remember that international justice has a long reach and a long memory."
However, much of the country is now in the hands of anti-government forces.
In Az-Zawiyah, 23 people were killed and 44 wounded and heavy fighting was reported in Libya's third city Misrata, and in Zouara, further west towards the Tunisian border.
The United Nations warned Libya's food distribution system was at risk of collapsing and from Cairo, state media reported that Kadhaf al-Dam, a close Gaddafi aide had resigned in protest against the handling of the crisis.
Across Yemen, tens of thousands demonstrated after the main weekly Muslim prayers to demand that veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down.
In the capital, thousands poured into a main square near Sanaa University, many of them women, chanting "Out, out!" and "God bears witness to your acts, Abdullah,”
The protesters have dubbed yesterday 'the beginning of the end' for Saleh's regime which has been in power in Sanaa since 1978.
In Tunisia, tens of thousands rallied to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi's transitional government in the biggest rally since last month's ouster of Ben Ali.
Demonstrators chanted “Ghannouchi leave" and "Shame on this government" as army helicopters circled above what police estimated as 100,000 people.
In Bahrain, the anti-regime campaign entered a 12th day with a mass rally to honour seven victims of a deadly police crackdown last week.
The mainly Shiite protesters, demanding an end to two centuries of the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, gathered in a Pearl Square festooned with banners calling for reform and waved red-and-white national flags.
"Nobody is scared of tanks or weapons," Ibrahim Ali, a 42-year-old mechanical engineer told AFP.
Jordan too braced for 10,000 members of the powerful Islamist opposition movement and other parties who were expected to march through central Amman for their own "day of anger" by deploying several thousand security forces.