Libya is suspended, immediately, from the Arab League

[tabatha]

8.11pm: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called Gaddafi's speech "very very frightening".

8.08pm: The Arab League put out an official statement condemning the events in Libya, but Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reported from Cairo that leading Egyptian political figure Mohamed ElBaradei said he was disappointed that the League did not take a stronger stand against the injustices.

8.02pm: In his defiant speech, Gaddafi said he will "cleanse Libya house by house" if protesters did not surrender.

7:57pm: Libya is suspended, immediately, from the Arab League. More details to follow.

7:51pm: We're expecting a closed UN meeting at 8pm GMT. Any UN member can attend - and the plan is/was for Libya's Deputy Ambassador to also give a briefing. However, the surprise appearance of Libya's ambassador - who has been remarkably absent in the past few days - at late notice could cause a problem, our UN correspondent tells us.

7.30pm: After the EU suspends its Libya Framework Ageement, and amid international condemnation of Gaddafi, where is President Obama? Rosalind Jordan, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Washington DC explains:

You didn't need the translation to see how much Gaddafi was trying to blame this on the US, among others. So the White House doesn't want to make any public speeeches - they're very aware of how that could be seen across the country.

Gaddafi asked, in his speech: 'Do you want the Americans to come and occupy you like in Afghanistan and Iraq?' If the president weighs in now, the Libyan authorities may well use that against the protesters.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/africa/2011/02/22/live-blog-libya-feb-22