The United Nations Security Council is holding emergency talks on the crisis and is expected to issue a statement. Libya’s deputy ambassador said that he wanted it to declare a no-fly zone over the capital Tripoli to prevent air attacks on demonstrators. However, the ambassador

disassociate

d himself from this deputy’s remarks and denied that warplanes had been used.

The Algerian government has adopted an order to lift the state of emergency that’s been in place for 19 years. The state news agency said the move would officially come into force when it was published in the government gazette. With more details, here’s Chloe Arnold from Algiers.

The state of emergency was imposed in 1992, at the start of two decades of bloodshed in which security forces fought Islamist rebels. The violence left as many as a quarter of a million people dead. Observers say the government appears to be lifting the state of emergency as a

concession

to opposition parties and human rights activists who’ve been staging marches calling for democracy and greater freedoms.

Inspire

d by popular revolts across the Arab world, they say they’ll rally every Saturday in the capital until there’s been a change in the regime.

Tens of thousands of people have marched through the capital of Bahrain in one of the biggest protests yet in the campaign for greater democracy in the Gulf kingdom. Demonstrators carrying Bahrain’s red and white flag called for the downfall of the government as they made their way towards Pearl Square. Earlier, King Hamad ordered the release of an