A group set up by Colonel Gaddafi’s opponents in eastern Libya has met to issue its first formal proclamation. The 30-member national council is headed by the former Justice Minister Mustafa Abud Al Jeleil. Speaking in Benghazi, he said the council was now Libya’s sole legitimate representative.
Hundreds of Egyptian protesters in Cairo have entered the main building of the secret police to try to prevent staff from destroying evidence that could be used in later trials of officials. They also want the organisation to be dismantled, one of the main demands of the protest movement since President Mubarak was ousted last month. From Cairo, here’s Alastair Leithead.
One of the protesters told the BBC that they’d been allowed into the building by guards, and had discovered piles of shredded documents, but nobody inside. The army has secured the building. They are seen by the protesters as being on their side. The internal security services were the feared enforcers of Hosni Mubarak’s three decades in power. It was their agents who used violence as to try and stop the protests in Tahrir Square.
The Saudi government has warned against any public protests, saying that they are illegal and against the teachings of Islam. The government said that the police would take all measures needed against those who tried to break the law. The interior ministry issued the warning after small protests on Friday in the predominantly Shia region of eastern Saudi Arabia. There've been calls for other demonstrations later this month.