Original source: Global Times
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday called for an immediate ceasefire and a political solution to the conflict in Libya, declaring that the UN would begin a humanitarian mission in Tripoli.
"We have three objectives: First, an immediate, effective ceasefire; second, to extend our humanitarian assistance to the needy; third, we have to continue to have a political dialogue and a political resolution to the issue," AFP quoted Ban as saying.
The International Organization for Migration said that it had helped evacuate almost 1,000 people stranded from Misrata on Monday, where at least 4,000 still awaited rescue.
Some 1,000 people have been killed and 3,000 injured in the past seven weeks in Misrata, Dr Khaled Abu Falgha, administrator of the city's main hospital, told AFP on Monday. "Some 80 percent of the deaths are civilians," he said.
Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continued to bombard Misrata with rockets and artillery on Monday while also pounding the insurgents' frontline city of Ajdabiya, rebels said.
A rebel spokesman said 17 people were killed during Sunday shelling in Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, and shelling continued on Monday. About 300,000 civilians are trapped inside the city.
Britain will charter a ship to get 5,000 people out of Misrata, a British spokesman at the UN said on Monday.
Gaddafi's government has promised the UN access to Misrata and the UN will send a team to the city as quickly as possible, a UN official said on Monday, the AP reported.
The Global Times reporters traveling to Ajdabiya late Sunday saw a few rebel pickup trucks mounted with some new weapons but could not verify their types.
Ajdabiya's streets were almost deserted Sunday as rebels threw up makeshift barricades with concrete blocks and tree branches among other sundry items.
NATO bombers attacked the town of al-Aziziyah, southwest of the capital Tripoli, on Monday, Libyan state television said.
Wahid Bugaighis, serving as oil minister for the rebel-held eastern swath of the country, told Reuters on Monday that the rebels were unlikely to export any more oil before they could resume production.
The Libyan opposition is eager to resume oil production so as to pay out salaries and meet other expenses as it continues its fight against Gaddafi.
Should Gaddafi be removed, Bugaighis said Libya's new leadership would try to root out corruption in the oil industry and might reconsider some of the Gaddafi government's production policies.
