(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); news update
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.

For the past week, fighting has raged between anti-government forces and troops loyal to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, in power for 42 years.

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.

'Appalling violence'
The UK and France are pushing for an arms embargo and a war crimes investigation.

Britain is to send a second ship, HMS York, to deploy to the sea area near Libya.

"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."

Evacuations by sea continued on Friday, somewhat hampered by rough weather.

In Paris, Libyan opposition supporters occupied the Libyan embassy. Both the ambassadors to France and to the UN cultural agency Unesco have announced they are joining the opposition.

Libyan state TV has said the government will give each family 500 dinars (£250; $400) to cover increased food costs, while some public sector workers will receive a pay rise of 150%.

However, much of the country is now in the hands of anti-government forces.

International response

In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council is meeting in special session for the first time to discuss the crisis in Libya. Libya is an elected member of the council but some members have called for it to lose its seat.

"In brazen and continuing breach of international law, the crackdown in Libya of peaceful demonstrations is escalating alarmingly with reported mass killings, arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of protesters," said Ms Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN World Food Programme has said Libya's food supply chain is at risk of collapse because imports were not getting into the country and food distribution is hampered by violence, the AFP news agency reports
Nato ambassadors are meeting in emergency session on Friday afternoon. Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said Nato has no intention of intervening in Libya.

However, thousands of foreign nationals from Nato member states have been fleeing the violence in Libya, which has gripped much of the country in the past week.

The evacuations posed a "massive challenge", Mr Rasmussen said.

Col Gaddafi has blamed the uprising on al-Qaeda, saying young people had been given hallucinogenic drugs to incite them to revolt.

There was fierce fighting in western towns on Thursday, as pro-Gaddafi forces tried to regain control of areas seized by the opposition.

A resident of Tripoli, who did not want to be identified, said the city was living in fear.

"We have families who are not allowed to take the bodies of the deceased... unless they sign papers declaring they were shot by the opposition to the current regime," the man told the BBC

"There haven't been funerals going on where obviously if you don't have a body you don't have a funeral. People haven't been picking up their deceased."