International condemnation is growing in response to reports that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is using tanks, helicopters and fighter jets to quell the most serious challenge to his four-decade-long rule.

Nearly 300 people are reported to have been killed in violence in the capital, Tripoli, and across the country as demonstrations entered their second week .

Joining a lengthening list of high-level defections, Abdul-Fatah Younis, the interior minister and an army general, announced on Tuesday that he was now on the side of the uprising and urged the Libyan army to join it.

Just hours earlier, Gaddafi vowed to fight on and die a “martyr” in a 75-minute-long speech broadcast on the north African nation’s state TV.

Read Full Article Here.