Not long after Moammar Gaddafi addressed his nation on state television in an angry, rambling speech and vowed to “fight to the last drop of blood,” world leaders reacted, denouncing the Libyan dictator’s use of tanks, warplanes and mercenaries in his attempt to squelch protests against his more than four decade long rule.

From U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said the violence was “completely unacceptable,” to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who called Gaddafi’s speech “very, very frightening” and said at a news conference that she would support sanctions against Libya, if the violence doesn’t stop, to the United Nations Security Council, reaction was understandably strong. 

From MSNBC:

The United Nations Security Council met on Tuesday and condemned the use of force against peaceful demonstrators in Libya calling for those responsible for such attacks to be held to account.

The call, clearly targeted principally at Libya’s rulers, came in a statement agreed by the 15-nation council after a day of debate on the clashes in the North African country.

Expressing grave concern at the situation in Libya and the deaths of hundreds of civilians, the council called for an immediate end to violence and “steps to address the legitimate demands of the population, including through national dialogue.”

“The members of the Security Council stressed the importance of accountability. They underscored the need to hold to account those responsible for attacks, including by forces under their control, on civilians,” the statement said.

The statement came hours after a defiant Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s leader, vowed to crush a growing revolt which has seen eastern regions break free of his 41-year rule and brought deadly unrest to the capital, Tripoli.

Libya’s interior minister Abdul Fattah Younis told CNN on Wednesday local time that he had tendered his resignation on Monday and is supporting the protesters. He said he decided to resign after hearing reports that approximately 300 unarmed civilians had been killed in Benghazi during the prior two to three days. Younis told CNN he predicts the protesters will achieve victory in “days or hours.”

In the meantime, oil prices rose to the highest level in more than two years, following Gaddafi’s speech Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.  Libya holds the most oil reserves in Africa and is the world’s 15th-largest crude exporter at 1.2 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Information Administration.

MSNBC notes the “main concern stalking markets is that revolts in the Middle East and North Africa will spread to other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, particularly Iran, the group’s second-largest producer.”

Here’s some of what’s happening elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa:

In Bahrain, reports ranging from tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters marched through the capital of Manama on Tuesday, MSNBC says they were  “carrying Bahrain’s red-and-white flag and circling the Bahrain Mall and Manama’s financial district — symbols of the country’s prosperity in recent decades. Security forces did not move to confront the procession, but helicopters circled overhead.” The New York Times says ”organizers called the largest pro-democracy demonstration this tiny Gulf nation has ever seen.”

MSNBC reports too, that:

Bahrain’s king ordered the release of some political prisoners Tuesday, conceding to another opposition demand as the embattled monarchy tries to engage protesters in talks aimed at ending an uprising that has entered its second week.

The prisoners include some of the 25 Shiite activists on trial for allegedly plotting against the Sunni rulers of the strategic island kingdom, a leading member of Bahrain’s Shiite opposition, Abdul Jalili Khalil, told The Associated Press. He called the prisoner release “a good step” and a “positive gesture.”

It’s unlcear, though how many prisoners will be released, a government spokesman said. 

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In Yemen, students holding a sit-in outside of Sanaa University were attacked by pro-government forces.

“They attacked and they shot randomly,” human rights activist Khaled Al-Anesi of the Yemeni organization HOOD told CNN.

Tom Finn, an editor at the Yemen Times newspaper, said he arrived at the scene outside Sanaa University just after the shooting happened shortly after 11 p.m.

“I saw young students being carried into the middle of the crowd and being put into the medical tent,” Finn told CNN. “I saw two students bleeding from the head and one bleeding the chest. And I saw five ambulances leaving for hospitals.”

CNN says reports from witnesses at the scene were that some 20 people were injured, with at least eight anti-government protesters shot and three of them in critical condition at hospitals.

In Algeria, the government adopted a measure on Tuesday that would lift a 19-year state of emergency that has hampered civil liberties and human rights in the country.  As the Los Angeles Times reports the measure is a major concession to Algeria’s opposition groups.

The emergency measures, long lambasted by international human rights groups, have barred peaceful protests, limited constitutionally granted political freedoms and allowed for what many described as arbitrary detentions. Ultimately, they have bolstered the power of shadowy figures in the security establishment, complicating any path toward democracy.

The strict conditions were imposed at the beginning of the country’s decade-long civil war, which pitted Islamic militants against a military-dominated government that refused to abide by the results of first-round elections in 1991 that suggested Islamists would win power. Tens of thousands died in the conflict.

Many analysts say the bloodshed during the war may explain why Algerians have been reluctant to fight their government the same way Tunisians and Egyptians did.

But inspired by the uprisings in the Arab world, thousands of Algerians have protested peacefully in recent weeks. 

In Egypt, protesters took again to Cairo’s Tahrir Square reports the New York Times, to voice their dissatisfaction with the pace of reform in their country.

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