Registration for Libya’s municipal elections will start this month according to the chairman of the Central Committee for Municipal Councils Elections (CCMCE), possibly within a couple of weeks

Threats of clashes between Tajoura and Misrata subsided today after three Tajoura men seized by Misratan brigadesmen were released and the brigade agreed to quit its Tajoura base. A number of Misratan truck drivers, seized by Tajoura in reprisal for the abduction were also released.

Tripoli– In a ceremony held on Thursday, the new Libyan Minister of Interior Colonel Mohamed Al-Sheikh has officially taken office from the outgoing Ashour Shuwail who submitted resignation earlier.

PARIS – France wants to work with Libya against militant groups on its territory but will not take military action in the country without UN backing, President Francois Hollande said on Friday.

“I have waited my whole life for tomorrow, which will be a new day for Libya,” an elated Haja Nowara told Human Rights Watch on the eve of Libya’s first democratic national elections in July 2012. “We sacrificed a lot to get here.”

The UN has called for rules to be put in place to ensure that a sufficient number of women are elected to the 60-member Constitutional Commission.

EDITOR’S NOTE: William Wheeler, recipient of the first annual GroundTruth reporting fellowship in theMiddle East, is now on assignment in Libya.Today he begins a series of guest posts for this blog and will soon be filing a GlobalPost Special Report on Libya’s struggle to forge a democracy in the smoldering aftermath …

The following statement was issued by the U.S., U.K., and French embassies in Tripoli on May 8, 2013. Begin text: We call on all Libyans to refrain from armed protest and violence during this difficult time in the democratic transition.

Speaking in a live interview just after midnight yesterday on the eve of the GNC vote on the Political Isolation Law, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan admitted that neither the state nor the government were strong enough yet.

A former top Qaddafi official in Derna was gunned down in a drive-by shooting as he left evening prayers today.