As Muammar Qaddafi continued to launch attacks against Libyan cities today, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez rushed to Brother Leader's defense, telling a crowd of recent college graduates in Caracas:

If you accepted money from Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi (or any member of his family), now would be a good time to give it back. It's what Nelly Furtado is doing, anyway—the pop star Tweeted earlier that she received a million dollars from "the Qaddafi clan" to perform a show in Italy four years ago ("for guests at a hotel," she elaborated); in the same Tweet she wrote she planned to "donate" the money (to charity, one hopes). And while we obviously applaud her decision, it seems as though the best bet going forward, for Furtado as for all musicians, is to, you know, not perform shows for dictators or their families. In the meantime, we eagerly await responses from the following pop stars regarding the money that they received, at one time or another, from "the Qaddafi clan":

Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, the benevolent leader who bombs his own people, has granted an interview to ABC's Christiane Amanpour — a sure sign that his days are numbered. Although he certainly doesn't think that. Why would they overthrow me? he explains to Amanpour. "My people love me. They would die for me." Well, okay.

Sounds like Libyan rebels may have set up their own no-fly zone over the city of Misrata today, if what a witness told Reuters is confirmed:

The UN Security Council is meeting today to discuss Libya, while Muammar el-Qaddafi continues to kill his own people. Also, parts of Tripoli are fighting back. Here's a look at what's happening across the Middle East and North Africa today:

On the day that the increasingly violent—and evil—power-saving tactics of lunatic Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi began to emerge, here's a grim, firsthand look at the chaos. Watch as a protester—busy filming others being shot—is suddenly gunned down.

Muammar el-Qaddafi's personal Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska — described in Wikileaks cables as a "voluptuous blond" — is heading home to Kiev, according to her daughter, Tetyana, speaking to a Ukrainian newspaper: "She spoke in a calm voice, asked us not to worry and said she'd soon be home." It's officially over, Muammar. [WSJ]

Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi offered his own theory about the causes of the revolution sweeping his country on Thursday: "They [al Qaeda] give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe." Indeed. CNN foreign correspondent Ben Wedeman (whose Twitter account of the Arab-world democratic movements is fascinating) and crew were the first to enter the liberated city of Benghazi with a camera, and witnessed firsthand the effects of hallucinogenic Nescafe: Jubilation, singing, peace signs, and, at least once, chants of "CNN! CNN!" [video via CNN]

The State Department is now warning against "unauthorized" media entering Libya: "entering Libya to report on the events unfolding there is additionally hazardous with the government labeling unauthorized media as terrorist collaborators and claiming they will be arrested if caught."

Embattled Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi hasn't just made a mess of his country. He's made more fashion faux pas than the Middle East has had wars since the beginning of time. Here are all the insanely outre outfits that would land him on the worst-dressed list, if putting him on that list wouldn't get you shot. [Photos via Getty, AP]

Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini told reporters today that, "We have no complete information about the number of people that have died [in Libya]. We believe that the estimates of about 1,000 are credible."

Yesterday the group Anonymous released a press release asking the United Nations to to enforce a no fly zone over Libya. This prompted the Glass Bead Collective to execute a guerrilla projection on the side of the United Nations building.

It's always fun to catch up with former Bush White House neocons because they're usually still doing awful things. Politico's Laura Rozen found some dirt on Richard Perle who, it turns out, is part of Muammar Qaddafi's image makeover team.

Confronted with rumors that he'd fled Libya for Venezuela, embattled and increasingly violent Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi released a short, 40-second video to Libyan state television, in which he denounces the reporting of the "dogs in the media" while sitting inside a van outside his home, and holding an umbrella. It appears to be his CalArts senior thesis project?

Libya's UN delegation has broken with dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi over his "crimes against humanity and crimes of war" and "genocide" against Libyan protesters, whom he has been carpet-bombing all day. Good call, Libya's UN delegation.

There's not exactly a surplus of news cameras in Libya right now, so plenty of reports are flying around and it's not clear which of them are true. But we can say with enough confidence that it's absolute hell over there. Muammar Qaddafi is pulling out every nasty little trick to protect his regime, assuming he's even in the country. It could always be that smarmy kid of his doing the unconscionable.

Over the last several years, Libya has transformed itself from regional pariah into a country where foreign leaders are begging to pose for a grip-and-grin with Brother Leader Muammar el-Qaddafi. How did this happen?

As with all news from Libya, much of it is difficult to confirm. But multiple sources are reporting that several anti-Qaddafi protests have broken out in Tripoli for the first time today, and gunfire can be heard across the city.

Muammar el-Qaddafi seems to being going with a scorched earth-lite policy of dealing with protesters in Libya — he's allegedly hired African mercenaries to bolster his troops, who have been wantonly killing civilians and shooting people at funerals.

After killing protesters in their sleep, Bahrain's ruling monarchy says demonstrators can stay in Pearl roundabout and they've offered to hold talks with all opposition members. Yemen is still going off, and Human Rights Watch says 84 people have been killed in Libya over the last three days. Here's a look at what's happening across the Middle East and North Africa.