UNITED NATIONS – The Associated Press (AP) reports that Britain and France are preparing a United Nations resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.

The report said that draft resolution is a contingency one. It is being drafted and will be imposed should it be needed. A UK diplomat at the United Nations made this known and said a decision to introduce the resolution at the United Nations Security Council has not yet been made.

Libya’s diplomats to the United Nations have asked the security council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to stop government forces from attacking civilians from the air. The opposition fighters are also asking for a no-fly zone. They said they were prepared to fight Qaddafi’s ground troops but do not have the power to take on his airplanes.

The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, on Monday revealed that NATO is working on a range of options including the possibility of establishing a no-fly zone over Libya.

He said that Britain was working closely with it’s partners at the United Nations Security Council on a contingency resolution to establish a no-fly zone over Libya if needs be. He made it clear such a resolution will need the support of the region.

The U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that all options are being considered including the possibility of a no-fly zone and the use of a military option. However the U.S. says that any military action must be an international one.

The u.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates is being cautious of any imposition of a no-fly zone. He said such an action will be a declaration of war on Libya. He said a no-fly zone can only be imposed if an attack is carried out to incapacitate Libya’s air defenses. He said this might drag the United States into another war. The U.S. could not afford such a war with it’s military already stretched in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Western countries also say they cannot provide enough aircraft to enforce such no-fly zone.

Calls for a no-fly zone have increased as Gadhafi has intensified it’s use of air power against the opposition fighters in an effort to check the advancement of the opposition towards the capital Tripoli.

Two senior U.S. Senators on Sunday said they will like to see the U.S. and its allies recognize and give arms to a provisional Libyan government. They also want the international community to impose a no-fly zone to stop Libyan aircraft from attacking those taking part in Libya’s anti-government protests.

The two Senators, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Joeseph Lieberman were both speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. The called on the United States government to put more pressure on Col. Moammar Gadhafi and help the anti-government protesters to remove him from power.

Sen. Lieberman said he felt the world could do more than it’s currently doing and that he sees a need for an imposition of a no-fly zone to protect the protesters from government aircraft.

He also called for the recognition of the opposition provisional government as the legitimate government in Libya. He then called for arms and humanitarian assistance to be given to them to help them defend themselves against the Libyan Leader.

The two Senators both said the response so far from the United States government was inadequate.

Sen. McCain called on the U.S. to be tougher. He said he understood the number one priority of the government was to protect the citizens of the United states. But he said people around the world will be looking to the United States for leadership to defend democracy.

Libya is reported to be slowly descending into civil way with Gadhafi holding on to power.

Yesterday, the U.S. President, Barack Obama, called on Gadhafi to step down. He said Gadhafi had lost the right to rule his people after waging war on his own people.

Hilary Clinton has also called for Gadhafi to resign. Several Politicians across the world have also made this call for the Libyan leader to step down.

Sen. Lieberman said it was understandable how the government was initially hesitant to comment on the Libyan situation but also said a stronger message should have been sent. He said the time for words had passed and that action needs to be taking.

Sen. McCain added that he believe the Gadhafi regime will go but that he have no idea how many more people will die before that happens.

There have been fresh protests in the Lybian city of Zawiya. The protesters included some former security forces members who claim to have switched their allegiance to the opposition.

There were signs of damaged buildings.

The opposition is now controlling several of Libya’s cities including Zawiya. Zawiya is just about 30 miles away from Tripoli.

Despite weeks of protests having gone by, President Moammar Gadhafi holds on to power.

Reports indicate that some one hundred thousand plus people have fled Libya in just the past week alone.

According to neighboring countries, Egypt and Tunisia, thousands of people fleeing the protests in Libya have crossed their borders into their countries.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that, some 40,000 and 55,000 people have crossed the borders into Tunisia and Egypt in the past week alone.

And the Red Crescent reports that some ten thousand people fled into Tunisia Yesterday.

Joe Lowry of the Red Crescent told CNN that, there have been a convergent of thousands of people in the no man’s land between Libya and Tunisia. He said there were people queuing for 6 hours without food, water or proper sanitation.

There have been wide spread chaos and this has resulted in many people becoming unconscious and others getting injured after being crushed.

According to Mr. Lowry, you could see women trying to protect their babies by raising their cots above the crowd.

There have been calls from the British Foreign Secretary for Col. Gadhafi to step down.

He said the government of Gadhafi was driving the country into civil war and waging war against it’s own people. He also added that the diplomatic immunity of Gadhafi and his relatives has been canceled.

The Libyan opposition anti-government protests began on February 15 and follows similar protests in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain. Freshnewsdaily.com will continue to bring you updates to the situation as it happens.

Zurich, Switzerland – The government of Switzerland has given all financial institutions in the country and order to put a hold on all assets that belong to Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi. This is the fourth time over the past month that such an order has been given to freeze assets of African and Middle East leaders, the wall street journal reports.

The order is to be acted upon immediately and the freeze is to remain in place for three years. The reason behind this is so financial institutions in Switzerland can have enough time to find any money and other assets deposited by Col. Gadhafi, his relatives and some members of his government.

It is reported that the freeze will cover twenty nine individuals including his wife and children, some of his wife’s relatives and 6 members of his government.

Switzerland has had a history of being a refuge for corrupt leaders to deposit their ill gotten money. But the country moved quickly to freeze the assets of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Laurent Gbagbo of Cote D’voire.

Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s Assets

The regime of the Libyan leader, Col. Gadhafi, is rumored to have very large assets all over the world. According to cables leaked by WikiLeaks in January 2010, the Libyan sovereign wealth fund has some $32 billion cash managed by several banks in the U.S. and Britain.

No one knows for sure how much money Libya has in Zurich banks. This follows a diplomatic rift between the two countries that dates back to July 2008 after police in Switzerland arrested Gadhafi’s Son. Though he was later released, the incident initiated a bitter feud leading to Libya declaring it will withdraw all of it’s assets from the country’s banks.

This leads me to believe that the Swiss government will not have much of Libya’s assets to freeze.