Libya has reportedly signed a deal with Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project for 1.2 million laptops. The OLPC laptop is a low-cost Linux-based notebook for use in developing nations. The deal is estimated to be worth $250 million and Libya will receive 1.2 million OLPC computers for students, one server per school, a team of technical installation advisers, satellite Internet service, and other network infrastructure.

Libyan police have detained about 1 930 illegal migrants over the past 27 days trying to sail to Europe via Italy from the Libyan coast, the Interior Ministry has said. In the same period, the Libyan government deported 3 768 other would-be migrants from several African countries, who had been arrested earlier attempting to cross illegally to Italy, the Ministry added in a statement.

The authorities in Libya have ordered protesters at a jail in Tripoli to return to their cells by the end of the day after violence erupted. A sit-in protest began at Abu Salim prison last week over trial delays. Amnesty International say security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at the prisoners, leaving one dead. Hundreds were reportedly shot dead by guards during a protest over conditions in the same prison in 1996. The authorities are refusing to comment.

On 4 October 2006, Reporters Without Borders published the full report of the fact-finding visit it made to Libya from 13 to 17 September. It was first time the press freedom organisation has been able to go to Libya in 20 years. This in itself is one of the signs of the changes taking place under the "Brother Leader," Muammar Gaddafi.

A new Human Rights Watch Report documents how Libyan authorities have arbitrarily arrested undocumented foreigners, mistreated them in detention, and forcibly returned them to countries where they could face persecution or torture, such as Eritrea and Somalia.