How important were Twitter, Facebook and other social media in toppling regimes in the Arab Spring uprisings?

Amid a fierce debate in academic circles, an upcoming book argues that social media and new technology made a key difference in successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and helped foster grassroots movements in other Arab nations.

The car of Libya's interim leader came under fire in Tripoli as he left a chaotic session of the national assembly disrupted by protesters, without causing casualties, the interior minister said Wednesday.

"The car of the General National Congress speaker (Mohammed al-Megeryef) came under fire as assembly members left in a state of total confusion" on Tuesday night, Ashur Shwayel told a press conference.

Libya's national assembly building returned to its members on Tuesday after a month-long occupation by former rebels demanding compensation for injuries in the 2011 revolution, a security official said.

The veterans of the revolution that toppled Moammar Gadhafi "have left the premises," said the official posted outside the building, which remained closed to the media.

Gunmen have attacked an Egyptian Coptic church in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, assaulting two priests, the foreign ministry said Sunday, days after dozens of Egyptian Christians suspected of proselytizing were arrested.

The foreign ministry said it "strongly condemned Thursday's attack on the Egyptian church... and the aggression towards Father Paula Isaac and his deputy by the irresponsible armed men."

Four members of the security forces were hurt on Sunday during a failed bid to evacuate ex-rebels occupying Libya's national assembly demanding aid for injuries sustained during the revolution, the government said.

The authorities have been negotiating for several days with the handicapped former rebels, among them amputees, who took part in the conflict that overthrew Moammar Gadhafi's dictatorship in 2011, and who are demanding compensation.

British and U.S. detectives investigating the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie have met with officials in Libya, Scotland's chief legal officer said on Friday.

Scotland's Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland said four British police and prosecutors, along with an FBI delegation from Washington, had met senior Libyan officials on Monday over the attack on PamAm flight 103, in which 270 people were killed.

Around 50 Egyptian Christians suspected of trying to convert Muslims have been arrested in the eastern city of Benghazi on illegal immigration charges, a Libyan security official said on Friday.

"Forty-eight Egyptian traders who worked in the Benghazi municipal market have been arrested based on reports of suspect activities," the source told Agence France Presse.

Libya's prime minister denied on Thursday reports that Moammar Gadhafi's imprisoned last premier is in a critical condition after being tortured in jail, saying al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi is in "good health."

"Al-Baghdadi is in good health... and is being treated humanely," Prime Minister Ali Zeidan told a new conference.

Libya said on Wednesday it will ask the U.N. Security Council to lift an embargo on arms imports to the instability-wracked North African country.

"At my meeting next week with the U.N. Security Council president, I will discuss the question of lifting the embargo," said Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, quoted by the official news agency LANA.

Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, the last premier of deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, is in critical condition after being tortured in a Libyan prison, his Tunisian lawyer said on Wednesday.

Mahmudi "is in critical condition as a result of the torture he has suffered," said Mabrouk Kourchid, adding that "he could die".