European leaders hailed it as a victory, Libyan exiles celebrated in the streets and the mother of one of Muammar Gaddafi’s many victims said she was treating herself to an expensive bottle of champagne.

The death of ex-Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi paves the way for the settlement of legal claims by IRA victims in the North, the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson has said.

The Gaddafi regime warned British officials that there would be “dire consequences” for relations between the UK and Libya if Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi died in his Scottish jail cell, it has emerged.

SCOTTISH police and prosecutors are to meet Foreign Office officials to discuss Libyan defector Musa Kusa.

Libya has shrugged off the defection of foreign minister Musa Kusa insisting it is involved in “a struggle of a whole nation”.

Inquests into the deaths of the 52 innocent people killed in the 7/7 bombings will begin today.

Family members say the only man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has been taken to intensive care after his condition worsened.

SCOTLAND yesterday released a former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, most of them Americans, because he is dying of cancer.

FAMILIES of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing stood sharply divided yesterday over reports that the former Libyan agent jailed for life for the attack is to be freed on compassionate grounds.

A leading member of the Ulster Unionist Party has demanded that the Libyan government provide compensation to victims of IRA violence.

Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi has called European Commission President Romano Prodi to say he longs to normalise relations after agreeing to compensate the families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, the EU head office said today.

Libya has officially accepted responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Libya officially accepted responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing tonight, in a letter handed to the United Nations Security Council.

SPECULATION was growing last night that agreement has been reached over compensation for relatives of those killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

RELATIVES of the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing have given a cautious welcome to a statement by Libya that it is ready, in principle, to pay them compensation.

Libya has offered to pay around €11m per family as compensation for the deaths of 270 people in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, lawyers representing the families have said.

Thousands of Libyans marched peacefully today against a Scottish appeals court decision to uphold the conviction of a former Libyan intelligence agent in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Lawyers for a former Libyan secret service agent today appealed to a Scottish court to overturn his conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, claiming to have new evidence proving a miscarriage of justice.

A special Scottish court in the Netherlands was opening an appeals hearing today for a Libyan intelligence agent convicted of mass murder for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing - a case that exposed the complexity of putting terrorism on trial.

The Lockerbie tragedy fostered "bonds of friendship born out of tragedy", Dumfries and Galloway convenor Andrew Campbell said today.