Tribal leaders and militia commanders have declared oil-rich eastern Libya a semi-autonomous state, a unilateral move that the interim head of state called a “dangerous” conspiracy by Arab nations to tear the country apart six months after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

Forces loyal to deceased Muammar Gaddafi have seized control of a Libyan town and raised the ousted regime’s green flag.

Forces loyal to Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi attacked the former regime stronghold of Bani Walid today, killing at least four fighters from the new government, officials and residents said.

BRITISH spies accused of helping in the rendition and torture of two Libyan rebels will be investigated by police, officials said.

ENDA took me by surprise.

Muammar Gaddafi’s former heir apparent Seif al-Islam has been captured by revolutionary fighters in the southern desert just over a month after his father was killed, setting off joyous celebrations across Libya and closing the door on the possibility that the fugitive son could stoke further insurrection.

Some weapons depots in Libya have still not been secured properly, and "much has already gone missing" from unguarded sites, the top UN envoy in Libya said in an interview today.

Nato unexpectedly postponed a definite decision to end its bombing campaign in Libya as consultations continued with the United Nations and the country’s interim government over how and when to wind down the operation.

Ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s intelligence chief, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, has slipped into the desert nation of Niger and is hiding in the expanse of dunes at the Niger-Algeria border, a Niger presidential adviser said today.

Muammar Gaddafi’s son and one-time heir is now believed to be heading toward the West African nation of Niger, where his brother and dozens of Gaddafi regime members are already hiding.

Libya’s all-powerful leader for four decades spent his final weeks hiding in his home town of Sirte, alternating between rage and melancholy as his regime crumbled, his chief bodyguard has revealed.

Dozens of bodies, apparently of Gaddafi loyalists, some of whom may have been executed by revolutionary forces, have been discovered in the Libyan town of Sirte.

Libya’s transitional leader has declared liberation of the country, three days after the death of its leader of four decades, Muammar Gaddafi.

NATO plans to end its seven-month air and sea mission in Libya on October 31, but will issue a formal decision next week after consulting the United Nations and Libya’s interim authorities, Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday.

Nato’s top commander says he will recommend the end of the alliance’s Libya mission.

JOCKEYING for power among Libya’s well-armed and fractious new leadership may intensify after the death of deposed autocrat Muammar Gaddafi, an anxious and, for many, joyous moment in a country hungry for stability and impatient to swap the bullet for the ballot box.

Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya with an iron fist for 42 years, was killed today as rebel troops overran the last pockets of loyalist resistance in his home-town Sirte.

Muammar Gaddafi was captured and possibly killed when revolutionary forces overwhelmed his home town, Sirte, transitional government officials said today.

A spokesman for Libya's National Transitional Council has told Sky News that deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has been killed, and that his body is currently being transported from Sirte.

Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is still a serious threat to its new government, the country’s acting prime minister has warned.

A gun battle erupted today between hundreds of revolutionary forces and Muammar Gaddafi supporters in the capital for the first time in more than two months.

LIBYA’S new regime fighters retreated yesterday under fire from Muammar Gaddafi diehards in his hometown Sirte as their leaders backtracked on an announcement that they had captured one of his sons.

Libya’s de facto leader said today he is optimistic the former rebels will declare total victory over forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in less than a week, opening the way for a transitional government to be formed within a month.

Revolutionary forces are pushing into the centre of Muammar Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte, squeezing the remaining loyalist fighters still holding out.

Revolutionary fighters are shelling Muammar Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte ahead of a renewed push on the city, one of the last bastions of support for the fugitive leader.

Revolutionary fighters today attacked a convention centre in the centre of Sirte that forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi turned into their main base, in what commanders said was a final offensive to crush resistance in the city after weeks of siege.

Nato’s bombing campaign in Libya, now in its seventh month, will continue despite the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, alliance officials said today.

CIVILIANS pouring out of Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown Sirte said the horror of the battle for the city finally forced them to conquer their fear of the besieging new regime forces and leave.

Libyan revolutionary forces fired rockets into the western half of Muammar Gaddafi's home town today as hundreds of residents streamed out of the city to flee the fighting.

Two children and their parents were killed by machine-gun fire while trying to flee Muammar Gaddafi’s home town along with hundreds of other residents, as forces loyal to the ousted regime engaged in heavy clashes with revolutionary fighters surrounding the city.

Two children and their parents were killed by machine-gun fire today while trying to flee Muammar Gaddafi’s home town along with hundreds of other residents, as forces loyal to the ousted regime engaged in heavy clashes with revolutionary fighters surrounding the city.

Libyan forces have fought their way into the eastern outskirts of Muammar Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte in a bid to link up with comrades from the west and tighten the noose around the loyalist stronghold.

The general commanding Nato’s mission in Libya said today that isolated groups of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continue to be a threat to local people but are unable to co-ordinate their actions.

Nato airstrikes pounded an area in Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown today, fighters said, while revolutionary forces surrounding the city came under rocket fire.

Families in pickup trucks stacked with mattresses and jugs of water fled Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte ahead of an expected new push by revolutionary forces to seize the city, as the anti-Gaddafi forces claimed progress in the battle for a city in the remote southern desert.

Muammar Gaddafi has claimed his regime is still alive in Libya and has called his opponents' takeover of all but a few pockets of the country a charade.

Facing little resistance, revolutionary fighters captured the airport and other parts of a southern desert city that is one of the last remaining strongholds of Muammar Gaddafi's forces, even as military offensives stalled to the north.

LIBYAN interim government forces bent on seizing Muammar Gaddafi’s remaining strongholds fell back after another chaotic attack on the desert town of Bani Walid yesterday, but renewed their battle for the deposed leader’s birthplace of Sirte.

Muammar Gaddafi’s fighters fired several mortars and tried to ambush revolutionary forces today at the northern gate of the loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid.

Libyan revolutionary fighters struggled to expand the offensive into Muammar Gaddafi’s home town today with street-by-street battles and commanders seeking to break open a new front against loyalist forces fiercely defending the most symbolic stronghold remaining from the shattered regime.

THE UN Security Council has unanimously approved a new UN mission in Libya and the unfreezing of assets of two major oil companies.

Muammar Gaddafi supporters put up fierce resistance against offensives trying to storm two strongholds today, forcing revolutionary fighters into retreat in the mountains and turning Gaddafi’s seaside home town into a battlefield of snipers firing from mosques and heavy weapons rattling main boulevards.

A son of Muammar Gaddafi and three of his generals were trying to gain political asylum today in the poor, landlocked nation of Niger, after a 1,000 mile-plus drive across the vast desert that separates the two countries.

WARY of alienating a powerful local tribe, fighters backing Libya’s new rulers are urging families to leave the besieged town of Bani Walid before resorting to full-scale military force to take one of Muammar Gaddafi’s last strongholds.