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.

Tribal leaders and militia commanders have declared a semiautonomous region in oil-rich eastern Libya, it has emerged.

Libya has demanded Niger hand over one of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons who is under house arrest in the neighbouring African nation after he warned in a television interview that his homeland was facing a new uprising.

A LOUTH-based doctor and a Dublin electronics lecturer have been named as Libya’s new health and education ministers after taking leading roles during the revolution in the country.

Muammar Gaddfi’s son Saif al-Islam – the only member of the ruling family to remain at large – was captured as he travelled with aides in a convoy in Libya’s southern desert, officials said today.

RIVAL militias clashed on the outskirts of the Libyan capital for a fourth day yesterday in the most sustained violence since the capture and killing of Muammar Gaddafi last month.

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’s triumphant, seven-month air campaign against Libya has ended, setting the country on the path to a democratic transition less than two weeks after the capture and killing of ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

LIBYA’S interim rulers yesterday elected academic Abdel Rahim al-Kib to head a transitional government as NATO was set to end an air campaign that played a major role in ousting Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya’s interim leadership has chosen an electronics engineer from Tripoli as the country’s new prime minister.

The UN Security Council last night cancelled its authorisation for a seven-month-old Nato military operation in Libya that led to the ouster and death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

MUAMMAR Gaddafi’s fugitive son Saif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi wish to hand themselves in to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a senior Libyan military official with the National Transitional Council (NTC) said last night.

MUAMMAR GADDAFI and his son Mo’tassim were buried in a secret desert location yesterday, five days after the deposed Libyan leader was captured, killed and put on grisly public display.

LIBYA declared itself liberated yesterday after 42 years of rule by Muammar Gaddafi ended with his capture and death last week, getting the North African state ready for a transition towards democracy.

Libya’s new leaders will declare liberation today, officials said, a move that will start the clock for elections after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

MUAMMAR GADDAFI’S body lay in an old meat store in a shopping centre as arguments over a burial, and his killing after being captured, dogged efforts by Libya’s new leaders to make a formal start on a new era of democracy.

DISTURBING images of a bloodstained and shaken Muammar Gaddafi being dragged around by angry fighters quickly circulated around the world after the Libyan dictator’s death near his hometown of Sirte.

LIBYA is celebrating today after the death of ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

MUAMMAR GADDAFI’S death means a long and complex trial that could have divided Libya and embarrassed Western governments and oil firms will be avoided.

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.

One of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons has been killed and another injured, Libyan officials confirmed tonight.

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.

Toppled Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has been captured by rebel troops, according to reports on the country’s state television. It is still not clear whether he is alive.

There are unconfirmed reports coming out of Libya that Colonel Gaddafi has died.

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.

Revolutionary forces captured fighters close to Mutassim Gaddafi, one of fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi’s sons in his father’s home town, but there was no confirmation that he had been captured, a Libyan spokesman said today.

LIBYAN transitional government forces said yesterday they had captured the university and a conference center in Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, but were holding off an assault on the main square to let civilians escape.

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 provisional government forces backed by NATO warplanes raced into the eastern outskirts of Sirte yesterday and fought street battles with Muammar Gaddafi loyalists.

NATO bombing raids hammered the Libyan city of Sirte yesterday to clear the way for fighters with the Libyan interim government who are trying to capture Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown.

The head of Libya’s National Transitional Council said today an interim government will be announced in the coming week.

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

US President Barack Obama is promising the Libyan people that the world will stand with them as they reshape their country following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

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.

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

NICOLAS SARKOZY and David Cameron landed in Libya to a heroes’ welcome yesterday, promising help for the new rulers French and British air power helped install and being told the favour may be repaid in oil and reconstruction deals.

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.

China confirmed today that it met Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s aides in July on a visit to buy arms.

LIBYA’S new leadership reaffirmed their commitment to democracy and good governance yesterday as they worked on how to spend billions of dollars they have been given from the frozen assets of fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

LEADERS of the Libyan uprising that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi sat down with world powers to map out the country’s rebuilding, 42 years to the day after the former strongman seized power in a coup.

Algeria has said it is ready to recognise Libya's former rebels when they form a broad-based government, and insists it has not offered an escape route to Muammar Gaddafi.

IN BENGHAZI a few weeks ago, I talked to a friend who has lived her entire life in Libya and whose father had, until the uprising began, been very closely linked to Muammar Gaddafi.

The Lockerbie bomber has been tracked down to his villa in the Libyan capital, where he is apparently comatose and near death.

DOZENS of decomposing bodies were found piled up yesterday in an abandoned hospital in Tripoli, a grim testament to the chaos roiling the capital as Libyan rebels clash with forces still loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.