Deep cracks opened up in Colonel Gadhafi's regime after more than 40 years in power, with diplomats abroad and the justice minister at home resigning, air force pilots defecting and a fire raging at the main government hall after clashes in the capital Tripoli.

Meanwhile protesters called for another night of defiance in Tripoli's main square despite the government's heavy crackdown and Gadhafi's regime appeared to be preparing a new major assault in the capital in an attempt to crush unrest that has already swept the eastern parts of the country — leaving Libya's second largest city in protesters' control — and was now overwhelming the capital of 2 million people.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/military-aircraft-attack-libya-crowds-2221170.html

So even the old, paranoid, crazed fox of Libya – the pallid, infantile, droop-cheeked dictator from Sirte, owner of his own female praetorian guard, author of the preposterous Green Book, who once announced he would ride to a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Belgrade on his white charger – is going to ground. Or gone. Last night, the man I first saw more than three decades ago, solemnly saluting a phalanx of black-uniformed frogmen as they flappered their way across the sulphur-hot tarmac of Green Square on a torrid night in Tripoli during a seven-hour military parade, appeared to be on the run at last, pursued – like the dictators of Tunis and Cairo – by his own furious people.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/cruel-vainglorious-steeped-in-blood-and-now-surely-after-more-than-four-decades-of-terror-and-oppression-on-his-way-out-2221687.html

Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has dismissed reports that he had fled amid the unrest sweeping the country, calling foreign news channels "dogs".

Speaking to state TV from outside a ruined building, he said "I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela," after rumours that he had fled the country.

Col Gaddafi's statement came after security forces and protesters clashed in the capital for a second night.

The UN Security Council is to meet in closed session to discuss Libya.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made the announcement, after speaking to Col Gaddafi on Monday.

"I urged him that the human rights and freedom of assembly and freedom of speech must be fully protected," said Mr Ban.

Witnesses say warplanes and helicopters have fired on protesters in the Tripoli. To the west, sources said the army was fighting forces loyal to Col Gaddafi.

Earlier, the newly established General Committee for Defence said its forces would cleanse Libya of anti-government elements.

A statement described the protesters as "terrorist gangs made up mostly of misguided youths", who had been exploited and fed "hallucinogenic pills" by people following foreign agendas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12533069

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Libya's hardline leader Moamar Gaddafi has defiantly declared he will not be stepping down and has threatened to execute those he sees as enemies of the country.

Mr Gaddafi has given his first real speech since anti-government protests began sweeping across Libya last week, ordering his forces to crush the uprising that has rocked his 41-year rule.

In a rambling and at times angry address that lasted for more than an hour, the embattled leader denounced the protests as serving the devil, described the demonstrators as cockroaches, and said they were enemies of Libya who deserve to die.

Dressed in a matching light-brown robe, scarf and turban, and wearing glasses, Mr Gaddafi told the public to "capture the rats," apparently referring to anti-regime demonstrators.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/23/3146123.htm

As unrest continues following a defiant and angry speech from Moamar Gaddafi, a resident of Libya says guns are being handed to anyone who supports the leader's 41-year regime.

Abdul Basset, who lives in the capital Tripoli, has told ABC Radio's PM there are very few people who still support Mr Gaddafi's regime.

In his speech, Mr Gaddafi swore to crush a growing revolt in his country and referred to the gangs of protesters as cockroaches.

In the rambling address he said he was ready to die a martyr rather than lose his grip on Libya.

Mr Basset says shortly after Mr Gaddafi's speech, pro-government supporters were handing out guns to anybody who supported the regime.

"They start giving guns to everybody who's saying 'I'm supporting him'," Mr Basset said.

"I've seen the guns with people who [are] very young.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/23/3147125.htm

The Gaddafi regime has issued a defiant warning that the "time for action" had arrived as a sustained military assault forced the defeat of Libyan rebels in the strategically important town of Zawiya and their retreat from Ras Lanuf.

Amid squabbling among EU and Nato leaders on the eve of an emergency European summit on Libya in Brussels, Muammar Gaddafi's son said that a new offensive would be launched within days.

"It's time for liberation. It's time for action," Saif al-Islam told Reuters after the defeat of opposition forces in the town of Zawiya, 30 miles from Tripoli, and the rout of rebels in the town of Ras Lanuf. He added: "We are moving now."

The tough rhetoric from the Gaddafi regime – and its apparent success on the ground against the rebels – set the scene for a difficult emergency EU summit where leaders are expected to clash on the military and diplomatic response to the gravest crisis on their doorstep since the collapse of Yugoslavia. Fears among Libyan opposition groups that they will be defeated by the time Europe and the US agree on a course of action....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/10/gaddafi-libya-nato