Libyan rebels raced into Tripoli and met little resistance as Muammar Gaddafi's defenders melted away and his 42-year rule rapidly crumbled. The euphoric fighters celebrated with residents of the capital in Green Square, the symbolic heart of the fading regime.
NATO warplanes have bombed Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte as forces opposed to the fallen strongman close in on his last major bastion of support.
A senior Egyptian diplomat will lead a delegation to Libya this week to offer help to its new rulers, Egyptian state news agency MENA reports.
Four Italian journalists have been abducted by gunmen near Zawiyah in western Libya as they travelled towards Tripoli, Italian officials said.
Libya's new masters have offered a million-dollar bounty for the fugitive Muammar Gaddafi, after he urged his men to fight on in battles across the capital.
The son and heir apparent of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam, has resurfaced free and defiant a day after rebels claimed to have captured him, boasting in a bizarre reappearance that his father's loyalists still control parts of Tripoli and would crush the rebellion.
New Zealand will offer help to Libya, possibly medical assistance, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.
Britain has officially recognized Libya's main opposition group as the country's legitimate government, and has expelled all diplomats from Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
France's foreign minister says Paris has had contact with emissaries from Muammar Gaddafi who say the embattled Libyan strongman is "prepared to leave" power.
Turkey's foreign minister has recognised Libya's rebel leaders as the country's legitimate representatives and promised them an additional $US200 million in aid during a visit.
Thousands of jubilant Libyans danced and cheered in the streets of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of crimes against humanity for killing civilians who rose up against his rule.
Libya's government said NATO warplanes struck a residential neighbourhood in the capital on Sunday and killed nine civilians, including two children. Hours later, NATO confirmed one of its airstrikes went astray.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pressed some of the world's last remaining friends of Muammar Gaddafi to abandon Libya's strongman and join the growing international demand for him to cede power.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, increasingly cornered under a stunning upturn in NATO airstrikes, has lashed back with renewed shelling of the western city of Misrata, killing 10 rebel fighters.
Muammar Gaddafi stood defiant in the face of the heaviest and most punishing NATO airstrikes yet - at least 40 thunderous daylight attacks that sent plumes of smoke billowing above the Libyan leader's central Tripoli compound.
NATO and its partners in the military campaign to protect Libyan civilians have decided to extend their mission another 90 days, the alliance's top official says.
NATO warplanes have bombarded targets in Tripoli with more than 20 airstrikes, striking around Muammar Gaddafi's residential compound in what appeared to be the heaviest night of bombing of the Libyan capital since the Western alliance launched its air campaign against his forces.
The Libyan government released four foreign journalists on Wednesday and a fifth reached freedom in Qatar after disappearing while on assignment in Syria, the latest reporters to be freed after being swept up while covering unrest in the Middle East.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has sought arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son and the country's intelligence chief for authorising the killing of civilians in a crackdown on anti-government rebels.
Pressing to break a two-month siege, rebels in the port city of Misrata said they had captured the local airport and pushed Muammar Gaddafi's forces ever further from the city's western outskirts.
