The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times, The Malta Independent and MaltaToday report how Col Gaddafi’s compound was overrun yesterday and he is on the run.
In-Nazzjon reports that Malta has recognised the transitional Council as the new Libyan government.
l-orizzont says the Libyan conflict has cost the cruise industry in Malta 11,000 visitors.
The overseas press
Hours after rebel forces gained "full control" of the fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli, Col. Muammar Gaddafi has vowed death or victory in what he called “the fight against aggression". In an audio address on al-Orouba TV, Gaddafi said also said, "We are resisting with all our strength... we will either win or become martyrs, God willing." He added that the compound had been levelled to the ground by 64 Nato air strikes and that his withdrawal from his compound in Tripoli was a tactical move. Nato officials in Brussels said the alliance's warplanes were flying over Tripoli on Tuesday, but that there have been no bombing runs.
Gaddafi government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told al-Orouba TV in a live interview after Gaddafi's talk was aired that the regime could resist for months, if not for years. Ibrahim claimed that 6,500 volunteers had entered Tripoli “in the past six hours” and have spread throughout “all the streets of Tripoli”. He threatened to turn Libya into a “burning volcano and a fire under the feet of the invaders”. Ibrahim said forces left the Bab al-Aziziya compound because it “no longer served a military or strategic purpose”.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi's whereabouts remain unknown. MSNBC says troops loyal to him were retreating from the oil port Ras Lanuf, which rebels said they took yesterday, to Red Valley, toward the direction of Sirte, the leader's hometown and one of the few remaining cities still under his control. It was not immediately clear whether Gaddafi or members of his immediate family were in the compound when it was breached by the rebels.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Russian head of the World Chess Federation, told Associated Press Television News he had spoken on Tuesday with Gaddafi, who remained in Tripoli and wanted to defend his country. Ilyumzhinov's visit to Tripoli this summer was the last time the Libyan leader was seen in public after Nato airstrikes began. He quoted Gaddafi telling him in Arabic that he did want to leave his homeland.
Gaddafi's former right-hand man Abdel-Salam Jalloud told Al-Jazeera television that he thought the Libyan leader was moving around the outskirts of Tripoli, taking shelter at private homes, small hotels and mosques. Jalloud defected this month.
Gaddafi could have an underground escape route from his military compound to Tripoli International Airport, an engineer who worked on plans to renovate its infrastructure told Channel 4 News. The unnamed engineer, an Irish man who fled Libya in February when the uprising reached Tripoli, told the UK station that designs were in place over a year ago to create a subterranean road directly underneath the main highway that leads from the airway to the base and beyond, which could only be used by military vehicles.
Dubai-based al-Arabiya television reports that early today that Gaddafi's fighters were attacking the town of Ajelat, west of Tripoli, with missiles and tanks. Also, dozens of missiles were fired on Tripoli, a witness told the satellite channel by telephone. “The Al-Sour road, which is not far from Bab al-Aziziya ... is being pounded by Grad missiles and mortars." Gaddafi forces were also shelling Zuara, a Libyan port town about 60km from the Tunisian border. Al-Jazeera reported that loud explosions were heard when pro-Gaddafi forces have fired several scud missiles from Sirte at the rebel-held city of Misrata late on Tuesday night.
Nato has warned the situation in Tripoli remained very dangerous and promised the alliance would continue bombing forces loyal to the 69-year-old Libyan leader if they kept fighting. Il Giorno quotes Col. Roland Lavoie telling reporters in Naples that snipers, shelling, missiles could do much damage, but they could not change the course of history or “the outcome of this campaign”. He said NATO had to stay vigilant because of fluidity of the situation on the ground.
France-24 quotes Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, saying 400 people have been killed and 2,000 wounded over the past three days of fighting in Tripoli. He said the rebels had captured some 600 pro-Gaddafi fighters but the battle would not be over until Gaddafi himself was taken prisoner. The NTC said guards from a specially-trained Tripoli brigade, made up of fighters from the capital, were being stationed at strategic points to maintain order. It had also negotiated a deal with Tunisian authorities to increase the flow of electricity across the border.
The New York Times says a court in New York has dismissed sexual assault charges against the former IMF director Domenic Strauss-Khan. Prosecutors said DNA evidence had found that a "hurried" sexual encounter did occur between the two, but it did not establish the chambermaid’s claim that it was non-consensual. The ruling means he is a free man, though he still faces a civil suit filed this month.
The Voice of America reports that an earthquake has hit the N. American east coast, shaking Washington, New York and Toronto. Thousands of office workers poured out into the streets. Authorities evacuated the Capitol, the Pentagon, and other federal buildings. Washington's major museums also closed for the rest of the day. Witnesses said about three spires broke off the Washington National Cathedral, but there were no reports of injuries.
The Independent says that a 30-year-old RAF officer has become the first woman to complete a gruelling London to Paris endurance challenge. Flight Lieutenant Rachael Cadman set off on Friday afternoon from Marble Arch in the Enduroman Arch2Arc Challenge and crossed the Champs Elysees finish line yesterday afternoon, 97 hours and 37 minutes later. The event involved an 87-mile run from London to Dover, a 23-mile Channel swim and a 187-mile cycle from Calais to the Arc de Triomphe. Only seven men have ever completed the challenge, for which the record is 81 hours.