Gaddafi defiant as rebels claim gains in west

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has urged his supporters to fight for the country "inch by inch" as opposition forces launched a two-pronged offensive in western Libya that threatens to isolate the capital of Tripoli.
Facing the sternest challenge of his decades-long rule, Gaddafi on Monday called on Libyans to arm themselves to liberate the country from "traitors and from NATO" in a broadcast on state television.
The speech, which was broadcast in audio only with no images, was the first time Gaddafi had spoken in public since rebel fighters launched their biggest offensive in months.
"The Libyan people will remain and the Fateh revolution (which brought Gaddafi to power in 1969) will remain. Move forward, challenge, pick up your weapons, go to the fight for liberating Libya inch by inch from the traitors and from NATO," Gaddafi said.


"Get ready for the fight ... The blood of martyrs is fuel for the battlefield," he added.
Meanwhile, Egyptian airport officials say the Libyan interior minister has arrived in Cairo with family members.
The officials say the minister, Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah, landed just before noon on Monday at the Cairo international airport, with nine members of his family.
They say he arrived on a special plane from Tunisia and told Egyptian officials that he was "on a tourist visit''.
The airport officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to talk to the media.
Reports have been circulating for hours that the minister had defected from the side of Gaddafi, who is facing a possible breakthrough in a six-month-old rebel campaign to end his four decades in power.

No officials from the Libyan embassy in Cairo were at the airport to greet the minister. Libyan officials were not immediately available for comment.