Forces loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi launched a fierce counter-attack on Thursday, fighting gun battles with rebels who have threatened the Libyan leader by seizing important towns close to the capital. The opposition were already in control of major centres in the east, including the regional capital Benghazi, and reports that the towns of Misrata and Zuara in the west had also fallen brought the tide of rebellion closer to Gaddafi’s power base.

The head of the US-monitored organisation in charge of assigning global Internet addresses such as .com and .net has cautioned against proposals to put the group under UN or other international contro