trying to regain control of this airport complex. there are two military bases located just to the east of it. rebel forces here have been speculating that perhaps some sort of vip, someone that the regime wants to protect might be somewhere in these farmland. because the rebel fighters are telling us that they did not expect this intense of a fight at this international airport. they also found it strewn with weapons and there have been complex attacks launched >> that's all for us tonight. i'd like to send a message to gadhafi. after death, after pain, we came back even stronger. this is what's up. rebels celebrate as gadhafi is forced to flee his tripoli stronghold. good morning from cnn london.

i'm nina dos santos. good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew streechbs. you're watching cnn's coverage of the battle for libya's future. opposition leaders claim rebel forces now control 90% of libya. they also say think ooer planning to move some of their power base today from the eastern city of benghazi to the capital tripoli. meantime, the last vestiges of moammar gadhafi's power base appear to be crumbling. after hours of fighting, rebels finally over ran his heavily fortified compound on tuesday, carting out weapons, knocking over statues and raising their flag. there's no sign of colonel gadhafi at the compound nor anywhere else. but libya reportedly heard from its embattled leader in an audio broadcast directed to his

supporters. his exact whereabouts remain unknown. residents turned out on tuesday to celebrate the rebel takeover of the gadhafi compound. the gadhafi loyalists still control libya's rixist hotel. they're preventing people from leaving it, including our matthew chance. colonel gadhafi's radio speech is the second from about 12 hours. two arab tv networks aired his remarks. let's listen in to what has been said. >> translator: i call to all libyans, tribesman, youth, seniors, women and loyal fighters to clear the city of tripoli and eliminate the criminals, traitors and racked. we could demolish the city of tripoli and dell mole lish it.

the rebels are hiding between the families and inside the civilian houses. it's your duty to enter these houses and take them out. >> now, when libyan rebels stormed moammar gadhafi's compound on tuesday, cnn's sara sidner and her team the were there to cover it. they followed the rebels right into the complex. within minutes there was more gunfire and they had to retreat. i spoke with sara. >> reporter: we had to complete the compound because we literally heard bullets flying past our heads. we looked behind us and saw tracer rounds coming from a fairly large weapon that were coming directly into the compound. so we got out of there as fast as we could. everyone was running. rebels themselves holding all that ammunition in their guns, their first reaction was to gun

and then to turn around and start firing back. what we do understand at this point is that was not coming from within the compound. that was actually coming from a neighborhood to the east that was outside of the compound. so what the rebels are saying is it is gadhafi's forces and they are now attacking the compound which is something no one ever would have thought would happen. this is a compound that is really gadhafi's personal space. the rebels saying that they are so desperate now that they're willing to attack his own compound to try to root out the rebels who have taken it over. so obviously the gadhafi regime has fallen. the question is where is moammar gadhafi, where is his family? people still don't know the answer to that. certainly the rebels have had a major victory today, a historic moment in the capital tripoli. >> sara, what do the rebels plan on doing next? they do indeed have the compound. it is theirs now. gadhafi still nowhere to be found. what's the next step as you

speak to them? >> reporter: that is the difficult part because i think right now what's happening is they're really trying to concentrate on any pockets of the city that are still problem attic, any pockets of the city where they still see the people who they consider enemies, that is, those fighting for gadhafi. we did see, also, to show you what the tension was like outside that compound, we did see them with a man who had his arms bound behind his back. they were walking him out of the compound and then there was some kind of argument and suddenly we saw one of the rebels pointing a gun, pointing a rifle at this man, and we were asking who he was, was he someone who was captured. eventually he talked his way out of it and they realized that he was an actual civilian who had gone into the compound because he wanted to see it. but there's definitely a sense that there are gadhafi loyals, those who have put on

plainclothes, who are in neighborhoods and who are dangerous to the rebels. and so definitely the sense of security in the city is height ended, the rebels have put up more and more checkpoints. we do know they're celebrating in green square now. what we should mention is the celebrations that we heard the day that the rebels got into green square, we were down there with them, were slight compared to what's happening today because in the neighborhoods now people are feeling strong enough and confident enough that the gadhafi regime have fallen that they've come out in their neighborhoods and started to celebrate in a way we have not seen before. >> sara sidner reporting there. the situation in tripoli is becoming extremely dangerous for a certain group of journalists including our own matthew chance. about 35 of them are virtual hostages inside the hotel being held by gadhafi forces who say for the moment they can't leave. with no electricity and supplies

running short, the journalists have been trying to negotiate their way out of the hotel. so far without success. cnn's matthew chance spoke with colleen mcedwards earlier today. >> reporter: we saw the guards, the gadhafi loyalists in the lobby of the hotel armed with assault rifles have largely disappeared from the lobby. so we're kind of alone in the hotel virtually. outside of the hotel, along its perimeter, we understand there are a number of gadhafi forces. not quite sure of the exact number. we're still not in a situation where we're able to leave the hotel. we have lek tris tri. the lights are on, electricity is on. so it's all right in that sense. we've braced ourselves given the

other parts of tripoli, for some kind of confrontation here at the hotel. so far that hasn't happened. we're all hoping that this crisis -- and we've been here under these conditions for about five days now, unable to leave, sort of corralled on the floor of the hotel, about 35 journalists together, not knowing what's happening. we've been in that situation for about five days now. we're all kind of hoping this episode and this conflict with come to an end with a kind of fidsal and everyone will drift away, rather than a bang which is what we're all fearing. >> tell me, do you have any communication with those loyalist guards? what's that like? is there any interaction at all when you do see them? >> not much. in fact, we try to avoid them. in the past -- in the past few days we've had some hostile interaction with them.

they largely blame -- in fairness, they say they're here for one reason, and that's to protect us. they won't let us leave the hotel. they have a generally pretty hostile attitude towards the international media. they blame the international media for whatever reason for what's happening in libya. i think there's a perception that the media took a side in this conflict and it was the side of the rebels. i personally don't think that's true. but we came here to report on the government side of this conflict. we obviously have teams on the other side as well. nevertheless, that's the perception here. yesterday i was just leaning over the balcony, an internal balcony looking over the atrium of the hotel and one of the gunman looked up and shouted up at me. i suppose you're happy now, you journalists, now that libyans are killing libyans. >> just listening there to matthew chance speaking with

colleen mcedwards a little more than an hour ago. we go now go to matt on the line from the hotel. matt, has there been any changes in your circumstances in the last hour or two? >> reporter: no. it's still very quiet. we're still kind of upstairs in the hotel. the hotel still seems pretty abandoned of the gunman we heard earlier. the perimeter of the hotel still has gunmen armed people on the outside of it. we're still not able to go out. in fact, one television crew from london tried to go out and they were told to go back in sort of at gunpoint. it became quite hostile at one point. but it ended amicably. nevertheless, those are the kinds of restrictions we're under still. we still can't leave the hotel even though there is no

government officials, no government in the lobby as such. but the outskirts of the hotel still being policed by the gadhafi loyalists. >> still being policed. is there any sort of exchange of fire around the hotel that you can hear? >> no, it's very quiet. you get the sense we're playing awaiting game to see what's going to happen next, to see whether the rebels are going to come in and take control of the hotel or whether there's going to be some kind of confrontation between the rebels and what's left of gadhafi security forces. for the moment, we're still pretty much in the dark. we still don't have much perspective of what's going on outside the walls of the hotel. we feel like in the last five days we've been essentially cut off from our immediate surroundings outside the hotel in tripoli, never mind the outside world. so we're kind of in the dark. >> and the people who are outside, the gadhafi loyalists,

are they clearly soldiers? can you clearly see who they are and what sort of command structure is operating there? >> they're not uniformed soldiers. they're what are termed volunteers here. whether that means they're soldiers that have taken their uniforms out or not and are in civilian clothes. they're carrying sniper rifles, drag nof which are russian long-barreled guns if anybody knows about their guns. obviously they're in defensive positions around the hotel. i don't know what their point of view is going to be, what their response is going to be should they encounter any rebels. remember, the rebels are not far away from here, less than a kilometer away, less than a kilometer is the compound of colonel gadhafi which has been now overrun by the rebels. so we're in very close proximity

to that rebel force. we seem to be kind of one of those few patches. if there are others, we don't know, but we're certainly in one patch which still remains for the moment in the control of what's left of gadhafi's forces. >> how would you describe the mood of you and your colleagues there, obviously resigned to what's going to happen. is there a spirit there sort of keeping everybody rallied, keeping spirits up? >> reporter: it's a very interesting experience. it's been like a roller coaster. at times we've been really depressed, really frightened thinking that we're not going to get out of it. other times we're thinking this is fine, going our way, it's going to be great. we're going to make a cup of tea and eat some biscuits. it's a very good sense of comradery, i would say, amongst the 35 journalists or so.

there are a few other people here from different organizations as well. a good sense of comradery. we all have the sense we're in it together and coordinating our efforts between the various media companies and us inside the ground as well inside the hotel to make sure we don't go and do things individually. we're trying to focus all our energy and our efforts on either getting out of here or at least staying safe until this situation outside changes. >> hopefully this siege, for want of a better name, will come to an end soon. matthew chance from the rix is hotel in tripoli. five days now. matthew and 34 journalist colleagues guarded by pro gadhafi forces. we'll continue to cover the very tense events throughout the course of this very program as cnn continues with this coverage

for the battle of the future of like yeah. also coming up, his name has been dragged through the mud for months. since rape allegations first surfaced against dominique strauss-kahn in may, he's lost his job and reputation. now the charges have been dropped. we have an exclusive interview with his lawyers just ahead.

from tuesday. these are excited opposition fighters who have just gained access to colonel moammar gadhafi's private compound in tripoli. investors think the end of the conflict will will mean the return of oil to the markets. that has spent prices mostly lower. right now brent crude, which is particularly sensitive to what's happening in libya, down 62 cents a barrel trading at

$108.86. there hasn't been any great surge down on the back of what looks to be an outcome in libya. the investors are still waiting to see what the end game will actually be before pushing that price down if indeed it comes down any time soon. >> experts saying it may take more than a year for the oil in libya to start flowing freely again. that hasn't led to any particular concrete movement in the oil price. let's have a look at how european stock markets are doing. they've been having a turbulent time over the last two weeks or so. trading has opened higher after gains in the united states. as you can see, this is what we're looking at at the moment. some of these markets pouring ahead, particularly the dax up 1.25%. inheineken posting a 14 cents loss for the first half of 2011 due to big gains in the previous half.

shares are currently down to the tune of more than 12% in amsterdam. andrew. >> beer used to be considered recession-proof, didn't it? that's the end of the trading day, just about done here in asia. as you can see, quite markedly different story here in asia than there is in europe at the moment. a lot of that has got to do with the fact that the enthusiasm for u.s. federal reserve chief ben bernanke riding to the rescue of the u.s. economy with perhaps a qe-3 as it's being called, more moves to push money into the u.s. financial system. there seems to be less certain it's going to happen now. we've seen a bit of a selloff. put this numbers against one of the biggest rallies we've seen in months, yesterday, for the asian markets, profit taking going on there as well. nikkei down 1%, hang seng down

by 2%, shanghai and australia had a downgrade of sovereign debt for japan by moody's. they're worried about the weak economic outlook and japan's ability to pay down its massive debt. also had some big profit numbers out. none bigger than bhp billiton, the world's biggest diversified mining house based in australia and listed in london as well. it posted an 86% rise in full-year net profits to more than $23 billion. prices for copper, iron ore, coal reaching all time highs on increasing demand from china. iron ore particularly and coal the big contributors for the bh p. profits. certainly a very strong result from the company that used to be known as the big australian. that stock price was up 1% last time i looked in london trade. >> certainly is. let's have a look at another story making headlines in the

business world. the former head of the imf says he's thankful his nightmare is now over. dominique strauss-kahn emerge friday a new york courthouse a free man after a judge dismissed all sexual assault charges against him. prosecutors asked for the dismissal of the case because they doubted the credibility of his accuser, nafi diallo. piers morgan spoke to strauss-kahn's own lawyers. he played them a clip of diallo talking about what allegedly happened in that hotel room. >> i was like, i'm so sore tu sorry. he grab my breasts. he said, no, you don't have to be sorry. i said, no i don't want to lose my job. he pushed me into the bedroom and pulled the door. >> the obviously question is your client would have been watching that interview somewhere, possibly with his

wife, pretty degrading testimony, a lot of which today lies in tatters. >> i said outside court today and i'll repeat it again that unless you, yourself, have been accused falsely of a serious crime that you did not commit, i think it's impossible to really understand the full measure of relief that dominic strauss-kahn and ann sinclair felt today. it's a horrific nightmare that now, thank god, has gone away. these two remarkable individuals have i think impressed all of us who worked on this case with great, the way they treated all of us with kindness and courtesy. there was never any acrimony any i witnessed between them or any of the people that worked on this case. i think there's an understanding he did not commit a crime, the

objective was to resolve the criminal case and the relationship between them from what i've seen is an interesting relationship. they're both charming, interesting, brilliant, remarkable people who i've come to have a great deal of affection and respect for. is he embarrassed? yes. he was publicly humiliated. he's paid a heavy price already, but he is now out of the clutches of the criminal justice system, and ha is a relief that i think no one can fully appreciate unless they've actually been in the clutches of that system. >> i'd like to add that one of the things that persuaded the prosecutors to dismiss the case was the skill with which this alleged victim was able to describe acts of violence which had been perpetrated on her by others and turned out to be absolutely false. the fact that she gives an

academy award winning performance. >> diallo stim has a civil lawsuit pending against strauss-kahn. her lawyers say medical evidence supports her claim and they also insist the prosecutors were influenced by strauss-kahn's power and prestige. turning to another story closely watched on the east coast of the u.s. it's bracing for hurricane irene. let's go to jen delgado at the cnn weather center. the first hurricane of the atlantic. how is it looking, jen? is it getting to a situation where it's going to start threatening the coast? >> right now it is a category two. it has strengthened over the last several hours. right now it's actually lashing parts of the bahamas, right now about 650 kilometers away from nassau. you can see rain still coming down. you can see turks and caicos. a lot of the rain still

spreading into parts of the dominican republic as well as puerto rico. waiting for the national advisory to come in in about the next 30 minutes. the eyewall very apparent. i want to point out the winds right now 161 kilometers. as we go through the next several hours. we could see becoming a major hurricane. we notice the winds going up to 204 kilometers as we go several days out. as we head into thursday, it's going to be in the very northern part of the bahamas and continue to move parallel towards the east. eventually making landfall possibly near the outer banks into saturday. the caribbean is watching this as well as parts of the u.s. right now here is the area under the hurricane warning anywhere in red. certainly for the bahamas and turnlgs and caicos, weather conditions will continue to deteriorate through the night and into the morning. the problem is with this hurricane it's been producing heavy rainfall. the problem is for areas

including the bahamas as well as turks and caicos islands, it's very flat. so we'll be dealing with the heavy rainfall. on top of that storm surge, roughly two to five meters. flooding is going to be a really big problem there. let me show you some of the history of irene as it moved through puerto rico. you can see the streets really flooded there. it really looks like a river, really something you don't want to see people driving through streets like that with flash flooding and roads washed away. look how close it is to many homes across parts of puerto rico. let's go to the dominican republic. purportedly one person died when their car was swept away. we'll talk about the potential for 15 to 30 centimeters of rainfall. andrew, nina, heavy rain, strong winds across the caribbean. back over to you two. >> thanks very much for jen delgado. as events in libya continue to bubble over, a tension is on the country's vast and valuable

oil reserves. we'll tell you who is eyeing it next.

from cnn london. i'm nina dos santos. i'm andrew stevens. welcome back to our continuing coverage of the advance in libya. the rebels now claim to hold 90% of the libyan capital. the embattled leader reportedly broadcast an audio statement to his supporters. his whereabouts remain unknown after rebels over ran his

tripoli compound on tuesday. we're also monitoring several other developing stories right now. a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck near washington, d.c. on tuesday. it was the strongest seismic activity for more than a century. there were no reports of serious injuries, but substantial property damage including small cracks to the washington monument. hurricane irene is a category two storm with winds of more than 154 kilometers an hour. right now the storm is expected to make landfall on the united states east coast at some point during the weekend. the hurricane has already lashed puerto rico and the bahamas. a judge in new york has dismissed sexual assault charges against the former international monetary fund chief dominique strauss-kahn. prosecutors began to doubt the allegations of his accuser after she lied about certain parts of her experience with strauss-kahn. political power in libya

means control over oil. rebels say they've overrun ras la nuf and they say there was no damage to oil facilities there. you may recall it was the scene of intense battles earlier in this conflict. rebels also report only minimal damage to oil facilities at brega which is another oil hub they took over on monday. libya isn't just important domestically it affects global sfli by extension global markets as well. brent crude is the best indicator of what's been going on in libya right now. as you can see, down some 37 cents on the barrel trading at a price of just over $109. investors are anticipating oil experts from libya to start returning to the market. many european countries eager to tap into libya's vast reserves, they're the largest in africa.

but there are still challenges that stand in their way. >> as the conflict in libya appears near its end, the skram vable for its vast oil wealth is just beginning. before the war libya accounted for 2% of global production. it's the country's 46 billion barrels of reserves, the largest in africa, that will be the next front line. europe relies heavily on libyan oil. before the fighting began, it made up at least 20% of italy's oil imports and 15% of france, ireland, austria and switzerland. >> there's tremendous potential in libya, but the question has been unlocking that potential. it's a difficult contract environment. if you make it a difficult security environment for libya, you won't unleash that potential. >> pumping 1.6 million barrels a day prior to the unrest. italy's eni and basf each

produced 100,000 a day. austria's omv relies on libya for a tenth while libyan oil only makes up 2.3% of france's total. we'll be live in abu dhabi next as libyan rebel leaders meet to try to unlock some of the frozen assets needed to get the libyan economy back on track. we'll be talking to our john de defterios in just a minute. mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need.

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welcome back. these are the latest developments from libya. opposition leaders say they plan to move some of their power base today from benghazi to the capital tripoli. rebel forces claim that they now control 90% of libya including moammar gadhafi's compound in tripoli. rebels overran the complex on tuesday after hours of battling with pro gadhafi fighters.

colonel gadhafi's whereabouts still remain unknown. libya purportedly heard from him earlier today. in an audio broadcast to his supporters. in the meantime gadhafi loyalists are preventing foreign journalists from leading libya's rixos hotel and that includes our own matthew chance who you can see on video there. libya's national transitional council is meeting in dohar with international allies as they try to seek funds to manage the country's change of government. the opposition will be asking allies to initially release around $2.5 billion of funds which have been frozen by governments around the world. that money would be used to pay for reconstruction. john defterios joins us live from abu dhabi. it does seem there's a willingness to get the money to the rebels fair li quickly, john. >> this is a case with the money keeping pace with the change on

the ground in libya, especially tripoli. let's take a look at what's at stake here. talked about initial transfer of money of $2.5 billion they're hoping to get released at the meetings taking place this evening. that's part of the $10 billion being held right now over all libyan assets. we know the uprising started six months ago. the asset freeze really started kicking in four months ago. two-thirds of the funds are being held by the governments of the u.s., u.k. and germany. the frirs tranche of money is supposed to be released shortly, $1.5 billion by the united states. let's listen. >> the u.s. government has taken honorable steps and very welcome steps of releasing about $1.5 billion of frozen assets, and the legal work is being completed to that end. this will be very helpful for

the first injection so as to get us off the ground. it is very, very difficult now financially. >> ambassador ali nayad meeting in dubai last night, two of nine members meeting as part of the stabilization committee. the meeting taking place in qatar today and last night in the uae, the stabilization committee started to outline the infrastructure buildout that will be necessary. going back to the experience in iraq, they don't want people to get frustrated in the period of transition in the first four to six months. >> so many lessons to have been learned from the transition of power in iraq. john, speaking of the allies here, who is behind this meeting? are they the countries that stand to benefit most from libya's reconstruction? >> it's fair to say those are a meeting in dohar are the one that is lent the support to libya from the beginning. i don't think it's an accident

that the meeting is taking place in dohar. we know qatar was the first arab country to recognize the transitional government. it also put military planes into action. the uae has been key in terms of logistics in providing humanitarian support. they'll be at the table along with france, the uk, italy, not by accident, all involved in the nato exercises. also they have a stake in libya's oil future as well, andrew. >> john defterios joining us live from abu dhabi on the meeting with the ntc. nina? >> andrew, after the break we'll be continuing to monitor the on going fight for libya's future. of course, whatever happens in that country will be pivotal for oil prices because this country has the largest such reserves of oil in africa. that leads us to our next story. it's been a turbulent year for qantas with engine problems on its airbus a 380s, high oil prices and ground dings due to

volcanic ash. in a moment we'll hear from the ceo, alan joyce.

welcome back. you're watching cnn's continuing coverage o for the battle of the future of tripoli. let's bring you the latest from the latest of the events in libya. moammar gadhafi is calling his retreat if his compound in

tliply, remade that remark to a radio address but cnn cannot at the moment confirm the authenticity of that particular message. thousands of rebel forces over ran his compound on tuesday, a significant step in their quest to. another key asset for control of the capital. the rebels say they at present rule about 90% of libya. cnn's matthew chance and other international journalists remain holdup at the rixos hotel which has become somewhat of a prison for them. pro gadhafi forces are refusing to let them leave and there's growing concern for their safety. let's see how all this affects the stock markets. whatever happens in libya is pivotal for the prois of oil. oil in turn has an effect of the broader economic health of some of the companies listed here. we're hanging on to the gains.

particularly the dax up in excess of 1%, only shed about a quarter of 1% just in the last half hour or so. all this on the back of some substantial gains on the other side of the atlantic just yesterday. also some better-than-expected corporate earning figures from the likes of wpp, the advertising company that is lending some support to the ftse 100. as you can see, under this group it is the laggard. different story in asia, stock markets finishing mainly lower for the day, perhaps not surprising, a big rally yesterday and certainly the enthusiasm that ben bernanke is going to save the world by injecting more liquidity into the u.s. economy seems to be fading a bit. we have a bit of profit taking as you can see there. qantas released its latest results today. annual profit doubled to $250 million australian. the performance in the first six months of the year was hurt by a

string of events including natural disasters. qantas gave no guidance for the year ahead though. >> just too difficult to call the airline industry and what lies ahead for it at the moment. certainly investor confidence in qantas is falling, that's reflected in the stock prices, down more than 40% over the course of the past year, today down 1.2%. was up briefly but then came back down again. the profits were unveiled today. that was just less than two weeks after qantas announced a major restructuring to cut costs at its australian based operations. it said it would shed 1,000 jobs in australia and launch two new airlines in asia. the ceo of qantas alan joyce say the latest profits only underline the need for changes. earlier i spoke to joyce and asked him why the restructure was needed when the profits were rising so sharply. >> you've described qantas'

earnings as very solid but also further proof that qantas must change. on face value those two statements look contradictory. can you explain what you mean by that? >> well, andrew, we have a portfolio of assets in the group, some of which are doing exceptionally well like jetstar, qantas domestic, freight and frequent flier. in the case of most of those assets they made record profits. for our qantas international business, it's taken a hit as a result of the high fuel price and the high australian dollar, and it did lose $216 million in the year just closed. and that business needs structural changes, significant change because the other parts of the business cannot keep on supporting it. so that's why great overall results, but this underlying problem were our international business that we need to address. >> so what you're saying is oil prices and the strong australian

dollar are mainly responsible for this restructure. both of those issues could change. the dollar could weaken, oil prices could go down, that would make international profitable and you wouldn't need to restructure, would you? >> yes, andrew. what we're planning is the aussie dollar will remain strong for some time given the growth in the asian markets and resource sector. it's our belief that we have to plan on that. in terms of fuel price as well, we are planning on fuel price remaining in the high areas. it's important that we have a business to be able to handle that. the international business has gotten worse over the last year. the domestic qantas leap business and qantas domestic business have been able to see improvement as a result of the economy in australia improving. we know we cannot make profits in those businesses to

counteract the losses we'll experience on international. >> okay. now, qantas pilots are saying that with this restructure, you are risking the airline's safety record. they say, if you remove highly skilled, highly experienced pilots in this restructuring, safety could suffer. how do you kaunter that given qantas's safety record is unparalleled in this industry. >> yes, it is. this is an example of the union leaders, unfortunately, trying to damage the qantas brand to try to put management under pressure to concede to outrageous demands. we're not going to do that. it's a tactic they've been using for some time. let me absolutely guarantee there's never going to be risks taken with the safety record. i'm the only ceo in history of qantas that grounded a fleet. i believe with the engine failure we had, the a-380 wasn't

safe to operate. i grounded our fleets during the volcanic ash issues when other airlines flew. we believe safety is a top priority and will never take a risk with it. none of this is about us taking any changes to the standards of our pilots, and the pilots in qantas, jetstar, qantas link are all trained to very high standards. >> but you're not going to be able to replace that experience, are you, that experience with your new full-service airline to be based somewhere in southeast asia. you won't be able to recruit that level of experience, will you? >> well, we may be. one of the things we have done as an example with the growth in jetstar is make roles available to the qantas pilots to come into the jetstar operation in singapore, new zealand and australia. we've had over 150 qantas pilots

apply for those roles. there are plenty of pilots that may think this is an attractive area to work in for a period of time. >> alan joyce, the ceo, nina. it's interesting the results came out today. there's been a lot of rumor in the market about qantas becoming a takeover tiger because the share price has fallen so much over the past year or so. i asked alan joyce after the interview about that and he said there had been absolutely no formal or informal moves made. he knew nothing about any takeover speculation. he said that's exactly what it is, just speculation. let's return to our top story, the situation in tripoli, libya. it's becoming increasingly pair laos for international journalists including our own matthew chance. about 35 reporters are virtual hostages inside the rixos hotel. that building is being held by gadhafi forces who say they these reporters can't leave.

with no electricity and supplies running short, the journalists are hanging white sheets with the words "tv" on them to keep from getting shot by either side. journalists from china's cctv described the conditions inside the hotel. we're about to show a two-minute clip. just to let you know, it is all in subtitles.

compelling. that situation continues at the rixos hotel in tripoli. covering the story outside the hotel also poses serious risks. while covering the story sara

sidner had to find protection from the constant celebratory gunfire. >> we're okay. we're in between two walls here so we're fine. >> now, that is a risk that any reporter in a war zone confronts. it's been no different in libya. aaron ben wedeman was shot at in cal leash last month. no one was hurt. the committee to protect journalists say six journalists have been killed in libya since 1992, five journalists have been killed in cross fire since march of this year. one journalist was killed outside benghazi in june of 2005. sobering thought. we'll stay with cnn for continuing coverage of the rebel advance in libya. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in london. you're watching cnn, the world's news leader. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com