Gadhafi Denies Fleeing, Calls Rebels 'Scumbags'

Given how gaudily the man dresses, you think he'd be a little easier to find.

Moammar Gadhafi took to the airwaves to play some of his greatest hits, slamming the “rats, germs, and scumbags” in the rebel army and denying rumours that he'd fled Libya. The message was aired over Libyan state television as the rebel forces (we suppose it might be time to stop calling them rebels, what with the winning and everything) amassed outside of Bani Walid, a city some 140 kilometres southeast of Tripoli where Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam, and a handful of his remaining loyalists are holed up. As for Gadhafi's whereabouts, no one seems too sure, and if he can be taken for his word (...), he was not a part of the loyalist convoy seen driving through Niger en route to Burkina Faso. This comes as Libya's new health minister, Naji Barakat, estimated that at least 30,000 people had been killed in the six-month civil war and another 50,000 wounded.