BULLETIN – GADDAFI REPORTED DEAD – AT 8:54 A.M. ET:   We do not have absolute confirmation of this, but here is the report, from Fox:

SIRTE, Libya – Conflicting reports emerged on Thursday that Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi has been captured or killed.

"Qaddafi is dead. He is absolutely dead ... he was shot in both legs and in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata soon," media spokesman Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News.

Libyan TV channel Libya lil Ahrar, meanwhile, said the ousted dictator was in custody.

The Transitional National Council's UK spokesman, Mahmoud Nacua, warned that there was "not enough information" to confirm Qaddafi's capture, and a former TNC spokesman in Britain, Guma al Gamati told Sky News that "this is not confirmed."

Sirte -- Qaddafi's hometown and the last bastion of his supporters -- was the last holdout against TNC forces. The town's capture, which both military officials and new regime political sources said was expected later Thursday, would pave the way for the TNC to officially take control of Libya and move its headquarters away from its Benghazi stronghold in the east to the capital, Tripoli.

COMMENT:  We'll wait and see.  Gaddafi's death (his name is spelled in different ways) would probably be a blessing, putting an end to the story, without turning the dictator into a martyr.

October 20, 2011