The Government should be doing more to prevent human rights abuses by the new Libyan regime, the Foreign Affairs select committee will be told today.

The Government should be doing more to prevent human rights abuses by the new Libyan regime, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee will be told today.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, was buried yesterday in a quiet family ceremony, ignored by most Libyans.

The death of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in Tripoli yesterday is a closure of sorts, but only of the diplomatic fracas that accompanied his release from prison in Scotland in 2009. It brings us no closer to solving the mystery of who was responsible for the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988. Nor does it offer any resolution to the families of the 270 people who died.

The mother of a young aspiring actress who was killed in the Lockerbie bombing today said she hoped convicted terrorist Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi had died “a painful, horrible death”.

Shukri Ghanem, whose body has been found floating in the River Danube, was an important figure in Libya, where he and one of Colonel Gaddafi's sons unsuccessfully tried to persuade the dictator to introduce free-market reform. Returning to Libya in 2001 after a career abroad, he quickly rose to become Prime Minister, but was demoted three years later after falling foul of the country's old guard. When the uprising which toppled the Gaddafi regime broke out he joined a number of other major figures in defecting. He did not find favour with the triumphant insurgents, however, and spent his last months in exile in Austria.

The Libyan government has formally challenged the International Criminal Court's right to try the son of the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, for war crimes, arguing he should be tried in Libya.

An unpleasant election campaign turned even nastier and more confusing yesterday. After days of making baseless accusations of his own, President Nicolas Sarkozy claimed that he was the "victim" of a smear plot by the Socialist front-runner, François Hollande.

Jack Straw, the former Foreign Secretary, will have his legal bills paid by the taxpayer in any court case over the "rendition" of terror suspects.

Britain's relationship with Gaddafi regime in spotlight again amid claims of intimidation

It seems that the process of co-operation with Libya went much too far

Jack Straw, the former Foreign Secretary, faces a court cross-examination over allegations he personally approved the rendition of a Libyan military commander.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) could drop its demand to try Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son in the Hague, it was reported yesterday.

Tony Blair insisted yesterday he had "no recollection" of Britain's alleged involvement in sending a dissident to be tortured in Libya and defended his government's "important" co-operation on terrorism with Muammar Gaddafi's regime.