Simoncelli Sepang Crash

Italian motorcyclist Marco Simoncelli has been tragically killed in a crash during today's Malaysian Moto GP, race organisers have confirmed.

The Gresini Honda rider lost control of his bike on the second lap of the circuit in Sepang and appeared to be hit by Colin Edwards and then Valentino Rossi as he slid across the track.

The fatal incident comes just a week after British IndyCar racing driver Dan Wheldon died after crashing in Las Vegas

The 24-year-old's helmet came off in the collision and he was taken to the medical centre for treatment, but his injuries were too serious.

A message on the MotoGP website read: 'Marco Simoncelli succumbed to injuries sustained in Malaysia.'

Newly-crowned champion Casey Stoner admitted watching the accident made him worried for Simoncelli, who was later pronounced dead.

'As soon as I saw the footage it just makes you sick inside,' the Australian told BBC2.
'Whenever the helmet comes off that's not a good sign.'

Tony Elias, Moto2 world champion, said he was praying the injuries to Simoncelli were not serious before learning the devastating news.

'We just hope Marco is OK - that's my wish,' he said.

The organisers confirmed the race was cancelled, having halted it immediately after the fatal incident.

Deadly: The rider (No 58) is seen sliding from his bike and colliding with two other riders in a horrifying crash

Moment of horror: Simoncelli loses control on the secon

Disaster: Simoncelli fatally falls off of his Honda after colliding into Colin Edwards

Fall: Edwards spins off the track along with Simoncelli's bike as the 24-year-old Italian devastatingly lies motionless

Race marshalls attend to Honda rider Simoncelli (C) following his fatal crash just four minutes after the start of the Malaysian MotoGP race

Devastated: Colin Edwards of the US who was involved in the crash stands at the side of the track after the fatal crash

A bulletin from the organisers, reported on website Autosport, said: 'Race cancelled as the medical centre staff is focusing on treating Marco Simoncelli and track action cannot be resumed in the current circumstances.'

It was confirmed on MotoGP's official website that he died at 4.56pm local time.

Tributes came in pouring in from his fellow riders soon after the incident.

British MotoGP rider Cal Crutchlow wrote on Twitter: 'RIP Marco Simoncelli ! A great rider and all round nice guy. My thoughts are with all his family & friends. I will never forget today.'

Agony: Marco Simoncelli's father is comforted as he waits outside a medical centre where the rider was taken following a crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix

Crew members of the Honda team of Marco Simoncelli of Italy console each other as they gather outside a medical centre where the rider was taken following a crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix

Wheeled away: Track officials remove Simoncelli's motorcycle after the dreadful accident

Last week British IndyCar racing driver Dan Wheldon died after he was catapulted helplessly into the air in a 225mph smash before landing on a barrier and suffering fatal head injuries.

Just days earlier the father-of-two joined a number of other drivers in expressing the fears over the speed of cars and overcrowding on the oval-shaped track.

But in a blog post, he had promised fans he would go out to win and put on a show of 'pure entertainment'.

The organisers cancelled the race when the extent of Simoncelli's injuries become apparent, having halted it immediately after the accident

Muammar el-Qaddafi Dead

TRIPOLI, Libya — Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the former Libyan strongman who fled into hiding after rebels toppled his regime two months ago in the Arab Spring’s most tumultuous uprising, was killed Thursday as fighters battling the vestiges of his loyalist forces wrested control of his hometown of Surt, the interim government announced.

Al Jazeera television showed what it said was Colonel Qaddafi’s corpse lying on the ground, with a bloodied face, lifeless open eyes and an apparent gunshot wound to the side of the head, as jubilant fighters fired automatic weapons in the air. The images punctuated an emphatic and violent ending to his four decades as a ruthless and bombastic autocrat who had basked in his reputation as the self-styled king of kings of Africa.

“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Qaddafi has been killed,” Mahmoud Jibril, the prime minister of the interim government, told a news conference in Tripoli.

Libyans rejoiced as news of his death spread. Car horns blared in Tripoli and in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the rebellion against Colonel Qaddafi began in February, as residents poured into the streets to celebrate.

Mahmoud Shammam, the chief spokesman of the Transitional National Council, the interim government that replaced Colonel Qaddafi’s regime after he fled Tripoli in late August, said: “This is the day of real liberation. We were serious about giving him a fair trial. It seems God has some other wish.”

Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the leader of the Tripoli military council, said on Al Jazeera that anti-Qaddafi forces had Colonel Qaddafi’s body and were transporting it to an undisclosed location. Al Jazeera also quoted another unidentified official of the Transitional National Council as saying Mussa Ibrahim, the former spokesman of Colonel Qaddafi, had been captured near Surt.

There were unconfirmed reports that one of Colonel Qaddafi’s feared sons, Muatassim, had been captured or killed with his father. But the whereabouts of another son, Seif al-Islam, who has also been on the run since the fall of Tripoli, remained unclear.

It was also not clear precisely how Colonel Qaddafi died. Mohamed Benrasali, a member of the national council’s Tripoli Stabilization Committee, said fighters from Misurata who were deployed in Surt told him that Colonel Qaddafi was captured alive in a car leaving Surt. He was badly injured, with wounds in his head and both legs, Mr. Benrasali said, and died soon after.

Colonel Qaddafi had defied repeated attempts to corner and capture him, taunting his enemies with audio broadcasts denouncing the rebel forces that felled him as stooges of NATO, which conducted a bombing campaign against his military during the uprising under the auspices of a Security Council mandate to protect Libyan civilians.

There were unconfirmed reports that Colonel Qaddafi may have been wounded when NATO warplanes struck a convoy trying to spirit him away from Surt. NATO officials in Brussels declined to comment on the reports.

Libya’s interim leaders had said they believed that some Qaddafi family members including the colonel himself and some of his sons had been hiding in Surt or in Bani Walid, another loyalist bastion that the anti-Qaddafi forces captured earlier this week.

There was no immediate comment on the news of his death from the Obama administration, a major supporter of the rebel forces that ousted him. Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman, traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Afghanistan, said the department was aware of the reports “on the capture or killing of Muammar Qaddafi.”

At the European Union headquarters in Brussels, President Herman Van Rompuy said Colonel Qaddafi’s death “marks the end of an era of despotism,” Agence France-Presse reported.

Officials of the post-Qaddafi government had said that the death or capture of Colonel Qaddafi would allow them to declare the country liberated and in control of its borders, and to start a process that would lead to a general election for a national council within eight months.

Libyan fighters said earlier on Thursday that they had routed the last remaining forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi from Surt, ending weeks of fierce fighting in that Mediterranean enclave east of Tripoli.

A military spokesman for the interim government, Abdel Rahman Busin, said, “Surt is fully liberated.”

The battle for Surt was supposed to have been a postscript to the Libyan conflict, but for weeks soldiers loyal to Colonel Qaddafi, fiercely defended the city, first weathering NATO airstrikes and then repeated assaults by anti-Qaddafi fighters. Former rebel leaders were caught off guard by the depth of the divisions in western Libya, where the colonel’s policy of playing favorites and stoking rivalries has resulted in a series of violent confrontations.

Surt emerged as the stage for one of the war’s bloodiest fights, killing and injuring scores on both sides, decimating the city and leading to fears that the weak transitional leaders would not be able to unify the country.

The battle turned nearly two weeks ago, when the anti-Qaddafi fighters laid siege to an enormous convention center that the pro-Qaddafi troops had used as a base.

The interim leaders had claimed that the ongoing fighting had prevented them from focusing on other pressing concerns, including the proliferation of armed militias that answered to no central authority.

Kareem Fahim reported from Tripoli and Rick Gladstone from New York. Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and J. David Goodman from New York.