Journalists Freed From Tripoli Hotel

Gunmen loyal to Moammar Gadhafi have freed the roughly 35 foreign journalists that they’d been holding hostage in the Rixos hotel, ending a five-day siege. The gunmen relented when they heard how things were going in Tripoli, according to Matthew Chance of CNN, who was one of the hostages. The guard came over and said, “Look, we’re not going to stop you from leaving anymore.”

The reporters have all piled into five cars, which the Red Cross is guiding through checkpoints “to our freedom essentially,” Chance said, adding, “It’s been an absolute nightmare. The fact that we got out of the hotel, people are crying. People are weeping with relief.” Gadhafi loyalists had seized the hotel on Sunday, and as of this morning, Matthew Price of the BBC said the situation had “deteriorated massively.” See the Telegraph for a recap of the crisis, and Chance's Twitter feed for a blow-by-blow of the release. (More Libya stories.)