i'm nina dos santos. good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew streechbs. you're watching cnn's coverage of the battle for libya's future. opposition leaders claim rebel forces now control 90% of libya. they also say think ooer planning to move some of their power base today from the eastern city of benghazi to the capital tripoli. meantime, the last vestiges of moammar gadhafi's power base appear to be crumbling. after hours of fighting, rebels finally over ran his heavily fortified compound on tuesday, carting out weapons, knocking over statues and raising their flag. there's no sign of colonel gadhafi at the compound nor anywhere else. but libya reportedly heard from its embattled leader in an audio broadcast directed to his supporters. his exact whereabouts remain unknown. residents turned out on tuesday to celebrate the rebel takeover of the gadhafi compound. the gadhafi loyalists still control libya's rixist hotel. they're preventing people from leaving it, including our matthew chance. colonel gadhafi's radio speech is the second from about 12 hours. two arab tv networks aired his remarks. let's listen in to what has been said. >> translator: i call to all libyans, tribesman, youth, seniors, women and loyal fighters to clear the city of tripoli and eliminate the criminals, traitors and racked. we could demolish the city of tripoli and dell mole lish it. the rebels are hiding between the families and inside the civilian houses. it's your duty to enter these houses and take them out. >> now, when libyan rebels stormed moammar gadhafi's compound on tuesday, cnn's sara sidner and her team the were there to cover it. they followed the rebels right into the complex. within minutes there was more gunfire and they had to retreat. i spoke with sara. >> reporter: we had to complete the compound because we literally heard bullets flying past our heads. we looked behind us and saw tracer rounds coming from a fairly large weapon that were coming directly into the compound. so we got out of there as fast as we could. everyone was running. rebels themselves holding all that ammunition in their guns, their first reaction was to gun and then to turn around and start firing back. what we do understand at this point is that was not coming from within the compound. that was actually coming from a neighborhood to the east that was outside of the compound. so what the rebels are saying is it is gadhafi's forces and they are now attacking the compound which is something no one ever would have thought would happen. this is a compound that is really gadhafi's personal space. the rebels saying that they are so desperate now that they're willing to attack his own compound to try to root out the rebels who have taken it over. so obviously the gadhafi regime has fallen. the question is where is moammar gadhafi, where is his family? people still don't know the answer to that. certainly the rebels have had a major victory today, a historic moment in the capital tripoli. >> sara, what do the rebels plan on doing next? they do indeed have the compound. it is theirs now. gadhafi still nowhere to be found. what's the next step as you speak to them? >> reporter: that is the difficult part because i think right now what's happening is they're really trying to concentrate on any pockets of the city that are still problem attic, any pockets of the city where they still see the people who they consider enemies, that is, those fighting for gadhafi. we did see, also, to show you what the tension was like outside that compound, we did see them with a man who had his arms bound behind his back. they were walking him out of the compound and then there was some kind of argument and suddenly we saw one of the rebels pointing a gun, pointing a rifle at this man, and we were asking who he was, was he someone who was captured. eventually he talked his way out of it and they realized that he was an actual civilian who had gone into the compound because he wanted to see it. but there's definitely a sense that there are gadhafi loyals, those who have put on plainclothes, who are in neighborhoods and who are dangerous to the rebels. and so definitely the sense of security in the city is height ended, the rebels have put up more and more checkpoints. we do know they're celebrating in green square now. what we should mention is the celebrations that we heard the day that the rebels got into green square, we were down there with them, were slight compared to what's happening today because in the neighborhoods now people are feeling strong enough and confident enough that the gadhafi regime have fallen that they've come out in their neighborhoods and started to celebrate in a way we have not seen before. >> sara sidner reporting there. the situation in tripoli is becoming extremely dangerous for a certain group of journalists including our own matthew chance. about 35 of them are virtual hostages inside the hotel being held by gadhafi forces who say for the moment they can't leave. with no electricity and supplies running short, the journalists have been trying to negotiate their way out of the hotel. so far without success. cnn's matthew chance spoke with colleen mcedwards earlier today. >> reporter: we saw the guards, the gadhafi loyalists in the lobby of the hotel armed with assault rifles have largely disappeared from the lobby. so we're kind of alone in the hotel virtually. outside of the hotel, along its perimeter, we understand there are a number of gadhafi forces. not quite sure of the exact number. we're still not in a situation where we're able to leave the hotel. we have lek tris tri. the lights are on, electricity is on. so it's all right in that sense. we've braced ourselves given the other parts of tripoli, for some kind of confrontation here at the hotel. so far that hasn't happened. we're all hoping that this crisis -- and we've been here under these conditions for about five days now, unable to leave, sort of corralled on the floor of the hotel, about 35 journalists together, not knowing what's happening. we've been in that situation for about five days now. we're all kind of hoping this episode and this conflict with come to an end with a kind of fidsal and everyone will drift away, rather than a bang which is what we're all fearing. >> tell me, do you have any communication with those loyalist guards? what's that like? is there any interaction at all when you do see them? >> not much. in fact, we try to avoid them. in the past -- in the past few days we've had some hostile interaction with them. they largely blame -- in fairness, they say they're here for one reason, and that's to protect us. they won't let us leave the hotel. they have a generally pretty hostile attitude towards the international media. they blame the international media for whatever reason for what's happening in libya. i think there's a perception that the media took a side in this conflict and it was the side of the rebels. i personally don't think that's true. but we came here to report on the government side of this conflict. we obviously have teams on the other side as well. nevertheless, that's the perception here. yesterday i was just leaning over the balcony, an internal balcony looking over the atrium of the hotel and one of the gunman looked up and shouted up at me. i suppose you're happy now, you journalists, now that libyans are killing libyans. >> just listening there to matthew chance speaking with colleen mcedwards a little more than an hour ago. we go now go to matt on the line from the hotel. matt, has there been any changes in your circumstances in the last hour or two? >> reporter: no. it's still very quiet. we're still kind of upstairs in the hotel. the hotel still seems pretty abandoned of the gunman we heard earlier. the perimeter of the hotel still has gunmen armed people on the outside of it. we're still not able to go out. in fact, one television crew from london tried to go out and they were told to go back in sort of at gunpoint. it became quite hostile at one point. but it ended amicably. nevertheless, those are the kinds of restrictions we're under still. we still can't leave the hotel even though there is no government officials, no government in the lobby as such. but the outskirts of the hotel still being policed by the gadhafi loyalists. >> still being policed. is there any sort of exchange of fire around the hotel that you can hear? >> no, it's very quiet. you get the sense we're playing awaiting game to see what's going to happen next, to see whether the rebels are going to come in and take control of the hotel or whether there's going to be some kind of confrontation between the rebels and what's left of gadhafi security forces. for the moment, we're still pretty much in the dark. we still don't have much perspective of what's going on outside the walls of the hotel. we feel like in the last five days we've been essentially cut off from our immediate surroundings outside the hotel in tripoli, never mind the outside world. so we're kind of in the dark. >> and the people who are outside, the gadhafi loyalists, are they clearly soldiers? can you clearly see who they are and what sort of command structure is operating there? >> they're not uniformed soldiers. they're what are termed volunteers here. whether that means they're soldiers that have taken their uniforms out or not and are in civilian clothes. they're carrying sniper rifles, drag nof which are russian long-barreled guns if anybody knows about their guns. obviously they're in defensive positions around the hotel. i don't know what their point of view is going to be, what their response is going to be should they encounter any rebels. remember, the rebels are not far away from here, less than a kilometer away, less than a kilometer is the compound of colonel gadhafi which has been now overrun by the rebels. so we're in very close proximity to that rebel force. we seem to be kind of one of those few patches. if there are others, we don't know, but we're certainly in one patch which still remains for the moment in the control of what's left of gadhafi's forces. >> how would you describe the mood of you and your colleagues there, obviously resigned to what's going to happen. is there a spirit there sort of keeping everybody rallied, keeping spirits up? >> reporter: it's a very interesting experience. it's been like a roller coaster. at times we've been really depressed, really frightened thinking that we're not going to get out of it. other times we're thinking this is fine, going our way, it's going to be great. we're going to make a cup of tea and eat some biscuits. it's a very good sense of comradery, i would say, amongst the 35 journalists or so. there are a few other people here from different organizations as well. a good sense of comradery. we all have the sense we're in it together and coordinating our efforts between the various media companies and us inside the ground as well inside the hotel to make sure we don't go and do things individually. we're trying to focus all our energy and our efforts on either getting out of here or at least staying safe until this situation outside changes. >> hopefully this siege, for want of a better name, will come to an end soon. matthew chance from the rix is hotel in tripoli. five days now. matthew and 34 journalist colleagues guarded by pro gadhafi forces. we'll continue to cover the very tense events throughout the course of this very program as cnn continues with this coverage for the battle of the future of like yeah. also coming up, his name has been dragged through the mud for months. since rape allegations first surfaced against dominique strauss-kahn in may, he's lost his job and reputation. now the charges have been dropped. we have an exclusive interview with his lawyers just ahead. from tuesday. these are excited opposition fighters who have just gained access to colonel moammar gadhafi's private compound in tripoli. investors think the end of the conflict will will mean the return of oil to the markets. that has spent prices mostly lower. right now brent crude, which is particularly sensitive to what's happening in libya, down 62 cents a barrel trading at $108.86. there hasn't been any great surge down on the back of what looks to be an outcome in libya. the investors are still waiting to see what the end game will actually be before pushing that price down if indeed it comes down any time soon. >> experts saying it may take more than a year for the oil in libya to start flowing freely again. that hasn't led to any particular concrete movement in the oil price. let's have a look at how european stock markets are doing. they've been having a turbulent time over the last two weeks or so. trading has opened higher after gains in the united states. as you can see, this is what we're looking at at the moment. some of these markets pouring ahead, particularly the dax up 1.25%. inheineken posting a 14 cents loss for the first half of 2011 due to big gains in the previous half. shares are currently down to the tune of more than 12% in amsterdam. andrew. >> beer used to be considered recession-proof, didn't it? that's the end of the trading day, just about done here in asia. as you can see, quite markedly different story here in asia than there is in europe at the moment. a lot of that has got to do with the fact that the enthusiasm for u.s. federal reserve chief ben bernanke riding to the rescue of the u.s. economy with perhaps a qe-3 as it's being called, more moves to push money into the u.s. financial system. there seems to be less certain it's going to happen now. we've seen a bit of a selloff. put this numbers against one of the biggest rallies we've seen in months, yesterday, for the asian markets, profit taking going on there as well. nikkei down 1%, hang seng down by 2%, shanghai and australia had a downgrade of sovereign debt for japan by moody's. they're worried about the weak economic outlook and japan's ability to pay down its massive debt. also had some big profit numbers out. none bigger than bhp billiton, the world's biggest diversified mining house based in australia and listed in london as well. it posted an 86% rise in full-year net profits to more than $23 billion. prices for copper, iron ore, coal reaching all time highs on increasing demand from china. iron ore particularly and coal the big contributors for the bh p. profits. certainly a very strong result from the company that used to be known as the big australian. that stock price was up 1% last time i looked in london trade. >> certainly is. let's have a look at another story making headlines in the business world. the former head of the imf says he's thankful his nightmare is now over. dominique strauss-kahn emerge friday a new york courthouse a free man after a judge dismissed all sexual assault charges against him. prosecutors asked for the dismissal of the case because they doubted the credibility of his accuser, nafi diallo. piers morgan spoke to strauss-kahn's own lawyers. he played them a clip of diallo talking about what allegedly happened in that hotel room. >> i was like, i'm so sore tu sorry. he grab my breasts. he said, no, you don't have to be sorry. i said, no i don't want to lose my job. he pushed me into the bedroom and pulled the door. >> the obviously question is your client would have been watching that interview somewhere, possibly with his wife, pretty degrading testimony, a lot of which today lies in tatters. >> i said outside court today and i'll repeat it again that unless you, yourself, have been accused falsely of a serious crime that you did not commit, i think it's impossible to really understand the full measure of relief that dominic strauss-kahn and ann sinclair felt today. it's a horrific nightmare that now, thank god, has gone away. these two remarkable individuals have i think impressed all of us who worked on this case with great, the way they treated all of us with kindness and courtesy. there was never any acrimony any i witnessed between them or any of the people that worked on this case. i think there's an understanding he did not commit a crime, the objective was to resolve the criminal case and the relationship between them from what i've seen is an interesting relationship. they're both charming, interesting, brilliant, remarkable people who i've come to have a great deal of affection and respect for. is he embarrassed? yes. he was publicly humiliated. he's paid a heavy price already, but he is now out of the clutches of the criminal justice system, and ha is a relief that i think no one can fully appreciate unless they've actually been in the clutches of that system. >> i'd like to add that one of the things that persuaded the prosecutors to dismiss the case was the skill with which this alleged victim was able to describe acts of violence which had been perpetrated on her by others and turned out to be absolutely false. the fact that she gives an academy award winning performance. >> diallo stim has a civil lawsuit pending against strauss-kahn. her lawyers say medical evidence supports her claim and they also insist the prosecutors were influenced by strauss-kahn's power and prestige. turning to another story closely watched on the east coast of the u.s. it's bracing for hurricane irene. let's go to jen delgado at the cnn weather center. the first hurricane of the atlantic. how is it looking, jen? is it getting to a situation where it's going to start threatening the coast? >> right now it is a category two. it has strengthened over the last several hours. right now it's actually lashing parts of the bahamas, right now about 650 kilometers away from nassau. you can see rain still coming down. you can see turks and caicos. a lot of the rain still spreading into parts of the dominican republic as well as puerto rico. waiting for the national advisory to come in in about the next 30 minutes. the eyewall very apparent. i want to point out the winds right now 161 kilometers. as we go through the next several hours. we could see becoming a major hurricane. we notice the winds going up to 204 kilometers as we go several days out. as we head into thursday, it's going to be in the very northern part of the bahamas and continue to move parallel towards the east. eventually making landfall possibly near the outer banks into saturday. the caribbean is watching this as well as parts of the u.s. right now here is the area under the hurricane warning anywhere in red. certainly for the bahamas and turnlgs and caicos, weather conditions will continue to deteriorate through the night and into the morning. the problem is with this hurricane it's been producing heavy rainfall. the problem is for areas including the bahamas as well as turks and caicos islands, it's very flat. so we'll be dealing with the heavy rainfall. on top of that storm surge, roughly two to five meters. flooding is going to be a really big problem there. let me show you some of the history of irene as it moved through puerto rico. you can see the streets really flooded there. it really looks like a river, really something you don't want to see people driving through streets like that with flash flooding and roads washed away. look how close it is to many homes across parts of puerto rico. let's go to the dominican republic. purportedly one person died when their car was swept away. we'll talk about the potential for 15 to 30 centimeters of rainfall. andrew, nina, heavy rain, strong winds across the caribbean. back over to you two. >> thanks very much for jen delgado. as events in libya continue to bubble over, a tension is on the country's vast and valuable oil reserves. we'll tell you who is eyeing it next. from cnn london. i'm nina dos santos. i'm andrew stevens. welcome back to our continuing coverage of the advance in libya.