EU hails Gaddafi's death

The death of Libya's Moammar Gaddafi "marks the end of an era of despotism," European Union president Herman Van Rompuy said on Thursday, while EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Libyans "can now look to the future," The Vancouver Sun reports

The news that Gaddafi died in a raid in Sirte means an end also to the "repression from which the Libyan people have suffered for too long," Van Rompuy said in a joint statement with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

The pair said Libya's National Transitional Council must now "pursue a broad-based reconciliation process which reaches out to all Libyans and enables a democratic, peaceful and transparent transition in the country."

Previously the NTC officially confirmed that Muammar Gaddafi was dead.