Gadaffi’s son sparks economic war

The youngest son of Colonel Muammar Gadaffi has been jailed for two days in Switzerland, sparking a diplomatic crisis between Switzerland and Libya. Libya has vowed to retaliate with "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" after 30-year-old Hannibal Gadaffi was arrested and jailed on July 15 after staff in a luxury Geneva hotel where he was staying with his pregnant wife alerted police to violent rows in his suite. The Swiss newspaper Tribune de Genève reported that the couple had beaten two of their domestic servants with a belt and a hanger.

Tripoli has responded to what it calls the "fabricated" and "illegitimate" charges against one of Gadaffi's seven sons by announcing a halt to fuel supplies to Switzerland, as well as threatening to withdraw about £3 billion in funds held in Swiss banks, and barring the country's ships from Libyan ports.