Regular expression to search for Gadaffi
Easy... (Qadaffi|Khadafy|Qadafi|...)... it's self-documented, maintainable, and assuming your regexp engine actually compiles regular expressions (rather than interpreting them), it will compile to the same DFA that a more obfuscated solution would.
Writing compact regular expressions is like using short variable names to speed up a program. It only helps if your compiler is brain-dead.
\b[KGQ]h?add?h?af?fi\b
Arabic transcription is (Wiki says) "Qaḏḏāfī", so maybe adding a Q. And one H ("Gadhafi", as the article (see below) mentions).
Btw, why is there a $ at the end of the regex?
Btw, nice article on the topic:
Gaddafi, Kadafi, or Qaddafi? Why is the Libyan leader’s name spelled so many different ways?.
EDIT
To match all the names in the article you've mentioned later, this should match them all. Let's just hope it won't match a lot of other stuff :D
\b(Kh?|Gh?|Qu?)[aeu](d['dt]?|t|zz|dhd)h?aff?[iy]\b