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6B – Daily News – Monday, February 21, 2011 WORLD BRIEFING Libya launches harshest crackdown CAIRO (AP) — Security forces loyal to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi unleashed heavy gunfire Sunday on thousands marching in a rebellious eastern city, cutting down mourners trying to bury victims in a bloody cycle of violence that has killed more than 200 people in the fiercest crackdown on the uprisings in the Arab world. Protests were even reported to have spread to downtown Tripoli and a coastal city only about 45 miles (about 70 kilometers) to the west of the capital. In Benghazi, site of the funeral clashes, pro-Gadhafi forces were chased from a presidential compound by other troops sympathetic to the anti-government demonstrators, a witness said. Western countries expressed concern at the rising violence against demonstra- tors in oil-rich Libya, which is sand- wiched between friendly neighbors Egypt and Tunisia — where long-serv- ing leaders were successfully toppled in recent weeks. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he told Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, that the country must embark on "dialogue and implement reforms," the Foreign Office said. In the first-known defection from Gadhafi's regime, Libya's representative to the Arab League said he resigned his post to protest his government's decision to fire on defiant demonstrators in the second-largest city of Benghazi. Also, a major tribe in Libya was reported to have turned against Gadhafi. "We are not afraid. We won't turn back," said a teacher who identified her- self only as Omneya. She said she was marching at the end of the funeral pro- cession on a highway beside the Mediterranean and heard gunfire from two kilometers (just over a mile) away. "If we don't continue, this vile man would crush us with his tanks and bull- dozers. If we don't, we won't ever be free." Wisconsin Senate leader says chamber APRIL 15, 16, 17, 2011 visit us at: www.redbluffroundup.com also on facebook (530) 527-1000 • 1-800-545-3500 will take floor action MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans on Sunday upped the pressure on Democrats who fled to Illinois to return home and vote on an anti-union bill, with the governor calling them obstructionists and a GOP lawmaker threatening to con- vene without them. Gov. Scott Walker said the 14 minority Democrats who left Madison on Thursday were failing to do their jobs by "hiding out" in another state. And Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said his chamber would meet Tuesday to act on non-spend- ing bills and confirm some of the gover- nor's appointees even if the Democrats don't show up — a scenario that should outrage their constituents. Senate Democrats acknowledged that the 19 Republicans could pass any item that doesn't spend state money in their absence. The budget-repair bill they have been blocking requires a quorum of 20 sen- ators to pass, while other measures require only a simple majority of the chamber's 33 members. Nonetheless, Democrats said they were standing firm in their opposition to the bud- get-repair bill, which would take away the right of most public employees to collec- tively bargain for their benefits and work- ing conditions. Hundreds of protesters filled the Capitol for a sixth straight day, noisily calling on Walker to drop the plan they consider an assault on workers' rights. If spending impasse leads to shutdown, who would get blame WASHINGTON (AP) — Few memo- ries haunt Republicans more deeply than the 1995-96 partial shutdown of the federal government, which helped President Bill Clinton reverse his falling fortunes and recast House Republicans as stubborn parti- sans, not savvy insurgents. Now, as Congress careens toward a bud- Alan Wylie Inspector RODEO AMERICA’S 1ST ORIGINAL EXTREME SPORT! 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Afghan officials, NATO investigate 64 civilians killed KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Tribal elders in a remote part of northeastern Afghanistan claimed Sunday that NATO forces killed 64 civilians in air and ground strikes over the past four days. The interna- tional coalition denied the claim, saying video showed troops targeting and killing dozens of insurgents. Coalition and Afghan officials plan to go to the Ghazi Abad district of Kunbar province, a hotbed of the insurgency, on Monday to investigate. Civilian casualties have been a constant source of friction between coalition troops and Afghan Presi- dent Hamid Karzai. Tribal elders told the provincial governor that air strikes hit a village in the area and that "women and children had been killed inside their houses," said Nawrdin Safi, a member of the Kunar provincial council. Kunar province police chief Gen. Khalilullah Ziayi said local residents claimed 15 men, 20 women and 29 children or young adults were killed during opera- tions in the area, about 190 kilometers (117 miles) east of Kabul. NATO said video of the operations show troops targeting and killing between 35 and 40 armed insurgents along steep, rugged cliffs. Warship shadowing hijacked yacht MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A warship is shadowing a yacht with four Americans on board that was hijacked by Somali pirates, a pirate said Sunday, as the vessel was reported to be moving closer to the Somali coast. The yacht Quest was hijacked on Fri- day off the coast of Oman, but is now in the waters between Yemen and northern Somalia, two pirates and a Somali gov- ernment official told The Associated Press. BOOK BARN Used Books Tues-Fri 10-5 Sat 10-2 Serving Tehama County since 1994 619 Oak St., Red Bluff (530) 528-2665 EXPERTISE IS STANDING BY. 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