Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/25655
8B – Daily News – Wednesday, February 23, 2011 WORLD BRIEFING Gadhafi vows to fight to his ’last drop of blood’ CAIRO (AP) — A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed to fight to his ‘‘last drop of blood’’ and roared at supporters to strike back against Libyan protesters to defend his embattled regime Tues- day, signaling an escalation of the a crackdown that has thrown the capital into scenes of mayhem, wild shooting and bodies in the streets. The speech by the Libyan leader — who shouted and pound- ed his fists on the podium — was an all-out call for his backers to impose control over the capital and take back other cities. After a week of upheaval, protesters backed by defecting army units have claimed control over almost the entire eastern half of Libya’s 1,000-mile Mediterranean coast, including several oil-producing areas. ‘‘You men and women who love Gadhafi ... get out of your homes and fill the streets,’’ he said. ‘‘Leave your homes and attack them in their lairs.’’ Celebratory gunfire by Gadhafi supporters rang out in the capital of Tripoli after the leader’s speech, while in protester-held Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, people threw shoes in contempt at a screen showing his address. State TV showed a crowd of Gadhafi supporters in Tripoli’s Green Square, raising his portrait and waving flags as they swayed to music after the address. 4 American hostages killed by pirates off Somali coast NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A pirate fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. Navy destroyer shadowing a hijacked yacht with week’s sentencing of a pirate to 33 years in prison for the 2009 attack on the U.S. cargo vessel the Maer- sk Alabama. ‘‘From now on, anyone who tries to rescue the hostages in our hands will only collect dead bod- ies,’’ he said. ‘‘It will never ever happen that hostages are rescued and we are hauled to prison.’’ Wis. lawmakers take up bill to undercut unions MADISON, Wis. (AP) — With their Senate colleagues still in hiding, Democrats in the Wis- consin Assembly began intro- ducing a barrage of 100 amend- ments Tuesday to try to stymie the Republican governor’s plan to strip unionized public employ- ees of most of their bargaining rights. Both houses of the GOP-con- trolled Legislature convened shortly before noon amid noisy protests outside the state Capitol that began more than a week ago in an epic showdown that is being watched nervously by organized labor across the coun- try. four Americans aboard Tuesday. Then gunfire erupted, the military said. U.S. special forces rushed to the yacht only to find the four Americans fatally wounded. The experienced yacht enthusi- asts from California and Washing- ton are the first Americans killed by Somali pirates since the start of attacks off East Africa several years ago. One of the American couples on board had been sailing around the world since 2004 handing out Bibles. Their deaths appeared to underscore an increasingly brutal and aggressive shift by pirates in their treatment of hostages. Killing hostages ‘‘has now become part of our rules,’’ said a pirate who identified himself as Muse Abdi and referred to last COMFORT SERVICE INC. 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The layoffs couldn’t take effect immediately — existing union contracts could forestall them for weeks or months — and Walker wouldn’t say which jobs he would go after first. ‘‘Hopefully we don’t get to that point,’’ the governor said in a statement. Chicago votes for 1st new mayor in two decades CHICAGO (AP) — As Chica- go voters went to the polls Tues- day to pick a new mayor, the biggest question was whether for- mer White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had the support to win outright or whether one of his rivals would get enough votes to force a two-way runoff in April. The answer could hinge on voter turnout — with low to mod- erate traffic at the polls likely favoring Emanuel, according to some political analysts. Emanuel has had big leads in voter surveys and fundraising throughout his candidacy, and was endorsed by both of the city’s largest daily newspapers. Lower turnout would make it easier for highly organized cam- paigns, like Emanuel’s, to get their supporters to the polls, while high turnout would make that job more difficult, said political consultant Don Rose and University of Illi- nois at Chicago professor Dick Simpson. High turnout would make the outcome less certain. Many precincts reported very light voter turnout, although the Chicago Board of Election Com- missioners wouldn’t comment on turnout. But conventional wisdom might not hold true in this elec- tion, which turned into a free-for- all after Mayor Richard M. Daley said he would retire after 22 years in office. New Zealand earthquake death toll rises CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Some screamed from inside collapsed buildings. One woman used her mobile phone to call her children to say goodbye. Others tapped on the rubble to communicate with those on the outside. Search teams using their bare hands, dogs, heavy cranes and earth movers worked frantically on Wednesday in one of New Zealand’s largest cities to find sur- vivors of a powerful earthquake as officials raised the death toll to at least 75. Rescuers pulled nearly three dozen survivors from amid the crumbled concrete, twisted metal and huge mounds of brick across Christchurch. Officials feared that the death toll could rise further, ranking the 6.3-magnitude earthquake among the island nation’s worst in 80 years. They say at least 100 more people are missing. ‘‘There are bodies littering the streets, they are trapped in cars, crushed under rubble and where they are clearly deceased our focus ... has turned to the living,’’ police Superintendent Russell Gibson said. Israel: Iranian naval essels are provocation JERUSALEM (AP) — Two Iranian warships sailed from the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean on Tuesday, the first such trip in at least three decades, eliciting Israeli charges that Tehran is seeking to dominate the Middle East. The vessels headed toward Syria, but were expected to remain in international waters as they passed the Israeli coast. The voyage took the frigate Alvand and the supply Kharq close to NATO’s southern flank and could further desta- bilize the Middle East, a region already reeling from an unprecedented wave of anti- government rebellions. In Tehran, the deputy com- mander of the Iranian navy said that Iran has ‘‘suprised the Zionist regime’’ with the jour- ney to the Mediterranean.