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Friday, February 25, 2011 – Daily News – 7A WORLD BRIEFING Gadhafi’s forces strike back at Libya uprising BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Foreign merce- naries and Libyan militia- men loyal to Moammar Gadhafi tried to roll back the uprising against his rule that has advanced closer to his stronghold in Tripoli, attacking two nearby cities in battles that killed at least 17 peo- ple. But rebels made new gains, seizing a military air base, as Gadhafi blamed Osama bin Laden for the upheaval. The worse bloodshed was in Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of the capital Tripoli. An army unit loyal to Gadhafi opened fire with automat- ic weapons on a mosque where residents — some armed with hunting rifles for protection — have been holding a sit-in to support protesters in the capital, a witness said. The troops blasted the mosque’s minaret with an anti-aircraft gun. A doctor at a field clinic set up at the mosque said he saw the bodies of 10 dead, shot in the head and chest, as well as around 150 wounded. A Libyan news website, Qureyna, put the death toll at 23 and said many of the wounded could not reach hospitals because of shooting by ‘‘security forces and mer- cenaries.’’ A day earlier, an envoy from Gadhafi had come to the city from Tripoli and warned the protesters: ‘‘Either leave or you will see a massacre,’’ the wit- ness said. On Tuesday night, Gadhafi himself called on his supporters to hunt down opponents in their homes. Zawiya, a key city close to an oil port and refineries, is the nearest population center to Tripoli to fall into the hands of the anti-Gadhafi rebellion that began Feb. 15. Hundreds have died in the unrest. Final voyage: Space shuttle Discovery CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Discovery, the world’s most traveled spaceship, thundered into orbit for the final time Thursday, heading toward the International Space Station on a journey that marks the beginning of the end of the shuttle era. The six astronauts on board, all experienced space fliers, were thrilled to be on their way after a delay of nearly four months for fuel tank repairs. But it puts Dis- K W I K K U T S Family Hair Salon Not good with other offers 1064 South Main St., Red Bluff • 529-3540 $200 $52.00 REGULAR HAIRCUT off with coupon Reg. $13.95 Expires 2/28/11 in Discount Coupons were published last week in the D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY … And that does not Count all the ads offering percentage discounts, two-for-ones and Free-with-Purchase offers! Don’t miss a Day of it! Subscribe Today 527-2151 It pays for itself. Tehama County Businesses! Online Ballots Only at www.redbluffdailynews.com Five Lucky Voters will be selected at random from all eligible ballots on March 1. Each will receive a $100 Shopping Spree at the Tehama County business of their choice! Vote for your favorite covery on the cusp of retirement when it returns in 11 days and eventually heads to a museum. Discovery is the oldest of NASA’s three surviv- ing space shuttles and the first to be decommis- sioned this year. Two mis- sions remain, first by Atlantis and then Endeav- our, to end the 30-year program. Launch director Mike Leinbach anticipated it would be ‘‘tough’’ to see Discovery take off for the 39th and final time, and even harder when it returns March 7. ‘‘It’s a very, very per- sonal thing that we love to do,’’ Leinbach explained. ‘‘It’s a lot more than just our livelihood. It gets in our soul.’’ Air Force awards $35 billion tanker contract to the Boeing WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force has awarded a $35 billion contract to build the next generation of air refueling tankers to Boeing Co. The announcement was made at the Pentagon late Thursday afternoon after the financial markets closed. It was certain to be welcome news in Washington state and Kansas, where much of the work on the tanker will be done. The decision was a blow to the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., which also had bid for the contract. It was a major disappointment for Alabama, which had been counting on the work at a long-shuttered military base in Mobile. The Air Force has tried for nearly a decade to replace its aging fleet of Eisenhower-era tankers, the equivalent of a flying gas station. Troopers dispatched to homes of some Wis. Democrats MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin state troopers were dispatched Thursday to the doorsteps of some of the AWOL Democratic senators in hopes of finding at least one who would come back to allow a vote on a measure to curb the power of public-employee unions. The stepped-up tactic ordered by the Republican head of the Senate came 4 DAYS LEFT TO VOTE! amid reports that at least a few of the missing senators were returning home at night before rejoining their colleagues in Illinois. Meanwhile, the state Assembly appeared close to voting on the union- rights bill after more than two straight days of filibus- tering. Democrats agreed before dawn Thursday to limit the remaining number of amendments they offer and the time they devote to each one. That could bring a vote later in the day on the measure Gov. Scott Walker insists is necessary to ease the state’s budget woes and avoid mass layoffs. ‘‘We will strongly make our points, but understand you are limiting the voice of the public as you do this,’’ said Democratic state Rep. Mark Pocan of Madi- son. ‘‘You can’t dictate democracy. You are limit- ing the people’s voice with this agreement this morn- ing.’’ Libya’s second city learns to govern itself BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libyans in the east- ern half of the country find themselves in an unimagin- able situation: Freed from Moammar Gadhafi’s rule for the first time in more than four decades. Now citizens are figur- ing out how to run their own affairs and build up their military, as Gadhafi remains very much in power on the other side of the country. It began as a series of small protests over the imprisonment of a human rights lawyer and then, in a week of increasingly bloody battles, the residents of Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi, found them- selves, improbably, in charge. Just days after the last government forces fled, the city appears orderly, with cars stopping at traffic lights, stores open and a new local government emerging where once all forms of social organizing were ruthlessly suppressed. ‘‘We were not planning to make a revolt, it hap- pened all of a sudden,’’ said Fathi Turbel, the 39-year- old lawyer whose imprison- ment sparked the protests. ‘‘People can’t imagine how it all could have happened so quickly.’’ Saudi man living in Texas charged with plotting attack LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — A college student from Saudi Arabia who studied chemical engineering in Texas bought explosive chemicals online as part of a plan to hide bomb materials inside dolls and baby car- riages to blow up dams, nuclear plants or the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush, the Justice Department said Thursday. ‘‘After mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to tar- get the infidel Americans, it is time for jihad,’’ or holy war, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari wrote in his pri- vate journal, according to court documents. The 20-year-old Aldawsari wrote that he was planning an attack in the United States for years, even before coming to the U.S. on a scholarship. He said he was influenced by Osama bin Laden’s speech- es and that he bemoaned the plight of Muslims. One of the chemical companies, Carolina Bio- logical Supply of Burling- ton, N.C., reported $435 in suspicious order by Aldawsari to the FBI on Feb. 1. Separately, Con-way Freight, the shipping com- pany, notified Lubbock police and the FBI the same day with similar suspicions because it appeared the order wasn’t intended for commercial use. Within weeks, federal agents had traced his other online pur- chases, discovered extrem- ist posts he made on the Internet and secretly searched his off-campus apartment, computer and e- mail accounts and read his diary, according to court records. GM notches 1st profit since 2004 DETROIT (AP) — In a remarkable financial U- turn, once-bankrupt Gen- eral Motors recorded its first profitable year since 2004 and is tantalizingly close to reclaiming its title as the world’s No. 1 automaker. The company faces a bumpy road ahead: Gas prices are rising, GM has only a few new models, and its European opera- tions are still losing money. Still, the automaker’s $4.7 billion profit for 2010 was impressive, especially considering where it has been. The company lost more than $80 billion in the five years before its bankrupt- cy and needed a govern- ment bailout to survive. It emerged in the summer of 2009 cleansed of huge debt and costly labor con- tracts, returned to the stock market in Novem- ber, and managed to make money even with auto sales near historic lows.