Evening Edition

UN Security Council envoys began tough negotiations on how to sanction the Libyan leader for a deadly crackdown that Tripoli’s mission to the United Nations said had killed thousands of protesters.

Kadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam called late Saturday on the UN to send a “fact-finding” mission to Libya before taking any sanctions decision.

British military planes evacuated more than 150 people from camps in the Libyan desert in one rescue mission, while a British warship and a Chinese-chartered ferry docked in the Mediterranean island of Malta loaded with 2,500 evacuees.

“It was very scary, the scariest experience of my life,” George Camilleri, a Maltese national who fled violence in the now rebel-held eastern Libyan port of Benghazi, told AFP as he stepped off the ferry back onto his homeland.

Western powers have proposed an arms embargo, travel ban and assets freeze on Kadhafi, his family and top ministers and military officials. But their move to refer the Libya crackdown to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a possible crimes against humanity investigation held up a vote.

Diplomats said China, Russia, South Africa, India, Brazil and Portugal have raised various concerns about ICC involvement.

In a brief but chilling address in Tripoli’s Green Square, Kadhafi told hundreds of cheering supporters to prepare themselves for a fight to defend the city.

Libya’s envoy to the United Nations, Mohammed Shalgham, a childhood friend of Kadhafi, became the latest official to abandon him, with a diplomat saying he had joined his deputy Ibrahim Dabbashi in defecting.

Ambassadors held formal negotiations on a sanctions resolution one day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned them that a delay in taking “concrete action” would cost lives in the fractured North African nation.

Libya’s UN ambassador also made an impassioned plea for the council to take action against the “atrocities” committed by his childhood friend Kadhafi.

Obama wielded presidential power in an executive order Friday to seize the assets of Kadhafi and named family members in the United States and globally within the auspices of US financial institutions, saying the “human dignity” of Libyans “cannot be denied.”

Washington also shuttered its Tripoli embassy, warned its spies were seeking evidence of “atrocities” in Libya and said that Kadhafi had lost the confidence of his people, in an apparent broad hint that Washington wanted him gone.

The escalating revolt against Kadhafi, which one of his diplomats to the United Nations said killed thousands, has emboldened tens of thousands of protesters across the Arab world to step up demands for historic reforms.

After protests in Tunisia and Egypt forced out longtime leaders Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, Libya’s Kadhafi and Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh are facing the most serious threats to their decades’ grip on power.

The news came as an official denied reports that police killed four people on Friday in an assault on an anti-government protest in Aden, blaming a southern secessionist group for the attack.

Powerful tribal leaders, including those of the Hashid and Baqil, pledged to join protests against Saleh at a gathering north of the capital, a tribal source told AFP.

NASA’s oldest and most heavily traveled shuttle linked up with the ISS at 2:14 pm (1914 GMT) as the space outpost was 220 miles (350 kilometers) over western Australia, mission control in Houston said.

Discovery arrived in spectacular fashion, with Commander Steve Lindsey executing a “rendezvous pitch maneuver,” a one-degree-per-second rotational backflip, before docking.

The Defense Department declared Thursday Boeing the “clear winner” of a $30-plus billion contract to supply up to 179 refueling tankers to the Air Force.

It is undoubtedly a major prize for the firm, but industry analysts highlighted the challenges that come with submitting what the Chicago-based firm itself called an “aggressive” bid.

A second-half try from fullback Ben Foden proved decisive in a bruising encounter between the tournament’s only unbeaten rivals, with Toby Flood and Jonny Wilkinson adding the rest of England’s points from the boot.

Wilkinson’s second-half penalty saw him surpass New Zealand’s Dan Carter as international rugby’s record pointscorer with 1,190 points.

Stars including Jennifer Aniston, Ashton Kutcher, Robert Pattinson, Miley Cyrus and Barbra Streisand are on the shortlist for the Razzies, billed as “saluting the worst that Hollywood has to offer each year.”

While not detracting from the Academy Awards — the climax of Hollywood’s annual awards season on Sunday night — the Razzies provide a fun if sometimes painful sideshow on the eve of the main event.

Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s party, which has ruled Ireland for most of the past 80 years, slumped to its worst ever general election result with just 15.1 percent of the vote, the poll for state broadcaster RTE said.

As widely expected, Friday’s election saw his government become the first to fall as a result of the debt crisis in the 17-country eurozone.

Security forces had abandoned the working-class Tajoura district after five days of anti-government demonstrations, residents told foreign correspondents who visited the area.

The residents, unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals, said troops fired on demonstrators who tried to march from Tajoura to central Green Square overnight, killing at least five people. The number could not be independently confirmed.

In response to Gaddafi’s bloody crackdown on an uprising against his 41-year rule, President Barack Obama signed an executive order freezing the assets of Gaddafi, his family and top officials, as well as the Libyan government, the country’s central bank and sovereign wealth funds.

“These sanctions therefore target the Gaddafi government, while protecting the assets that belong to the people of Libya,” Obama said in a statement.

Analysts monitoring Libya’s crisis say the most likely outcome is that rebels eventually take the capital and either kill or capture him and a hardcore group of loyalists.

Many who know Gaddafi say he will fight to the finish, even though his 41-year-old rule looks increasingly uncertain after the loss of several cities and defections by soldiers, local and national officials and diplomats.

Speaking in English to foreign journalists flown to Tripoli under official escort, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said rebels who surrendered would not be harmed and that Libya needed reforms.

His account of the state of the country, however, seemed at odds with the control exercised for the past few days in much of the east by groups intent on ending Gaddafi’s 41-year rule and with reports from residents in and around the capital itself.

“It is time for the Security Council to consider concrete action,” Ban told the 15-nation council, which gathered to receive a draft sanctions resolution against Libyan leaders. “The hours and the days ahead will be decisive for Libyans.”

Diplomats said a sanctions vote could come on Saturday.

The proposed amendments outlined on Saturday by a judicial committee appointed by Egypt’s ruling military council will be put to a referendum ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections that will hand power back to a civilian government.

Mubarak was serving in his fifth, six-year term when he was toppled on February 11, forced from office by a mass uprising driven in large part by demands for reform to put an end to the one-man rule that has defined Egyptian government for decades.

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa reshuffled the cabinet but this appeared unlikely to pacify protesters inspired by popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere.

“We want a real constitution,” Hassan Mushaimaa told reporters at the airport on his return. “They’ve promised us (one) before and then did whatever they wanted to.”

Waving hundreds of American flags and singing the national anthem, the demonstrators were peaceful and the swelling crowds upbeat despite a setback earlier in the week when the state Assembly approved the measure over Democratic objections.

What began two weeks ago as a Republican measure in one small U.S. state has turned into what could be the biggest challenge to union power since then President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers nearly 30 years ago.

Fianna Fail, whose leaders negotiated independence from Britain and peace in Northern Ireland during eight decades as Ireland’s largest party, looked set to come in a humiliating third with less than two dozen seats in the 166-seat parliament.

The shift could usher in a new era in Irish politics, opening the way for younger leaders focused more on competing views of the modern state than the bitter legacy of Ireland’s 1922-3 civil war.

“Next week, Congress will focus on a short-term budget. For the sake of our people and our economy, we cannot allow gridlock to prevail,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.

Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday detailed some $4 billion in spending cuts for a two-week stopgap spending bill, which the leader of the Democratic-controlled Senate indicated could be acceptable.

Residents of its eastern Tajoura district spread concrete blocks, large rocks and even chopped-down palm trees as makeshift barricades to prevent the SUVs filled with young men wielding automatic weapons from entering their neighborhood – a hotspot of previous protests.

With tensions running high in Tripoli, scores of people in the neighborhood turned out at a funeral for a 44-year-old man killed in clashes with pro-regime forces. Anwar Algadi was killed Friday, with the cause of death listed as “a live bullet to the head,” according to his brother, Mohammed.

The most activity on the site Saturday appeared to be a squad of boys from the nearby town finishing the job of tearing apart the local headquarters of Moammar Gadhafi’s Revolutionary Committee.

The seaside Brega complex, some 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, collects crude oil and gas from Libya’s fields in the southeast and prepares it for export. It also produces some petrochemicals and refined products for local consumption.

The C-130 Hercules planes, carrying Britons and other nationals, safely landed in Malta after picking up the civilians south of the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi, Defense Secretary Liam Fox said.

The rescue mission was bold because few planes have been able to fly through Libyan air space. It was not immediately clear if it was a British special forces mission, but the government has not ruled out using the SAS to evacuate Libyan oil fields and rescue trapped Britons.

There was broad consensus among the council’s 15 members on some sanctions, including an arms embargo as well as a travel ban and asset freeze directed at Gadhafi, his family and other key regime members, said diplomats who spoke on background because the session was closed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging council members to take immediate action to protect civilians in Libya where some estimates indicate more than 1,000 people have been killed in less than two weeks. Many people in Tripoli and other areas where Gadhafi remains in control cannot leave their homes for fear of being shot.

The African fighters that Gadhafi is allegedly using against protesters come from several nations, representing a map of the Libyan leader’s often contentious history with his neighbors.

Many young citizens of Mali and Niger who flocked to Libya in the 1970s and 1980s were ethnic Tuaregs and were recruited into an “Islamic Legion” modeled on the French Foreign Legion.

The measures announced Friday ended days of cautious U.S. condemnation of Gadhafi that had been driven by concerns for the safety of U.S. citizens in Libya. They struck directly at his family, which is believed to have amassed great wealth over his four decades in power.

President Barack Obama accused the Gadhafi regime of violating “human rights, brutalization of its people and outrageous threats.” In a statement issued by the White House, the president said “Gadhafi, his government and close associates have taken extreme measures against the people of Libya, including by using weapons of war, mercenaries and wanton violence against unarmed civilians.”

The changes are among 10 proposed constitutional amendments that are to be put to a popular referendum later this year. The proposals appeared to address many of the demands of the reform movement that help lead the 18-day popular uprising that forced Mubarak to step down on Feb. 11.

But some Egyptians worry that the proposed changes don’t go far enough to ensure a transition to democratic rule, and could allow the entrenched old guard to maintain its grip on power.

Gov. Scott Walker insists the state is broke and must make drastic spending cuts. Unions believe Republican leaders are trying to wipe them out. Two weeks into the debate, The Associated Press assessed the claims in an effort to shed light on what’s at stake.

Walker says his plan is needed to ease a deficit that is projected to hit $137 million by July and $3.6 billion by mid-2013.

“I came back on Tuesday night and there was absolutely no organization,” Rowan said. “People needed people to go up upstairs and testify all night to keep the building open … people were going around just waking people up … it was chaotic.”

The University of Wisconsin senior made a spur-of-the-moment decision to coordinate protest efforts, making signs with media talking points and starting a Twitter feed detailing legislative meeting times, union rally locations and details on day-to-day life in the Capitol.

The proposal took a concrete step forward Friday when Republicans in the state Assembly abruptly approved the bill and sent it to the Senate after three straight days of debate and amid confusion among Democrats. But with all 14 Democratic state senators still out of state, another stalemate awaits the measure that Walker insists will help solve budget deficits and avoid mass layoffs.

The legislative gridlock prompted the Wisconsin Association of Schools Boards to warn districts that they have until Monday to warn teachers of possible nonrenewal of contracts. That’s because if Walker’s bill becomes law, it would void current teacher collective bargaining agreements that lay out protocol and deadlines for conducting layoffs.

Their message to Washington: prevent a government shutdown, abstain from spending cuts that dramatically will affect states and end even preliminary discussions about allowing states to declare bankruptcy.

“Anything that Congress does that will undermine our recovery is quite troublesome to us,” said Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, head of the National Governors Association, as she opened the bipartisan group’s winter meeting. “We’re asking for cooperation.”

So, Academy Awards, what are you going to do for us in the three-hour-and-then-some ABC broadcast starting at 8 p.m. EST Sunday?

Nobody’s complaining about seeing the likes of nominees Natalie Portman, Amy Adams or Colin Firth in their designer duds and with a potential winner’s aura (and, in Portman’s case, the unbeatable glow of pregnancy).

Discovery should have come and gone last November, but was grounded by fuel tank cracks. It blasted off Thursday with just two seconds to spare after being held up by a balky ground computer.

“Yeah, I don’t know, we kind of waited until like the last two seconds,” said shuttle commander Steven Lindsey.

Fine Gael polled 36.1 percent support with the first round of counting completed in all 43 constituencies, a figure that would put it in power but without a majority of seats in the Dail, the lower house of parliament. Party leader Enda Kenny, destined to become prime minister, pledged to move quickly to form a government.

Labour, Fine Gael’s possible coalition partner, was running second at 19 percent while Fianna Fail polled a historic low of 17 percent. The actual vote share matched the figure in an exit poll released an hour before the count started.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty aimed to impress more than 2,000 members of the Tea Party Patriots with a full-throated call to “take back our country.” Texas Rep. Ron Paul, already embraced by tea party members, also spoke. The segment of engaged voters could prove vital to Republican White House hopefuls, but it’s an audience that is skeptical of the politicians courting their backing.

“They’re good speakers. They know what to say to inspire an audience. But I’m looking for substance I haven’t found yet,” said retiree Kaye Woodward of Livingston, Texas, who has been a mainstay at tea party events from Washington to the Alamo. “I haven’t been gung-ho for a candidate for quite some time. I’m looking for a truth teller and I’m not sure I’ve found one yet.”

The attack north of Baghdad casts doubt on the Iraqi government’s ability to protect its vital infrastructure and could shake already nervous international investors. If not fixed swiftly, the shutdown will likely further fuel anger over a lack of public services that led to violent nationwide protests last week.

“It probably couldn’t have come at a worse time for (Prime Minister) al-Maliki and his government,” said Raad Al-Kadiri, an energy analyst with the Washington-based PXE Energy.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, league spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed Saturday that Goodell and Jeff Pash met Friday with the owner’s labor committee at the Colts’ team complex. Colts owner Jim Irsay, Aiello said, did not participate because he was out of town.

“There was a meeting yesterday at the Colts’ offices of the ownership’s labor committee for another update from the negotiating team,” Aiello wrote.

He found a job that he says “fills the bill – no question about it.”

Commissioner Bud Selig has hired Torre as MLB’s executive vice president for baseball operations. Selig made the long-anticipated announcement on Saturday before the dedication of the new spring facility for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

The unanimous ruling Thursday by the three-judge panel of the Mount Vernon-based 5th District Appellate Court cleared the way for the plaintiffs to argue that a favorable 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case may be applied to reinstate the questioned Madison County one involving Philip Morris’ marketing of “light” cigarettes.

In 2003, now-retired Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron found that Philip Morris misled customers about “light” and “low tar” cigarettes and broke state law by marketing them as safer, ending a trial that both sides at the time said was the nation’s first over a lawsuit accusing a tobacco company of consumer fraud.