Evening Edition

A doctor at one of the hospitals in rebel-held territory, where casualties were being treated from the fierce clashes round the refinery town of Raslanuf, said there were “many dead and wounded” by rocket fire from loyalist defenders.

In restive Yemen troops also killed four protesters and wounded seven in the north of the country as nationwide protests raged against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez joined the diplomatic offensive, proposing an international mediation mission to pull the North African country back from the brink, a move rejected late Thursday by the rebels as “too late”.

It was the offensive on the ground that focused minds on the 17th day of the uprising against Kadhafi’s 41-year rule as his air force bombed rebel positions in the oil town of Brega.

Elsewhere the UN refugee agency voiced concern for those fleeing the violence and international measures against Kadhafi bore fruit with the seizure by Britain of a ship carrying a large quantity of Libyan currency.

Some 100 anti-Kadhafi demonstrators clashed with police in the Tajoura neighbourhood in eastern Tripoli after Friday prayers, a witness said, while another said opponents and supporters of the regime traded blows near the capital’s Green Square.

US President Barack Obama said all options were on the table for driving Kadhafi out of power as the strongman’s son said air strikes on rebel-held positions were scare tactics rather than to inflict serious damage.

Despite grave reservations expressed by the US military command, Obama said a no-fly zone was among the “full range” of options as he demanded that Kadhafi “step down from power and leave.”

The demonstrations come after nationwide protests in more than a dozen cities a week ago, which spurred Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to give his cabinet 100 days to shape up or face the sack.

Several hundred protesters had gathered in central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square by 10:00 am (0700 GMT), with more on the way, chanting, “Liar, Liar, Nuri al-Maliki” and “Oil for the people, not for the thieves.”

“I am here because I draw my legitimacy from you … I will exert all my effort to respond to your demands,” Sharaf told flag-waving supporters in the square, the centre of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last month.

The premier was named by the country’s new military rulers on Thursday to replace Ahmed Shafiq, who was opposed by protesters because he had been appointed by Mubarak in the dying days of his regime.

The shooting, which came a day after the opposition and clerics offered embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh a smooth exit from power, took place in Amran province, about 170 kilometres (105 miles) from Sanaa.

A Yemeni security official could only confirm there was a gunfight in which four soldiers and three “armed men” were wounded.

Police and paramilitary forces prevented vehicles from approaching the Fatima Church ahead of the ceremony for the minority affairs minister, a Roman Catholic who was shot dead in broad daylight on Wednesday.

Police officials carrying metal detectors searched people before they entered the church, an AFP correspondent said.

Minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, an outspoken campaigner against Pakistan’s Islamic blasphemy laws, died in a hail of bullets as he left his mother’s home in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday.

His assassination sparked international outrage and stoked concern about rampant militancy in nuclear-armed Pakistan, a fractious ally in the US-led war in Afghanistan.

The failure of the Glory satellite launch was the second bungle for NASA climate science efforts in two years, and closely resembled a botched carbon satellite launch involving the same company, Orbital Sciences Corp., in 2009.

Glory could not reach orbit after its protective clamshell-like nose cone cover failed to detach after launch, engineers said as they struggled to figure out why the expensive technology collapse had happened yet again.

Not once was Galliano’s name mentioned under the huge marquee behind the Musee Rodin where Dior sent out the last 62 outfits ever to be associated with the brilliant English designer who now faces charges of hurling racist insults.

“What has happened over the last week has been a terrible and wrenching ordeal for us all,” said Dior’s chief executive Sidney Toledano, in what must be the only time a Paris fashion show opened with something close to a eulogy.

Completely overshadowed by the Galliano scandal, the show took place in a subdued atmosphere in the gardens of the Rodin Museum, in a chic district just down the road from the French prime minister’s residence.

“What has happened over the last week has been a terrible and wrenching ordeal for us all,” Christian Dior boss Sidney Toledano said before the start of the much-anticipated show as part of Paris Fashion Week.

“The message to the EU Council is ‘it’s time for you to decide to bring down the interest rate for Greece and Ireland’,” Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, head of the Party of European Socialists (PES), told a news conference.

“The second decision (should be) to make the financial mechanism really robust,” Rasmussen said at the launch of a two-day meeting in Athens to discuss a “progressive” response to the continent’s economic woes.

The bus came under attack as it was heading back to the West Indies’ team hotel after the match, in what police claimed was a case of mistaken identity, with fans thinking it was the home team’s vehicle.

“The fans thought it was the Bangladeshi team bus and they hurled stones at it,” Imtiaz Ahmed, deputy commissioner of police in Dhaka, told AFP.

The Black Caps, needing a victory in Group A after a win against Kenya and defeat at the hands of defending champions Australia, on Friday restricted the African side to just 162 in Ahmedabad.

Seamer Tim Southee took three wickets while Kyle Mills and skipper Daniel Vettori grabbed two apiece for New Zealand, desperate to register their second win with powerful Pakistan and Sri Lanka lying in wait.

The defence budget will rise 12.7 percent in 2011 to 601.1 billion yuan ($91.7 billion), said Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for China’s national parliament, citing a budget report to be submitted to the rubber-stamp legislature.

“China has always paid attention to controlling the size of defence spending,” Li, a former foreign minister, told reporters.

The figure was contained in a budgetary report submitted to the National People’s Congress, the parliament’s spokesman Li Zhaoxing told a news conference on the eve of the opening of the annual NPC session.

“China has always paid attention to controlling the size of defence spending,” Li told reporters, describing spending as “relatively low” compared with the rest of the world.

Over the past 540 million years, five mega-wipeouts of species have occurred through naturally-induced events.

But the new threat is man-made, inflicted by habitation loss, over-hunting, over-fishing, the spread of germs and viruses and introduced species, and by climate change caused by fossil-fuel greenhouse gases, says the study.

The fighting appeared to confirm the division of the vast desert oil-producing state between a western area round the capital Tripoli held by forces loyal to Gaddafi and an eastern region held by those rebelling against his four-decade rule.

In Zawiyah, a town 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli whose control by the rebels had embarrassed the government, “dozens were killed and more were wounded,” by pro-Gaddafi forces, said Mohamed, a resident. “We have counted 30 dead civilians.”

The number of people crossing through this border post two hours’ drive west of the Libyan capital Tripoli had topped 100,000 by Thursday but then plummeted.

“The UNHCR is concerned that the security position in Libya is preventing people from leaving,” Firas Kayal, the agency’s spokesman on the spot, said.

The rebels had attacked a military base on the outskirts of Ras Lanuf, a major oil port on the Mediterranean Sea, which has a refinery, pipelines and a terminal, and the army responded with artillery fire and helicopters firing machineguns.

“We have taken Ras Lanuf 100 percent, Gaddafi’s forces have all left,” rebel soldier Hafez Ihrahim told Reuters from inside the town.

The demonstrators spilled out of the Murat Adha mosque in the Tajoura district of eastern Tripoli after Friday prayers, and several hundred of them began chanting for an end to Gaddafi’s four decades in power.

“This is the end for Gaddafi. It’s over. Forty years of crimes are over,” said Faragha Salim, an engineer at the protest in Tajoura.

Rebels seeking to overthrow Gaddafi have called for U.N.-backed air strikes against what they say are African mercenaries launching assaults on Libyans to help keep the longtime ruler in power.

Calls for a “no-fly” zone over the oil-producing North African nation have also come from several senior members of the U.S. Congress.

Ahmed Jabreel, an aide to ex-justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil who heads the council now based in Benghazi, said air strikes to set up a “no-fly” zone were needed to help rebels topple Gaddafi, who has refused to step down despite a revolt.

“If there is any negotiation it will be on one single thing — how Gaddafi is going to leave the country or step down so we can save lives. There is nothing else to negotiate,” Jabreel, authorized to speak on Abdel Jalil’s behalf, told Reuters.

He has never shied from spilling blood, and his end may well prove a bloody affair.

Gaddafi has shown this week that he clearly intends to fight on and leading Libyan analysts say regime change will only come if those close to him force him aside.

The threat of layoffs increased the stakes in a bitter battle between Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats, a fight being watched around the nation as other states like Ohio and Indiana weigh rolling back public employee union power as part of budget-cutting efforts.

Republican Walker told reporters late on Thursday that “extremist elements” among 14 absent senate Democrats had blocked progress in negotiations on his “budget repair bill.”

In an interview with Reuters Insider exactly two weeks after state Senate Democrats fled to Illinois to stall action on Walker’s proposal, he said public sector unions must be reined in to allow local governments to cut costs.

“I want to be different. I want to be unique. I want to be an innovator here and give my local governments the ability to manage their own budgets. On that part, we can’t compromise,” the newly elected Republican said.

Jury selection in the case against the Galleon Group founder in New York starts on Tuesday. The trial, expected to last up to two months, comes as U.S. authorities push on with other probes into stock trading in the $1.9 trillion hedge fund industry based on leaked company earnings and deals.

Rajaratnam is accused of making $45 million in illicit profits through tips from former friends and associates at the highest levels of Corporate America. Once named the richest person born in Sri Lanka, the 53-year-old U.S. citizen has vowed to clear his name at trial. Galleon managed $7 billion at its peak.

Prosecutors intend to introduce audiotapes showing that Rajaratnam got inside tips from his friend Rajat Gupta, who sat on Goldman’s board until last May. The trial of Rajaratnam, who was head of the Galleon Group hedge fund, starts next Tuesday in the highest profile Wall Street insider-trading case in a generation.

At a court hearing on Friday, prosecutors said the leaks include details about a $5 billion investment by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc in Goldman at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008.

The parties had already agreed to a 24-hour extension before the original deadline of 11.59 pm Thursday but added another seven days after speaking with the federal mediator Georgge Cohen on Friday.

“At the request of the FMCS (mediator) the parties have agreed to a seven day extension ending the evening of Friday, March 11,” said Cohen.

Nevermind that, by the embassy’s own reckoning, the Chadian government probably could not afford the planes, was dishonest about their purpose and planned to use the aircraft to crush a pro-democracy rebellion.

“Our conclusion is that, like it or not, our interests line up in favor of allowing the sale in some form to go forward,” the then-ambassador wrote to the State Department.

The warning came from policymakers from both sides of the Atlantic, some of whom repeated a wish to see China’s currency rise and trade more freely.

“A cooperative spirit among policymakers is essential to ensure prosperity of the global economy,” Janet Yellen, vice chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s board of governors, told a meeting of U.S. euro zone and Asian policymakers in Paris.

The country’s growing military clout has coincided with a more assertive diplomatic tone, evident in spats last year with Japan and Southeast Asia over disputed islands, and in rows with Washington over trade, the yuan currency and human rights.

Chinese parliamentary spokesman Li Zhaoxing said the defense budget would be 601.1 billion yuan ($91.5 billion) in 2011, from 532.1 billion yuan last year. The budget went up by just 7.5 percent in 2010, after a long period of double-digit hikes.

The officials said they believed private discussions between Islamabad and Washington have cooled anti-American rhetoric that erupted in Pakistan after the arrest of Raymond Davis, a former U.S. special forces soldier employed by the CIA as a bodyguard for its operations officers.

His arrest put grave strains on ties between U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies, who have had an uneasy but sometimes productive partnership combating militants based in tribal areas along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

The bloodshed signaled an escalation in efforts by both sides to break the deadlock that has gripped Libya’s 18-day upheaval, which has lasted longer than the Egyptian revolt that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak and inspired a wave of protests across the region.

So far, Gadhafi has had little success in taking back territory, with several rebel cities repelling assaults and the entire eastern half of the country under rebel control. But the opposition forces have seemed unable to go on the offensive to march on pro-Gadhafi areas.

More 200,000 people have fled to Libya’s borders with Tunisia, Egypt and Niger since Feb. 15, when the uprising against Gadhafi’s iron-fisted rule began. But now refugees are reporting robberies, intimidation and violence from loyalist forces.

“From those that did manage to cross the border, we have heard that mobile phones and cameras were being confiscated en route. Many people appear to be frightened and are unwilling to speak,” U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva. “They feel hunted and targeted.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that in addition to the military cargo flights to Djerba, Tunisia, the U.S. Agency for International Development chartered two civilian aircraft to help repatriate foreign workers who have fled Libya amid an armed insurrection against the government of Moammar Gadhafi.

Even with the emphasis on humanitarian rather that overt military action, the risk of encountering hostility and violence along the border could not be discounted. It was not clear Friday how U.S. and other international efforts to fly foreign workers away from the border area would be carried out.

The votes will show the need for both sides to narrow the $50 billion gap between President Barack Obama’s latest offer and Republican cuts that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid called “mean-spirited.”

In a fierce war of words, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the latest Democratic proposal to meet them halfway was “nonsense.”

With the two parties maneuvering for advantage in their budget clash, the Democratic plan conforms to President Barack Obama’s opening gambit to cut another $6.5 billion from domestic agencies. But neither it nor the $61 billion in cuts passed by House Republicans is expected to survive test votes next week in the Senate.

Both sides view the votes as necessary preludes to negotiations on narrowing the $50 billion gap between cuts the White House and Republican want. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid called the GOP reductions “mean-spirited.”

Boehner said he would convene a group of bipartisan congressional leaders that has the authority to instruct the House counsel to represent the chamber in court. The panel would include Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.; Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-Calif., and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

“The constitutionality of this law should be determined by the courts — not by the president unilaterally,” the Ohio Republican said in a statement. “This action by the House will ensure the matter is addressed in a manner consistent with our Constitution.”

The measure – which still has to go through the GOP-led House – would limit the bargaining rights of roughly 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees. They wouldn’t be able to negotiate health care benefits or certain other working conditions.

“The day we sign it, it’s not going to be some – you know, I don’t anticipate some big deal because this is hard for people,” Kasich told reporters at a separate bill-signing event. “And anything that’s hard, I want to be respectful of other people’s feelings, their thoughts and their emotions.”

When the protests erupted, the Capitol and streets around it were packed with government employees demanding that their rights not be taken away. Two weekend demonstrations after that attracted roughly 70,000 people each time. So many teachers came from the Madison district that was forced to close for four days.

But by the time Capitol police cleared the rotunda late Thursday, the crowd was down to about 50 hardcore demonstrators.

The Republican governor’s decision effectively kills the Tampa-Orlando route, but Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said LaHood later agreed to consider a last-ditch attempt to revive the project. His idea is to let a regional rail authority in central Florida compete with other states for the money Scott rejected.

“If it can’t be done, then we’re done,” Nelson said, calling the proposal a “Hail Mary pass.”

Health officials report nearly a 30 percent drop over 15 years in young children’s doctor visits for ear infections. That’s half a million fewer trips to the pediatrician each year, on average.

Why the numbers are declining is a bit of a mystery, but Harvard researchers think it’s partly because fewer people smoke, meaning less irritation of children’s airways. Many doctors credit growing use of a vaccine against bacteria that cause ear infections. And some think increased breast-feeding is protecting more children.

It was the second time they had stopped the CBA from running out, though the two sides do not appear to be close to a new pact.

“We’re obviously having a lot of dialogue,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday after a federal mediator announced the seven-day reprieve. “We met for a lot of days. And we are going to meet for more.”

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9 percent in February. While that’s positive news for the economy, the report also suggests that more people are driving to work at a time when world oil supplies are under pressure because of unrest in Libya and the Middle East.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery gained $2.51 to settle at $104.42 per barrel in New York, the highest level since Sept. 26, 2008.

One week after the military chose Boeing, officials of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., said they were disappointed with the decision but did not want to extend a multimillion-dollar fight that has already dragged on for a decade.

“It’s time to put the interest of the warfighter first and we’re stepping aside,” Ralph Crosby Jr., chairman of EADS North America, said at a news conference.

The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA’s Glory satellite lifted off early Friday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but fell to the sea several minutes later. The same thing happened to another climate-monitoring satellite two years ago with the same type of rocket.

“We failed to make orbit,” NASA launch director Omar Baez said at a press conference Friday. “Indications are that the satellite and rocket … is in the southern Pacific Ocean somewhere.”

The death toll is far higher than any publicly acknowledged casualty figures for the AU, which appears to be trying to keep the extent of its losses under wraps due to political considerations in Burundi, one of two nations providing the bulk of the forces that are fighting alongside Somali troops.

The offensive aims to break Islamists’ lock on large swaths of the country’s south and central regions. Al-Shabab, a Somali militant group with links to al-Qaida, has boxed in the government to just a few city blocks of the seaside capital. The group has instituted a Taliban-style system of rule, with strict edicts enforced by their own courts and public executions.

A somber atmosphere befitting a funeral hung over the label’s fall-winter 2011-12 ready-to-wear show, as about 1,000 black-clad fashion editors, journalists and stylists took in Galliano’s final collection for the house.

The clothes on the runway were unmistakably his: You could see Galliano’s hallmark featherlight touch on the bias-cut gowns in sheer silk and his over-the-top outrageousness in the ’70s boho looks in rich jewel tones that opened the show.

“It’s with much joy that I hand over command of this city to King Momo,” said mayor Eduardo Paes, himself a samba dancer and percussionist who plays in the city’s annual parade.

The rotund King Momo embodies Carnival, a raucous free-for-all where excesses are encouraged and the natural order of things is turned upside down: men dress as women, the poor parade as kings, rules are bent and everyone escapes their drab daily existence for a few days of catharsis.

Fat Tuesday was still days away, but at midweek the party already had started in the French Quarter. As the 25-year-old New Yorker soaked in the boozy sights, music blared from bars and people on balconies flung beads to eager recipients below.

“I love this!” Gottschalck shouted, raising her arms. “It’s even better than I thought it would be.”

Some experts fear pollution at Hoan Kiem Lake is killing the giant freshwater turtle, which has a soft shell the size of a desk. It is one of the world’s most-endangered species, with only four known to be alive worldwide.

Teams of people are cleaning debris, pumping fresh water into the lake and using sandbags to expand a tiny island to serve as a “turtle hospital.” The rescuers may even try to net the animal for the first time as part of the effort.

He is Shaktimaan, protector of all humanity – at least in India.

In the cartoon skies over India soar a host of comic book superheros that have little to do with the leotarded titans of the West.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter told a federal judge in Manhattan that then-Goldman board member Rajat Gupta called Galleon fund founder Raj Rajaratnam twice to give him tips. Rajaratnam then traded hundreds of thousands of shares of Goldman Sachs stock.

Gupta has not been charged criminally in what prosecutors have called the largest hedge fund insider trading case in history. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against him this week, accusing him of tipping Rajaratnam seven minutes before the stock markets closed on Sept. 23, 2008, that the Goldman Sachs board had approved an offer from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to invest $5 billion in the banking giant.

“For the sake of your race, you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white people,” Lincoln said, promoting his idea of colonization: resettling blacks in foreign countries on the belief that whites and blacks could not coexist in the same nation.

Lincoln went on to say that free blacks who envisioned a permanent life in the United States were being “selfish” and he promoted Central America as an ideal location “especially because of the similarity of climate with your native land – thus being suited to your physical condition.”

He told cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy that there still a pressing need for American air supremacy as countries such as China and Iran pursue longer range weapons and air defense missiles.

Developing more sophisticated fighter jets is critical, the Pentagon chief said. But he also said air-to-air combat and bombing must not continue to dominate the Air Force culture to the neglect of other capabilities needed to fight terrorists and hostile nations are neglected.

But he did it for the cause. On Thursday, a federal jury convicted him on two felony counts of interfering with and making false representations at a government auction. He now faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $750,000 at his June 23 sentencing.

It was a case that became a cause celebre among avid supporters and Hollywood celebrities such as Robert Redford and Daryl Hannah.

The National Pork Board on Friday replaced the decades-old ad campaign with a new message: “Pork: Be Inspired.”

Board officials said after nearly 25 years, it was time to move on from the old message that compared pork to chicken and instead try to increase sales by focusing on the estimated 82 million Americans who already eat pork.