New Zealand earthquake toll at 145 dead.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – Fresh aftershocks sent masonry tumbling among rescuers in New Zealand's quake zone and a cat sparked false alarms of a possible survivor Saturday, as the disaster's death toll rose to 145 with more than 200 missing.

Grim assessments emerged for the central business district in devastated Christchurch after Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude quake, with engineers and planners saying it will be unusable for months and that a third of the buildings must be razed and rebuilt.

On the outer edge of the district, Brent Smith watched in tears as workers demolished his 1850s-era house, where he had run a bed and breakfast and where antique jugs and a $6,000 Victorian bed were reduced to shards and firewood. His three daughters hugged him, also weeping.

"You don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I've been doing more of the latter," Smith said.

Prime Minister John Key, who spent some of the afternoon speaking to families who lost loved ones in the disaster, called for two minutes of silence next Tuesday to remember victims and the ordeal of the survivors.

"This may be New Zealand's single-most tragic event," Key said.

Key said the government would announce an aid package Monday for an estimated 50,000 people who will be out of work for months due to the closure of downtown.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker assured relatives of the missing — including people from several countries who have converged on this southern New Zealand city of 350,000_ that every effort was being made to locate any remaining survivors.

No one was found alive overnight as a multinational team of more than 600 rescuers continued scouring the city's central business district, although a paramedic reported hearing voices in one destroyed building early Saturday, Police Superintendent Russel Gibson said.

"We mobilized a significant number of people and sent a dog in again — and a cat jumped out," Gibson said, adding that a rescue team removed "a significant amount of rubble to be 100 percent" certain that no person was trapped inside.

Police have said up to 120 bodies may be entombed in the ruins of the downtown CTV building alone, where dozens of foreign students from an international school were believed trapped.

Still, Gibson said rescuers weren't completely ruling out good news.

"I talked to experts who say we've worked on buildings like this overseas and we get miracles. New Zealand deserves a few miracles," he said.

The King's Education language school released a list of missing people presumed in the building: nine teachers and 51 students — 26 Japanese, 14 Chinese, six Filipinos, three Thais, one South Korean and one Czech. An additional 20 students were listed with "status unknown."

The death toll rose Saturday to 145 after additional bodies were pulled from wrecked buildings, Police Superintendent David Cliff said. An additional list of more than 200 people remain missing, he said.

Cliff said there are "grave fears" for the missing, suggesting the eventual toll could make this New Zealand's deadliest disaster ever. Currently, the country's worst disaster was the 1931 Napier earthquake on North Island in which at least 256 people died.

At Christchurch's iconic cathedral, workers had just begun work on its ruined bell tower late Friday when fresh aftershocks sent more masonry tumbling from the building.

Rescuers were immediately withdrawn while the safety of the 130-year old church was reassessed and a new plan made to reach as many as 22 people who may be entombed inside.

The city's central business district will take several months to recover, Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said, adding that "most of the services, in fact all of the services that are offered in the CBD, will need to relocate elsewhere."

Damaged buildings will need to be bulldozed and rebuilt "so that people can have confidence about coming back into the area to transact any business that's here."

One in three of the central city's mostly brick buildings were severely damaged in the quake and must be demolished, earthquake engineer Jason Ingham said.

Protesters hit by hail of gunfire in Libya march.

BENGHAZI, Libya – Protesters demanding Moammar Gadhafi's ouster came under a hail of bullets Friday when pro-regime militiamen opened fire to stop the first significant anti-government marches in days in the Libyan capital. The Libyan leader, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation.

Witnesses reported multiple deaths from gunmen on rooftops and in the streets shooting at crowds with automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft gun.

"It was really like we are dogs," one man who was marching from Tripoli's eastern Tajoura district told The Associated Press. He added that many people were shot in the head, with seven people within 10 yards (meters) of him cut down in the first wave.

Also Friday evening, troops loyal to Gadhafi attacked a major air base east of Tripoli that had fallen into rebel hands.

A force of tanks attacked the Misrata Air Base, succeeding in retaking part of it in battles with residents and army units who had joined the anti-Gadhafi uprising, said a doctor and one resident wounded in the battle on the edge of opposition-held Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) from the capital.

The opposition captured two fighters, including a senior officer, and still held part of the large base, they said. Shooting could still be heard from the area after midnight. The doctor said 22 people were killed in two days of fighting at the air base and an adjacent civilian airport.

In Washington, President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday freezing assets held by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and four of his children in the United States. The Treasury Department said the sanctions against Gadhafi, three of his sons and a daughter also apply to the Libyan government.

Obama said the U.S. is imposing unilateral sanctions on Libya because continued violence there poses an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to America's national security and foreign policy.

A White House spokesman said it is clear that Gadhafi's legitimacy has been "reduced to zero" — the Obama administration's sharpest words yet. The U.S. also temporarily abandoned its embassy in Tripoli as a final flight carrying American citizens departed from the capital.

The U.N. Security Council met to consider possible sanctions against Gadhafi's regime, including trade sanctions and an arms embargo. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged it take "concrete action" to protect civilians in Libya, saying "the violence must stop" and those responsible for "so brutally shedding blood" must be punished.

But Gadhafi vowed to fight on. In the evening, he appeared before a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters in Green Square and called on them to fight back and "defend the nation."

"Retaliate against them, retaliate against them," Gadhafi said, speaking by microphone from the ramparts of the Red Castle, a Crusader fort overlooking the square. Wearing a fur cap, he shook his fist, telling the crowd: "Dance, sing and prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence."

He warned, "At the suitable time, we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire."

The crowd waved pictures of the leader and green flags as he said, "I am in the middle of the people in the Green Square. ... This is the people that loves Moammar Gadhafi. If the people of Libya and the Arabs and Africans don't love Moammar Gadhafi then Moammar Gadhafi does not deserve to live."

Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, told foreign journalists invited by the government to Tripoli that there were no casualties in Tripoli and that the capital was "calm ... Everything is peaceful. Peace is coming back to our country."

He said the regime wants negotiations with the opposition and said there were "two minor problems" in Misrata and Zawiya, another city near the capital held by the opposition.

There, he said, "we are dealing with terrorist people." But he said he hoped to reach a peaceful settlement with them "and I think by tomorrow we will solve it."

Earlier Seif was asked in an interview with CNN-Turk about the options in the face of the unrest. "Plan A is to live and die in Libya, Plan B is to live and die in Libya, Plan C is to live and die in Libya," he replied.

The marches in the capital were the first major attempt by protesters to break a clampdown that pro-Gadhafi militiamen have imposed on Tripoli since the beginning of the week, when dozens were killed by gunmen roaming the street, shooting people on sight.

In the morning and night before, text messages were sent around urging protesters to stream out of mosques after noon prayers, saying, "Let us make this Friday the Friday of liberation," residents said. The residents and witnesses all spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

In response, militiamen set up heavy security around many mosques in the city, trying to prevent any opposition gatherings. Armed young men with green armbands to show their support for Gadhafi set up checkpoints on many streets, stopping cars and searching them. Tanks and checkpoints lined the road to Tripoli's airport, witnesses said.

After prayers, protesters flowed out of mosques, converging into marches from several neighborhoods, heading toward Green Square. But they were hit almost immediately by militiamen, a mix of Libyans and foreign mercenaries.

"We can't see where it is coming from," another protester from Tajoura district — several miles (kilometers) from Green Square — said of the gunfire. "They don't want to stop." He said a man next to him was shot in the neck.

In the nearby Souq al-Jomaa district, witnesses reported four killed as gunmen fired from rooftops. "There are all kind of bullets," said one man in the crowd, screaming in a telephone call to the AP, with the rattle of gunfire audible in the background. Another protester was reported killed in the Fashloum district. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

After nightfall, protesters dispersed, and regime supporters prowled the streets, a resident said. As they have on past nights this week, many blockaded streets into their neighborhoods to prevent militiamen and strangers from entering.

Tripoli, home to about a third of Libya's population of 6 million, is the center of the eroding territory that Gadhafi still controls. The opposition holds a long sweep of about half of Libya's 1,000-mile (1,600- kilometer) Mediterranean coastline where most of the population lives.

Even in the Gadhafi-held pocket of northwestern Libya around Tripoli, several cities have also fallen to the rebellion. Militiamen and pro-Gadhafi troops were repelled Thursday when they launched attacks trying to take back opposition-held territory in Zawiya and Misrata in fighting that killed at least 30 people.

In an apparent bid to win public favor, parliament speaker Mohammed Abul-Qassim al-Zwai announced that the government would increase salaries and offer the unemployed a monthly salary. State TV reported the unemployed would get the equivalent of $117 a month and salaries would be raised 50 to 150 percent.

Support for Gadhafi continued to fray within a regime where he long commanded unquestioned loyalty.

Libya's delegation to the United Nations in Geneva announced Friday it was defecting to the opposition — and it was given a standing ovation at a gathering of the U.N. Human Rights Council. They join a string of Libyan ambassadors and diplomats around the world who abandoned the regime, as have the justice and interior ministers at home, and one of Gadhafi's cousins and closest aides, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, who sought refuge in Egypt.

Libya's 11-member Arab League mission also announced its resignation in protest at the crackdown

On a visit to Turkey, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the violence by pro-Gadhafi forces is unacceptable and should not go unpunished.

"Mr. Gadhafi must go," he said.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the death toll in Libya at nearly 300, according to a partial count from several days ago. Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said estimates of some 1,000 people killed were "credible."

The upheaval in the OPEC nation has taken most of Libya's oil production of 1.6 million barrels a day off the market. Oil prices hovered above $98 a barrel Friday in Asia, backing away from a spike to $103 the day before amid signs the crisis in Libya may have cut crude supplies less than previously estimated.

The opposition camp says it is in control of two of Libya's major oil ports — Breqa and Ras Lanouf — on the Gulf of Sidra. A resident of Ras Lanouf said Friday that the security force guarding that port had joined the rebellion and were helping guard it, along with residents of the area.

Several tens of thousands held a rally in support of the Tripoli protesters in the main square of Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi, where the revolt began, about 580 miles (940 kilometers) east of the capital along the Mediterranean coast.

Tents were set up and residents served breakfast to people, many carrying signs in Arabic and Italian. Others climbed on a few tanks parked nearby, belonging to army units in the city that allied with the rebellion.

"We will not stop this rally until Tripoli is the capital again," said Omar Moussa, a demonstrator. "Libyans are all united. ... Tripoli is our capital. Tripoli is in our hearts."

Muslim cleric Sameh Jaber led prayers in the square, telling worshippers that Libyans "have revolted against injustice."

"God take revenge from Moammar Gadhafi because of what he did to the Libyan people," the cleric, wearing traditional Libyan white uniform and a red cap, said in remarks carried by Al-Jazeera TV. "God accept our martyrs and make their mothers, fathers and families patient."

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said the bloc needs to consider sanctions such as travel restrictions and an asset freeze against Libya to halt to the violence and move toward democracy.

NATO's main decision-making body met in emergency session to consider the deteriorating situation. It said it would continue to monitor the crisis, but that it will not intervene. Participants at the NATO meeting decided it would be premature to discuss deployments or a no-fly zone over Libya, said a diplomat familiar with the discussions.

The U.N.'s top human rights official, Navi Pillay said reports of mass killings in Libya should spur the international community to "step in vigorously" to end the crackdown against anti-government protesters.

Davis’ family arrives in Pakistan.

LAHORE: Raymond Davis’ alleged family reached Pakistan between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Dawn News reported.

The family that arrived at Allama Iqbal International Airport included a woman, two men and three children. They were escorted out of the airport under high security arrangements and were taken to an unidentified location.

The vehicles that were carrying Davis’ alleged family had false number plates, Dawn News reported.

The name of one of the men and the woman, listed in their travelling documents, were as Randy Field and Beth Page, claimed sources.

According to sources, two individuals with similar names had previously been deployed in Pakistan, as USAID employees.

The US Embassy and Pakistani officials have not yet accepted nor rejected any claims.

Nawaz League, People’s Party part in political divorce.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s most famous political marriage of convenience ended in a divorce on Friday as Mian Nawaz Sharif signalled the ouster of the PPP from the PML-N’s Punjab government and both sides contradicted each other over the implementation of a 10-point agenda, raising fears of future tensions.

Mr Sharif announced “parting of ways” with the PPP at a news conference in Islamabad because of what he called unsatisfactory performance of the PPP-led federal coalition government in implementing his party’s economic-cum-political agenda during a 45-day deadline that ended on Wednesday.

As a consequence, he said, the PML-N’s Punjab chief minister and his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, would dissolve his cabinet, which includes several PPP ministers, and form a new one, possibly with the breakaway “unification bloc” of the opposition PML-Q, which will give him the majority in the 371-seat provincial assembly. This, he said, would happen within two days, possibly on Saturday.

Federal ministers Raza Rabbani (inter-provincial coordination) and Babar Awan (law and parliamentary affairs) strongly rejected Mr Sharif’s claim about non-implementation of the agenda and one of them told a joint news conference afterwards that “significant progress” had been made in the available time.

Both vowed to pursue that programme as PPP’s own agenda and said their party would play the role of a “strong opposition” in Punjab.

The two parties, which had pledged to shun their wild rivalry of the 1990s in a Charter of Democracy signed in 2006, struggled together against former president Pervez Musharraf’s nine-year military rule that ended after February 2008 elections, in which the PPP emerged as the largest party, with PML-N coming second, but the largest in Punjab.

They formed a coalition government at the centre in March 2008, but the PML-N withdrew six months later, mainly over alleged PPP foot-dragging in restoring judges of superior courts sacked by Gen Musharraf.

While a troubled coalition continued in Punjab, the two parties maintained a measure of understanding over major issues at the national level, with the PML-N earning the calling of a “friendly opposition”, which the party seeks to shed with its latest decision.

Mr Sharif, speaking after chairing a meeting of his party’s central organising committee and lawmakers, avoided a clear answer when asked if the PPP ministers in the Punjab cabinet would be sacked, saying “a decision has been taken” and “modalities will be known by tomorrow”.

But he seemed to be downplaying speculation about a possible standoff between the country’s largest political parties, saying, in a reference to the famous battlefield of centuries ago in India: “We are not fighting a battle of Panipat. We are exercising our right. We want all this to be done in an amicable way.” The PML-N move and the PPP rebuttal came a day after the failure of what appeared as a last-minute effort by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to save the Punjab coalition and the broader understanding between the two parties when he met a PML-N delegation led by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday.

MID-TERM POLLS: Mr Nawaz Sharif did not say if his party would launch a campaign for mid-term polls, but said such a demand would not be unconstitutional. He said his party gave sufficient time to the government to mend its ways in the interest of democracy “but the broken promises have brought us to such a tragic turn”.

He said tangible progress on certain points could have been made and that “even 30 per cent progress at this stage” would have been acceptable for his party. He said it was not a matter of 45 days but his party had been in talks with the PPP for the last three years marked by promises that were never fulfilled and agreements trashed. “Now we are not ready to become part of this game and are forced to say good-bye to the PPP.”

He said the decision had been taken by an overwhelming vote where not more than two per cent leaders opposed the idea, adding that he had also taken input from party workers at the grass-root level.

Mr Sharif rejected the charge of political horse-trading in Punjab with the formation of a 47-member “unification bloc” of the rival PML-Q, which is likely to join the new provincial coalition, saying those lawmakers would only return to their “parent party” they were forced to leave under the Musharraf regime.

At their news conference later, which seemed to have been planned in advance but announced after the PML-N decision, Mr Rabbani gave a point-by-point progress over the 10 points.

He and Mr Awan both ruled out any mid-term election as a consequence of Friday’s development and accused the PML-N chief of violating the Constitution by calling PML-Q forward bloc as a segment of his party.

With all seven PPP ministers in the Punjab cabinet seated on the stage at the Press Information Department auditorium, Mr Rabbani spoke in a comparatively mild tone, while Mr Awan seemed aggressive, calling the “unification bloc” as “a gang of Changa Manga” — a reference to a Punjab forest often cited as a place for lodging political turncoats.

President Asif Ali Zardari, currently on an official visit to Kuwait, also seemed to be keeping in touch with the country’s politics as his spokesman Farhatullah Babar issued a statement from abroad saying PPP members of the Punjab cabinet would not send their resignations and that “the politics of reconciliation will continue”. Mr Rabbani wondered how Mr Sharif could say nothing was done during the 45-day period while the head of his party’s negotiating team, Senator Ishaq Dar, had expressed his satisfaction at the progress “at the end of our marathon meetings”.

The minister cited steps taken point-by-point, including a reversal of increases in petroleum prices, reduction in the size of the federal cabinet and formation of new boards of several state-run enterprises as evidence of what he called a significant progress made on the reform agenda.

“But I feel sad on the decision taken by Nawaz Sharif because we sat with sincerity to address major problems confronting the country,” he said.

He said the nation and media could sit in judgement to decide on the seriousness and sincerity of the PPP in implementing the 10-point agenda.

“I don’t want to beat the drum of our own publicity, I leave it to you and each poor individual of this country and appoint you as judge to decide how much progress we made on these 10 points in a limited timeframe,” he said.

“The 10-point agenda is our agenda. It is our manifesto and we will continue its implementation. There should not be any ambiguity on this count,” the minister said.

“Punjab does not belong to the PML-N alone, rather all political forces are free to do politics there,” he added.

Babar Awan said now his party would act as a “senior ombudsman” in Punjab and keep a vigilant eye on the working of the provincial government. “We will also request the speaker to give us the slot of leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly.”

Ordinary Compasses Thrown Off by Changes in Earth's Magnetic Field.

The Earth's magnetic field is changing at an increasing rate, throwing off airports and altering the aurora borealis -- and its effect on ordinary compasses could mean the difference between homeward bound and hopelessly lost.

Earth’s northernmost magnetic point -- or magnetic north -- is distinct from its geographic North Pole, and scientists have long known that the magnetic poles are on the move.

But the magnetic poles have been moving faster lately, sliding towards Siberia at 34 miles per year at a speed that's accelerated 36 percent over the last 10 years, according to the United States Geological Survey, or USGS.

Since compasses rely on magnetic north to point you in the right way up the trail, the average $2-dollar model could very well point you in the wrong direction. Depending on location and journey length, unaware hikers or boaters could find themselves hundreds of miles off course if they don’t calibrate for the shift, experts said.

“At Washington D.C., the compass points 10 degrees to the west of true north," Jeffrey Love, USGS advisor for geomagnetic research, told FoxNews.com. "And this is increasing at Washington at a rate of about 1/10 of a degree per year.”

But don't touch that calibration dial just yet: The accuracy of compasses fluctuates with the field, he said, meaning compasses are more or less accurate depending on where you use them.

“It's different at different places on the earth,” Love said.

The magnetic shift is costing the aviation and marine industries millions of dollars to upgrade navigational systems and charts, Florida's Sun Sentinel reported.

"You could end up a few miles off or a couple hundred miles off, depending how far you're going," Matthew Brock, a technician with Lauderdale Speedometer and Compass, a Fort Lauderdale company that repairs compasses, told the paper.

Luckily for the younger generation, modern GPS technology is able to account and adjust for magnetic north’s deviation, also called magnetic declination. And scientists reassure the general public that the average individual will most likely not be affected at all by the shift in the magnetic field.

But hikers should be aware: The shift adds up to a one-degree difference in compass direction every ten years, Love said.

A spokesman for the National Park Service says cartographers aren’t scrambling to update their maps any time soon.

“We haven’t issued any warnings to hikers, and we don’t really plan to do that,” Jeffrey Olson, a representative for the National Park Service, told FoxNews.com. “Many or most trail guides will provide hikers with the location of the pole, and then they can feed those coordinates into any GIS.” A Geographic Information System is anything that works with location data. “That will help them find their way back.”

There are other effects to the roaming pole as well: Americans will be less likely to see the aurora borealis, for example.

“As the pole of the magnetic field migrates towards Siberia, the latitude that we observe the aurora borealis will increase for America,” Love told FoxNews.com. “It’s easier to see at higher latitudes. The optimal spot right now to see it is Fairbanks, Alaska, but it will slowly move north from there.”

And there have been some inconveniences for the Federal Aviation Administration, too. Airports across the country have repainted their runways so as to be more precise in terms of latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and many are planning to adjust in the future.

The polar shift is directly related to the movement of Earth’s magnetic field, which in turn, is related to the movement of Earth’s liquid iron core. The core is in a constant state of convection, or the transfer of heat within fluids. Since the core is convecting, it produces what Love referred to as a “naturally occurring electrical conductor.” And with electric current comes the magnetic field.

Fluctuations in the magnetic field have occurred for hundreds of thousands of years, so the shifting pole doesn’t exactly worry scientists. Sometimes the movement is slow, sometimes fast. The rapidity of the change has to do with the amount of activity going on in the earth’s core. But over time, the axel pole and the magnetic pole eventually equal one another.

“It’s a mathematical construct,” John Tarduno, professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester, told FoxNews.com. “The magnetic field is calculated over the entire planet. So when we think of the pole moving a large amount, we’re really talking about the magnetic field changing on a time scale. It’s true that that pole will wander around the true axis pole. But over thousands of years, the axel pole and magnetic pole will average to be in the same location.”

That's small consolation for someone looking to find their way home with a compass, of course.

Add to the ever evolving nature of Earth’s magnetism the fact that the overall magnetic field has been decreasing as well. Scientists have only been able to measure the intensity of the field since the 1830s, but ever since then, its strength has been on the decline, having decreased by about 10% since it was first measured. But for those concerned with this polar shift -- or even a possible polar reversal -- Love says there is no need to worry in our lifetime.

“Reversals -- which is the changing of the polarity of the magnetic field -- that typically takes about 10,000 years to happen,” Love told FoxNews.com. And “10,000 years ago civilization did not exist. These processes are very slow and therefore, we don’t have anything to worry about.”

Reports of torture, killing in Libya, says U.N. secretary general.

Benghazi, Libya- As clashes in the Libyan capital continued Friday between government security forces and anti-regime protesters, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters unequivocally: "The violence must stop."

His remarks came as state television was airing images of the embattled but defiant strongman urging viewers to defend the nation.

A man CNN will identify only as Reda to protect his identity said in a telephone interview that armed men dressed in plainclothes fatally shot his two brothers Friday as they were demonstrating against the government. Also killed were his two neighbors, he said.

More than 1,000 people have been killed, according to estimates cited Friday by Ban. He noted that the eastern part of the country "is reported to be under the control of opposition elements, who have taken over arms and ammunition from weapon depots."

At least three cities near Tripoli have been the site of daily clashes, and the streets of the capital are largely deserted because people are afraid of being shot by government forces or militias, he said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's supporters "are reportedly conducting house-by-house searches and arrests. According to some reports, they have even gone into hospitals to kill wounded opponents," Ban said.

Accounts from the news media and human rights groups and witnesses "raise grave concerns about the nature and scale of the conflict," he said. He said they include reports of indiscriminate killings, shooting of peaceful demonstrators, torture of the opposition and use of foreign mercenaries.

The victims have included women and children and "indiscriminate attacks on foreigners believed to be mercenaries," he said, referring to reports.

Ban called on the international community "to do everything possible" to protect civilians at demonstrable risk.

Ban said there appeared to be a growing crisis of refugees, with some 22,000 people having fled to Tunisia and a reported 15,000 to Egypt in the past few days. For many, the trip has been a harrowing one.

"There are widespread reports of refugees being harassed and threatened with guns and knives," Ban said.

"The violence must stop," he said. "Those responsible for so brutally shedding the blood of innocents must be punished. Fundamental human rights must be respected."

Also at the United Nations, Libyan Ambassador Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham told reporters that he hoped Gadhafi and his sons would end the rampage "against our people" within hours.

Asked why he had continued to support Gadhafi until just a few days ago, the diplomat said, "I couldn't imagine in the beginning that it was going to be (this bad)."

But he now supports the protesters. "It's not a crime to say, 'I want to be free,' " he said.

The Libyan ambassador to the United States, Ali Suleiman Aujali, told CNN that he too has joined the opposition.

"When I see the mercenaries killing our peoples, and we see our women screaming in the street, and I see there is no distinguishing between who they are target, I can't take this," said the diplomat, who served the Libyan government's foreign service for more than 40 years.

He said his fellow diplomats and many of the country's police had also turned against Gadhafi in his quest to retain control of Libya. "The problem now is western part," he said, speaking in Washington.

"Unfortunately, they've been confronted with mercenaries."

Asked whether he would want to see his former boss dead, he said, "I want him to be out of my country. I want him to be out of the Libyan life."

As he spoke, reports emerged of sniper and artillery fire in Tripoli, said Mohammed Ali Abdallah of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, which opposes Gadhafi's regime. He based his account on reports that he said he received from witnesses.

Another witness told CNN that protesters in western Tripoli were met by plainclothes security forces who fired guns at them and later tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Prior to the clashes on Friday morning, security forces had removed barricades, disposed of bodies and painted over graffiti in Tripoli, witnesses said.

On state television, Gadhafi -- wearing a fur trooper's hat and addressing a crowd of supporters -- threatened to escalate the violence. "We can destroy any assault with the people's will, with the armed people," he said. "And when it is necessary, the weapons depots will be open to all the Libyan people to be armed."

At that time, he continued, "Libya will become a red fire, Libya will become an ember."

He vowed to overcome what he described as external forces attempting to take down his nation.

"We will defeat any foreign attempt like we defeated them before, like we did with the Italian colonization, like we did with American airstrikes."

But he presented a carrot with his stick, offering to increase state salaries by 150% and to give $400 to each family.

Earlier, Gadhafi's son said his father has no intention of stepping down.

Asked if Gadhafi has a "Plan B" to leave Libya, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi told CNN Turk: "We have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya."

He said he hoped Libya would emerge from the crisis united.

"I am sure Libya will have a better future," he said. "However, such a strong state as we are, we will never allow our people to be controlled by a handful of terrorists. This will never happen." But global leaders were meeting Friday to talk about what kind of pressure can be brought on Gadhafi to surrender control and limit the humanitarian consequences.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Washington was suspending embassy operations in Tripoli and pursuing sanctions. "It has been shuttered," he told reporters about the embassy. But State Department officials said they still have channels through which they can still communicate with the Libyan government.

Libyan employees were remaining at the embassy, said Under Secretary ofState for Management Patrick Kennedy. "The flag is still flying. The embassy is not closed. Operations are suspended," he said. "Relations are not broken."

The charge d'affaires at the embassy, Joan Polaschik, expressed relief that she and other Americans had left. "It's a very dangerous and fluid situation," she told CNN in a telephone interview from Istanbul, Turkey.

But she praised the Libyan forces who were charged with providing security for the embassy. "They stayed with me till the bitter end," she said.

The United Nations Security Council discussed a proposed draft resolution that would impose new sanctions on Libya. They include an arms embargo, asset freeze and a travel ban. The draft also refers Libya to the International Criminal Court.

An Obama administration official involved in deliberations regarding sanctions told CNN that the Libyan government has said it has as much as $130 billion in reserves and another $70 billion in foreign assets held abroad.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen said the alliance has assets that can be used in this crisis and that it could "act as an enabler and coordinator, if and when, individual member states want to take action."

Meanwhile, foreign nationals faced a "massive challenge," Rasmussen said, as they braved rough seas to escape the violence in the north African nation. A British ship left Benghazi -- the nation's second-largest city -- with 207 people on board. A ferry carrying 338 people -- 183 of them Americans -- departed Tripoli Friday and arrived in Malta at night.

"I feel for the people who are still there and didn't get a chance to get out, because it's chaos," said Yusra Tekbalim, one of the passengers. She said she had remained hunkered down in her house for four days, during which she heard what sounded like machine-gun fire.

"I think that the Libyans know what this regime is capable of, but I think for the first time the world is actually seeing it," she said.

Another ferry arrived in Malta from Tripoli carrying more than 300 people, including 200 employees of Schlumberger, the oil and gas technology, and their families, a company spokeswoman said.

Libya's uprising, after four decades of Gadhafi's iron rule, took root first in the nation's eastern province. Benghazi and other smaller eastern towns are no longer within Gadhafi's control.

But closer to Tripoli, where the dictator maintains some support, protesters were still being met with brute force.

The city of Zawiya -- about 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of Tripoli -- was the epicenter of violent protests Thursday. Doctors at a field hospital said early Friday that 17 people were killed and 150 more wounded when government forces attacked.

Anti-government forces said they had gained control of Zawiya as Gadhafi accused followers of Osama bin Laden of adding hallucinogenic drugs to residents' drinks to spark the unrest.

"They put it with milk or with other drinks, spiked drinks," he said Thursday in a telephone call to state television.

The international fallout, like the protests, has also spread. Switzerland ordered Gadhafi's assets frozen, the foreign ministry said.

Organizers call for second round of demonstrations across China.

Beijing; Nearly a week after calls for widespread pro-democracy protests fell flat in China, organizers are making another attempt at rallying support for the so-called "jasmine" demonstrations for this weekend.

Efforts to organize last Sunday were deemed largely unsuccessful after casual observers and police outnumbered the few protesters that showed up for the demonstrations.

On Friday, anonymous instructions on a site on Facebook, which is blocked in China, encouraged people to show up at central locations in about two-dozen major Chinese cities and "go for a walk" together this Sunday. Along with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube continue to be blocked, making calls for action available only to those outside mainland China or to Chinese who have access to virtual private networks with foreign IP addresses.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn, one of the last social networking sites allowed in the country, was blocked in China on Friday as the government ramped up internet censorship.
'Jasmine' protests fizzle in China

This time around, organizers are masking the events as "liang hui" -- a Mandarin term which commonly refers to meetings held each March by China's political leadership. The cleverly selected terminology is an attempt by protest organizers to circumvent censorship on popular microblogs in the lead-up to actual meetings held by the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Words such as "jasmine" in Chinese and "Wangfujing" -- the famous Beijing shopping strip where Sunday's demonstrations are set to begin -- were not searchable on China's most popular microblog, Sina Weibo, on Friday. The Chinese name of U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. -- who showed up at last Sunday's "jasmine" protest in Beijing -- are also blocked.

When searching the terms, users see a message that states: "According to relevant laws and policies, search results cannot be shown."

Huntsman, wearing a black leather jacked with a patch of the American flag on his left shoulder, was captured at last week's protest in a widely viewed video posted on YouTube, in which he's called out by some in the crowd. One asks if he is "hoping China will become chaotic?" -- a reference to the unrest that has consumed several countries in Africa and the Middle East as protesters there demand democracy.

Speaking in Mandarin, Huntsman tells them that he "just came to have a look." The hecklers accuse him of pretending to not know about the protest and feigning ignorance.

The U.S. Embassy declined comment.

For Sunday, organizers have posted details on the Facebook page encouraging participants to be peaceful. In the event of "adverse treatment" the site advised individuals to be as tolerant as possible and show a "high level of Chinese character" in the "pursuit of democracy and freedom., "