World: Raging Gaddafi dares Nato to keep up Libya campaign

Provoked by renewed daylight Nato bombing of his capital, Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi raged against the alliance, screaming his message and daring Western forces to keep it up.

Gaddafi spoke in a telephone call that was piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Tripoli's Green Square yesterday, at the end of a day when Nato intensified bombing runs across the capital.

State television carried the Gaddafi message live, then repeated it a few minutes later.

"Nato will be defeated," he yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice. "They will pull out in defeat."

The sound of automatic weapons being fired defiantly into the air echoed through the square for hours as carloads of pro-Gaddafi supporters, many with children in tow, crammed the streets leading to the plaza.

Protesters and foreign journalists in the capital said it was one of the biggest such demonstrations since airstrikes began.

East of Tripoli, Gaddafi's forces exchanged intense shelling with rebels who are slowly breaking the government siege on their western stronghold, the port city of Misrata

Two British soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Two British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.

One serviceman, from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, serving with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, was killed by a bomb in Helmand Province, and the second, from the Parachute Regiment, was hit by small arms fire.

The men, who were both killed on Thursday, are expected to be named by the MoD later today.

Former Zambian leader dies

Zambia's first democratically elected president, Frederick Chiluba, who became increasingly autocratic during his ten years in office, has died. He was 65.

Mr Chiluba, who took office in 1991, suffered from acute heart problems.

Morocco set for reforms

Moroccan King Mohammed VI announced a series of constitutional reforms in a speech that he said would turn the North African country into a constitutional monarchy.

Under the new constitution, the king will remain the supreme commander of the army and a new article formalised him as the highest religious authority in the country.

The speech came after a three-month review of the constitution in the wake of protests in February.

Civilians dead in Syrian clashes

Syrian security forces fired on thousands of protesters, killing a teenage boy and at least 15 other civilians as accounts emerged of more indiscriminate killing and summary executions by the autocratic regime of President Bashar Assad, activists fighting for reform said today.Tot survives window fall

A US toddler fell from a third-floor window in his home but had his fall broken by a porch awning and is expected to survive.

Police said the two-year-old from Pennsylvania, landed on the awning, rolled over the edge and dropped about 12 feet to the pavement.