WORLD AT A GLANCE

Turmoil in Tripoli

Political analysts suggest that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's 41-year rule of Libya may come to an end. The country appeared to slip further into chaos. Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi vowed "to fight to the last drop of blood." Clashes intensified in the capital, Tripoli.

Opposition forces claimed control of a string of cities across nearly half of Libya's 1,000 mile Mediterranean coast.

Vowing to track down and kill protesters "house by house," Col. Qaddafi tightened his grip on the capital on Tuesday, but the eastern half of the country was slipping beyond his control. After a televised speech by Colonel Qaddafi, thousands of his supporters converged in the city's central Green Square, wearing green bandannas and brandishing large machetes.

Qaddafi ordered his followers to crush an uprising against his 41-year rule and vowed a fight to the death as he swatted away growing outrage over a brutal crackdown on protesters.

Qaddafi's statement came as another key member of his regime, Interior Minister Abdel Fatah Yunes, said he was resigning and called on the armed forces to back the week-long rebellion.

The Libyan political crisis occupied the central focus of last week's foreign news. Although conflicting reports emerged from Tripoli, it was reported that part of the capital had already been captured by the protestors with support from some defectors of the Libyan army.

According to the Economist online news: "It was vintage Qaddafi. After a blood-soaked week of unrest, Libya's leader delivered a rambling, hectoring, fist-pounding speech on February 22. He blasted the popular uprising that has left hundreds dead and torn much of the vast north African nation from his grasp as the work of drug addicts and agents of al-Qaeda and America. He shouted that he would never surrender and ordered his men to hunt these "greasy rats" from house to house, without mercy, and take what they wanted. Then he drove off in an electric golf buggy.

After 41 years of his violently capricious rule, Libya's 6.5 million people know Qaddafi well enough to take him seriously. No one expects him to go quietly, as the presidents of neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia did. In the densely populated region around the Libyan capital, marauding gangs loyal to the regime, backed by African mercenaries and well-armed troops commanded by Qaddafi's son, Khamis, have spread enough terror to stall the momentum of the street protests that began on February 15. For now Qaddafi appears safe at his headquarters, within the triple walls of the sprawling Bab al-Aziziya barracks near the city centre.

Oil production has slumped and the economy has ceased to function, not least because thousands of the foreign workers who keep it running have fled, been evacuated, or are trying desperately to leave. Britain's government has been accused of doing too little to get its citizens out, while fear of reprisals against American oil workers persuaded President Barack Obama to say nothing about Libya until February 23, when he condemned the violence, but took no action."

In the meantime, news emerged that Qaddafi has secretly deposited three billion pounds ($4.8 billion) with one of London's Mayfair private wealth managers last week as he sought to protect his family's fortunes.

The deal was brokered on his behalf by a Swiss-based intermediary who, it is understood, had previously approached another well-known city stockbroking firm five weeks ago with a view to depositing funds.

However, when that stockbroker discovered the ultimate identity of the source of the funds, it advised the intermediary to take his business elsewhere.

Earthquake in New Zealand

When the 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch on Wednesday, at least 75 people were reported dead and 200 people reported missing. Several buildings were demolished in this graceful 19th-century city of nearly 400,000 people, during the busy weekday lunch hour. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key declared a national state of emergency after a cabinet meeting. The news on Saturday morning indicates the death toll has reached 123 and that it would rise, with more than 200 people still missing. Of these many were feared trapped in the ruins of New Zealand's second largest city.

Two large office towers, the Pyne Gould building and the Canterbury Television headquarters, virtually collapsed. Some cars and buses were smashed by falling debris.

On Wednesday a woman who had been trapped under her desk in the building was rescued from the Pyne Gould Corporation building in central Christchurch, more than a day after being trapped by the earthquake.

According to reports, the woman was a former Australian resident Anne Vos, who called her son on Tuesday to say that she was trapped under a desk.

The quake is the worst in 80 years and the first time a natural disaster has been declared in New Zealand.

Jasmine revolution spreads to Morocco

Amidst the wave of uprisings, Morocco claims to be the first country to be taking the shock in its stride. Tens of thousands protested last week in various cities, but rarely clashed with the police, who had been ordered to give the protesters a wide berth. Some rioting did take place, especially in the north of the country, where five people died at a bank that was set on fire - a reminder of the social tensions that simmer in Morocco's slums. But trouble was limited and slight.

The government says this is evidence of a freer environment for dissent than in the rest of the region. But it is not, for now, addressing the protesters' main demands - notably a call to turn the kingdom into a constitutional monarchy, as in Britain or Spain. Nor is it obvious that further unrest will be tolerated.