Libya's Gadhafi threatens to take war to Europe

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says NATO should "withdraw and run away."NEW: U.S. is taking the threats seriously, State Department spokesman saysGadhafi says the battle may one day be taken to EuropeHis recorded message was aired at a Tripoli rallyState Department spokesman says Gadhafi is "given to overblown rhetoric"

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Moammar Gadhafi, rallying his supporters in war-torn Libya, threatened Friday to take the fighting to Europe, according to an audio message aired by state TV.

"You are mistaken, you are involved in a battle that you don't know what you are going to face, so withdraw, and run away," Gadhafi told a pro-government gathering in Tripoli. "Our people is able in one day to move the battle to the Mediterranean, and able to move the battle to Europe."

Gadhafi referred to NATO, which began bombing military targets in Libya after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution in March authorizing force by whatever means necessary, with the exception of a ground invasion, to protect civilians.

Libya rebels claim talks with France over weapons supply

He vowed vengeance for the bombings, saying the Libyan military could be "like locusts, like bees" in Europe. Homes and offices could be potential targets, he said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States was taking seriously the Libyan leader's remarks. "Certainly this is an individual who's obviously capable of carrying out these kinds of threats," he told reporters. "It's what makes him so dangerous. But he's also someone who's given to overblown rhetoric."

He said the United States would continue to support NATO's mission of increasing pressure on Gadhafi to step aside.

Gadhafi's daughter: 'My father is a symbol, a guide'

The French government, meanwhile, is in talks with Libyan rebels about supplying them with weapons and ammunition, a Libyan opposition military spokesman in Misrata said late Thursday.

The French government has not confirmed the claim, which follows an acknowledgment earlier this week that its military has previously dropped light weaponry to rebels elsewhere.

CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this story

CNN

Ukraine president threatens to 'bury' corrupt officials (AFP)

KIEV (AFP) – Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich on Friday threatened to "bury" corrupt officials and to "rip off" their heads, in comments to an economic forum in Kiev.

"If you prevent the development of businesses and the economy, if you push for bribes ... and if you get caught, your head will be ripped off," said the president, the Interfax agency reported.

"I'm not kidding.

"We are making it quite clear: in two days, extortion of funds has to stop taking place.

"If, after that, someone is caught red-handed, he won't get away, we'll bury him."

Yanukovich promised a merciless fight against corruption, evoking his experience fighting the problem during his time as governor of his native Donetsk region, in the east of the country, between 1997 and 2002.

Yanukovich's comments Friday went further than remarks he made in April when he acknowledged the systemic nature of corruption in Ukraine.

Businessmen have repeatedly complained of the problem in their domain, arguing that it is one of the main obstacles to the country's economic development.

Several businessmen have even claimed that the situation has got worse since Yanukovich was elected in February 2010.

Since coming to office, he has started legal proceedings against several senior officials in the previous administration now in opposition, who have for their part denounced the moves against them as politically motivated.

Last week, Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko went on trial on charges of abuse of power. In court, she denounced the trial as a "farce and a circus" saying it had been politically motivated.

Both the United States and the European Union have also expressed reservations about the trial.

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Wildfire threatens Los Alamos National Lab

(CNN) -- The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will be closed Monday as fire crews battle a wildfire raging nearby, a statement on the facility's website said.

"All laboratory facilities will be closed for all activities and nonessential employees are directed to remain off site," the statement said. "Employees are considered nonessential and should not report to work unless specifically directed by their line managers."

A spokesman for the New Mexico State Forestry Division, however, told CNN the order to evacuate Los Alamos was voluntary, and stressed that there is no immediate threat to the facility.

The Los Conchas fire, which flared up Sunday afternoon, was reported to be less than a mile from the lab's southwestern boundaries late Sunday, another statement from the facility said.

The fire has spread across nearly 44,000 acres, according to state officials. Approximately 100 local residents have been evacuated, and nearby Bandelier National Monument has been closed for at least three days, they said.

Special crews have been dispatched to Water Canyon near the lab to protect the facility, according to the statement.

"All radioactive and hazardous material is appropriately accounted for and protected," the lab said.

Los Alamos, a center of American nuclear science, is one of the nation's top national-security research facilities.

It "enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns," its website says.

The lab is located about 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 36 square miles of property owned by the Department of Energy. More than 11,000 employees work at the facility.

It is a joint project of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and the Washington Division of URS, operated for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

CNN's Shawn Nottingham, Ric Ward, and Maria White contributed to this report

CNN

Al-Qaeda confirms bin Laden's death, threatens new attacks

Al-Qaeda has confirmed Osama bin Laden's death in an Internet statement, The Associated Press reports.

The terror network says today in a statement that bin Laden's blood "will not be wasted" and that it will continue attacking Americans and their allies.

Update at 3:01 p.m. ET: The Taliban says bin Laden's death will "give a new impetus" to wage war against the United States and its allies, AP reports.

Update at 9:34 a.m. ET: There was no indication how the group will retaliate. Rather than making vehement cries of vengeance, the statement — entitled "You lived as a good man, you died as a martyr" — struck a tone of calmness and continuation. Though it included praise of bin Laden, much of the 11-paragraph statement was dedicated to underlining that al-Qaeda would live on, depicting him as just another in a line of "martyrs" from the group.

"It is impossible, impossible. Sheik Osama didn't build an organization to die when he dies," the statement reads. "The university of faith, Quran and jihad from which bin Laden graduated will not close its doors," it adds.

"The soldiers of Islam will continue in groups and united, plotting and planning without getting bored, tired, with determination, without giving up until striking a blow," the statement says.

It says bin Laden was killed "along an established path followed by the best of those who came before him and those who will come after him."

The writers of the statement appeared unaware of the announcement by American officials that bin Laden's body had been buried at sea. The statement warns against mishandling or mistreating bin Laden's body and demands that it be handed over to his family, saying "any harm (to the body) will open more doors of evil, and there will be no one to blame but yourselves."

It also says that an audio message bin Laden recorded a week before his death would be issued soon.

Update at 8:55 a.m. ET: The statement, dated May 3, was the first by the terror network since bin Laden was killed by U.S. commandos in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The Associated Press says the statement's authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but it was posted on websites where the group traditionally puts out its messages.

It also says that an audio message bin Laden recorded a week before his death would be issued soon.

"We stress that the blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims and will no go in vain," the statement says. "We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries."

"Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness," it says, "their blood will be mingled with their tears."

In the statement, al-Qaeda also calls on the people of Pakistan — "where Sheik Osama was killed" — to rise up in revolt against its leaders.

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Rising Mississippi threatens U.S. town

A boy in Cairo, Illinois, looks over a levee wall holding back floodwaters from the Ohio River.NEW: 100 residents evacuated in Missouri floodway areaAn Illinois mayor asks some residents to be ready to evacuate in town of Cairo A federal judge ruled the Army Corps of Engineers may burst a Mississippi River levee The plan would flood more than 130,000 evacuated acres in southeastern Missouri

(CNN) -- An Illinois mayor urged some residents on Friday to make plans to evacuate the town as the flood-engorged Mississippi River reached record levels.

Cairo Mayor Judson Childs asked "senior citizens, people with medical conditions or special needs along with families with children that live in single-story homes" to be ready leave the flood-threatened town, according to a written statement.

Earlier on Friday, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may intentionally burst a Mississippi River levee in an effort to prevent the flooding of the town.

Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, ruled that a 1928 law permitted the breach of the levee to ease pressure on the Mississippi River.

The Corps' plan would flood more than 130,000 evacuated acres -- much of it farmland -- in southeastern Missouri, said Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.

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Koster argues the corps is trying to protect the town of Cairo, located downstream.

James Pogue, chief spokesman in the Corps' Memphis office, said the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway is a "safety valve" in the current crisis.

The floodway would help direct the flow of the excess waters.

"This allows us to do what nature will do anyway, (but) in a controlled system," he said.

Limbaugh said the Corps may implement the plan "only as absolutely essential to provide the authorized protection to all citizens."

He added that the Corps' plan does not suggest "arbitrary or capricious decision-making."

Birds Point is about 140 miles south of St. Louis. The floodway is about 35 miles from north to south and is four to 12 miles wide.

Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh ordered barges to be moved north on the river to prepare for the levee breach, Pogue said. "The decision was to move forward with the plan."

About 100 people were ordered from their homes in Birds Point-New Madrid due to utilities being cut off in the area, Pogue said.

The Corps, which has authority over flood control, will make a final decision before the barges and teams get to work at Birds Point, he said.

About 100 families live in the floodway, which has not seen such use since 1937.

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DeMint Threatens Filibuster on Debt Ceiling Vote

Sen. Jim DeMint talks with reporters near the Senate floor on Capitol Hill Dec. 22, 2010.

Throwing down the gauntlet, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint threatened Monday to block a vote in Congress on raising the U.S. debt ceiling unless he wins a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. 

The filibuster threat comes a day after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner suggested Republican leaders had offered private assurances to the White House that they ultimately would vote to raise the $14.3 trillion ceiling, regardless of whether a deal is reached on long-term spending cuts. 

Publicly, Republicans say they will demand spending cuts as a condition for supporting a hike in the debt ceiling. They stood by that claim following Geithner's comments, and DeMint took their demands a step further. 

"I will oppose any attempt to vote to raise the limit on our $14 trillion debt until Congress passes the balanced-budget amendment," the South Carolina conservative said. He first made the remarks to McClatchy, which his office confirmed to Fox News. 

A balanced-budget amendment would prohibit the U.S. government from running a deficit. Such a provision would take a two-thirds vote in Congress, in addition to ratification by the states. 

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not address DeMint's threat directly during his briefing with reporters on Monday, but he did say that the "cleanliness" of the bill -- in other words, that there are no policy attachments to it -- is not an issue. 

"The issue here is the debt ceiling has to be raised, and it cannot be held hostage to a process that is very complicated and difficult," he said. "We hope we will reach an agreement on deficit reduction -- a bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction within the time frame. We believe that's possible."

All GOP senators already have signed onto a balanced-budget amendment proposal, reviving a push from the mid-'90s -- when the House approved such an amendment, and the Senate fell one vote short of doing the same. 

DeMint's demand, though, goes beyond those of other Republicans who say they just want to see a serious plan for closing the deficit as a condition for support on a debt-limit increase. 

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla,, said on "Fox News Sunday" that he needs to have "absolute certainty" a deficit reduction plan includes "critical changes." 

"Unless we do that, there's no way I'll support it," Coburn said on the debt ceiling increase. 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on CNN's "State of the Union," said it's "yet to be determined" whether he would support a filibuster on the debt ceiling vote. 

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., though, said Congress should not "monkey around with the full faith and credit of the United States." 

"Linking the two and saying you're only going to vote for the debt ceiling if something particular happens on deficit reduction I think is playing Russian roulette with, like, the fully loaded revolver," he said on "Fox News Sunday." 

Geithner said repeatedly Sunday that lawmakers who want to take the country to the "brink" will bear the responsibility for the risk that creates. 

He suggested that merely flirting with that edge would create a problem. But he said if Congress ultimately rejects an increase in the debt limit, it would trigger a crisis that makes that 2008 meltdown look tame. Geithner reiterated warnings that such a vote would force the government to halt benefits payments to seniors and veterans and would risk the government defaulting on its interest.

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