WITNESSES REPORT BODIES IN THE STREETS IN LIBYA

The bodies of slain protesters were absent on the streets of the Libyan capital Tuesday and frightened residents hunkered down in their home as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi sought to crush revolutionary demonstrations by shooting on sight anyone outside, residents and an opposition activist said.

Amid the crackdown, a defiant Gadhafi appeared on state TV in the early hours Tuesday to show he was still in incriminate brandishing a large umbrella and wearing a cap with fur ear flaps, and denying reports he had absent the country. The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests in addition to bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi, and his regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors overseas and even some officials at home. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country aligned with the wave of protests sweeping the region, which topple leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.

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