From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Gaddafi's Libya, a nation on fire.

Hello again, I'm Orrin Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Estimates of the numbers

dead in Libya are reaching into the hundreds, protesters killed by soldiers and by mercenaries

from other countries. In a defiant speech, Omar Gaddafi said he would fight to the last

drop of blood despite defections by diplomats and military desertions. Some tribal leaders have threatened

to stop the flow of oil from one of the world's major sources unless security forces stop the bloodshed.

We'll hear more about the most violent Middle Eastern uprising so far and the implications for the U.S., Europe, and the rest of the Arab world.

On reporter's notebook later on the U.S. Supreme Court and childhood vaccines.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Warren. I'll new back with To the Point.

Defecting Libyan Democrats, diplomats are among those saying there's a massacre taking place in their country

and demanding that Colonel Mubar Gaddafi stepped down after 41 years in power.

We'll have more today.

On reporter's notebook, the U.S. Supreme Court rules 6 to 2

that a family cannot collect damages for injuries caused by a childhood vaccine.

First, this update, for the first time since a wave of hijackings began off the Horn of Africa 20 years ago, four American hostages have lost their lives.

Gene and Scott Adam were for Southern California, Phyllis Mackie, and

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