Saudi troops clashed with Yemeni Houthi fighters on March 31 in the heaviest exchange of cross-border fire since the start of a Saudi-led air offensive last week, while Yemen's foreign minister called for a rapid Arab intervention on the ground.

Six world powers and Iran missed a March 31 deadline to reach an outline accord reining in Tehran's nuclear program, extending talks into an extra day as they edged toward a deal but failed to agree crucial details such as the lifting of UN sanctions.

The German pilot who crashed a plane in the French Alps last week, killing 150 people, told officials at a Lufthansa training school in 2009 that he had gone through a period of severe depression, the airline said on March 31.

Iran and six world powers ramped up the pace of negotiations on March 31 ahead of a deadline for a preliminary nuclear deal that was less than 24 hours away, as both sides warned it was crucial to overcome differences that could wreck an agreement.

An air strike killed at least 40 people at a camp for displaced people in north Yemen on March 30, humanitarian workers said, in an attack which apparently targeted nearby Houthi fighters who are battling President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Tens of thousands of people braved heavy rain and lined the streets of Singapore on March 29 to catch a last glimpse of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew as his funeral procession wound through the country he helped build.

Four apartment buildings in New York's East Village neighborhood caught fire from an apparent gas explosion on March 26 and three collapsed, injuring 19 people, authorities said.

Search teams deploy after an Airbus operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote area of the French Alps on March 24, killing all 150 people on board.

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first prime minister, died on Monday aged 91, triggering a flood of tributes to the man who oversaw the tiny city-state's rapid rise from a British colonial backwater to a global trade and financial center.

Vietnam’s diesel purchases from members of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) have risen after a tax cut on imports from the region took effect in January, with more spot cargoes coming from Singapore and Malaysia, sources said.