NATO air strikes pounded two government buildings early Tuesday in the Libyan capital, including the interior ministry, setting them ablaze.

A bomb was defused near Dublin ahead of a historic state visit by Britain's Queen Elizabeth to Ireland starting Tuesday, Irish police said.

Syrian villagers pulled 13 bodies from a mass grave near the southern city of Deraa on Monday, residents said, and thousands joined a night-time march in a Damascus suburb demanding the overthrow of the government.

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been remanded in custody at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail on charges of sexual assault.  

The world's top war crimes prosecutor sought an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of killing protesters who want an end to end his four-decade rule.  

The US government hit the debt ceiling on May 17, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress.  

Gunmen on motorcycles attacked a car belonging to the Saudi Arabian consulate in the Pakistan city of Karachi on May 16 killing a Saudi diplomat, police and the Saudi ambassador said.

A UN envoy held talks in Libya on May 15, as NATO warplanes kept up their bombardment of forces loyal to longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi, Libyan government officials said.

The head of the International Monetary Fund was set to answer charges on May 16 that he chased a housekeeping employee down the hall of his swanky New York hotel suite and tried to sexually assault her.

Israeli troops shot Palestinian protesters who surged toward its frontiers with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on May 15, killing at least 13 people on the day Palestinians mourn the establishment of Israel in 1948.