Armed US Predator drones are to carry out missions over Libya, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.

Japan's government approved 4 trillion yen (US$48.5 billion) in spending on April 22 for its first emergency budget for disaster relief, six weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami, and kept its promise of issuing no new bonds to fund it.

France and Italy announced on April 21 that they will send military officers to Libya to advise rebels fighting for the ouster of leader Moammar Gadhafi and his regime.

At least 16 people have been killed in a blast in one of the largest gambling dens in the volatile Pakistani city of Karachi.

At least 27 people died on April 21 when a ferry carrying about 100 people sank in a Bangladeshi river after striking a sunken cargo boat, police and officials said.

Japan has made it illegal to enter a 20km (12-mile) evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima nuclear reactor.

Casualties mounted in Yemen on April 20 as world powers grappled with the political crisis paralyzing the impoverished and restive nation.

The European Commission on Wednesday presented its 2012 draft budget for the European Union (EU), seeking an increase of 4.9 percent over this year at a time when EU governments are tightening their belts amid the debt crisis.

Most of the foreign diplomatic missions in Tokyo, Japan have reopened after a short temporary evacuation out of concern about the radioactive leakage at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

Fighting in Libya's besieged rebel city of Misrata killed at least 10 civilians including an Oscar-nominated British filmmaker, and NATO urged non-combatants to avoid troops so it could step up air strikes.