Japan was on Wednesday considering plans to drape shattered nuclear reactor buildings with special covers to limit radiation, and pump contaminated water into a tanker.

Myanmar's military handed power to a civilian government after almost 50 years in power Wednesday, as the ruling government was disbanded and a new president appointed.

Japan said there was no end in sight to the crisis at its earthquake-wrecked nuclear power plant on Wednesday as a spike in radioactive iodine levels in seawater added to evidence of reactor leakages around the complex and beyond.

Severe flooding in southern Thailand has killed 11 people and stranded thousands of tourists on resort islands, authorities said on Wednesday, predicting more rain and issuing warnings for possible mudslides.

Muammar Gaddafi's forces hammered rebels with tanks and rockets, turning their rapid advance into a panicked retreat in an hours-long battle on Tuesday.

A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle attacked a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, striking amid a crowd gathered along the road to greet a prominent hardline Islamist politician and killing 13 people, police said.

France and the United States are to help Japan in its battle to contain radiation from a crippled nuclear complex where plutonium finds have raised public alarm over the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

Pro-government forces have intensified their attacks on Libyan rebels, driving them back tens of kilometres over ground they had taken in recent days.

Former President Jimmy Carter and Cuban President Raul Castro discussed US-Cuba relations in a meeting on Tuesday in which Castro repeated an offer to hold talks with the United States on any issue, Cuban state television said.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said his government is in a state of maximum alert over the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.