As NATO has begun to take over the task of enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, Western coalition warplanes continued to pound Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's bastion and hometown.

Voters in Egypt will elect members of parliament in September and cast ballots for president sometime after that, a member of the ruling military council said Monday.

Highly radioactive water has been found for the first time outside one of the reactor buildings at Japan's quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, officials say.

President Barack Obama told Americans on March 28 the US will work with its allies to hasten the day when Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi leaves power, but will not use force to topple him.

At least 121 people were killed and 45 injured in an explosion at an ammunition factory in southern Yemen on March 28, medical sources said.

Japanese authorities on March 28 called off a tsunami advisory after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake off the country's northeast coast produced little more than ripples.  

A suicide car bomb went off in Afghanistan's Paktika province, some 155 km southeast of capital city of Kabul, late on March 27, killing 10 people and injuring over 50 others, spokesman for provincial administration Mukhlis Afghan on March 28 said.

Japan appeared resigned on March 28 to a long fight to contain the world's most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant.

Nato's Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has announced its decision to take on the whole military operation in Libya "with immediate effect".

Fighting between Yemeni security forces and members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has left people on both sides dead over the past two days, Yemeni security forces said.