Tanks were deployed in Yemen's capital on Monday as a dangerous split opened in the military leadership after top generals joined the revolt against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime.

The Afghan president will reveal Tuesday the first areas where local security forces will take over from NATO, kick-starting a transition designed to allow foreign troops to leave by the end of 2014.

Short-term exposure to food contaminated by radiation from Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant poses no immediate health risk, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said on March 21.

President Barack Obama has said the US will transfer its leading role on Libya "within days" to ensure the burden of enforcing a UN resolution against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is shared.

Key Yemeni General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, long close to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, says he is backing the protest movement against the regime.

The heart of Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli lay in shambles on March 21 as the US and allies continued their mission to dilute the Libyan leader's strength. But Gadhafi's whereabouts, and his plans after promising a "long-drawn war", remained unknown.  

Egyptians have strongly backed constitutional changes that will allow the country to move quickly on to elections.

Police in Japan say 15,000 people may have been killed in a single prefecture, Miyagi, by the huge quake and tsunami which struck nine days ago.

Japan slapped restrictions on some food produced in two provinces around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Sunday after high levels of radioactivity turned up in spinach and milk.

Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami will depress growth briefly before reconstruction kicks off and gives the beleaguered economy a boost, the World Bank said in a report on March 21.