The Group of Eight powers gathered in Paris on Monday to thrash out a common line on possible intervention to ground the warplanes pounding Libya's rebels.

A Taliban suicide blast hit an army recruitment centre in northern Afghanistan Monday, killing 36 people and wounding another 42 in the second attack on the base in three months.

Up to 35 migrants sailing from Tunisia to Italy were missing after their boat capsized, Italian port authorities were quoted by ANSA news agency as saying.

The US Embassy said on Monday it was ‘deeply concerned’ by Israeli plans to build hundreds of new homes in West Bank settlements, calling the Israeli enclaves "illegitimate" and an obstacle to resuming direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

A second explosion has hit a Japanese nuclear plant that was damaged in Friday's earthquake, but officials said the reactor core was still intact.

Japan raced to avert a meltdown of two reactors at a quake-hit nuclear plant on Monday as the death toll from the disaster on the ravaged northeast coast was forecast to exceed 10,000.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling party was on course to win regional elections marred by allegations of fraud on March 13, the last big test of its support before parliamentary and presidential polls.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said Japan is experiencing its greatest hardships since World War II as it tackles the aftermath of an earthquake, tsunami and a growing nuclear crisis.

Libyan forces supporting Col Muammar Gaddafi have advanced on rebel-held strongholds, reportedly recapturing the eastern town of Brega.

Israel approved the construction of several hundred housing units in the West Bank, the prime minister's office said early on March 13 after five Israelis were killed in their home in the disputed territory.