 » Libyan forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi regained several coastal towns, including Ras Lanuf and Brega, which had been captured by rebels only a few days before, while Misrata, the nearest rebel-held town to Tripoli, the capital, was being fiercely fought over. A conference on Libya in London drew representatives of 40-odd governments and international bodies to discuss the latest military, political and humanitarian plans for handling the crisis. Colonel Qaddafi's foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, fled to London. See article » Demonstrations in Syria were suppressed by security forces, leaving scores dead in several towns, including Latakia, a stronghold of the minority Alawite sect, to which President Bashar Assad belongs. In an address to parliament, he said he would lift the 48-year-old state of emergency, but did not say when. See article » Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, facing mass demonstrations and growing dissent within his ruling circle, offered to transfer his powers to a caretaker government while retaining the presidency until elections are held. Protesters declined the offer, which was made to the head of an Islamist party that had once been a partner in Mr Saleh's government. An explosion in a weapons factory in the south killed at least 150 people.  » Sectarian relations soured in the Middle East after Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia, praised the mainly Shia protesters in Bahrain and criticised Sunni Saudi Arabia for helping to suppress them on behalf of the ruling Bahraini family, which is also Sunni. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hizbullah, Lebanon's powerful Shia party-cum-militia, also aroused anger among Sunni governments in the Gulf by praising the Bahrain protesters and likening the ruling family there to Libya's Qaddafis. See article » At least 55 people were killed in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town, after suicide-bombers thought to be linked to al-Qaeda took a score of hostages, including several members of the local council, prompting government forces to storm the building. » Guerrilla forces allied to Alassane Ouattara, the winner of last year's presidential elections in Côte d'Ivoire, took several towns in the west from troops loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the sitting president who refuses to step down. A civil war is under way; a battle for Abidjan, the commercial capital, may begin soon. See article
Combining hard and soft power » In his first big speech on the conflict in Libya Barack Obama laid out the reasons why he thought America should be involved. Mr Obama has been criticised on the left and the right for committing America to join a military effort to protect Libyan civilians, but he said that America could not brush aside its "responsibilities to our fellow human beings". Many saw the speech as the firmest statement yet of the principles behind his policy towards intervention abroad. See article » In California negotiations broke down over a plan put forward by Jerry Brown, the Democratic governor, to plug the state's deficit. Mr Brown said the legislature's Republicans had presented him with "an ever-changing list of collateral demands" as he sought their support to hold a ballot in June that would ask voters to extend a range of temporary tax increases.
Safety measures » Japan bowed to the inevitable and said it would decommission four of the nuclear reactors at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. Raised levels of radiation were found at a village 40km from the plant and in nearby seawater. The UN's nuclear watchdog suggested widening the 20km exclusion zone. See article » Myanmar's military junta formally dissolved itself and handed over power to an elected parliament and a new president, Thein Sein, a former general. The former dictator, Than Shwe, resigned as head of the army. Members of Aung San Suu Kyi's party denounced the handover
as a fake. See article  » India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, invited his Pakistani counterpart, Yusuf Raza Gilani, to watch a World Cup cricket match between the national sides. Earlier, the countries' senior home-affairs officials agreed jointly to investigate the 2008 killings, by Pakistan-based terrorists, of 170 people in Mumbai. See article » Australia's ruling Labor Party was trounced in state elections in New South Wales, once its stronghold. It had governed the state for 16 years. See article
No change anticipated » As expected, Canada's minority Conservative government fell after it lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament. The Conservatives are forecast to finish first in the election scheduled for May 2nd. See article » A court in Honduras cancelled three outstanding arrest warrants for Manuel Zelaya, a former president who was deposed in a 2009 coup backed by the legislature and judiciary. Mr Zelaya would still have to face corruption charges if he were to return from exile.
Angela's ashes » In Germany Angela Merkel's ruling CDU party lost an important election in the state of Baden-Württemberg, which it had governed continuously for almost 60 years. Boosted by renewed concerns over nuclear power following the disaster in Japan, the Greens did well and will now head a coalition, the first time the party has led a state government. See article » Silvio Berlusconi attended a closed-door pre-trial hearing in Milan relating to a tax-fraud case, his first court appearance in eight years. The case is one of four hanging over Italy's prime minister; the most scurrilous, which involves an underage prostitute, comes to trial on April 6th.  » Tensions between Bosnia's fractious ethnic groups mounted when the EU's representative irked Croats by quashing an election-commission ruling that had paralysed politics in the Federation (the Muslim and Croat part of the country). Bosnia has been without a functioning government for months; some fear that the deadlock could turn violent. » Up to half a million people joined a union-organised protest in London against the British government's spending cuts. Separately, some activists staged sit-ins inside retail outlets held by companies they accuse of avoiding taxes; others defaced walls and smashed the windows of banks, hotels and posh shops. See article | 
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