Japan's government approved 4 trillion yen (US$48.5 billion) in spending on April 22 for its first emergency budget for disaster relief, six weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami, and kept its promise of issuing no new bonds to fund it.

Japanese consumers may have to help foot the reconstruction bill after last month's earthquake and tsunami caused US$300 billion of damage, further burdening a hugely indebted economy, a newspaper said on April 18.

One virtue of the plan is that Vietnam is considering appropriate policies and measures to ensure both its own food security and food exports in a sustainable manner.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al- Moallem said here on Monday that "reforms in Syria are existing and continuing, and those who want them should not use violence and weapons," the official SANA news agency reported Monday.

Operator of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, devastated by the March 11 quake and tsunami, began Tuesday to move the highly radioactive water to a storage facility, according to media reports.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that Britain and Ireland will continue to work "extremely closely" on shared economic and security issues.

The economic reform policy will be the focus of discussion at the 6th National Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC), which is taking place in Havana from April 16 to 19.

 At least 188 people were killed and 2,786 others were injured in road accidents in Thailand from April 11 to 15, the first five days of the Thai traditional Songkran Festival holiday, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department reported on April 16.

Leaders of the five fast-growing emerging economies vowed to support the reform and improvement in international monetary system for the establishment of a stable, reliable and broad-based international reserve currency system.

Japanese police have begun searching for victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami within a 10km zone around the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

Oil markets will continue to tighten over the next two years given expected robust growth in world oil demand and slow growth in supply from non-OPEC countries, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Tuesday.

The U.S. Congress on Tuesday revealed the 2011 spending bill, specifying where lawmakers will cut billions of dollars from the federal budget.

Libyan rebels, backed forcefully by European leaders, rejected a cease-fire proposal by African mediators on Monday because it did not insist that Muammar Gaddafi relinquish power.

Japan raised the severity of its nuclear disaster to the highest level on Tuesday, putting it on a par with the world's worst disaster nuclear accident at Chernobyl after another major aftershock rattled the quake-ravaged east.