Russia:
* Radiation levels were within the norm in the Russian Far East despite radiation leaks from Japan’s Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant severely affected by last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry reported
* Sochi 2014 Olympics’ mascot snow leopard is a symbol of a new Russia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in an interview to Rossiya (Russia) and Moya Planeta (My Planet) TV-channels
World:
* Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called all military forces for the “immediate ceasefire,” Sky news reported
* Arab eastern countries joined the Western military operation that has effectively established a no-fly zone against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, world media reported
* The U.S. missiles hit at least 20 of Libyan 22 targets, the U.S. Africa Command said
* Russia urges western nations to stop the indiscriminate use of force in Libya, the Russian Foreign Ministry said
* Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh dismissed the government of Prime Minister Ali Mujawar, SABA Yemeni news agency reported
* Egyptians approved constitutional changes, the head of the supreme judicial committee Mohammed Ahmed Attiyah said
* The confirmed death toll from last week’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan has risen to 8,133, police told Kyodo news agency
* The situation at the Japanese Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant hit by series of explosions is not getting worse, Russian state-controlled nuclear corporation Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko told Russia 24 TV-channel
* Japanese engineers started pumping seawater into the second reactor of the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant severely damaged by last week’s devastating earthquake and powerful tsunami, Kyodo news agency reported
* Rescuers in Japan pulled two survivors, an 80-year-old women and a 16-year-old boy, from underneath the rubble in the town of Ishinomaki in the Miyagi prefecture, nine days after a devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit the country’s northeast, Japanese media reported
* Tibetans around the world voted today for a new leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile, world media reported