World News: US military action prevented Libya slaughter says Obama

Vigorously defending the first war launched on his watch, President Barack Obama declared that the United States intervened in Libya to prevent a slaughter of civilians that would have stained the world's conscience.

However, he ruled out targeting Colonel Gaddafi, warning that trying to oust the Libyan leader by military means would be a mistake as costly as Iraq.

Mr Obama announced that Nato would take command over the entire Libya operation tomorrow, keeping his pledge to get the US out of the lead fast, but offering no estimate on when the conflict might end and no details about its costs, despite demands for those answers.

In his nationally televised speech last night, Mr Obama declined to label the US-led military campaign a "war," but made an expansive case for why he believed it was in the national interest of the United States and its allies to use force.

He said the US-led response had stopped Gaddafi's advances and halted a slaughter that could have shaken the stability of an entire region.

He said: "To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader . . . would have been a betrayal of who we are."

Former president visits Cuba

US former president Jimmy Carter is in Cuba for a three-day visit that comes at a time of strained relations between the two countries.

Mr Carter is widely expected to try to help secure the release of imprisoned US government contractor Alan Gross.

Bid to settle maid dispute

The Philippine vice-president is travelling to Saudi Arabia after authorities there effectively banned Filipinos from being hired as domestic helpers in a row over contracts.

The Saudi government has told officials to stop verifying whether contracts conform with Philippine labour laws.

Plutonium fears in Japan

Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said.

Plutonium has been detected in small amounts at several spots outside the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant for the first time.

Safety chiefs said the amounts were not a risk to humans, but supported suspicions that dangerously radioactive water was leaking from damaged nuclear fuel rods.

Website pays out over Beatles

A website that sold Beatles songs online for 15p each before they became legally available is to pay record companies nearly one million dollars (594,000).

A US District Judge signed off on the settlement between BlueBeat.com and EMI Group, Capitol Records and Virgin Records America.

Friendly fire kills 13 troops in Pakistan

Pakistan: Friendly fire killed 13 troops caught up in a militant ambush close to the Afghan border, a Pakistani military commander said today.

Asif Yasin Malik said a mortar fell short during the fight in the Khyber region.

Honduras: Police using tear gas and water cannons dispersed a group of protesters who blocked a main avenue in the capital to demand the return of ousted ex-president Manuel Zelaya.