Extremely high levels of radiation were detected in water leaking from reactor two of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, forcing the evacuation of workers, its operator said Sunday.

A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said the level of radiation found in the leaked water in the turbine room was 10 million times higher than it should be for water inside the reactor, indicating damage to the fuel rods.

Pakistan will ask Interpol to circulate a global arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf over the murder of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, a prosecutor said on Saturday.

A Pakistani court last week gave prosecutors until April 2 to serve a warrant granted in February on Musharraf, who was president when Bhutto was killed in December 2007 in a gun and suicide bomb attack in Rawalpindi.

Afghan civilians were killed and wounded in an airstrike by international forces targeting a Taliban commander in the volatile southern province of Helmand, NATO said Saturday, giving no details of numbers.

It said the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) called an airstrike on two vehicles believed to be carrying a Taliban leader and his associates, but later discovered they were transporting civilians.

The United States recognizes President Alassane Ouattara as the rightful leader of the West African nation of Ivory Coast, U.S. President Barack Obama said late Friday.

"Last year's election was free and fair," Obama said in a video message to the leaders and people of Ivory Coast. "And President Alassane Ouattara is the democratically-elected leader of the nation."

Eight people were killed and five wounded Friday when gunmen opened fire on two vehicles carrying Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's lawless tribal region in suspected sectarian violence, officials said.

The vehicles were ambushed in Bagan town of Kurram district, near the Afghan border, and the victims "were all Shiite Muslims", a security official said.

At least 75 people were killed when a strong earthquake struck Myanmar, officials said Friday, with fears that the toll would rise as news filtered through from remote areas still cut off.

Tremors were felt as far away as Bangkok, almost 800 kilometers from the epicenter, Hanoi and parts of China during the earthquake on Thursday, which the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) measured at magnitude 6.8.

A magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck eastern Myanmar Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The epicenter, in the hills of Myanmar close to the borders with Thailand and Laos, was only 10 kilometers deep.

A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty Wednesday to targeting Afghan civilians for execution, under a plea bargain for his part in a rogue U.S. Army unit in southern Afghanistan.

Corporal Jeremy Morlock, who is set to testify against four co-accused, admitted murdering or helping to kill three men, and using illegally obtained Afghan weapons to make it appear that the victims were enemy combatants.

South Korea launched a major live-fire drill Thursday near the tense land border with North Korea in a show of strength marking the first anniversary of the sinking of one of its warships.

Tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery pieces, helicopters and jets took part in the drill at the Pocheon range, 30 kilometers south of the border, the defense ministry said.

A suicide car bomb targeting a police station on Thursday killed five people and wounded 25 others in a restive northwestern Pakistani town, police said.

A police officer and four civilians died in the attack in Doaba town in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, while part of the police station was demolished and at least 10 houses damaged, senior local police official Abdul Rashid said.