Main News of March 25

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

 

WORLD

 

* The international coalition force is planning a ground operation in Libya that could start in late April, a high-ranking Russian intelligence service source said

 

* Two Qatari Mirage interceptor fighters took part in the UN mission to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, the French Defence Ministry said

 

* The death count in Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami has climbed to 10,035 people, the NHK broadcaster reported, citing the country's police

 

* U.S. President Barack Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he was committed to supporting Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO)

 

 

RUSSIA

 

* Russia's largest oil company, state-controlled Rosneft, may demand compensation if its Arctic exploration deal with British oil major BP flops, the company's Chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said

 

* The niece of Vladimir Lenin, father of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, died in Moscow at the age of 89, officials said