An Indonesian lawmaker from a conservative Islamic party resigned on Monday after he was photographed looking at pornography on his tablet computer in parliament.

Despite an outcry against him on Twitter, Arifinto insisted that nobody had pressured him to resign and that he was stepping down from the House of Representatives "for the sake of my and my party's honor".

Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa is putting the brakes on economic growth in the region that had been expected to accelerate this year, the World Bank said Sunday.

Justin Lin, the World Bank's chief economist, said that research by the development lender's economists showed that economic output in the Middle East and North Africa, was paying a heavy price for the recent wave of anti-regime upheaval.

Brazilian Rafael could be Manchester United's only doubt for the Champions League quarter-final, second leg clash at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old suffered a knee injury in last week's first leg at Stamford Bridge, won 1-0 by United, ruling him out of Saturday's Premier League win over Fulham.

Syrian troops encircled the flashpoint coastal town of Banias Monday, where weekend shootings left 13 dead and scores wounded, a human rights activist said.

"Seventeen tanks were deployed" to Banias, the activist told Agence France Presse, adding that the army had surrounded the northwestern city and electricity had been cut off.

A new treatment for obesity that combines two existing drugs resulted in twice as much weight loss as the only approved long-term anti-obesity medication, according to a study released Monday.

A mix of Phentermine and topiramate, sold under the brand name of Topamax, was shown in clinical trials to be twice as effective as orlistat, which is commercialized in some countries as Xenical or Alli, it said.

Japan on Monday widened the evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear plant exactly a month on from a huge natural disaster as another 7.1 magnitude quake and tsunami alert strained nerves anew.

The latest aftershock caused buildings to sway in the capital Tokyo, shortly after the nation had observed a minute's silence to remember the 13,000 people killed in the March 11 disaster and the 15,000 who officially remain missing.

Libyan rebels said Monday that any ceasefire would require the withdrawal of government troops from the streets and freedom of expression, as African mediators were due in their stronghold.

"The people must be allowed to go into the streets to express their opinion and the soldiers must return to their barracks," Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a spokesman for the rebels' Transitional National Council, told Agence France Presse.

Yemen anti-regime protesters have rejected a proposal from mediating Gulf States that embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh should pass power to his deputy, a leading activist said Monday.

"We are not concerned by any solution negotiated between the regime and the opposition that does not answer our main demand: the fall of the regime and its figures," said Adel al-Rabyi, from the Youth for Change coalition of protest groups that have led demonstrations across the country since late January.

Israel should not settle for a truce with Hamas in Gaza, and should instead seek to topple the Islamist rulers of the coastal strip, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday.

"The goal that we have settled on, of seeking a return to calm, is a grave error because it will allow Hamas to reinforce along the lines of Hizbullah," Lieberman told public radio.

Police in France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim population, arrested two protesters wearing niqab veils Monday after a ban on full-face coverings went into effect.

The women, part of a demonstration that erupted in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, were detained for taking part in an unauthorized protest rather than for wearing their veils.