London: International Strikeforce Fire Over 100 Missiles At Libyan Targets: UPDATED

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AP – This Saturday, March 19, 2011 photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile …

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Play Video Barack Obama Video:Obama OKs missile strikes on Libya, no ground troops AFP

 

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer Robert Burns, Ap National Security Writer :

WASHINGTON – U.S. and British ships and submarines launched the first phase of a missile assault on Libyan air defenses Saturday and a senior American defense official said it was believed substantial damage was inflicted.

In the strikes, 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired at more than 20 coastal targets to clear the way for air patrols to ground Libya’s air force.

While U.S. defense officials cautioned that it was too early to fully gauge the impact of the onslaught, the official said that given the precision targeting of the Navy’s cruise missiles, they felt that Libya’s air defenses suffered a good deal of damage.

The official spoke on grounds of anonymity because the ongoing mission.

In announcing the mission during a visit to Brazil, President Barack Obama said he was reluctant to resort to force but was convinced it was necessary to save the lives of civilians. He reiterated that he would not send American ground troops to Libya.

“We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy,” he said in Brasilia.

While U.S. defense officials said it was too early to gauge the impact of the onslaught, one senior official said that given the precision targeting of the Navy’s cruise missiles, they believe Libya’s air defenses suffered a good deal of damage.

It was clear the U.S. intended to limit its role in the Libya intervention, focusing first on disabling or otherwise silencing Libyan air defenses, and then leaving it to European and perhaps Arab countries to enforce a no-fly zone over the North African nation.

Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, told reporters the cruise missile assault was the “leading edge” of a coalition campaign dubbed Operation Odyssey Dawn. Its aim: prevent Moammar Gadhafi’s forces from inflicting more violence on civilians — particularly in and around the rebel stronghold of Benghazi — and degrading the Libyan military’s ability to contest a no-fly zone.

Click image to see photos of protests in Libya

AFP/Patrick Baz

“This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought,” Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. “Our consensus was strong, and our resolve is clear. The people of Libya must be protected, and in the absence of an immediate end to the violence against civilians our coalition is prepared to act, and to act with urgency.”

A chief target of Saturday’s cruise missile attack was Libya’s SA-5 surface-to-air missiles, which are considered a moderate threat to some allied aircraft. Libya’s overall air defenses are based on older Soviet technology but Gortney called them capable and a potential threat to allied aircraft.

Also targeted: early warning radars and unspecified communications facilities, Gortney said. The U.S. military has extensive recent experience in such combat missions; U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft repeatedly attacked Iraq’s air defenses during the 1990s while enforcing a no-fly zone over Iraq’s Kurdish north.

Cruise missiles are the weapon of first choice in such campaigns; they do not put pilots at risk, and they use navigational technologies that provide good precision.

The first Tomahawk cruise missiles struck at 3 p.m. EDT, Gortney said, after a one-hour flight from the U.S. and British vessels on station in the Mediterranean.

They were fired from five U.S. ships — the guided-missile destroyers USS Stout and USS Barry, and three submarines, USS Providence, USS Scranton and USS Florida.

The U.S. has at least 11 naval vessels in the Mediterranean, including three submarines, two destroyers, two amphibious warfare ships and the USS Mount Whitney, a command-and-control vessel that is the flagship of the Navy’s 6th Fleet. Also in the area are Navy P-3 and EP-3 surveillance aircraft, officials said.

Gortney initially had said that it could take as long as 12 hours to assess the effectiveness of Saturday’s strikes. Then a high-altitude Global Hawk unmanned surveillance plane would overfly the target areas to get a more precise view, the admiral said. He would not say how long the attacks on Libyan air defenses would last, but he stressed that Saturday’s assault with cruise missiles was the first phase of a multi-stage mission.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was scheduled to fly to Russia on Saturday afternoon to begin a week-long overseas trip, postponed his departure for 24 hours. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Gates decided he should remain in Washington to monitor developments in Libya at the outset of U.S. strikes.

Gates had been skeptical of getting involved in Libya’s civil war, telling Congress earlier this month that taking out Libya’s air defenses was tantamount to war. Others have worried that the mission could put the U.S. on a slippery slope to deeper involvement in yet another Muslim country — on top of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended an international conference in Paris that endorsed military action against Gadhafi, the U.S. and Britain kicked off their attacks.

At a news conference in Paris, Clinton said Gadhafi had left the world no choice but to intervene urgently and forcefully to protect further loss of civilian life.

“We have every reason to fear that, left unchecked, Gadhafi would commit unspeakable atrocities,” she told reporters.

Clinton said there was no evidence that Gadhafi’s forces were respecting an alleged cease-fire they proclaimed and the time for action was now.

“Our assessment is that the aggressive action by Gadhafi’s forces continues in many parts of the country,” she said. “We have seen no real effort on the part of the Gadhafi forces to abide by a cease-fire.”

In addition to the three submarines and two destroyers, the U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean include two amphibious warships, the USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce, and a command-and-control ship, the USS Mount Whitney.

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Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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Britain has fired missiles at Libyan military targets as UN allies begin military strikes against Colonel Gaddafi‘s regime.

 Britain Fires Missiles At Libyan Targets Play video

Three RAF Tornado jets have left the UK, the first of the British strikeforce tasked with enforcing a no-fly zone over the country.

Co-ordinated international action has been launched after the Libyan leader defied the UN’s demand that he stop attacking his own people.

Coalition vessels have fired more than 100 Tomahawk missiles at Libya’s air defences, and British ships are also involved in a naval blockade of the country, sources have told Sky News.

Military forces have so far taken to the air and water to attack Libya. French warplanes are patrolling Libyan skies and have fired on pro-Gaddafi tanks.

Libya’s air defence systems are said to have been already “severely disabled” by the attacks.

Sky’s Lisa Holland, who is in capital Tripoli under the supervision of Libyan authorities, said there appeared to be anti-aircraft fire following loud explosions in the city, possibly from missile attacks.

Libya is claiming 48 people have been killed in missile strikes, according to the AFP news agency.

Loud blasts have been heard east of the capital Tripoli and fireballs were reportedly seen on the horizon.

The international effort also involves the US, Canada and Italy.

Speaking outside No 10 after an emergency meeting, Mr Cameron said the action was “necessary, legal and right”.

He said: “I believe we should all be confident that what we are doing is in a just cause and in our nation’s interest.”

President Barack Obama called on Col Gaddafi to pull back his troops, but said the US would not be deploying troops on the ground.

He said: “The use of force is not our first choice or a choice I made lightly. But we can’t stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people that there will be no mercy.”

Col Gaddafi has made a brief and largely unintelligible statement by phone on Libyan state television, marking his first words since military action began.

Meanwhile, Libyan state television reported the bombardment of civilian sites in Tripoli by the planes of “crusader enemies” – a reference to the West. Buildings hit so far have included two hospitals, the reports said.

The initiation of military action was revealed by Western leaders following a summit in Paris to decide how to deal with what they said was the dictator’s breach of a self-imposed ceasefire.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after the meeting that military force would be used “in the absence of an immediate ceasefire” because “the Libyan people need our help.”

Reports suggested Libyan forces intended to deploy “human shields” to thwart any UN-backed bombing campaign.

As military forces swung into action, the International Red Cross called on all sides to spare civilians and respect international law as military action began, and said medical staff and ambulances should be allowed access to the wounded.

Reports said the rebel stronghold of Benghazi has been attacked by Gaddafi’s militia, and the insurgents claim a captured warplane was shot down.

The rebel pilot of the fighter jet, which may have been shot down or suffered catastrophic engine failure, ejected moments it crashed in a fireball in Benghazi’s southern suburbs.

Sky’s Emma Hurd, who witnessed the crash, said: “It had been circling above the heavily populated areas and then it went into a fast dive and caught on fire.”

A Benghazi resident named Sam later claimed the city was being hit by rocket fire from ground forces loyal to Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi.

She told Sky News: “Benghazi has been under continuous bombing since around 6am this morning – it was non-stop and the windows were shaking.

“Their troops have been bombing civilian areas with no military facilities… Civilians are being attacked in Benghazi.”

But a government official insisted military forces were not being used to attack the city on Saturday, amid claims of 25 dead being taken to the city’s hospitals.

Sky News foreign editor Tim Marshall also revealed that paucity of information coming from the city of 675,000 people.

“We have very little factual detail coming out of Benghazi, instead we have claim and counter-claim,” Marshall said.

“Just as the Libyan forces are capable of using propaganda, the rebel forces are prepared to use it too, in an attempt to draw in outside forces to help their cause.”

Libya declared a ceasefire on Friday after the UN authorised the no-fly zone over the country, and the country’s deputy foreign minister later insisited in an interview with Sky News that forces would stick to it.

Regime spokesman Ibrahim Moussa later said the Gaddafi’s government remained defiant about the threat of military action.

Mr Moussa also denied government forces shelled any Libyan towns on Saturday, saying the rebels were the ones breaking the ceasefire by attacking military forces.

Reading from a letter sent by the dictator to Mr Cameron, Mr Sarkozy and the UN secretary general, he said: “You will regret it if you take a step towards intervening in our internal affairs, in our country.

“The UN security council is not authorised, according to the UN charter, to intervene in the internal affairs of any country.”

Col Gaddafi insisted the rebels are Islamists and said in the statement: “We are fighting al Qaeda, in what they call the Islamic Maghreb.”

Libya’s oil minister warned Western companies under contract to continue operating in the country otherwise Chinese and Indian oil firms may be given those rights.

:: Al Jazeera television has said a British cameraman is among a reporting team which was detained several days ago while working in west Libya.

Britain Fires Missiles At Libyan Targets Play video

Cameron: British Forces In Action Over Libya Play video

Cameron: ‘The Time For Action Has Come’ Play video

Rebel Jet ‘Shot Down’ By Libyan Troops Play video

Plane Crashes In Rebel-Held Libyan Town Play video

Video: Britain Fires Missiles At Libyan Targets

Video: Cameron: British Forces In Action Over Libya

Video: Cameron: ‘The Time For Action Has Come’

Mexico City: US Law Enforcement Role In Mexico Drugs War Surges

AP – FILE – This Dec. 17, 2009 file picture shows photographs and other items on a bed next to a bullet-riddled …

 

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO and MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press E. Eduardo Castillo And Martha Mendoza, Associated Press :

MEXICO CITY – Arturo Beltran-Leyva, a notoriously cruel cartel boss and one of Mexico’s most wanted criminals, threw a riotous Christmas party two years ago with Grammy-winning musicians, prostitutes, and lavish food and drinks.

U.S. law enforcement agents in Mexico, electronically spying on Beltran-Leyva, relayed detailed information to U.S.-trained Mexican Navy Special Forces, who crashed the fiesta. After a 90-minute shootout, the cartel leader fled with a gut wound.

U.S. detectives next electronically tracked Beltran-Leyva, 48, to a posh apartment in nearby Cuernavaca. With their help, 200 Mexican Special Forces rolled in on tanks and rappelled from helicopters. The next morning, photos of Beltran-Leyva’s bloody body, plastered with bank notes, were splashed across Mexican front pages.

At the time, it was considered a rare success in U.S.-Mexico law enforcement cooperation. Now, unprecedented numbers of U.S. law enforcement agents work in Mexico, and high-profile arrests occur monthly. U.S. drones spy on cartel hideouts, while U.S. tracking beacons pinpoint suspect’s cars and phones.

“Yes, we’re tracking vehicles, yes, we’re tracking people,” says Brad Barker, president of HALO Corporation, a private security firm that, among other things, helps rescue kidnapped people in Mexico. “There’s been a huge spike in agents down there.”

The bilateral cooperation is touching off Mexican sensitivities about sovereignty, while stoking U.S. debate about the wisdom of inserting American operatives so deep into the fight. More than 35,000 people have been killed in drug trafficking violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown four years ago, and the killing of a U.S. agent last month prompted the U.S. Congress to schedule hearings into the role of American personnel.

The U.S. agents generally provide intelligence and training, while Mexicans do the hands-on work. Neither side will say exactly how many agents are in Mexico, citing security concerns, but The Associated Press was able to identify several hundred, using the Freedom of Information Act, federal budget requests, government audits, congressional testimony and agency accountability reports.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has the largest U.S. presence in the drug war, with more than 60 agents in Mexico. Then there are 40 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, 20 Marshal Service deputies, 18 Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, and dozens more working for the FBI, Citizen and Immigration Service, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, Coast Guard and Transportation Safety Agency.

The State Department’s Narcotics Affairs Section staff alone jumped from 19 to 69 in the past three years, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

There are so many State Department narcotics personnel that they took up two entire floors of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City before moving into a new building with their Mexican counterparts. This is the second so-called fusion center the two countries share in Mexico now.

The U.S. has spent $364 million of the $1.5 billion promised for Mexico since 2008 under the Merida Initiative, a U.S.-Central American joint anti-crime effort, and Mexico will spend about $10.7 billion on public security this year.

Despite close law enforcement collaboration, Mexican officials often play down U.S. involvement to avoid rubbing nationalist raw spots. The sensitivities were evident Wednesday in the angry reaction of Mexican lawmakers to news that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been operating Predator drones in Mexico for the past two years, while the U.S. military’s Global Hawk drone began flying south of the border in March. They said they were not informed by the Mexican National Security Council, which had invited the spy planes in.

Earlier this month, members of the Mexican Congress were infuriated to learn that U.S. agents had allowed hundreds, possibly thousands, of guns to be smuggled into Mexico in undercover operations aimed at busting cartel bosses. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation.

If U.S. agents in Mexico worked on the operation, that “would force us to restate many issues in the relationship,” warned Jorge Alberto Lara Rivera, deputy attorney general for international affairs.

Joint enforcement is also controversial north of the border. Notable arrests and seizures were made last year, yet overall, success is less obvious than the dangers. Calls for congressional hearings were prompted by the murder of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata in a highway ambush that also wounded his colleague, Victor Avila. It came less than a year after the murder of three people connected to the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, who chairs the Homeland Security Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, demanded to know what plan the U.S. had in mind for fighting the cartels. Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney declined to disclose specific actions but confirmed that cooperation has intensified and includes sharing information, gathering evidence, extraditing fugitives in both directions, tracing weapons used in crimes, and training prosecutors, investigators and police.

All U.S. agents living and working in Mexico get diplomatic status and are banned from carrying weapons. “They do not kick doors down or accompany guys who kick doors down and make arrests,” said a senior U.S. Embassy official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity citing security concerns.

Instead, they track beacons secretly attached to cars, they trace cell phone calls, they read e-mails and texts. Using images from drones, they study behavioral patterns of border incursions and follow smuggling routes. And they process massive amounts of data about dealers, enforcers, money launderers and bosses.

Some tracking devices are slapped on cars and phones in the U.S., with judicial permission, before the equipment heads south. Technology ignores borders and continues to show the location of suspects in Mexico.

Samuel Gonzalez, Mexico’s former top anti-drug prosecutor, said U.S. agents, who typically require judicial authority to eavesdrop in the U.S., are not restricted by those laws in Mexico, provided they are not on U.S. territory and those they are bugging are not American.

“Simply put, they can hear all the conversations they want without respecting the privacy of individuals, as long as they are not (listening to) Americans,” Gonzalez said.

The U.S. has also sent eight helicopters and 78 drug-sniffing dogs, as well as 318 polygraph units to screen Mexico’s law enforcement applicants for corruption. U.S. agents taught their counterparts to use the machinery.

U.S. experts also have taught hundreds of attorneys to argue in open courtrooms, judges to hear cases, and more than 6,700 soldiers and police to use proper interrogation techniques and technology.

At the same time, more Mexican agents work with the FBI, DEA and other agencies in the U.S. And in an unusual move, the ATF recently invited Mexican investigators to attend a U.S. interrogation of suspected gun traffickers.

U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials claimed some important achievements last year:

• Fourteen cartel leaders on the most-wanted list were arrested or killed in Mexico, the most in a given year.

• Cocaine seizures dropped from 20 metric tons in 2009 to 9.4 metric tons because of better monitoring of Mexican seas and airspace, largely assisted by US agents, the State Department says.

• Mexico extradited 94 suspected criminals to the U.S., compared with just 12 a decade ago.

• From September 2009 to July 2010, Mexican judges convicted 37 individuals of money laundering, up from 17 between 2004 to 2007.

And yet, killings jumped to a record high last year and more heroin and marijuana are being produced in Mexico and smuggled into the U.S. Pressure in Mexico is squeezing the drug trade into Central America, where three times more cocaine is confiscated each year than in Mexico. Meanwhile, U.S. law enforcement manages to stop just a small fraction of the guns, bullets and cash heading south.

“We are aware that we are going through a very difficult time on security issues,” Calderon said at a meeting where the government presented a new data system to track drug-related crimes.

More than 61 Mexican law enforcement agents vetted and trained by U.S. partners were killed in Mexico between 2007 and 2009, according to a U.S. State Department cable revealed by the WikiLeaks website. But the U.S. Embassy official said he believed it was because they were in uniform and engaged in a risky fight against organized crime, rather than because of their affiliation with Americans.

As for the Beltran-Levya cartel, the operation against its boss hardly put the family out of business: It is blamed for hundreds of killings last year. But the pressure is constant. Beltran-Levya’s brother, who succeeded him, was arrested, and now police say the last brother, Hector, is in charge.

The U.S. State Department is offering $5 million for information leading to Hector Beltran-Leyva’s arrest. And U.S. agents on the ground in Mexico are hard at work to figure out exactly where he is.

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Mendoza reported from Santa Cruz, California.

Fukushima, Japan: Radiation Discovered In Milk & Spinage Near Stricken Nuclear Complex

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By SHINO YUASA and ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Shino Yuasa And Eric Talmadge, Associated Press:

FUKUSHIMA, Japan – In the first sign that contamination from Japan’s stricken nuclear complex had seeped into the food chain, officials said Saturday that radiation levels in spinach and milk from farms near the tsunami-crippled facility exceeded government safety limits.

Minuscule amounts of radioactive iodine also were found in tap water Friday in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan — although experts said none of those tests showed any health risks. The Health Ministry also said that radioactive iodine slightly above government safety limits was found in drinking water at one point Thursday in a sampling from Fukushima prefecture, the site of the nuclear plant, but later tests showed the level had fallen again.

Six workers trying to bring the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant back under control were exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation — Japan’s normal limit for those involved in emergency operations, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the complex. The government raised that limit to 250 millisieverts on Tuesday as the crisis escalated.

Officials said the crisis at the plant appeared to be stabilizing, with near-constant dousing of dangerously overheated reactors and uranium fuel, but the situation was still far from resolved.

“We more or less do not expect to see anything worse than what we are seeing now,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Japan has been grappling with a cascade of disasters unleashed by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11. The quake spawned a tsunami that ravaged Japan’s northeastern coast, killing more than 7,600 people and knocking out cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, causing the complex to leak radiation.

More than 11,000 people are still missing, and more than 452,000 are living in shelters.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, meanwhile, insisted the contaminated foods “pose no immediate health risk.”

An expert in the United States also said the risk appeared limited and urged calm.

“The most troubling thing to me is the fear that’s out of proportion to the risk,” said Dr. Henry Duval Royal, a radiologist at Washington University Medical School.

Click image to see photos of quake, tsunami damage

AP/Mark Baker

The tainted milk was found 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the plant, a local official said. The spinach was collected from six farms between 60 miles (100 kilometers) and 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the south of the reactors.

Those areas are rich farm country known for melons, rice and peaches, so the contamination could affect food supplies for large parts of Japan.

More tests was being done on other foods, Edano said, and if they show further contamination, then food shipments from the area would be halted.

Officials said it was too early to know if the nuclear crisis caused the contamination, but Edano said air sampling done near the dairy showed higher-than-normal radiation levels.

Iodine levels in the spinach exceeded safety limits by three to seven times, a food safety official said. Tests on the milk done Wednesday detected small amounts of iodine-131 and cesium-137, the latter being a longer-lasting element that can cause more types of cancer. But only iodine was detected Thursday and Friday, a Health Ministry official said.

After the announcements, Japanese officials immediately tried to calm an already-jittery public, saying the amounts detected were so small that people would have to consume unimaginable amounts to endanger their health.

“Can you imagine eating one kilogram of spinach every day for one year?” said State Secretary of Health Minister Yoko Komiyama. One kilogram is a little over two pounds.

Edano said someone drinking the tainted milk for one year would consume as much radiation as in a CT scan; for the spinach, it would be one-fifth of a CT scan. A CT scan is a compressed series of X-rays used for medical tests.

The Health Ministry said iodine levels slightly above the safety limit were discovered Thursday in drinking water samples from Fukushima prefecture. On Friday, levels were about half that benchmark; by Saturday, they had fallen further.

Drinking one liter of water with the iodine at Thursday’s levels is the equivalent of receiving one-eighty-eighth of the radiation from a chest X-ray, said Kazuma Yokota, a spokesman for the prefecture’s disaster response headquarters.

The trace amounts of iodine were found in Tokyo’s water on Friday, the first day since the government ordered nationwide daily sampling due to the nuclear crisis, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said. A ministry statement said the amounts found did not exceed government safety limits. But tests on water, which for decades were only done once a year, usually show no iodine.

At the Fukushima plant, emergency workers have been struggling to cool the reactors and the pools used to store used nuclear fuel, as well as to put the facility back on the electricity grid.

A replacement power line reached the complex Friday, but workers needed to methodically work through badly damaged and deeply complex electrical systems to make the final linkups without setting off a spark and potentially an explosion. Company officials hoped to be able to switch on the cooling systems Sunday.

Once the power is reconnected, it is not clear if the cooling systems will still work.

A fire truck with a high-pressure cannon pumped water directly from the ocean into one of the most troubled areas of the complex — the cooling pool for used fuel rods at the plant’s Unit 3. Because of high radiation levels, firefighters only went to the truck every three hours to refuel it.

Holes were also punched in the roofs of units 5 and 6 to vent buildups of hydrogen gas, and the temperature in Unit 5’s fuel storage pool dropped after new water was pumped in, according to officials with Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the complex.

More workers were thrown into the effort — bringing the total at the complex to 500 — and the safety threshold for their radiation exposure was raised 2 1/2 times so they could keep working.

Officials insisted that would cause no health damage.

Edano said conditions at the reactors in Units 1, 2 and 3 — all of which have been rocked by explosions in the past eight days — had “stabilized.”

The reactors and the storage pools both need constant sources of cooling water. Even when they are taken from reactors, uranium rods remain very hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.

Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself.

People evacuated from around the plant, along with some emergency workers, have tested positive for radiation exposure. Three firefighters needed to be decontaminated with showers, while among the 18 plant workers who tested positive, one absorbed about one-tenth of the amount that could induce radiation poisoning.

Outside the bustling disaster response center in the city of Fukushima, 40 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of the plant, government nuclear specialist Kazuya Konno was able to take only a three-minute break for his first meeting since the quake with his wife, Junko, and their children.

“It’s very nerve-racking. We really don’t know what is going to become of our city,” said Junko Konno, 35. “Like most other people, we have been staying indoors unless we have to go out.”

She brought her husband a small backpack with a change of clothes and snacks. The girls — aged 4 and 6 and wearing pink surgical masks decorated with Mickey Mouse — gave their father hugs.

The government conceded Friday that it was slow to respond to the crisis and welcomed ever-growing help from the U.S. in hopes of preventing a complete meltdown.

Nishiyama, of the nuclear safety agency, also said backup power systems at the plant had been improperly protected, leaving them vulnerable to the tsunami.

The failure of Fukushima’s backup power systems, which were supposed to keep cooling systems going in the aftermath of the earthquake, let uranium fuel overheat and were a “main cause” of the crisis, Nishiyama said.

“I cannot say whether it was a human error, but we should examine the case closely,” he told reporters.

A spokesman for Tokyo Electric said that while the generators were not directly exposed to the waves, some electrical support equipment was outside. The complex was protected against tsunamis of up to 5 meters (16 feet), he said. Media reports say the tsunami was at least 6 meters (20 feet) high when it struck Fukushima.

Spokesman Motoyasu Tamaki also acknowledged that the complex was old, and might not have been as well-equipped as newer facilities.

The crisis has led to power shortages and factory closures, and triggered a plunge in Japanese stock prices.

On Saturday evening, Japan was rattled by 6.1-magnitude aftershock, with an epicenter just south of the troubled nuclear plants. The temblor, centered 150 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo, shook buildings in the capital.

___

Yuasa reported from Tokyo, as did Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi, Elaine Kurtenbach, Tim Sullivan, Joji Sakurai, and Jeff Donn.

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Libya: Allied Forces Begin Military Action Against Gaddafi Forces: UPDATED

Allied fighter jets have taken to the skies over Libya after leader Muammar Gaddafi apparently defied the UN’s demand that he stop attacking his own people.

Cameron: ‘The Time For Action Has Come’ Play video

British ships are also involved in a naval blockade of the country, sources told Sky News, as the world launched a co-ordinated response based on an earlier UN resolution to protect Libyan civilians.

Around twenty French warplanes are patrolling the skies over Libya and some have reportedly fired at several pro-Gaddafi vehicles.

A French defence official earlier confirmed one of their jets had fired on a Libyan military vehicle.

The initiation of military action was revealed by Western leaders, following a summit in Paris to decide how to deal with what they said was the dictator’s breach of a self-imposed ceasefire.

Reports say the rebel stronghold of Benghazi has been attacked by Gaddafi’s militia, and the insurgents claim a captured warplane was shot down.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The time for action has come and it needs to be urgent.

“Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen – he lied to the international community.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy added that military force would be used “in the absence of an immediate ceasefire” because “the Libyan people need our help.”

Observers now believe selected targets in Libya will be hit within the next 24 hours.

Reports said Libyan forces intend to deploy ‘human shields’ to thwart any UN-backed bombing campaign.

State news agency Jana reported that civilians were converging on government facilities believed to be bombing targets for an impending UN-backed air intervention force.

Sky’s Lisa Holland, reporting from the Libyan capital of Tripoli under government restrictions, said: “I cannot independently confirm the claim of human shields but if it is true it is a worrying development that shows the regime will stop at nothing.”

The rebel pilot of the fighter jet, which may have been shot down or suffered catastrophic engine failure, ejected moments it crashed in a fireball in Benghazi’s southern suburbs.

Sky’s Emma Hurd, who witnessed the crash, said: “It had been circling above the heavily populated areas and then it went into a fast dive and caught on fire.”

A Benghazi resident named Sam later claimed the city was being hit by rocket fire from ground forces loyal to Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi.

She told Sky News: “Benghazi has been under continuous bombing since around 6am this morning – it was non-stop and the windows were shaking.

“Their troops have been bombing civilian areas with no military facilities… Civilians are being attacked in Benghazi.”

But a government official insisted military forces were not being used to attack the city on Saturday, amid claims of 25 dead being taken to the city’s hospitals.

Sky News foreign editor Tim Marshall also revealed that paucity of information coming from the city of 675,000 people.

“We have very little factual detail coming out of Benghazi, instead we have claim and counter-claim,” Marshall said.

“Just as the Libyan forces are capable of using propaganda, the rebel forces are prepared to use it too, in an attempt to draw in outside forces to help their cause.”

Libya declared a ceasefire on Friday after the UN authorised the no-fly zone over the country.

Deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told Holland: “We are categorically denying there is any military operation on the ground (in the city of Benghazi) since we announced the decision has been made to cease fire.”

Regime spokesman Ibrahim Moussa later said the Gaddafi’s government remained defiant about the threat of military action.

Mr Moussa also denied government forces shelled any Libyan towns today, saying the rebels were the ones breaking the ceasefire by attacking military forces.

Reading from a letter sent by the dictator to Mr Cameron, Mr Sarkozy and the UN secretary general, he said: “You will regret it if you take a step towards intervening in our internal affairs, in our country.

“The UN security council is not authorised, according to the UN charter, to intervene in the internal affairs of any country.”

Col Gaddafi insisted the rebels are Islamists and said in the statement: “We are fighting al Qaeda, in what they call the Islamic Maghreb.”

Libya’s oil minister warned Western companies under contract to continue operating in the country otherwise Chinese and Indian oil firms may be given those rights.

:: A resident of the western town of Misratah told Reuters Gaddafi’s forces were on the outskirts of the rebel town and water supplies had been cut off.

NEWS UPDATE:

 AP – CORRECTION TO CLARIFY – WE ARE UNABLE TO VERIFY WHO SHOT PLANE DOWN AND ALSO WHO WAS PILOTING PLANE – …

Slideshow:Anti-government protests in Libya

Play Video Video:Fighter jet shot down over Benghazi Reuters

Play Video Barack Obama Video:Obama launches Latin America tour in Brazil AFP

 

By RYAN LUCAS and HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Ryan Lucas And Hadeel Al-shalchi, Associated Press :

BENGHAZI, Libya – French fighter jets fired the first shots at Moammar Gadhafi’s troops on Saturday, launching the broadest international military effort since the Iraq war in support of an uprising that had seemed on the verge of defeat.

In the hours before the no-fly zone over Libya went into effect, Gadhafi sent warplanes, tanks and troops into Benghazi, the rebel capital and first city to fall to the rebellion that began Feb. 15. Then the government attacks appeared to go silent.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after an emergency summit in Paris that French jets were already targeting Gadhafi’s forces. The 22 participants in Saturday’s summit agreed to do everything necessary to make Gadhafi respect a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday demanding a cease-fire, Sarkozy said.

“Our consensus was strong, and our resolve is clear. The people of Libya must be protected, and in the absence of an immediate end to the violence against civilians our coalition is prepared to act, and to act with urgency,” President Barack Obama said in Brasilia, Brazil, on the first day of a three-country Latin American tour.

The rebels, who have seen their advances into western Libya turn into a series of defeats, said they had hoped for more, sooner from the international community, after a day when crashing shells shook the buildings of Benghazi and Gadhafi’s tanks rumbled through the university campus.

“People are disappointed, they haven’t seen any action yet. The leadership understands some of the difficulties with procedures but when it comes to procedures versus human lives the choice is clear,” said Essam Gheriani, a spokesman for the opposition. “People on the streets are saying where are the international forces? Is the international community waiting for the same crimes to be perpetrated on Benghazi has have been done by Gadhafi in the other cities?”

A doctor said 27 bodies had reached hospitals by midday. As night fell, though, the streets grew quiet.

Libyan state television showed Gadhafi supporters converging on the international airport and a military garrison in Tripoli, and the airport in Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, in an apparent attempt to deter bombing.

In an open letter, Gadhafi warned: “You will regret it if you dare to intervene in our country.”

In Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Gadhafi’s government had lost all legitimacy and lied about the cease-fire.

“We have every reason to fear that left unchecked, Gadhafi will commit unspeakable atrocities,” she said.

Saturday’s emergency meeting involved 22 leaders and top officials, including Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. It was the largest international military action since the beginning of the Iraq war, launched almost exactly eight years ago.

Earlier Saturday, a plane was shot down over the outskirts of Benghazi, sending up a massive black cloud of smoke. An Associated Press reporter saw the plane go down in flames and heard the sound of artillery and crackling gunfire.

Before the plane went down, journalists heard what appeared to be airstrikes from it. Rebels cheered and celebrated at the crash, though the government denied a plane had gone down — or that any towns were shelled on Saturday.

The fighting galvanized the people of Benghazi, with young men collecting bottles to make gasoline bombs. Some residents dragged bed frames and metal scraps into the streets to make roadblocks.

“This city is a symbol of the revolution, it’s where it started and where it will end if this city falls,” said Gheriani.

But at Jalaa hospital, where the tile floors and walls were stained with blood, the toll was clear.

“There are more dead than injured,” said Dr. Ahmed Radwan, an Egyptian who had been there helping for three weeks.

Jalaa’s Dr. Gebreil Hewadi, a member of the rebel health committee, said city hospitals had received 27 bodies.

At a news conference in the capital, Tripoli, the government spokesman read letters from Gadhafi to Obama and others involved in the international effort.

“Libya is not yours. Libya is for the Libyans. The Security Council resolution is invalid,” he said in the letter to Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

To Obama, the Libyan leader was slightly more conciliatory: “If you had found them taking over American cities with armed force, tell me what you would do.”

In a joint statement to Gadhafi late Friday, the United States, Britain and France — backed by unspecified Arab countries — called on Gadhafi to end his troops’ advance toward Benghazi and pull them out of the cities of Misrata, Ajdabiya and Zawiya. It also called for the restoration of water, electricity and gas services in all areas. It said Libyans must be able to receive humanitarian aid or the “international community will make him suffer the consequences” with military action.

Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said that Libyan officials had informed the U.N. and the Security Council that the government was abiding by the cease-fire it had announced Friday and called for a team of foreign observers to verify that.

“The nation is respecting all the commitments put on it by the international community,” he said, leaving the podium before answering any questions about Benghazi.

In the course of the rebellion, Libya has gone from a once-promising economy with the largest proven oil reserves in Africa to a country in turmoil. The foreign workers that underpinned the oil industry have fled; production and exports have all but ground to a halt; and its currency is down 30 percent in just two weeks.

The oil minister, Shukri Ghanem, held a news conference calling on foreign oil companies to send back their workers. He said the government would honor all its contracts.

“We are still considering all our contracts and agreements with the oil companies valid,” he said. “We hope from their part that they will honor their agreements, that they will send back their experts and their people to work.”

He suggested future decisions on oil deals would favor countries that did not join the international force against Gadhafi: “A friend in need is a friend indeed,” he told reporters in Tripoli.

Italy, which had been the main buyer for Libyan oil, offered the use of seven air and navy bases already housing U.S., NATO and Italian forces to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya.

Italy’s defense minister, Ignazio La Russa, said Saturday that Italy wasn’t just “renting out” its bases for others to use but was prepared to offer “moderate but determined” military support.

A French fighter jet fired Saturday on a Libyan military vehicle, the first reported offensive action in the international military operation against Gadhafi’s forces, French Defense Ministry spokesman Thierry Burkhard said.

Warplanes from the United States, Canada, Denmark arrived at Italian air bases Saturday as part of an international military buildup. Germany backed the operation but isn’t offering its own forces.

American ships and aircraft stationed in and around the Mediterranean Sea did not participate in the initial French air missions, but the U.S. prepared to a launch a missile attack on Libyan air defenses later Saturday, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the unfolding intervention. Both officials spoke on condition of because of the sensitivity of military operations.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said after the summit: “The time for action has come, it needs to be urgent.”

___

Al-Shalchi contributed from Tripoli, Libya. Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard in Cairo; Nicole Winfield in Rome; Jamey Keaten in Paris; and Robert Burns in Washington also contributed to this report.

NEWS UPDATE:

Here’s a look at some of the international military assets in or heading to the region to help enforce the U.N.-sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya:

France:

_Deployed a dozen Mirage and Rafale jets to survey rebel-held Benghazi, one fired on a Libyan military vehicle in first military strike of operation.

_Deploying the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the region Sunday from Toulon.

Canada:

_Sent six F-18s to Italy base; 140 military personnel involved.

_Frigate HMCS Charlottetown is in Mediterranean for possible staging ground for Canadian forces.

United States:

_Prepared to launch missile attacks on Libyan air defenses but so far not participating in initial air missions.

_Has two guided-missile destroyers in the Mediterranean, the USS Barry and USS Stout, two amphibious warships, the USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce, and a command-and-control ship, the USS Mount Whitney. The submarine USS Providence was also in the Mediterranean.

_Witnesses reported five F-18s, two C-17s and a C-130 cargo plane arrived at U.S. air base at Aviano in northern Italy, which is home to the 31st Fighter Wing.

Denmark:

_Six F-16s arrived at U.S. air base in Sigonella, Sicily and could be deployed as early as Sunday; 132 support staff.

Italy:

_Offered use of seven military bases: U.S. air bases at Sigonella, Sicily and Aviano in northern Italy; Italian air bases in Amendola near Foggia, Decimomannu in Sardinia, Gioia del Colle near Bari, base on Sicilian island of Pantelleria, and the military airport of Trapani, Sicily.

_Proposed NATO base in Naples serve as coordination point for operation.

Spain:

_Sent four F-18s and a Boeing 707 refueling plane to Italy base.

_Deploying a submarine, naval frigate and a surveillance plane.

_Placed two bases at NATO’s disposal, Rota and Moron de la Frontera, where several U.S. Air Force planes were seen Friday.

Britain:

_Said it would send Typhoon and Tornado jets to air bases, but no British fighter assets have yet been deployed, the Ministry of Defense said.

_Britain’s air base in southern Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri, supporting AWACS surveillance aircraft and has a team of personnel there to coordinate British aircraft movement.

_Two British frigates, HMS Westminster and HMS Cumberland, are in the Mediterranean off Libya’s coast ready to assist.

Norway:

_Offered six F-16s, with around 100 support staff, but operational capabilities five-six days off.

_Considering contributing an Orion maritime surveillance plane.

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French warplane opens fire on Libya

Coalition launches military action in Libya

Western forces will act on Libya

Cameron: ‘The Time For Action Has Come’ Play video

Rebel Jet ‘Shot Down’ By Libyan Troops Play video

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Explosions Heard In Libyan Rebel Stronghold Play video

Allied Forces Begin Military Action Against Libya Enlarge photo

BREAKING NEWS: UNITED NATIONS: UN APPROVES No-Fly Zone Over Libya

 

Play Video Reuters  – UN considers Libyan no fly zone

Slideshow:Anti-government protests in Libya

AP – France’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, left, gestures as he welcomes Britain’s Foreign Minister William …

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council on Thursday approved a no-fly zone over Libya and authorized “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi‘s forces.

The action came as the Libyan leader was poised to make a final push against rebels holding out in Bengazhi, Libya’s second largest city.

The vote in the 15-member council was 10-0 with five abstentions, including Russia and China.

The United States, France and Britain had pushed for speedy approval.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said if the resolution was approved, France would support military action against Gadhafi within hours. The U.S. said it was preparing for action. Several Arab nations were expected to provide backup.

Gadhafi vowed to launch a final assault on Benghazi and crush the rebellion as his forces advanced toward the city and warplanes bombed its airport Thursday.

Gadhafi said in an interview broadcast Thursday on Portuguese public broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa that he rejected any U.N. threats of action.

“The U.N. Security Council has no mandate,” Gadhafi said. “We don’t acknowledge their resolutions.”

He warned that any military action would be construed as “colonization without any justification” and would have “grave repercussions.”

The text of the resolution calls on nations to “establish a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to help protect civilians.”

It also authorizes U.N. member states to take “all necessary measures … to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.”

NEWS UPDATE:

The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution authorising a no-fly zone and “all necessary measures” to enforce it in order to protect civilians under threat of attack from the Libyan regime.

UN approves no-fly zone over Libya Enlarge photo

Libya no-fly zone vital to halt ‘greater bloodshed: Hague

Kadhafi announces Benghazi attack, UN action looms

UN backs no-fly zone

As dictator Muammar Gaddafi threatened an imminent assault on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and said his forces would show “no mercy”, the UN gave the green light to an international military response.

The resolution was backed by 10 Security Council members, with five abstentions.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said the resolution called for an immediate ceasefire and was necessary to “avoid greater bloodshed”.

The UK’s three criteria for a no-fly zone – a demonstrable need, a clear legal basis and broad regional support – were now all met, he said. “This places a responsibility on members of the United Nations and that is a responsibility to which the United Kingdom will now respond,” he added.

The resolution also tightened sanctions and introduced measures to make it harder for Gaddafi to employ foreign mercenaries. But it rules out any foreign occupation force “of any form of any part of Libyan territory”.

French prime minister Francois Fillon said if the resolution was approved, France would support military action against Gaddafi within hours. The US said it was preparing for action. Several Arab nations were expected to provide support.

Meanwhile, Gaddafi said in an interview broadcast on Portuguese public broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa that he rejected any UN threats of action. “The UN Security Council has no mandate,” Gaddafi said. “We don’t acknowledge their resolutions.”

He warned that any military action would be construed as “colonisation without any justification” and would have “grave repercussions”.

The Cabinet will meet in the morning and Prime Minister David Cameron will make a statement to the Commons, Downing Street said.

Dublin: Tens Of Thousands Attend The Main St Patrick’s Day Parade In Ireland’s Capital City

LINK TO PHOTO ALBUM:

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The heart of Dublin has been transformed into a sea of green leprechaun hats and tricolours as hundreds of thousands pack the capital for the St Patrick’s Day parade.

Buoyant revellers from across the globe crammed the city’s streets for the two-hour spectacle, which saw street theatre troupes, pageantry, dancers and marching bands weave the 3km route.

Some 3,000 performers took part in the parade which was one of the highlights of the five-day St Patrick’s Festival.

An estimated half a million people turned out for the parade, said St Patrick’s Festival chief executive Susan Kirby.

“We were very, very pleased with it,” Ms Kirby said. “I think Dublin and its people looked very well. I would hope that if even for a short while we were putting our best foot forward and demonstrating what an optimistic country we are.”

For the first time a short story was the inspiration behind the parade, with Brilliant by Roddy Doyle chosen for the honour because of Dublin’s designation as a Unesco City of Literature.

It tells the story of two children and the quest to banish the black dog of depression over the city – a reference to the financial woes of the last year.

Leading pageant companies including City Fusion, Brighter Futures, LUXe, Macnas, Artastic, Inishowen, Spraoi and Bui Bolg interpreted different chapters of the story.

Mr Doyle said he penned the piece while watching news reels of the International Monetary Fund arriving in Dublin last November. “It was a reaction to that really, that’s why I wrote the story,” he said.

President Mary McAleese joined other dignitaries on the VIP seats by the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, including Dublin Lord Mayor Gerry Breen who arrived in a restored gilded horse-drawn carriage.

BREAKING NEWS: The Hague, Holland: Police Smash ‘Biggest Ever’ Online Paedophile Network- Hundreds Arrested

British police have helped smash what they believe is the biggest-ever online paedophile network.

Police Smash ‘Biggest Ever’ Paedo Network Enlarge photo

Hundreds held in global abuse probe

Hundreds of child abusers have been arrested and many jailed during the three-year, global operation.

The investigation exposed more than 70,000 network members in the UK, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil, where first evidence of the crimes emerged.

The Australians charged with involvement in the ring were aged from 19 to 84 years old.

Grant Edwards, of the Australian Federal Police, said: “These are heinous sexual predators.”

Hundreds of young victims are said to have been taken out of danger.

The organisers set up an innocuous website that worked as a chatroom, but those who registered got access to more sinister sites where they were able to swap images and arrange to meet with victims.

The layered approach to the website allowed it to remain under the police radar.

Details of Operation Rescue were revealed at a press conference in The Hague, Holland, where the website server was hosted.

Peter Davies, head of the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said: “The scale and success of Operation Rescue has broken new ground. 

“While these offenders felt anonymous in some way because they were using the internet to communicate, the technology was actually being used against them.

“Everything they did online, everyone they talked to or anything they shared could and was tracked by following the digital footprint.”

In Britain, more than 120 suspects have been arrested and 30 so far convicted.

They include former scoutmaster John McMurdo, 38, who was jailed for three years in Plymouth for possessing and distributing nearly 2,000 indecent images of children.

He had encrypted computer disks, but refused to give police the passwords.

McMurdo told detectives he had become a scoutmaster to widen his social circle, but admitted fantasising about young boys in football kit.

Gardener Stephen Palmer, 54, from Merseyside, collected 10,000 child abuse images and shared them over the internet with others in the US.

Police also found 288 videos at his home showing some of the most serious – Level 5 – images of youngsters. He was jailed for two years.

Another paedophile caught in a spin-off operation in Thailand was Robert Horsman, 47 – a property developer originally from Ipswich.

He was jailed for 14 years for luring a 12-year-old boy and sexually assaulting him in his home in Pattaya.

American and German suspects were also held during the Thai operation, which was supported by CEOP staff.

Police said the global operation against the network members continues, though they are confident they have arrested the most serious offenders.

NEWS UPDATE:

AP – From left, Grant Edwards, Australian Federal Police, and Peter Davies, of the UK Child Exploitation and …

 

By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Mike Corder, Associated Press :

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Police said Wednesday they have smashed a huge international pedophile ring, rescuing 230 children from abuse and arresting 184 suspects — including teachers and police officers.

The three-year investigation codenamed Operation Rescue identified and safeguarded children in more than 30 countries by arresting people suspected of abusing them, said Rob Wainwright, director of the European Union police agency Europol.

The ring was centered on an Amsterdam-based online forum called boylover.net, which Wainwright described as “probably the largest online pedophile network in the world.”

The heavily encrypted forum, whose administrator appeared in a Dutch court on Tuesday charged with sex offenses, had up to 70,000 members.

The investigation was led by Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre but also involved law enforcement agencies as far afield as Australia, the United States and Thailand.

Peter Davies of the British child protection center said there would be more arrests as the investigations continue.

“Those who have been members of the site can expect a knock on the door in the very near future,” he said. In Britain, police said, the children involved were aged between 7 and 14.

Wainwright said the website was intended as a discussion forum where pedophiles could “share their sexual interest in young boys.”

However, after making initial contact on the forum, members would use e-mail and other electronic channels to share images and video of children being abused, Wainwright said.

The majority of the 184 people arrested so far are suspected of direct involvement in sexually abusing children, They include teachers, police officers and scout leaders. One Spaniard who worked at summer youth camps is suspected of abusing some 100 children over five years.

After his arrest, the forum’s Dutch administrator helped police crack the complex web of encryption measures shielding users’ identities, allowing police to begin covert investigations that included posing as children online.

Australian Federal Police commander Grant Edwards said suspects arrested in Australia ranged in age from 19 to 84 and used the internet to “prey on children with anonymity, with subterfuge and with camouflage.”

Children, Edwards said. “should be able to use the Internet safely, without fear of being approached or groomed by these online predators.”

BREAKING NEWS: Fukushima Daiichi, Japan: Staff Evacuated From Nuclear Plant: UPDATED

Japan has withdrawn all of its workers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, saying it is too dangerous after a surge in radiation.

Staff Evacuated From Japanese Nuclear Plant Play video

The decision comes after a second fire broke out in number 4 reactor after a prior blaze had not been properly extinguished.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers dousing the reactors in a frantic effort to cool them needed to withdraw.

“The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now,” Edano said.

The latest fire is believed to have started in the outer housing of the reactor’s containment vessel.

The flames were brought under control but white smoke or steam has been seen rising from the facility in the northeast of the earthquake and tsunami devastated country.

Officials have been struggling to address the failure of safety systems at several of the plant’s reactors.

There are six reactors at the plant, and the three that were operating at the time have been rocked by explosions. 

The one on fire was offline at the time of the magnitude 9.0 quake, Japan’s most powerful on record.

Two workers are missing after an explosion at the plant on Tuesday.

It is believed they were working in the turbine area of reactor number four at the time of the blast.

The government has ordered some 140,000 people in the vicinity to stay indoors.

Those living less than 12 miles (20km) from the site have been told to evacuate.

A low level of radiation was also detected in Tokyo, triggering panic buying of food and water.

Meanwhile Japan’s nuclear agency has said that around 70% of the nuclear fuel rods in unit 1 reactor have been damaged.

Minoru Ohgoda said: “We don’t know the nature of the damage, and it could be either melting, or there might be some holes in them.”

The Kyodo news agency said 33% of the fuel rods at a second reactor were also damaged.

On Tuesday the country’s prime minister Naoto Kan said radiation levels on the east coast had “risen considerably”.

The nuclear crisis has triggered international alarm and partly overshadowed the damage caused by the two natural disasters that killed an estimated 10,000 people.

It has also led to a worldwide review of thinking about nuclear technology.

LATEST NEWS UPDATE:

Play Video ABC News  – How Likely Is Full-Scale Meltdown?

Slideshow:Japan hit by huge earthquake, tsunami

Play Video Video:Japan’s Rescue Teams Persist ABC News

Play Video Video:Japan Tsunami Engulfs Fishing Village ABC News

AFP – A toy lies in front of a destroyed house in the devastated city of Ofunato. Rescue teams from the US, …

 

By Shinichi Saoshiro and Chisa Fujioka Shinichi Saoshiro And Chisa Fujioka :

TOKYO (Reuters) – Workers were ordered to withdraw briefly from a stricken Japanese nuclear power plant on Wednesday after radiation levels surged, a development that suggested the crisis was spiraling out of control.

Just hours earlier another fire broke out at the earthquake-crippled facility, which has sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo in the past 24 hours, triggering fear in the capital and international alarm.

Workers were trying to build a road so fire trucks could reach reactor No. 4. Flames were no longer visible at the building housing the reactor, but TV pictures showed rising smoke or steam. A helicopter was also preparing to pour water on to No. 3 reactor — whose roof was damaged by an earlier explosion — to try to cool its fuel rods, broadcaster NHK said.

Nuclear experts said the solutions being proposed to quell radiation leaks at the Daiichi complex in Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles north of Tokyo, were last-ditch efforts to stem what could well be remembered as one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

“This is a slow-moving nightmare,” said Dr Thomas Neff, a research affiliate at the Center for International Studies, which is part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Panic over the economic impact of last Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami knocked $620 billion off Japan’s stock market over the first two days of this week, but the Nikkei index rebounded on Wednesday to end up 5.68 percent.

Nevertheless, estimates of losses to Japanese output from damage to buildings, production and consumer activity ranged from between 10 and 16 trillion yen ($125-$200 billion), up to one-and-a-half times the economic losses from the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Damage to Japan’s manufacturing base and infrastructure is also threatening significant disruption to the global supply chain, particularly in the technology and auto sectors.

Scores of flights to Japan have been halted or rerouted, air travelers are avoiding Tokyo for fear of radiation, and on Wednesday France urged its nationals in the city either to leave Japan or head to the south of the country.

The plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the quake and devastating tsunami that followed worsened overnight following a cold snap that brought snow to some of the worst-affected areas.

While the death toll stands at around 4,000, more than 7,000 are listed as missing and the figure is expected to rise.

At the Fukushima plant, authorities have spent days desperately trying to prevent water which is designed to cool the radioactive cores of the reactors from evaporating, which would lead to overheating and possibly a dangerous meltdown.

Concern now centers on damage to a part of the No.4 reactor building where spent rods were being stored in pools of water, and also to part of the No.2 reactor that helps to cool and trap the majority of cesium, iodine and strontium in its water.

Japanese officials said they were talking to the U.S. military about possible help at the plant.

Concern mounted earlier that the skeleton crews dealing with the crisis might not be big enough or were exhausted after working for days since the earthquake damaged the facility. Authorities withdrew 750 workers on Tuesday, leaving only 50.

All those remaining were pulled out for almost an hour on Wednesday because radiation levels were too high, but they were later allowed to return.

Arnie Gundersen, a 39-year veteran of the nuclear industry, now chief engineer at Fairwinds Associates Inc and who worked on reactor designs similar to Daiichi plant, said 50 or so people could not babysit six nuclear plants.

“That evacuation (of 750 workers) is a sign they may be throwing in the towel,” Gundersen said.

RADIATION IN TOKYO NOT A THREAT TO HUMAN HEALTH

In the first hint of international frustration at the pace of updates from Japan, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he wanted more timely and detailed information.

“We do not have all the details of the information so what we can do is limited,” Amano told a news conference in Vienna. “I am trying to further improve the communication.”

Several experts said the Japanese authorities were underplaying the severity of the incident, particularly on a scale called INES used to rank nuclear incidents. The Japanese have so far rated the accident a four on a one-to-seven scale, but that rating was issued on Saturday and since then the situation has worsened dramatically.

France’s nuclear safety authority ASN said on Tuesday it should be classed as a level-six incident.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the facility — a population of 140,000 — to remain indoors, as authorities grappled with the world’s most serious nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

Officials in Tokyo said radiation in the capital was 10 times normal at one point but not a threat to human health in the sprawling high-tech city of 13 million people.

Levels dropped to minimal on Wednesday, but nerves were shaken by a 6.0 earthquake which shook buildings.

But residents nevertheless reacted to the crisis by staying indoors. Public transport and the streets were as deserted as they would be on a public holiday, and many shops and offices were closed.

Winds over the plant were forecast to blow from the northwest during Wednesday, which would take radiation toward the Pacific Ocean.

Fears of transpacific nuclear fallout sent consumers scrambling for radiation antidotes in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Canada. Authorities warned that people would expose themselves to other medical problems by needlessly taking potassium iodide in the hope of protection from cancer.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”

Japanese media have became more critical of Kan’s handling of the disaster and criticized the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. for their failure to provide enough information on the incident.

“This government is useless,” Masako Kitajima, a Tokyo office worker in her 50s, said as radiation levels ticked up in the city.

Kan himself lambasted the operator for taking so long to inform his office about one of the blasts on Tuesday. A Kyodo news agency reporter quoted the prime minister demanding the power company executives: “What the hell is going on?.”

Nuclear radiation is an especially sensitive issue for Japanese following the country’s worst human catastrophe — the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The full extent of the destruction from Friday’s earthquake and tsunami was becoming clear as rescuers combed through the region north of Tokyo where officials say at least 10,000 people were killed.

Whole villages and towns have been wiped off the map by the wall of water, triggering an international humanitarian effort of epic proportions.

There have been hundreds of aftershocks and more than two dozen were greater than magnitude 6, the size of the earthquake that severely damaged Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.

About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of people were missing.

NHK offered tips on how to stay warm, for instance by wrapping your abdomen in newspaper and clingfilm, and how to boil water using empty aluminum cans and candles.

Most economists now believe that the Japanese economy, which had been starting to recover when the earthquake struck, will contract in the second quarter of 2011.

A few economists also flagged the risk of a prolonged disruption to consumers and companies and a decline in economic output through 2011 should power outages persist until December.

Prices for key tech components such as computer memory chips have spiked due to factory outages at companies including electronics giant Sony Corp, silicon wafter maker Shin-Etsu Chemical and Toshiba, a major supplier of NAND flash memory chips used in mobile devices.

(Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Linda sieg, Risa Maeda, Isabel Reynolds, Dan Sloan and Leika Kihara in Tokyo, Chris Meyers and Kim Kyung-hoon in Sendai, Taiga Uranaka and Ki Joon Kwon in Fukushima, Noel Randewich in San Francisco, and Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Writing by David Fox and Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers and Dean Yates).

NEWS UPDATE:

0745 GMT: In a rare public address on live television, Emperor Akihito has said he is praying for the safety of the people in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. “The number of people killed is increasing day by day and we do not know how many people have fallen victim,” Akihito said in a brief speech. “I pray for the safety of as many people as possible.”

A toy lies in front of a destroyed house in the devastated city of Ofunato Enlarge photo

0727 GMT: Our correspondents in Japan say television images are showing a Japanese army helicopter on its way to dump water on the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.

0711 GMT: Frank Zeller in our Tokyo bureau reports: “In order to save electricity in disaster-struck Japan, Tokyo Electric Power Co said three-hour power outages Wednesday would affect 10.89 million households — more than one-third of the 28 million households the company services in Tokyo and seven prefectures in northern and eastern Japan.”

0638 GMT: Our Tokyo bureau reports that Japan’s defence ministry plans to send military reservists to help relief efforts in the northeast, where thousands remain missing.

0628 GMT: Tokyo shares closed up 5.68 percent today on bargain hunting following a huge two-day selloff, as Japan scrambled to avoid a nuclear catastrophe.

0619 GMT: Shares in TEPCO, operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant at the centre of Japan’s escalating atomic crisis, fell 24.57 percent in Tokyo trade on Wednesday.

0609 GMT: Hoax news alerts warning that the Philippines would be hit with radiation from Japan’s damaged nuclear power plant have sparked anger and confusion, with panicked schools sending their pupils home, our Manila bureau reports.

– The hoax news alerts started spreading via text messages on the Philippines’ hyperactive mobile phone networks on Monday. One alert, purportedly issued by the BBC news network warned people to stay indoors, close doors and windows, and swab their necks with antiseptic to protect their thyroid glands.

0555 GMT: Two Chinese airlines have added flights to and from Japan to accommodate an expected increase in demand as China evacuates its nationals from the quake-hit nation’s disaster zone, AFP’s Beijing bureau reports.

– The state-run China National Radio also reported that two ships able to transport a total of 4,000 people were on standby in the eastern city of Yantai and planned to sail on Wednesday to bring back Chinese citizens.

0530 GMT: The mayor of Koriyama city, Masao Hara, told AFP that the town desperately needs help for thousands of evacuees sheltered there.

– “We have received many people who were evacuated from the area near the plant.” Hara said. “Right now some 9,000 people are at shelters in Koriyama,” , including 200 at a baseball stadium which was recently renovated to receive disaster evacuees. “What we urgently need now is fuel, heavy and light oil, water and food. More than anything else, we need fuel because we can’t do anything without it. We can’t stay warm or work the water pumps.

0523 GMT: Hong Kong bureau reports that the city widened its top-level black travel alert to three more Japanese prefectures after explosions at a nuclear plant in the quake-stricken country deepened concerns of a meltdown.

– The warning, announced late Tuesday, advises Hong Kong citizens to avoid travel to affected areas amid rising concerns about dangerous radiation seeping from the stricken facility about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

0514 GMT: In its latest update the national police agency has placed the death toll at 3,676 confirmed dead, with the total number of people unaccounted for rising by more than 800 to 7,558, and the number of injured at 1,990.

0442 GMT: The credit quality of Japanese firms may suffer if the country struggles to recover from the impact of last week’s massive earthquake and tsunami, according to Standard and Poor’s. The ratings agency says it expects a bigger fallout from the disasters than the Kobe earthquake that struck in 1995 because of the unpredictable effects of a nuclear crisis in the disaster-hit region in northeastern Japan.

0440 GMT: Australian tsunami expert Ray Canterford told AFP today that the images of the disastrous tsunami rolling onto Japan last week will provide valuable data to scientists for years to come.

– Canterford said while scientists had made progress on predicting tsunamis since the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean disaster in which some 220,000 people died, there was still work to be done.

0410 GMT: AFP’s Sydney bureau reports that two Australian search and rescue personnel showed low levels of radiation contamination after their helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in Fukushima today. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said contamination was detected on their boots after ice on the helicopter blades forced them to land some 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside the exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant.

0400 GMT: Strong quake shakes buildings in Tokyo

0359 GMT: Authorities in China say they will step up checks of incoming travellers and goods for possible radiation contamination as Japan’s quake-triggered nuclear crisis escalated.

0352 GMT: AFP’s Kelly Macnamara reports from Minamisanriku on the search for the missing: – Tomeko Sato has sent days looking for 10 missing relatives in the wasteland once called home. “I haven’t been able to get in contact with them. I’m very worried about them,” said Sato, 54, who lost her home in the disaster. “I was very surprised by the power of the tsunami… next time, I will live on the hill and hope it never happens again.”

Takashi Takashita, commander of a fire and rescue unit working in the area, told Macnamara that about 8,000 people were still unaccounted for, and while hopes of finding survivors are nearly extinguished, he is not ready to give up. “The chances of finding people alive are slim, but we want to try to find missing people, not bodies.”

0345 GMT: The Seoul bureau of AFP reports that South Korea plans to send an emergency shipment of cooling material to Japan to help control its quake-damaged nuclear reactors.

0338 GMT: The government has just announced that it is ready to ask for US military help to battle the nuclear emergency.

0335 GMT: A resident of Akita in northwest Japan, Takana Takegawa, told AFP she is stocking up on essentials as the spectre of a nuclear catastrophe looms large. “There will be a supply shortage now. There will not be any more meat or fish, so I bought some,” Takegawa said. “At first, I heard that there would not be any health concerns, but how long will this last? I would like to receive clear information.”

0325 GMT: The workers battling to contain the crisis at Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have all temporarily been evacuated because of a rise in radiation levels, a nuclear safety agency official has said.

– “Around 10:40 am (0140 GMT) we ordered the evacuation of workers… due to the rise in (radioactivity) data around the gate” of the plant, the official said at a televised press conference.

0254 GMT: AFP correspondent Olivia Hampton adds on the desperate search for petrol: Two hours after leaving the hotel the team was finally able to buy petrol, “we now have enough fuel to reach the hard-hit east coast. On our way out of Akita, we passed more gas stations, this time with queues stretching for some five kilometres and only getting longer. We’re now passing through the mountains on our way east.”

0252 GMT: A new government statement says a reactor containment vessel at a quake-hit Japanese nuclear power plant may have suffered damage.

0237 GMT: Update on AFP team’s struggle to cover the devastation in Japan (Mie Kohiyama, Rosland Abdul Rahman and Olivia Hampton).

– Before heading east to disaster zone, Olivia Hampton reports: “we jumped into a taxi cab and had the driver guide us to different stations in and around the city. The rental car company would only provide half a tank of gas and supplies are running short. Station after station we passed were eerily empty, cordoned off with a panel reading “sold out” in big black and red characters. In the outskirts of the city, a few stations are still open but dozens of cars have formed long queues. We take our chances with one station. Here as in every other station, big yellow signs with blue and red characters warn customers they are limited to 20 litres per car. After waiting for about an hour and with just 10 cars in front of us, staff close their station and redirect traffic elsewhere. Despite all the frustration, there were no signs of road rage.”

0231 GMT: Radiation levels rose Wednesday at a quake-hit Japanese nuclear power plant but later fell, the chief government spokesman said.

0222 GMT: The credit quality of Japanese firms may suffer if the country struggles to recover from last week’s massive earthquake and tsunami, Standard and Poor’s said Wednesday.

0214 GMT: An AFP correspondent reports: “Just found an open supermarket in a suburb of Ichinoseki, one of the first we?ve seen to allow people inside. It was packed and shelves were emptying fast.”

0155 GMT: On the ground in Tokyo AFP’s David Watkins says: “Commuters still heading to work in Tokyo Wednesday morning but city is certainly quieter than usual. The number of people sporting paper face masks has shot up despite the fact that the maks are absolutely useless in the event of spiking radiation levels. More cyclists on the roads too, after reports of a run on bike shops in the city following the quake Friday.”

0147 GMT: 112 countries and regions and 24 international organizations have offered assistance in the rescue and recovery efforts, says Japan’s foreign ministry says, our Tokyo correspondent Frank Zeller reports.

0137 GMT: Our correspondent Olivia Hampton reports from the northwestern city of Akita about a run on petrol stations. “On our way out of the city, we saw even bigger queues stretching for five kilometres-plus.”

0130 GMT: In Rome AFP?s reporter Gildas Le Roux says Italian officials are battling opposition to the planned re-introduction of atomic power abandoned following the Chernobyl disaster. “Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has made nuclear energy a key part of his platform despite widespread public opposition even before Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan.”

– Rome wants to start building nuclear power stations from 2014 and to produce a quarter of its electricity with atomic energy by 2030.

0129 GMT: Live TV footage shows a cloud of white smoke rising above the Japanese nuclear power plant.

0119 GMT: Japan’s foreign ministry has told the media that eight experts from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will arrive today to help Japan battle its nuclear crisis.

– They will provide technical advice on managing the situation at the Fukushima No 1 atomic power plant 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

0035 GMT: AFP’s Washington bureau reports that US right-wing radio host and television presenter Glenn Beck has been blasted by other American celebrities and the media for calling the monster quake that rocked Japan a message from God.

– Actress, author and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg said Beck should “check the mirror” if he thought Friday’s 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami were signs of God’s anger with mankind.

0030 GMT: The Bank of Japan has pumped another 3.5 trillion yen ($43.3 bln) into the financial system, adding to the trillions spent Monday and Tuesday to soothe shaken markets.

0015 GMT: AFP Japan bureau reports that Tokyo shares were 6.05 percent higher early on Wednesday, following the biggest two-day sell-off on the Nikkei index for 24 years on fears of the threat of a nuclear meltdown after a huge earthquake.

0010 GMT: Our correspondent in Japan Shingo Ito reports that a fresh fire broke out at the Fukushima Daiichiatomic power plant early Wednesday, compounding Japan’s nuclear crisis. The blaze at the number-four reactor reportedly went out of its own accord later, the state atomic safety agency said.

0000 GMT: AFP’s Hong Kong office is taking over our Live Report on the developing situation in Japan, with reports from correspondents on the ground and witness accounts.

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BREAKING NEWS: NUCLEAR DISASTER LOOMING AS RADIATION SPEWS FROM DAMAGED REACTORS: UPDATED

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BRAKING NEWS UPDATE: 2.45. am GMT:

SOMA, Japan – Radiation is spewing from damaged reactors at a crippled nuclear power plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day-old catastrophe. The prime minister has warned residents to stay inside or risk getting radiation sickness.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Tuesday that a fourth reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex was on fire and that more radiation was released

Prime Minister Naoto Kan warned that there are dangers of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex stay indoors.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s nuclear safety agency said an explosion Tuesday at an earthquake-damaged nuclear power plant may have damaged a reactor’s containment vessel and that a radiation leak is feared.

The nuclear core of Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in northeast Japan was undamaged, said a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Shigekazu Omukai.

The agency suspects the explosion early Tuesday may have damaged the reactor’s suppression chamber, a water-filled tube at the bottom of the container that surrounds the nuclear core, said another agency spokesman, Shinji Kinjo. He said that chamber is part of the container wall, so damage to it could allow radiation to escape.

“A leak of nuclear material is feared,” said another agency spokesman, Shinji Kinjo. He said the agency had no details of possible damage to the chamber.

Radiation levels measured at the front gate of the Dai-ichi plant spiked following Tuesday’s explosion, Kinjo said.

Detectors showed 11,900 microsieverts of radiation three hours after the blast, up from just 73 microsieverts beforehand, Kinjo said. He said there was no immediate health risk because the higher measurement was less radiation that a person receives from an X-ray. He said experts would worry about health risks if levels exceed 100,000 microsieverts.

NEWS UPDATE:

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AP – The rubble caused by an earthquake and tsunami fill the landscape in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, …

 

By JAY ALABASTER and TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Jay Alabaster And Todd Pitman, Associated Press :

TAGAJO, Japan – Japan warned of an alarming radiation leak from a stricken nuclear power plant and told people nearby to stay indoors to avoid becoming sick in a rapidly escalating national crisis following last week’s earthquake and tsunami.

In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from the three reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in one of the hardest-hit provinces in Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami.

“The level seems very high, and there is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out,” Kan said.

He warned there are dangers of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors to avoid radiation sickness.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said a fourth reactor at the complex was on fire and more radiation had been released.

“Now we are talking about levels that can damage human health. These are readings taken near the area where we believe the releases are happening. Far away, the levels should be lower,” he said.

The death toll from last week’s earthquake and tsunami jumped Tuesday as police confirmed the number killed had topped 2,400, though that grim news was overshadowed by a deepening nuclear crisis. Officials have said previously that at least 10,000 people may have died in Miyagi province alone.

NEWS UPDATE:

Japanese nuclear experts are struggling to control three reactors damaged by last week’s earthquake and tsunami as fears grow they could go into meltdown tonight.

Cooling water levels dropped suddenly in one, twice leaving the uranium fuel rods completely exposed and increasing the danger. Water levels were restored after the first decrease but the rods remained exposed after the second episode.

Earlier an explosion tore through the building housing a different reactor.

The government has said it expects the death toll from Friday’s earthquake and tsunami to top 10,000 but many experts say it could be much higher. The quake and tsunami killed people in more than a dozen of Japan’s 47 prefectures and rescue workers are continuing to search the ravaged northeastern coastal cities for survivors.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1 jolted the Tokyo area tonight, public broadcaster NHK said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage and no tsunami warning was issued.

Millions of people are facing a fourth night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures in the devastated northeast.

In a nationally televised speech yesterday, Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan appealed to the country to unite during what he said was the country’s worst crisis since the second World War. “Overcoming this crisis depends on each and every one of us Japanese,” he said.

A Japanese police official said 1,000 washed up bodies were found scattered across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture today. Officials in Miyagi said more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in the province, which has a population of 2.3 million.

The government has sent 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort. It has sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 110,000 litres of petrol plus food to the affected areas. However, electricity will take days to restore.

According to public broadcaster NHK, some 430,000 people are living in emergency shelters or with relatives. Another 24,000 people are stranded, it said.

The cascading troubles in the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, some 270km north of Tokyo, compounded the immense challenges faced by the government in the wake of the tsunami disaster.

The biggest problem facing engineers was the drop in water levels at the plant’s Unit 2. “Units 1 and 3 are at least somewhat stabilised for the time being,” said a Nuclear and Industrial Agency spokesman “Unit 2 now requires all our effort and attention.”

A Japanese government spokesman said there were signs that the fuel rods were melting in all three reactors, all of which had lost their cooling systems. “Although we cannot directly check it, it’s highly likely happening,” he said.

Some experts would call that a partial meltdown. But others reserve the term for when nuclear fuel melts through a reactor’s innermost chamber but not through the outer containment shell. By contrast, a complete reactor meltdown, where the uranium core melts through the containment shell, would release a wave of radiation and result in major, widespread health problems.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said the reactor’s inner containment vessel holding the nuclear fuel rods was intact, allaying some fears. Crucially, officials said the thick walls around the radioactive cores of the damaged reactors appeared to be intact.

International scientists say there are serious dangers but little risk of a catastrophe like the 1986 blast in Chernobyl, where the reactor did not have a containment shell.

Earlier the building surrounded Unit 3 exploded in a similar hydrogen blast to the one that destroyed the housing around Unit 1 on Saturday.

The blast actually lessened pressure building inside the reactor, and officials said the all-important containment shell – thick concrete armour around the reactor – had not been damaged.

Radiation levels remained within legal limits, although anyone left within 20km of the scene was ordered to remain indoors. Some 120,000 people have been evacuated from the area.

The explosion injured 11 workers and came as authorities were trying to use sea water to cool the three reactors.

A state of emergency has also been declared at another nuclear plant further north in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture.

While four Japanese nuclear complexes were damaged in the wake of Friday’s disaster, the Dai-ichi complex, which sits just off the Pacific coast and was badly hammered by the tsunami, has been the focus of most of the worries.

Operators knew the sea water flooding would cause a pressure buildup in the reactor containment vessels – and potentially lead to an explosion – but felt they had no choice if they wanted to avoid complete meltdowns. Eventually, hydrogen in the released steam mixed with oxygen in the atmosphere and set off the two blasts.

Japan’s meteorological agency did report one good sign. It said the prevailing wind in the area of the plant was heading east into the Pacific, which experts said would help carry away any radiation.

The United Nations atomic watchdog said today there were no signs at the moment, that fuel was melting at Fukushima.

“I think at this time we don’t have any indication of fuel …currently melting,” James Lyons, a senior nuclear safety official at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told a news conference.

The IAEA said radiation monitored around the Fukushima plant had peaked on Saturday before falling again.

The Japanese government has formally asked the United States for help in cooling the nuclear reactors damaged by a major earthquake last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington said today.

The commission said it is responding to the request and may provide Japan with technical advice. It has already sent two agency officials with expertise in boiling water nuclear reactors to Japan as part of a US International Agency for International Development team.

Along much of the Pacific coast, towns and cities are struggling to recover from Friday’s earthquake, which this weekend was upgraded by Japan’s Meteorological Agency to 9.0 on the Richter scale, one of the largest in recorded history. Aftershocks and tsunamis have continued to plague coastal districts.

Across the region, though, many residents expressed fear over the situation.

People in the port town of Soma had rushed to higher ground after a tsunami warning today – a warning that turned out to be false alarm – and then felt the earth shake from the explosion at the Fukushima reactor 40km away.

Authorities there ordered everyone to go indoors to guard against possible radiation contamination.

“It’s like a horror movie,” said 49-year-old Kyoko Nambu as she stood on a hillside overlooking her ruined hometown. “Our house is gone and now they are telling us to stay indoors. We can see the damage to our houses, but radiation? … We have no idea what is happening. I am so scared.”

Electricity supplies are being badly stretched. Tokyo Electric Power has held off on imposing rolling blackouts planned for today, but called for people to try to limit electricity use. Many regional train lines were suspended or operating on a limited schedule to help reduce the power load.

Preliminary estimates put repair costs from the earthquake and tsunami in the tens of billions of dollars – a huge blow for an already fragile economy.

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TOKYO: Japan’s Nuclear Safety Agency Suspects That Explosion Damaged Reactor’s Container: UPDATED

 

 AP – This satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility in …

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TOKYO – Japan’s nuclear safety agency says it suspects an explosion at a nuclear power plant may have damaged a reactor’s container and fears a radiation leak.

An agency spokesman, Shigekazu Omukai, says the nuclear core of Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was not damaged in the explosion early Tuesday.

But the agency says it suspects the bottom of the container that surrounds the generator’s nuclear core might have been damaged.

Another agency spokesman, Shinji Kinjo, says that “a leak of nuclear material is feared.”

NEWS UPDATE:

By ERIC TALMADGE and MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Eric Talmadge And Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press :

SOMA, Japan – A third explosion in four days rocked the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in northeast Japan early Tuesday, the country’s nuclear safety agency said.

The blast at Dai-ichi Unit 2 followed two hydrogen explosions at the plant — the latest on Monday — as authorities struggle to prevent the catastrophic release of radiation in the area devastated by a tsunami.

The troubles at the Dai-ichi complex began when Friday’s massive quake and tsunami in Japan’s northeast knocked out power, crippling cooling systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from melting down.

The latest explosion was heard at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday (2110 GMT Monday), a spokesman for the Nuclear Safety Agency said at a news conference. The plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the explosion occurred near the suppression pool in the reactor’s containment vessel. The pool was later found to have a defect.

International scientists have said there are serious dangers but not at the level of the 1986 blast in Chernobyl. Japanese authorities were injecting seawater as a coolant of last resort, and advising nearby residents to stay inside to avoid contamination.

Tokyo Electric Power said some employees of the power plant were temporarily evacuated following Tuesday morning’s blast.

The accidents — injuring 15 workers and military personnel and exposing up to 190 people to elevated radiation — have compounded the immense challenges faced by the Tokyo government as it struggles to help hundreds of thousands of people affected by twin disasters that flattened entire communities and may have left more than 10,000 dead.

The crisis also has raised global concerns about the safety of such reactors at a time when they have enjoyed a resurgence as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Japanese authorities said there have been no large-scale radiation releases, but have detected temporary elevations in levels, and have evacuated tens of thousands of people from around affected reactors. Prevailing winds were pointing out to sea, and U.S. ships assisting tsunami recovery moved further way to avoid potential danger.

NEWS UPDATE:

0116 GMT: Some workers have been evacuated from the number-two reactor at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. “We have moved our staff to a safer area,” except for those working to cool the reactor, the TEPCO spokesman said.

A man comforts a woman as she cries in front of her damaged home in the town of Watari in …More Enlarge photo

0110 GMT: The death toll from Friday’s earthquake and tsunami that flattened much of Japan’s northeast coast topped 2,400, police said Tuesday. The National Police Agency said 2,414 people are confirmed dead and 3,118 missing, with 1,885 injured in the disaster which struck on Friday afternoon. The official toll yesterday stood at 1,647.

0100 GMT: The US House of Representatives has observed a moment of silence for the people killed, missing or injured in the Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

0050 GMT: Tokyo shares fell 6.62 percent in morning trade Tuesday, a day after their lowest close in two years following Japan’s devastating natural disasters and nuclear emergency. The nikkei index plunged 636.75 points to 8,983.74.

0045 GMT: The seal around a reactor at a quake-damaged Japanese nuclear power plant does not appear to have been holed, the plant operator said Tuesday, following an explosion at the plant. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters earlier that the suppression pool of the number-two reactor at the Fukushima No.1 plant appeared to have been damaged.

0035 GMT: The Bank of Japan has pumped five trillion yen into the financial system to soothe money markets shaken by Japan’s biggest ever earthquake, a devastating tsunami and a nuclear emergency.

0020 GMT: US relief organizations have raised more than $22 million dollars in donations for relief after Japan’s disaster, with US companies also offering multimillion-dollar donations. The American Red Cross raised $19 million as of 3:00 pm (1700 GMT), with $1.6 million sent in $10 donations by Americans text-messaging the number 90999, a spokeswoman for the organization said.

0015 GMT: Higher radiation levels were recorded Tuesday in a region north of the Japanese capital Tokyo after a blast at a quake-hit nuclear power plant, Kyodo News reported. It said the increased levels were detected in Ibaraki prefecture between the capital and Fukushima, where the nuclear plant is located. There were no immediate details.

0000 GMT: A huge explosion hit another reactor at an earthquake-damaged Japanese nuclear power plant early Tuesday, the third blast since Saturday, the plant operator said. “There was a huge explosion” between 6:00 am (2100 GMT Monday) and 6:15 am at the number-two reactor of Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, a Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) spokesman said.

NEWS UPDATE:

A third explosion has been heard at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear power plant, the country’s nuclear safety agency confirmed.

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There was no immediate word on exact damage from the blast, which tore through the unit 2 structure at the Fukushima Daiichi complex.

Two previous explosions occurred in buildings housing unit 1 and 3 reactors following last Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami.

At a news conference plant operators said all non-essential workers were being evacuated from the damaged facility as others continue to struggle with faulty coolant systems in the three reactors.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels around the plant have risen four-fold.

There are fears the explosion may have damaged the reactor’s container which could lead to serious radiation leaks if the seal is breached.

Higher radiation levels have also been recorded in Ibaraki prefecture, north of Tokyo, Kyodo News reported, but the safety agency has said the level does not pose health risks.

Japan has asked the US for help to stop the American-designed reactors plunging into uncontrollable meltdown.

The latest blast occurred after cooling water dropped repeatedly in unit 2, with the nuclear fuel rods partially exposed – risking an overheat of up to a temperature of 2,200 degrees Celsius.

Damage to the hermetically-sealed reactor container dramatically increases the risk of serious radiation leaks.

The ex-deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Sky News that the Daiichi unit 2 reactor may still deteriorate even more.

“I think the situation is still very, very grim – we are by far not over the worst,” Olli Heinonen said.

The troubles at the Daiichi plant compound the immense challenges faced by the Tokyo government as it struggles to send relief to hundreds of thousands of people along the country’s north-east coast.

It is now widely believed that at least 10,000 people died in the 9.0 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami.

A top Japanese official said the fuel rods in all three of the most troubled nuclear reactors at Daiichi appeared to be melting.

Of all these troubles, the drop in water levels – risking overheating and meltdown – at unit 2 still has officials the most worried.

“Units 1 and 3 are at least somewhat stabilised for the time being,” Ryohei Shiomi, of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said.

“Unit 2 now requires all our effort and attention.”

Workers managed to raise water levels after a second drop on Monday night, but levels began falling for a third time, according to nuclear agency official Naoki Kumagai.

Specialists considered a plan to spray water directly on the overheating reactor container to cool it – and realised it was damaged.

The head of the IAEA said the Japanese government has asked the agency for help and the US confirmed experts were being sent to the plants 150 miles north of Tokyo.

A hydrogen explosion occurred in the US-designed reactor 1 building on March 12 and a second blast destroyed the building housing unit 3 on Monday.

The blasts injured 15 workers and military personnel and exposed up to 190 people to elevated radiation doses.

The blasts actually lessened pressure building inside the troubled reactors, and officials said the all-important containment shell – thick concrete armour around reactors – had not been damaged.

In addition, officials said radiation levels remained within legal limits, though anyone left within 12 miles of the scene was ordered to remain indoors.

“We have no evidence of harmful radiation exposure,” deputy Cabinet secretary Noriyuki Shikata said.

Specialists are now considering spraying water directly on the damaged container in an attempt to cool it externally.

Harvard-based Mr Heinonen said it is now important for US expertise to be employed to minimise the risk of a catastrophic failure.

“They are the best people to know their (reactors’) behaviour, particularly when you go into this phase and assess the consequences.”

The EU has also asked the IAEA to convene an extraordinary meeting of members states to discuss the nuclear alerts.

Meanwhile, France’s ASN nuclear safety authority said the nuclear accident in Japan could be classed as level 5 or 6 on the international scale of 1 to 7 – on par with the 1979 US Three Mile Island meltdown.

Last weekend Japanese officials rated the radiation risk posed by the plants at level 4.

However, US navy chiefs ordered the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group away from a downwind location after detecting radiation on 17 helicopter crew members undertaking relief operations.

The IAEA reported that 230,000 units of stable iodine has been distributed to evacuation centres near the Daiichi and Fukushima Daini power plants by officials.

Sky News’ Anna Botting, in Sendai, says the authorities are warning people not to drink tap water and to take iodine to help prevent the threat of thyroid cancer.

The IAEA said around 185,000 people have evacuated from 10 towns in the two Fukushima reactor regions, and up to 160 may have been exposed to radiation.

Four separate nuclear power stations – two in Fukushima and one each at Tokai and Onagawa – are operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) on the affected coast.

Prime minister Naoto Kan said the situation at the Fukushima plant remained “worrisome” and that the government is setting up a joint response headquarters with Tepco manage the crisis.

On Tuesday morning Mr Kan confirmed that he will personally lead operations at the headquarters to avert the stricken reactor from going into meltdown.

Some experts believe that a catastrophic failure through breaching of the reactor container can be averted.

“The longer it goes on, the better the situation,” Robin Grimes, director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London, said.

According to Dr Susan Kieffer from the Centre for Advanced Study Professor of Geology and Physics at the University of Illinois, seawater cooling is a last resort for saving reactors.

“The flooding means that they decided that the reactor cannot be salvaged for future use,” Dr Kieffer explained.

Insurance policies on Japanese nuclear plants exclude coverage for property damage or liabilities caused by earthquakes or tsunamis, Reuters said.

Credit Suisse has put an initial estimate the damage bill in the quake region at 14.5 trillion yen (£109bn), as the Bank of Japan offered to inject £52bn into the banking system.

The Japanese government is planning rolling power cuts and a limited number of trains will be running in Tokyo to help conserve energy supplies.

The IAEA has been monitoring weather forecasts with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and prevailing winds have so far pushed contamination away from the mainland.

WMO forecasts predict the offshore wind pattern to continue for at least the next three days, reducing the risk of airborne radiation contamination.

The nuclear incident in Japan has renewed concerns of atomic power, which has gained support in recent years as a future widespread replacement for fossil fuels energy.

:: Switzerland has announced a freeze on plans to build new nuclear plants, Germany has raised questions about its nuclear future, and opposition to atomic reactor construction is mounting from Turkey to South Africa.

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