In a televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation from the three stricken reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant has reached the danger zone. A fourth reactor is now aflame.
A third hydrogen explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant is reported, destroying the outer building of reactor Number 2. All three damaged reactors at the site have now experienced explosions.
It is now clear that the second explosion at the Fukushima plant was at reactor 3—a source of special concern because it contains “mixed oxide” fuel, a highly toxic mixture of uranium and plutonium.
A second explosion is reported at Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, with four apparently killed and officials issuing contradictory statements on radiation levels.
Officials admit that the explosion at the Fukushima reactor was sparked by an emergency release to avoid a meltdown. A second reactor at the complex has now lost coolant, and is at risk of overheating.
Officials are denying that the reactor has exploded at Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, but admit that local hourly radiation levels are already at what is considered safe for a year.
Japan’s government has for the first time declared a “nuclear emergency” as diesel backup systems failed at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
Agriculture experts in China warn that the frequency and severity of droughts have increased over the past decade, causing heavy crop losses and posing a potentially grave threat to grain security.
Japan is preparing to send 100 troops to Yonaguni, a remote island just south of the disputed Senkaku archipelago, where Tokyo accuses Beijing of drilling for natural gas.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's trip last year to the disputed Kuril Islands has sparked both a regional military build-up and a diplomatic war of words with Japan.
A Chinese court ruled that the death of a village chief crushed by a truck was an accident—sparking outrage from supporters, who insist he was murdered for his protests over land seizures.
Chinese troops have been sent to North Korea’s Special Economic Zone of Rajin-Sonbong, near the Chinese border, according to reports in the South Korean media.
