Radioactive iodine hits 3,355 times limit in Japan

OSAKA: The level of radioactive iodine in the sea off Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reached its highest reading yet at 3,355 times the legal limit, Jiji press said Wednesday.

On Sunday, iodine-131 measuring 1,850 times the legal maximum were reported a few hundred metres (yards) offshore, up from 1,250 times the limit Saturday, but officials ruled out an immediate threat to marine life or to seafood safety.

A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out the cooling systems of the Fukushima plant's six reactors -- triggering explosions and fires, releasing radiation and sparking global fears of a widening disaster.

Radiation from the plant northeast of Tokyo has wafted into the air, contaminating farm produce and drinking water, and seeped into the Pacific Ocean.

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UAE to support India's UNSC bid

India's relations with the UAE touched a new high this year after the Emirates came out in strong support for New Delhi's quest for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. The pledge came during the maiden visit of President Pratibha Patil to the Emirates, home to 1.75 million Indians.

The visit came at a time when UAE has emerged as India's largest trading partner in terms of total trade exchange in the first half of 2010, with USD 43 billion bilateral trade, and oil imports by India accounting for USD five billion. Indian and UAE trade exchange has multiplied 13 times over the past 10 years with non oil sectors slowly gaining a predominant share.

President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan stated that UAE would certainly support India, which had the right to be a permanent member of a reformed UN Security Council.

The two sides also agreed on regional security as an area of enhanced cooperation and to address issues relating to counter terrorism and maritime security. India has invited UAE's Interior Minister to New Delhi for the signing an agreement on the issue.

India and the UAE agreed to enhance the strategic relationship by focusing on areas such as education, science and technology, regional security and many other areas where there is a potential for cooperation. India and the UAE politically share common perceptions on major international issues which became more evident during the visit of the President, said M K Lokesh, India's ambassador to the UAE.

During her visit, President Patil also launched a 24 hour helpline and counselling service dedicated to help Indian workers in distress in the UAE.

A striking display of India's growing soft power footprint in the Gulf region was the launch, on May 24 this year, of the international version of CBSE curriculum in Dubai. Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal had described the CBSE as an "internationally benchmarked curriculum" with 30 Indian schools in nine countries using it from the current academic year. The curriculum's global format is aimed at attracting schools catering to the large expatriate Indian population as well as non Indian students planning to pursue higher studies in India.

Meanwhile, the fate of 17 Indians sentenced to death for killing a Pakistani man in January, 2009 is to be decided by a Sharjah appeals court on December 30.

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More than 50 dead in quake: Myanmar official

YANGON: At least 50 people were killed after a strong earthquake struck Myanmar near its border with Thailand, a Myanmar official said on Friday.

Tremors were felt as far away as Bangkok, almost 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the epicentre, Hanoi and parts of China during the earthquake on Thursday, which the US Geological Survey (USGS) measured at magnitude 6.8.

In Chiang Rai, Thailand, Hong Khamping, 55, died when a concrete wall in her home collapsed on top of her. The wall was poorly constructed, Thai officials said.

"The death toll of the quake has increased to more than 50 in Tarlay and Mine Lin townships," said a Myanmar official, who declined to be named.

"Roads are also closed. According to the information that we have, more than 130 buildings collapsed because of the quake. There might be more casualties and damage."

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West bombs Libya, Gaddafi vows 'long drawn war'

Tripoli, March 20 (IANS) A coalition of American, British and French forces bombed by air and from the sea key targets in Libya in aid of rebels holding Benghazi, as the country's long-time ruler, Muammer Gaddafi, vowed to stay on and promised 'a long drawn war'.

Upto 64 people were killed in the western strikes, Libyan authorities said, on the second day of the biggest military intervention after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Repeated onslaughts by the American and French jets and US and British warships targetted Libyan tanks and armoured vehicles close to Benghazi, the country' second largest city and the epicentre of mass revolt against Gaddafi that began last month.

The airstrikes and casualties let to chorus of protests from Russia, China and India, with Moscow demanding an immediate dailogue to end the 'bloodshed'.

Al Jazeera quoted eyewitness as saying that destroyed military vehicles and at least a 14 dead fighters littered the road between Benghazi and Ajdabiya.

In the western city of Misurata, which regime forces have sieged for days, residents said snipers were positioned on rooftops in the centre of town, making people too afraid to walk in the streets.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said that a UN-backed no-fly zone in Libya is 'effectively in place'.

Air attacks by coalition forces have taken out most of Libya's air defence systems and some airfields, Mullen said in interview on CNN's 'State of the Union' programme.

'I would say the no-fly zone is effectively in place,' Mullen told CNN.

French jets launched the attack - named Operation Odyssey Dawn - Saturday, hitting government tanks and armoured vehicles on the road to Benghazi.

The French were joined by US and British ships which fired mores than 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles at installations and key assets. At least 20 sites were hit, officials said.

Meanwhile, a defiant Gaddafi said his country will fight on.

'We promise you a long, drawn-out war with no limits,' Gaddafi said in a phone call to Libyan state TV Sunday morning, the BBC reported.

He said Western forces had no right to attack Libya, which had done nothing to them.

'We will fight inch by inch,' he said. The UN Security Council has approved the use of force to protect civilians.

Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam called the attack a 'big mistake'.

'Believe me, one day you will wake up and you will find out that you were supporting the wrong people and you had made a big mistake in supporting those people,' he told Christiane Amanpour for ABC This Week. 'It's like the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq. It's another story.'

The Libyan state TV said that the government is ready to arm one million civilians to fight the coalition forces, DPA said.

The Indian foreign ministry in New Delhi said nothing should be done that aggravates the worsening situation for the people of Libya, where a revolt erupted in February against the four-decade rule of Gaddafi.

'India views with grave concern the continuing violence, strife and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Libya. It regrets the air strikes that are taking place,' a ministry statement said.

The head of the Arab League also criticised the bombardments.

'What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians,' said Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, the BBC reported.

The revolt in Libya started in February after the successful toppling of long time rulers of Tunisia and Egypt.

Light winds, rain forecast near Japan nuclear plant

TOKYO: Wind and light rain over Japan's stricken nuclear-power reactors were blowing from the northwest out to the Pacific Ocean on Monday, the weather agency said, sparing Tokyo from low levels of radiation.

The weather is important for gauging if traces of radiation leaking from the plant will reach heavily populated areas or enter the food chain, although local authorities and health experts say the leaks so far pose no threats to human health.

Since Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, the wind has blown mostly out to the Pacific.

The damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) , is about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Some 10-20 mm (0.4-0.8 inch) of rain is forecast in the area over the next 24 hours. The Meteorological Agency in Fukushima prefecture said the rain did not pose a threat to human health.

Three hundred engineers have been battling inside the danger zone to try to cool down the reactors which were ravaged by the quake and tsunami on March 11.

Officially, at least 8,450 people were killed, with 12,931 more missing. But police said on Sunday they feared more than 15,000 people had been killed in Miyagi prefecture alone.

Winds near the plant will blow as fast as 3 metres per second (6 miles per hour/11 kph), the Meteorological Agency in Fukushima said.

On Saturday, traces of radiation exceeding national safety standards were found in milk from a farm about 30 km (18 miles)from the plant and in spinach grown in neighbouring Ibaraki prefecture, the first discovery of contaminated food during the crisis.

Tiny levels of radioactive iodine have also been found in tap water in Tokyo, one of the world's largest cities. Radiation has also been found in dust in the greater city area.

Many tourists and expatriates have already left and many residents are staying indoors.

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Followers form human shield at Gaddafi’s home

TRIPOLI (LIBYA): Even as the allied intervention began, a group of foreign journalists were bused on a rare visit inside Col Muammar Gaddafi's compound—a labyrinth of concrete barracks, fortified walls and barbed wire designed to deter potential military coups.

There, hundreds of supporters offered themselves up as human shields, cheering to newly minted dance songs about their adoration for their leader. "House by house, alley by alley," the catchiest song went, quoting a Gaddafi speech. "Disinfect the germs from each house and each room."

The crowd included many women and children, and some said they had family in Colonel Gaddafi's forces. They said they had come to protect Colonel Gaddafi's compound from bombing by volunteering to be shields.

"If they want to hit Muammar Gaddafi, they must hit us because we are all Muammar Gaddafi," said Ghazad Muftah , a 52-year-old widow of a soldier from the Warfalla tribe, who said she was there with her six grown children. At least one person attending the rally spoke out against Colonel Gaddafi in a recent interview — a double-agent phenomenon that appears common among Libyan demonstrators for and against the government.

In Tajoura—a neighbourhood near the capital that has been a hotbed of anti-Qaddafi unrest—one resident had complained earlier in the day that despite the announced no-fly zone, Libyan Air Force jets could be heard taking off from the nearby bases, presumably headed toward the eastern front with the rebels.

"Our suffering is greater than anyone can imagine," he said. "Anyone who dares go outside is either arrested or shot dead.

"Food is decreasing, there is no tap water, and electricity comes and goes," he added. "The hospitals cannot really offer much treatment anymore because there are no medicines. There is no milk for the children."

It was unclear Saturday night whether the missile strikes had hit the air base, but in the city of Misurata—the last major rebel holdout in the west—one person said residents were cheering the sound of airstrikes. The Gaddafi forces had continued their siege Saturday, including the cutoff of water and electricity, he said, and Gaddafi gunmen continued to fire into the city. Speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect his family, he said: "The airstrikes sound good to the Libyan people."

But analysts have questioned what Western powers will do if the Libyan leader digs in, especially since they do not believe they would be satisfied with a de facto partition which left rebels in the east and Gadhafi running a rump state in the west.

"It's going to be far less straightforward if Gaddafi starts to move troops into the cities, which is what he has been trying to do for the past 24 hours," said Marko Papic at the STRATFOR global intelligence group.

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Gaddafi compound strike hit control center: Official

TRIPOLI: A missile totally destroyed an administrative building of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's residence in Tripoli.

The building, about 50 metres from the tent where Gaddafi generally meets guests, was flattened. It was hit by a missile, Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told journalists, who were taken to the site by bus.

"This was a barbaric bombing which could have hit hundreds of civilians gathered at the residence of Muammar Gaddafi about 400 metres away from the building which was hit," Ibrahim said.

He denounced the "contradictions in Western discourses," saying: "Western countries say they want to protect civilians while they bomb the residence knowing there are civilians inside."

Scores of Gaddafi supporters rushed towards the complex at Bab el-Aziziya in the south of the Libyan capital after a rumour spread that a plane had been shot down and crashed.

"Where is the plane?" several of them, mainly youths, cried.

Smoke billowed from the residence and barracks as anti-aircraft guns fired shots.

Tripoli was rocked by powerful explosions late Sunday, of which one was heard coming from the area around Kadhafi's residence.

Gaddafi's army announced a new ceasefire yesterday, saying it was heeding an African Union call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, but the United States accused Tripoli of breaching the truce almost immediately.

"I sincerely hope and urge the Libyan authorities to keep their word," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a swift reaction during a visit to Libya's eastern neighbour Egypt.

"They have been continuing to attack the civilian population. This (offer) has to be verified and tested," he told a news conference in Cairo.

Gaddafi's regime had declared a ceasefire on Friday after UN Security Council resolution 1973 authorised any necessary measures, including a no-fly zone, to stop his forces harming civilians in the fight against the rebels.

Tibetan Parliament asks Dalai Lama to reconsider retirement

DHARAMSALA: With most members of exiled Tibetan parliament not in favour of endorsing the Dalai Lama's proposal to retire from political duties, the ball is back in the Dalai Lama's court with the parliament asking him to reconsider his retirement.

The parliament, which has been holding its annual budget session, deliberated on the proposal for a week. Majority of the members opposed Dalai Lama's proposal.

Penpa Tsering, speaker of exiled Tibetan Parliament, said a resolution was passed on Friday which had been subsequently submitted to the Dalai Lama on Saturday. He said the parliament had debated the proposal of the Dalai Lama, and most members wanted the Dalai Lama to continue providing leadership to the Tibetans fighting for their homeland.

The Dalai Lama's formal proposal had sent shockwaves among the exiled Tibetans who will be voting to elect the prime minister of the exiled Tibetan government and 44 members of 15th exiled Tibetan Parliament on Sunday.

Notwithstanding the uncertainty over the Dalai Lama's retirement question, the Tibetans living here were excited and looking forward to using their right to franchise.

Dicky, a 35-year old who had voted twice said that she was sad that the Dalai Lama had announced his retirement but added she was waiting impatiently for Sunday's voting to cast her vote.

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Egyptians vote in historic reform referendum

CAIRO: Egyptians began voting on Saturday in a referendum on constitutional amendments which the military rulers hope will open the door to elections within six months.

A high turnout is expected for the vote, the first in living memory whose outcome has not been known in advance.

The referendum has divided Egypt between those who say the constitution needs a complete rewrite and others who argue that the amendments will suffice for now.

The polls opened at 8am (0600 GMT) and close at 7pm (1700 GMT). The result is expected to be announced on Sunday evening or Monday morning, a member of a judicial committee involved in overseeing the vote told Reuters.

Dozens of people queued to vote at one polling station in central Cairo."I am certainly going to vote. I came as early as I could to go and vote. I couldn't wait," said Eman Helal, a pharmacy store owner in her late twenties.

The reforms are designed to open the door to legislative and presidential elections that will allow the military to hand power to a civilian, elected government.

The military took power after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11. He was forced from office by a wave of mass protests against his three decades in power.

One of the reforms, drawn up by a judicial committee formed by the military rulers, limits the amount of time a president can stay in office to two four-year terms.

The ballot paper presents voters with the full list of the amendments and the choices of "agree" or "don't agree". Voters emerged from the polling stations bearing the ink-stained finger that was proof they had cast their ballot.

Timetable for elections

The Muslim Brotherhood, a well organised Islamist group, has come out in favour of the amendments, setting it at odds with secular groups and prominent reform advocates including Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa, both candidates for the presidency.

Opponents of the reforms say they are an insult to the goals of the anti-Mubarak uprising that sought deep political reform to put an end to Egypt's autocratic system of government.

The military council to which Mubarak handed power on Feb. 11 is hoping the amendments will pass so it can move along the path it has set towards parliamentary and presidential elections that will allow it to cede power to an elected government.

Eager to get out of power as quickly as possible, the military has said the amendments are the best, if not the ideal way forward.

It called for a high turnout, saying participation in a free electoral process was more important than the outcome. The army has deployed 37,000 soldiers to help police forces secure the streets.

Rejection of the amendments would force the council to extend an interim period, which it wants to keep as short as possible, and to form a new judicial committee to re-write the constitution.

That scenario could push back a parliamentary election to December, a security source said. The military is currently planning a September vote, with a presidential election to come afterwards.

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Japan cites radiation in milk, spinach near plant

TOKYO: Japan's top government spokesman says radiation levels in spinach and milk exceed safety limits following nuclear accidents at a tsunami-stricken nuclear plant.

Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said checks of milk from Fukushima prefecture, where the plant is located, and of spinach grown in Ibaraki, a neighboring prefecture, surpassed limits set by the government.

It was the government's first report of food being contaminated by radiation since the March 11 quake and tsunami unleashed the nuclear crisis.

Libya unrest: Gaddafi forces push into rebel city of Benghazi

BENGHAZI: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces pushed into the rebel-held city of Benghazi on Saturday, defying world demands for an immediate ceasefire and after France's UN envoy predicted an imminent military action.

Explosions shook Benghazi while a fighter jet was heard flying overhead, and residents said the eastern rebel stronghold was under attack from Gaddafi's forces.

"The explosions started about 2am Gaddafi's forces are advancing, we hear they're 20 kms (12 miles) from Benghazi," Faraj Ali, a resident, said.

"It's land-based fire. We saw one aircraft," he added. Gaddafi's forces advance into Benghazi pre-empted an international meeting hosted by France on Saturday to discuss military intervention in Libya. The meeting will be attended by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Arab leaders.

"We saw Gaddafi's tanks, cars and missile trucks less than five km away," a rebel figher giving his name as Mohammed told Reuters.

Libya had declared a unilateral ceasefire on Friday after the UN Security Council authorised a no-fly zone over Libya.

But the United States accused Gaddafi of defying international demands for an immediate ceasefire, and France's UN envoy predicted military action within hours of the Paris meeting on Libya on Saturday.

Libyan rebels said they were being forced to retreat by Gaddafi's forces. Black plumes of smoke could be seen on the road to the west of the city, a Reuters witness said.

"They were 60 km (40 miles) away yesterday, today they are 20 kms away and they can be here in a half hour to 90 minutes," rebel fighter Khalid Ahmed told Reuters at a rebel base on the western edge of the city.

"We have no hope in the Western forces," Ahmed added as around him rebel forces pulled back from the advancing frontline.

Elsewhere in the city, rebels also reported skirmishes and strikes by Gaddafi forces.

"Fighter jets bombed the road to the airport and there's been an air strike on the Abu Hadi district on the outskirts," Mohammed Dwo, a hospital worker and a rebel supporter, told Reuters.

He was speaking at the scene of an apparent firefight between rebels and what they claimed were two mercenaries who had infiltrated the city and were driving in a car which they said contained a crate of handgrenades.

The two men, in civilian clothes, had been shot and killed and rebels produced blood-soaked identity papers they said showed them to be of Nigerian nationality.

"We were sitting here and we received gunfire from this vehicle then we opened fire and after that it crashed," rebel fighter Meri Dersi said.

Landing by boat

Jamal bin Nour, a member of a neighbourhood watch group, told Reuters he had received a call to say government forces were landing by boat, but it was impossible to confirm the information.

The city has been so rife with rumours and hearsay that it is virtually impossible to verify due to lack of communications.

A unilateral ceasefire declared on Friday by the Libyan government appeared to have done little to convince outside powers to hold off on plans for air strikes to force an end to an increasingly bloody civil war.

Within hours of President Barack Obama saying the terms of a UN resolution meant to end fighting in Libya were non-negotiable, his UN envoy, Susan Rice, asked by CNN whether Gaddafi was in violation of these terms, said: "Yes, he is."

Gaddafi said there was no justification for the UN resolution.

"This is blatant colonialism. It does not have any justification. This will have serious consequences on the Mediterranean and on Europe," he said in comments reported by Al Jazeera television.

France, which along with Britain has been leading a drive for military intervention, will host a meeting on Saturday on Libya which will be attended by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Arab leaders.

"So I guess that after this summit, I think that in the coming hours, I think we will go to launch the military intervention," the French ambassador to the United Nations ambassador Gerard Araud told BBC's Newsnight.

Obama made clear any military action would aim to change conditions across Libya -- rather than just in the rebel-held east -- by calling on Gaddafi's forces to pull back from the western cities of Zawiyah and Misrata as well as from the east.

"All attacks against civilians must stop," Obama said, a day after the UN Security Council passed a resolution authorising international military intervention.

"Gaddafi must stop his troops from advancing on Benghazi, pull them back from Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zawiyah, and establish water, electricity and gas supplies to all areas. Humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach the people of Libya ...

"Let me be clear, these terms are not negotiable... If Gaddafi does not comply ... the resolution will be enforced through military action."

In Tripoli the government said there had been no bombing since it announced the ceasefire.

"We have had no bombardment of any kind since the ceasefire was declared," deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told journalists when asked about reports of continued government operations in Misrata and other parts of the country.

Kaim said Libya was asking China, Germany, Malta and Turkey to send observers to monitor its adherence to the ceasefire.

French foreign minister Alain Juppe said on Friday everything was ready to launch military strikes in Libya.

The United States, after embarking on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, had insisted it would participate in rather than lead any military action. Obama said the United States would not deploy ground troops in Libya.

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Japan continues nuclear struggle, fixes key power cable

TOKYO: Exhausted engineers attached a power cable to the outside of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear plant on Saturday in a desperate attempt to get water pumps going that would cool down overheated fuel rods and prevent the deadly spread of radiation.

Hopes were dashed of miracle survivors when it turned out that a story was wrong that a young man had being pulled alive from the rubble eight days after the quake and tsunami ripped through northeast Japan, triggering the nuclear crisis.

It said he had been in an evacuation centre and had just returned to his ruined home, where he lay down in a blanket.

Beleaguered Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded out the opposition, which only hours before the quake struck had been trying to oust him from office, about establishing a government of national unity to deal with a crisis that has shattered Japan and sent a shock through global financial markets, with major economies joining forces to calm the Japanese yen.

It has also stirred unhappy memories of Japan's past nuclear nightmare -- the US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Japan is the only country to have been hit by an atomic bomb.

Further cabling was under way before an attempt to restart water pumps needed to cool overheated nuclear fuel rods at the six-reactor Fukushima plant in northeastern Japan, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Officials expect to have power from outside drawn to No. 2 reactor first. Then they will test the pump and systems to see if they can be started.

Working inside a 20 km (12 miles) evacuation zone at Fukushima, nearly 300 engineers got a second diesel generator attached to No. 6 working just after 4am, the nuclear safety agency said. They then used that power to restart cooling pumps on No. 5. Reactor No. 6 is drawing power from a second diesel generator.

"TEPCO has connected the external transmission line with the receiving point of the plant and confirmed that electricity can be supplied," the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, said in a statement. Another 1,480 metres (5,000 feet) of cable are being laid before engineers try to crank up the coolers at reactor No.2, followed by numbers 1, 3 and 4 this weekend, company officials said.

"If they are successful in getting the cooling infrastructure up and running, that will be a significant step forward in establishing stability," said Eric Moore, a nuclear power expert at US-based FocalPoint Consulting Group.

If that fails, one option under consideration is to bury the sprawling 40-year-old plant in sand and concrete to prevent a catastrophic radiation release.

That method was used to seal huge leakages from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear reactor disaster.

Underlining authorities' desperation, fire trucks sprayed water overnight in a crude tactic to cool reactor No.3, considered the most critical because of its use of mixed oxides, or mox, containing both uranium and highly toxic plutonium.

"I humbly apologise to the public for causing such trouble. Although it was due to natural disaster, I am extremely regretful," the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper quoted TEPCO CEO Masataka Shimizu as saying in a statement.

Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis to level 5 from 4 on the seven-level INES international scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, although some experts say it is more serious.

Chernobyl, in Ukraine, was a 7 on that scale.

Humanitarian effort

The operation to avert large-scale radiation has overshadowed the humanitarian aftermath of the 9.0-magnitude quake and 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami that struck on March 11.

Nearly 7,000 people have been confirmed killed in the double natural disaster, which turned whole towns into waterlogged and debris-shrouded wastelands.

Another 10,700 people are missing with many feared dead. Some 390,000 people, including many among Japan's ageing population, are homeless and battling near-freezing temperatures in shelters in northeastern coastal areas.

Food, water, medicine and heating fuel are in short supply and a Worm Moon, when the full moon is at its closest to Earth, may bring floods to devastated areas where the geography has changed.

"Everything is gone, including money," said Tsukasa Sato, a 74-year-old barber with a heart condition, as he warmed his hands in front of a stove at a shelter for the homeless.

Health officials and the U.N. atomic watchdog have said radiation levels in the capital Tokyo were not harmful. But the city has seen an exodus of tourists, expatriates and many Japanese, who fear a blast of radioactive material.

"I'm leaving because my parents are terrified. I personally think this will turn out to be the biggest paper tiger the world has ever seen," said Luke Ridley, 23, from London as he sat at Narita international airport using his laptop.

All Japanese prefectures have begun radiation monitoring. The highest reading outside Fukushima came from Mito to the south. That was 1,726 microsieverts per annum. By comparison, the global average from natural sources is 2,400.

Officials asked people in the 20 km "take cover" zone to follow some directives when going outside: Drive, don't walk. Wear a mask. Wear long sleeves. Don't go out in the rain.

Though there has been alarm around the world, experts have been warning there is little risk of radiation at dangerous levels spreading to other nations.

The U.S. government said "minuscule" amounts of radiation were detected in California consistent with a release from Japan's damaged facility, but there were no levels of concern.

Amid their distress, Japanese were proud of the 279 nuclear plant workers toiling in the wreckage, wearing masks, goggles and protective suits sealed by duct tape.

"My eyes well with tears at the thought of the work they are doing," Kazuya Aoki, a safety official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told Reuters.

G7 intervention for yen

The Group of Seven rich nations succeeded in calming global financial markets in rare concerted intervention to restrain a soaring yen.

The dollar surged to 81.98 yen on Friday after the G7 moved to pour billions into markets buying dollars, euros and pounds -- the first such joint intervention since the group came to the aid of the newly launched euro in 2000.

The dollar later dropped back to under 81 yen, but it was still far from the record low of 76.25 yen hit on Thursday.

"The only type of intervention that actually works is coordinated intervention, and it shows the solidarity of all central banks in terms of the severity of the situation in Japan," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT in New York.

Japan's Nikkei share index ended up 2.7 percent, recouping some of the week's stinging losses. It lost 10.2 percent for the week, wiping $350 billion off market capitalisation.

The plight of the homeless worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to the worst-affected areas.

Nearly 290,000 households in the north were still without electricity, officials said, and the government said about 940,000 households lacked running water.

Aid groups say most victims are getting help, but there are pockets of acute suffering.

"We've seen children suffering with the cold, and lacking really basic items like food and clean water," Stephen McDonald of Save the Children said in a statement.

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Japan disaster dead, missing pass 13,000: Police

TOKYO: The official number of dead and missing after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened Japan's northeast coast has passed 13,000, police said Thursday, but reports hinted at a much higher toll.

The number of confirmed dead from Friday's twin disasters stood at 5,178, while the official number of missing remained at 8,606, the national police agency said in its latest update.

A total of 2,285 people were injured in the disaster.

But reports continued to come in which indicated that the final toll could be much higher.

The mayor of the coastal town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture said late Wednesday that the number of missing there was likely to hit 10,000, Kyodo News reported.

On Saturday, public broadcaster NHK reported that around 10,000 people were unaccounted for in the port town of Minamisanriku in the same prefecture.

Amid a mass rescue effort there were grim updates indicating severe loss of life along the battered east coast of Honshu island, where the monster waves destroyed or damaged more than 55,380 homes and other buildings.

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Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

FUKUSHIMA: Japan suspended operations to prevent a stricken nuclear plant from melting down on Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility.

Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said work on dousing reactors with water was disrupted by the need to withdraw.
The level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts early Wednesday before coming down to 800-600 millisieverts. Still, that was far more than the average

"So the workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now," Edano said. "Because of the radiation risk, we are on standby."

Experts say exposure of around 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause radiation sickness.

Earlier officials said 70 percent of fuel rods at one of the six reactors at the plant were significantly damaged in the aftermath of Friday's calamitous earthquake and tsunami.

News reports said 33 percent of fuel rods were also damaged at another reactor. Officials had said they would use helicopters and fire trucks to spray water in a desperate effort to prevent further radiation leaks and to cool down the reactors.

The nuclear crisis has triggered international alarm and partly overshadowed the human tragedy caused by Friday's double disaster, which pulverized Japan's northeastern coastline, killing an estimated 10,000 people.

Authorities have tried frantically since the earthquake and tsunami to avert an environmental catastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex in northeastern Japan, 170 miles (270 kilometers) north Tokyo.

The government has ordered some 140,000 people in the vicinity to stay indoors. A little radiation was also detected in Tokyo, 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the south and triggered panic buying of food and water.

There are six reactors at the plant, and three that were operating at the time have been rocked by explosions. The one still on fire was offline at the time of the magnitude 9.0 quake, Japan's most powerful on record.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency estimated that 70 percent of the rods have been damaged at the No. 1 reactor.

Japan's national news agency, Kyodo, said that 33 percent of the fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor were damaged and that the cores of both reactors were believed to have partially melted.

"We don't know the nature of the damage," said Minoru Ohgoda, spokesman for the country's nuclear safety agency. "It could be either melting, or there might be some holes in them."

Meanwhile, the outer housing of the containment vessel at the No. 4 unit erupted in flames early Wednesday, said Hajimi Motujuku, a spokesman for the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said fire and smoke could no longer be seen at Unit 4, but that it was unable to confirm that the blaze had been put out.

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Japan stocks take worst plunge since 1987

Japan's Nikkei share average plunged 10.6% on Tuesday, posting the worst two-day rout since 1987, as hedge funds bailed out after reports of rising radiation near Tokyo. Many mutual funds were left on the sidelines, leaving them poised to dump shares into any rebound.

The yen tripped on talk of intervention by authorities trying to contain the economic impact from last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami, but then recovered. Government bond yields rose as investors sold debt to offset stock market losses.

The scale and speed of the equity selloff forced domestic fund managers to sit on the sidelines as market volumes surged to a record for a second day running.

"Even if we wanted to sell today there was very little we could do," said a manager at a Japanese fund, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

"We didn't sell and waited, sidelined because hedge funds were just dumping stocks in panic."

At one point, the Nikkei had plunged 14% after Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the risk of nuclear contamination was rising at the Fukushima Daiichi complex on Japan's quake ravaged northeastern coast, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

The French embassy said a low-level radiation could hit Tokyo within hours.

Local reports of radiation rising in communities near Tokyo only stoked the sense of panic.

In contrast to Monday's trading, when construction stocks rose in anticipation of revenue from rebuilding contracts, none of the 225 constituents of the benchmark Nikkei average gained on Tuesday.

Shares of construction company Kajima Corp slid 13%, a day after its shares surged.

The broad TOPIX index of Japanese stocks has shed 16.3% this week, the worst two-day losing streak since the global equity crash of October 1987.

"All focus is on the nuclear crisis," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, a supervisor at Okasan Securities in Tokyo. "Foreign investors and domestic fund operators are pulling out from Japanese shares."

The Nikkei share average dropped 10.6% to 8,605.15, while TOPIX share index lost 9.5% to 766.73 -- both the worst single-day slides since the global selloff after the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section, making up the country's biggest companies, has lost about $626 billion in market capitalisation this week. First section volume totalled 5.77 billion, a nearly 20% increase from Monday's record.

Traders said overseas hedge funds were particularly aggressive sellers in Nikkei futures, especially the Singapore-listed contracts.

The massive swings in futures sent implied volatility on Nikkei options soaring to 63%, the highest since the financial crisis.

During the first phase of the rout, many domestic portfolio managers sat on the sidelines to await more clarity on the nuclear troubles. But some investors threw in the towel on Tuesday.

"Today's market moves truly show the severeness of Japanese situation, it's a true market, it's not a lie or speculation. We're not talking any more about power cuts, earthquake or tsunami, we're talking about which areas will get most radioactive exposure," said the chief trader at a Japanese securities firm.

"I had to sell, and I just dumped everything as I went along," the trader said.

Japanese officials tried to calm the market and moved to reduce short selling, placing limits on broker sales of stocks for arbitrage trading. That move helped spark a bout of short-covering in the afternoon, and stocks finished off their lows.

Shares of Tokyo Electric Power, the owner of the stricken nuclear plant, did not trade, although sellers massed at the indicated price of 1,221 yen on Tuesday. There were no buyers at that price.

The stock market rout was bad enough to force some institutional investors to sell government bonds to offset losses in their portfolios before Japan's business year ends this month, traders said.

Insurance companies were cited behind the selling in cash JGBs, pushing benchmark 10-year yields up a basis point to 1.215% . Longer-term yields were up even more.

The worries about the potential fiscal cost of the crisis and new bond issuance caused a further back-up in long-term yields. Twenty-year yields rose 4 basis points to 2.075%, causing the yield curve to steepen for a second day.

Since Friday's massive quake, market players have fretted that a hefty reconstruction bill will further add to Japan's debt totalling twice the size of the $5 trillion economy.

Japanese government CDS spreads have widened by around 35 basis points to 115 basis points, near the record 120 basis points reached in February 2009 and reflecting worries of more credit rating downgrades ahead.

Stock markets showed some signs of stabilising in after-hours trade, with Osaka Nikkei futures up about 1% from the regular session close to 8,720 from the regular session close. JGB futures slid into negative territory.

The yen was up slightly at 81.85 per dollar , relatively stable in the face of the equity market selloff.

Traders were on alert for signs that Japanese investors were repatriating funds, a phenomenon that had pushed up the yen in the wake of the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

At one point, the dollar spiked against the yen, and dealers suspected that Japanese authorities may have intervened in the market.

They later downplayed the idea, with a large buying order cited as exaggerating the move in choppy trade.

The dollar had touched a low around 80.60 on Monday, less than a yen from the record low of 79.75 yen touched in 1995 on trading platform EBS.

Fund managers said the sheer uncertainty around the nuclear crisis and economic risks suggested it would take investors a while to feel confident about buying stocks.

"We know where things are bad, but we don't know anything about sustained damages yet, so buying anything is a huge risk," said one fund manager in Tokyo.

US says no plans to change nuclear energy policy

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Mar 15 (PTI) The Obama administration has ruled out making any change in its policy with regard to atomic power plants or put a moratorium on new constructions in view of Japanese experience wherein several nuclear power plants have been damaged in the massive earthquake that hit the country last week.

In view of the Japanese experience, Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman said the US is going to continue to make sure that each and every one of nuclear reactors in the US those sources is as safe as is humanly possible.

"We will continue to take all learning into account as we proceed from episodes that happened, from hypothetical that we might be able to come up with. It's a matter of our continuous approach to our own development of our energy resources to make sure that they?re done continuously and safely.

Radiation levels increase after Japan N-plant blasts, panic in Tokyo

SOMA, JAPAN: High levels of radiation leaked from a crippled nuclear plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan after a third reactor was rocked by an explosion Tuesday and a fourth caught fire in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day-old catastrophe. The government warned 140,000 people nearby to stay indoors to avoid exposure. ( Read: Fresh explosion at quake-hit Japan nuclear plant )

Tokyo also reported slightly elevated radiation levels, but officials said the increase was too small to threaten the 39 million people in and around the capital, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) away.

In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from four reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima state, one of the hardest-hit in Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that has killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world's third-largest economy. ( Special: Tsunami devastates Japan )

Officials just south of Fukushima reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation Tuesday morning, Kyodo News agency reported. While those figures are worrying if there is prolonged exposure, they are far from fatal.

Kan and other officials warned there is danger of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors to avoid the possibility of radiation sickness.

``Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told residents in the danger zone. ``Don't turn on ventilators. Please hang your laundry indoors.''

``These are figures that potentially affect health. There is no mistake about that,'' he said.

Weather forecasts for Fukushima were for snow and wind from the northeast Tuesday evening, blowing southwest toward Tokyo, then shifting and blowing west out to sea. That's important because it shows which direction a possible nuclear cloud might blow.

The nuclear crisis is the worst Japan has faced since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. It is also the first time that such a grave nuclear threat has been raised in the world since a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine exploded in 1986.

Some 70,000 people had already been evacuated from a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius from the Dai-ichi complex and about 140,000 remain in the zone for which the new warning was issued.

Workers were striving to stabilize three reactors at the power plant that exploded in the wake of Friday's quake and tsunami, after losing their ability to cool down and releasing some radiation. A fourth reactor that was offline caught fire on Tuesday and more radiation was released, Edano said.

The fire was put out. Even though it was offline, the fire at the fourth reactor was believed to be the source of the elevated radiation.

``It is likely that the level of radiation increased sharply due to a fire at Unit 4,'' Edano said. ``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 another reactor whose containment building exploded Monday had not contributed greatly to the increased radiation.

Officials said 50 workers, all of them wearing protective radiation gear, were still trying to put water into the reactors to cool them. They say 800 other staff were evacuated. The fires and explosions at the reactors have injured 15 workers and military personnel and exposed up to 190 people to elevated radiation.

In Tokyo, slightly higher-than-normal radiation levels were detected Tuesday but officials insisted there are no health dangers.

``The amount is extremely small, and it does not raise health concerns. It will not affect us,'' Takayuki Fujiki, a Tokyo government official said.

Kyodo reported that radiation levels nine times higher than normal were briefly detected in Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo and that the Tokyo metropolitan government said it had detected a small amount of radioactive materials in the city's air.

Japanese government officials are being rightly cautious, said Donald Olander, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at University of California at Berkeley. He believed even the heavily elevated levels of radiation around Dai'ichi are ``not a health hazard.'' But without knowing specific dose levels, he said it was hard to make judgments on the evacuation orders.

``Right now it's worse than Three Mile Island,'' Olander said. But, he said, it's nowhere near the levels released during Chernobyl.

On Three Mile Island, the radiation leak was held inside the containment shell _ thick concrete armor around the reactor. The Chernobyl reactor had no shell and was also operational when the disaster struck. The Japanese reactors automatically shut down when the quake hit and are encased in containment shells.

Olander said encasing the reactors in a concrete sarcophagus _ the last-ditch effort done in Chernobyl _ is far too premature. Operators need to wait until they cool more, or risk making the situation even worse.

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.

Millions of people spent a fourth night with little food, water or heating in near-freezing temperatures as they dealt with the loss of homes and loved ones. Asia's richest country hasn't seen such hardship since World War II.

Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the hardest-hit, said deliveries of supplies were only 10 percent of what is needed. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.

Though Japanese officials have refused to speculate on the death toll, Indonesian geologist Hery Harjono, who dealt with the 2004 Asian tsunami, said it would be ``a miracle really if it turns out to be less than 10,000'' dead.

The 2004 tsunami killed 230,000 people _ of which only 184,000 bodies were found.

The impact of the earthquake and tsunami on the world's third-largest economy helped drag down the share markets. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plunged for a second day Tuesday, nose-diving more than 12 percent to 8,422.21 while the broader Topix lost 13 percent.

To lessen the damage, Japan's central bank injected $61.2 billion Tuesday into the money markets after pumping in $184 billion on Monday.

Initial estimates put repair costs in the tens of billions of dollars, costs that would likely add to a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.

In a bid to stop the reactors at the nuclear plant from melting down, engineers have been injecting seawater as a coolant of last resort.

Yuta Tadano, a 20-year-old pump technician at the Fukushima power plant, said he was on the second floor of an office building in the complex when quake hit.

``It was terrible. The desks were thrown around and the tables too. The walls started to crumble around us and there was dust everywhere. The roof began to collapse.

``We got outside and confirmed everyone was safe . Then we got out of there. We had no time to be tested for radioactive exposure. I still haven't been tested,'' Tadano told The Associated Press at an evacuation center outside the exclusion zone.

``We live about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the facility. We had to figure out on our own where to go,'' said Tadano, cradling his 4-month-old baby, Shoma. ``I worry a lot about fallout. If we could see it we could escape, but we can't.''

The Dai-ichi plant is the most severely affected of three nuclear complexes that were declared emergencies after suffering damage in Friday's quake and tsunami, raising questions about the safety of such plants in coastal areas near fault lines and adding to global jitters over the industry.

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Japan quake, tsunami kill 10,000; economy at risk

FUKUSHIMA: Japan scrambled to avert a meltdown at a stricken nuclear reactor on Monday after a second hydrogen explosion rocked the facility, just days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 10,000 people. ( Read: Second blast at stricken Japan nuclear plant )

Roads and rail, power and ports have been crippled across much of Japan's northeast and estimates of the cost of the multiple disasters have leapt to as much as $170 billion. Analysts said the economy could even tip back into recession.

Japanese stocks closed down more than 6 percent, the biggest fall since the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.

Rescue workers combed the tsunami-battered region north of Tokyo for survivors and struggled to care for millions of people without power and water in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan has dubbed his country's worst crisis since World War Two.

Officials say at least 10,000 people were likely killed in the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed it. Kyodo news agency reported that 2,000 bodies had been found on Monday in two coastal towns alone.

"It's a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish," said Patrick Fuller of the International Red Cross Federation from the town of Otsuchi.

"The situation here is just beyond belief, almost everything has been flattened. The government is saying that 9,500 people, more than half of the population could have died and I do fear the worst."

Crucially, officials said the thick walls around the radioactive cores of the damaged reactors at the nuclear power plant appeared to be intact after the hydrogen blast, the second there since Saturday.

The big fear is of a major radiation leak from the complex in Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, where engineers have been battling since the weekend to prevent a meltdown in three reactors.

The core container of the No. 3 reactor was intact after the explosion, the government said, but it warned those still in the 20-km (13-mile) evacuation zone to stay indoors. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) , said 11 people had been injured in the blast.

Kyodo said 80,000 people had been evacuated from the zone, joining more than 450,000 other evacuees from quake and tsunami-hit areas in the northeast.

"Everything I've seen says that the containment structure is operating as it's designed to operate. It's keeping the radiation in and it's holding everything in, which is the good news," said Murray Jennex, of San Diego State University.

"This is nothing like a Chernobyl ... At Chernobyl (in Ukraine in 1986) you had no containment structure -- when it blew, it blew everything straight out into the atmosphere."

Officials said on Sunday that three nuclear reactors in Fukushima were at risk of overheating, raising fears of an uncontrolled radiation leak.

Engineers worked desperately to cool the fuel rods. If they fail, the containers that house the core could melt, or even explode, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.

Nuclear experts said it was probably the first time in the industry's 57-year history that sea water has been used in this way, a sign of how close Japan may be to a major accident.

"Injection of sea water into a core is an extreme measure," Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "This is not according to the book."

The nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl, sparked criticism that authorities were ill-prepared and the threat that could pose to the country's nuclear power industry.

A Japanese official said before the blast that 22 people were confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed. Workers in protective clothing used hand-held scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centres.

U.S. warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the coast temporarily because of low-level radiation. The U.S. Seventh Fleet described the move as precautionary.

South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines said they would test Japanese food imports for radiation.

NO POWER, NO WATER
Almost 2 million households were without power in the north, the government said. There were about 1.4 million without running water. Tens of thousands of people are missing.

The town of Otsuchi in Iwate prefecture was obliterated. "After my long career in the Red Cross where I have seen many disasters and catastrophes, this is the worst I have ever seen. Otsuchi reminds me of Osaka and Tokyo after the Second World War when everything was destroyed and flattened," Japan Red Cross President Tadateru Konoe told Reuters during a visit to the coastal town.

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

"When the tsunami struck, I was trying to evacuate people. I looked back, and then it was like the computer graphics scene I've seen from the movie Armageddon. I thought it was a dream . it was really like the end of the world," said Tsutomu Sato, 46, in Rikuzantakata, a town on the northeast coast.

ENORMOUS ECONOMIC COSTS
Estimates of the economic impact are only now starting to emerge.

Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist for Japan at Credit Suisse, said in a note to clients that the economic loss will likely be around 14-15 trillion yen ($171-183 billion) just to the region hit by the quake and tsunami.

Even that would put it above the commonly accepted cost of the 1995 Kobe quake which killed 6,000 people.

The earthquake has forced many firms to suspend production and shares in some of Japan's biggest companies tumbled on Monday, with Toyota Corp dropping almost 8 percent . Shares in Australian-listed uranium miners also dived.

"When we talk about natural disasters, we tend to see an initial sharp drop in production ... then you tend to have a V-shaped rebound. But initially everyone underestimates the damage," said Michala Marcussen, head of global economics at Societe Generale.

Risk modelling company AIR Worldwide said insured losses from the earthquake could reach nearly $35 billion.

Global companies from semiconductor makers to shipbuilders faced disruptions to operations after the quake and tsunami destroyed vital infrastructure, damaged ports and knocked out factories supplying everything from high-tech components to steel.

The Bank of Japan offered a combined 15 trillion yen ($183 billion) to the banking system earlier in the day to soothe market jitters.

Finance minister Yoshihiko Noda said authorities were closely watching the yen after the currency initially rallied on expectations of repatriations by insurers and others. The currency later reversed course in volatile trading.

The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

TOI

SC refuses to stay HC order for Tiwari's DNA test

SOMA: The second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Monday, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and wounding six workers. It was not immediately clear how much _ if any _ radiation had been released.

The explosion at the plant's Unit 3, which authorities have been frantically trying to cool following a system failure in the wake of a massive earthquake and tsunami, triggered an order for hundreds of people to stay indoors, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

The blast follows a similar explosion Saturday that took place at the plant's Unit 1, which injured four workers and caused mass-evacuations.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said six workers were injured in Monday's explosion but it was not immediately clear how, or whether they were exposed to radiation. They were all conscious, said the agency's Ryohei Shomi.

Earlier, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the reactor, said three workers were injured and seven missing.

The reactor's inner containment vessel holding nuclear rods was intact, Edano said, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment and public. TV footage of the building housing the reactor appeared to show similar damage to Monday's blast, with outer walls shorn off, leaving only a skeletal frame.

More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area in recent days, and up to 160 may have been exposed to radiation.

Earlier Monday, pressure had jumped inside Unit 3, forcing the evacuation of 21 workers. But they returned to work after levels appeared to ease.

Associated Press journalists felt the explosion in the tsunami-devastated port town of Soma, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the reactor. They reported feeling the faint rumble a blast and the ground shaking.

At the time, sirens were wailing as rescue workers were in the midst of evacuating all those in the city to high ground due to a tsunami warning. That turned out to be a false alarm.

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India's tsunami warning system is in a shambles

CHENNAI: The chilling visuals of tsunami devastating Japan on Friday brought back memories of December 26, 2004 to Chennaites and questions like how good our tsunami alert system is.

Thanks to a global network of tsunami monitoring systems, Indian shores may not be caught unawares, but if maintenance of our tsunami buoys is anything go by, the Indian tsunami alert system is in a bad shape. As fishermen continue to vandalise tsunami buoys in the open seas, all that remains in the Bay of Bengal are two such buoys and one other in the Arabian Sea. These buoys sense tidal variations and send out signals to a satellite that alerts the ground stations.

Several buoys deployed in the Indian seas in last decade had been vandalised by fishermen who break open the buoys to take away metal parts. The Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), which runs the national tsunami warning centre, depends on tsunami buoys, among other things, for forecast.

An official from National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) said 42 of the 50 meteorological buoys deployed for weather predictions in Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal were vandalised by fishermen. Over 160 meteorological, wave and tsunami buoys were retreived out of 240 by NIOT, mostly because of vandalism.

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Japan quake causes emergencies at 5 nuke reactors

TOKYO: Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake. Thousands of residents were evacuated as workers struggled to get the reactors under control to prevent meltdowns.

A single reactor in northeastern Japan had been the focus of much of the concern in the initial hours after the 8.9 magnitude quake, but the government declared new states of emergency at four other reactors in the area Saturday morning.

The earthquake knocked out power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and because a backup generator failed, the cooling system was unable to supply water to cool the 460-megawatt No. 1 reactor. Although a backup cooling system is being used, Japan's nuclear safety agency said pressure inside the reactor had risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal.

Authorities said radiation levels had jumped 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1 and were measured at eight times normal outside the plant. They expanded an earlier evacuation zone more than threefold, from 3 to 10 kilometers (2 miles to 6.2 miles). Some 3,000 people had been urged to leave their homes in the first announcement.

The government declared a state of emergency, its first ever at a nuclear plant. And plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. warned of power shortages and an "extremely challenging situation in power supply for a while."

The utility, which also operates reactors at the nearby Fukushima Daini plant, later confirmed that cooling ability had been lost at three of four reactors there, as well as a second Fukushima Daiichi unit. The government promptly declared a state of emergency there as well.

The reactor core remains hot even after a shutdown. If the outage persists, it could in a worst-case scenario cause a reactor meltdown, an official with Japan's nuclear safety agency said on condition of anonymity, citing sensitivity of the issue.

Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official Ryohei Shiomi said radiation levels surged inside the control center at the Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 reactor, while a monitoring device at the front gate of the compound detected radiation that is eight times higher than normal.

The level outside the 40-year-old plant in Onahama city, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, is still considered very low compared to the annual exposure limit, Shiomi said. It would take 70 days of standing at the gate to reach the limit, he said.

Shiomi said radioactive vapor probably entered the control room because of lack of air flow control resulting from power outage. The control room is usually radiation free, protected by negative air pressure. If the condition persists or worsens, the plant is equipped with gas masks and other protective gear to protect workers from radiation exposure, he said.

Officials planned to release slightly radioactive vapor from the unit to lower the pressure in an effort to protect it from a possible meltdown, but the continuing power supply problem has delayed the process.

Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said the amount of radioactive element in the vapor would be "very small" and would not affect the environment or human health. "With evacuation in place and the ocean-bound wind, we can ensure the safety," he said at a televised news conference early Saturday.

The agency said plant workers are scrambling to restore cooling water supply at the plant but there is no prospect for immediate success.

Another official at the nuclear safety agency, Yuji Kakizaki, said that plant workers were cooling the reactor with a secondary cooling system, which is not as effective as the regular cooling method.

Kakizaki said officials have confirmed that the emergency cooling system - the last-ditch cooling measure to prevent the reactor from the meltdown - is intact and could kick in if needed.

"That's as a last resort, and we have not reached that stage yet," Kakizaki added.

Edano said both the state of emergency and evacuation order around the Fukushima Daiichi plant are precautionary measures.

"We launched the measure so we can be fully prepared for the worst scenario," he said. "We are using all our might to deal with the situation."

Defense ministry official Ippo Maeyama said the ministry has dispatched dozens of troops trained for chemical disasters to the Fukushima plant in case of a radiation leak, along with four vehicles designed for use in atomic, biological and chemical warfare.

Pineville, La., resident Janie Eudy said her husband, Danny, was working at Fukushima No. 1 when the earthquake struck. After a harrowing evacuation, he called her several hours later from the parking lot of his quake-ravaged hotel.

He and other American plant workers are "waiting to be rescued, and they're in bad shape," she said in a telephone interview.

Danny Eudy, 52, a technician employed by Pasadena, Texas-based Atlantic Plant Maintenance, told his wife that the quake violently shook the plant building he was in. "Everything was falling from the ceiling," she said.

Eudy told his wife that he and other workers were evacuating the plant when the tsunami swept through the area, carrying away homes and vehicles. They retreated so they wouldn't get caught up in the raging water.

"He walked through so much glass that his feet were cut. It slowed him down," she said.

After the water started to recede, Eudy and other workers drove to their hotel, only to find it in shambles.

"Most of the hotel was gone," she said. "He said the roads were torn up and everything was a mess."

His hotel room was demolished along with all of his belongings, so Eudy had to borrow a resident's phone to call his wife early Friday morning. The workers were waiting for daylight but contemplating seeking higher ground in case another big wave hit.

"He sounded like he was in shock. He was scared," Janie Eudy said. "They're totally on their own, trying to just make it."

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said staff were trying to collect more information on what was happening.

At the Fukushima Daiichi site, "They are busy trying to get coolant to the core area," Sheehan said. "The big thing is trying to get power to the cooling systems."

Speaking at the White House, secretary of state Hillary Clinton also said US Air Force planes were carrying "some really important coolant" to the site, but administration officials later said she misspoke. The US offered such help but the Japanese said they didn't need it, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

High-pressure pumps can temporarily cool a reactor in this state with battery power, even when electricity is down, according to Arnold Gundersen, a nuclear engineer who used to work in the U.S. nuclear industry. Batteries would go dead within hours but could be replaced.

The nuclear reactor was among 10 in Japan shut down because of the earthquake.

The Fukushima plant is just south of the worst-hit Miyagi prefecture, where a fire broke out at another nuclear plant. The blaze was in a turbine building at one of the Onagawa power plants. Smoke could be seen coming out of the building, which is separate from the plant's reactor, Tohoku Electric Power Co. said. The fire has since been extinguished.

Another reactor at Onagawa was experiencing a water leak.

The US Geological Survey said the 2:46pm quake was a magnitude 8.9, the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s.

A tsunami warning was issued for a number of Pacific, Southeast Asian and Latin American nations.

At the two-reactor Diablo Canyon plant at Avila Beach, Calif., an "unusual event" - the lowest level of alert - was declared in connection with a West Coast tsunami warning. The plant remained stable, though, and kept running, according to the NRC.

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Tsunami-hit Japan awakes to wide destruction, toll exceeds 1,000

TOKYO: Japan confronted devastation along its northeastern coast on Saturday, with fires raging and parts of some cities under water after a massive earthquake and tsunami that likely killed at least 1,000 people.

Daybreak revealed the full extent of the damage from Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake -- the strongest in Japan since records began -- and the 10-metre high tsunami it sent surging into cities and villages, sweeping away everything in its path.

"This is likely to be a humanitarian relief operation of epic proportions," Japan expert Sheila Smith of the US-based Council on Foreign Relations wrote in a commentary.

In one of the worst-hit residential areas, people buried under rubble could be heard calling out "help" and "when are we going to be rescued", Kyodo news agency reported. TV footage showed staff at one hospital waving banners with the words "Food" and "HELP" from a rooftop.

In Tokyo, office workers who were stranded in the city after the quake forced the subway system to close early slept alongside the homeless at one station. Scores of men in suits lay on newspapers, using their briefcases as pillows.

The government warned there could be a small radiation leak from a nuclear reactor whose cooling system was knocked out by the quake. Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered an evacuation zone around the plant be expanded to 10 km (6 miles) from 3 km. Some 3,000 people had earlier been moved out of harm's way.

Underscoring concerns about the Fukushima plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, US officials said Japan had asked for coolant to avert a rise in the temperature of its nuclear rods, but ultimately handled the matter on its own. Officials said a leak was still possible because pressure would have to be released.

( Read: How a Tsunami is caused? )


The unfolding natural disaster prompted offers of search and rescue help from 45 countries.

China said rescuers were ready to help with quake relief while President Barack Obama told Kan the United States would assist in any way.

The northeastern Japanese city of Kesennuma, with a population of 74,000, was hit by widespread fires and one-third of the city was under water, Jiji news agency said on Saturday.

The airport in the city of Sendai, home to one million people, was on fire, it added.

TV footage from Friday showed a muddy torrent of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near Sendai, 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbour wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side.

Boats, cars and trucks were tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. Kyodo news agency reported that contact had been lost with four trains in the coastal area.

Japanese politicians pushed for an emergency budget to fund relief efforts after Kan asked them to "save the country", Kyodo news agency reported. Japan is already the most heavily indebted major economy in the world, meaning any funding efforts would be closely scrutinised by financial markets.

Domestic media said the death toll was expected to exceed 1,000, most of whom appeared to have drowned by churning waters.

Even in a nation accustomed to earthquakes, the devastation was shocking.

"A big area of Sendai city near the coast, is flooded. We are hearing that people who were evacuated are stranded," said Rie Sugimoto, a reporter for NHK television in Sendai.

"About 140 people, including children, were rushed to an elementary school and are on the rooftop but they are surrounded by water and have nowhere else to go."

Japan has prided itself on its speedy tsunami warning system, which has been upgraded several times since its inception in 1952, including after a 7.8 magnitude quake triggered a 30-metre high wave before a warning was given.

The country has also built countless breakwaters and floodgates to protect ports and coastal areas, although experts said they might not have been enough to prevent disasters such as the one that struck on Friday.

"I was unable stay on my feet because of the violent shaking. The aftershocks gave us no reprieve. Then the tsunamis came when we tried to run for cover. It was the strongest quake I experienced," a woman with a baby on her back told television in northern Japan.

( Japan nuclear plants shut after quake )

Fires across the coast

The quake, the most powerful since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, sparked at least 80 fires in cities and towns along the coast, Kyodo said.

Other Japanese nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down and one refinery was ablaze.

Auto plants, electronics factories and refineries shut, roads buckled and power to millions of homes and businesses was knocked out. Several airports, including Tokyo's Narita, were closed and rail services halted. All ports were shut.

The central bank said it would cut short a two-day policy review scheduled for next week to one day on Monday and promised to do its utmost to ensure financial market stability.

The disaster occurred as the world's third-largest economy had been showing signs of reviving from an economic contraction in the final quarter of last year. It raised the prospect of major disruptions for many key businesses and a massive repair bill running into tens of billions of dollars.

The tsunami alerts revived memories of the giant waves that struck Asia in 2004.

Warnings were issued for countries to the west of Japan and across the Pacific as far away as Colombia and Peru, but the tsunami dissipated as it sped across the ocean and worst fears in the Americas were not realised.

The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century.

The quake surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas.

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BBC team blinfolded and beaten by Gaddafi forces

LONDON: A BBC news team was detained and beaten up by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces after being accused of spying, the British broadcaster reported Thursday.

The three men, who were trying to reach the violence-torn western city of Az Zawiya, were beaten with fists, knees and rifles, and subjected to mock executions by members of Libya's army and secret police.

The men were detained Monday and held for 21 hours, but have now left Libya, the report said.

Libya has been witnessing massive anti-government protests since Feb 14. The protesters are demanding the ouster of Gaddafi who has ruled the north African country for almost 42 years.

The three of them were taken to a huge military barracks in Tripoli, where they were blindfolded, handcuffed and beaten.

One of the three, Chris Cobb-Smith, said: "We were lined up against the wall. I was the last in line -- facing the wall.

"I looked and I saw a plain-clothes guy with a small sub-machine gun. He put it to everyone's neck. I saw him and he screamed at me.

"Then he walked up to me, put the gun to my neck and pulled the trigger twice. The bullets whisked past my ear. The soldiers just laughed."

A second member of the team -- Feras Killani, a correspondent of Palestinian descent -- is said to have been singled out for repeated beatings.

The captors told him they did not like his reporting of the Libyan popular uprising and accused him of being a spy, the BBC said.

The third member of the team, cameraman Goktay Koraltan, said they were all convinced they were going to die.

During their detention, the BBC team saw evidence of torture against Libyan detainees, many of whom were from Zawiya.

"I cannot describe how bad it was. Most of them (other detainees) were hooded and handcuffed really tightly, all with swollen hands and broken ribs. They were screaming," Koraltan said.

A senior Libyan government official later apologised for the treatment to the BBC team.

The BBC said it "strongly condemns this abusive treatment".

"The safety of our staff is our primary concern especially when they are working in such difficult circumstances and it is essential that journalists working for the BBC, or any media organisation, are allowed to report on the situation in Libya without fear of attack," said a statement from Liliane Landor, languages controller of BBC Global News.

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Carlos Slim remains world's richest person: Forbes

NEW YORK: Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim remained the richest person in the world with USD 74 billion in assets, while NRI steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal ranked sixth and Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani is placed ninth in the US magazine Forbes annual list of world's top billionaires.

Telecom tycoon Helu, whose worth increased by USD 20.4 billion from last year's USD 53.5 billion, is followed by Microsoft founder and now a full time philanthropist William Gates III (popularly known as Bill Gates) with a net worth of USD 56 billion.

Investment guru Warren Buffet at the third spot with assets worth USD 50 billion.

Total number of billionaires, this year, has increased to a record 1,210 from 1,011 last year. Though America has the 33 per cent of the mega-rich, Asia-Pacific region has surged forward and overtook Europe for the first time.

Chairman of French luxury good outfit, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), Bernard Arnault has been placed at fourth spot. With net worth of USD 41 billion, he is the richest person in Europe. He has replaced Ambani this year.

Fifth place has been taken over by Larry Ellison of Oracle. The Oracle chief sits atop a fortune of USD 39.5 billion, which is USD 11.5 billion bigger than last year, thanks to a 30 per cent jump in his software company's shares.

Mittal ranked sixth with USD 31.1 billion of wealth. His wealth grew from USD 28.7 billion last year as his company ArcelorMittal, world's largest steel-maker, registered profits of USD 2.9 billion due to recovery in steel demand and higher margins in 2010, Forbes said.

Mukesh Ambani, with net asset of value USD 27 billion, lost five places and was placed at ninth position in this year's list. Last year, Ambani held the fourth spot, with net asset of USD 29 billion, followed by Mittal at fifth place.

"In one of the biggest foreign investments in India, Reliance Industries has signed a deal with BP by selling 30 per cent stake in 23 oil blocks in India for USD 7.2 billion and forming a marketing joint venture," the magazine said.

According to Forbes, the number of billionaires has increased from 49 to 55 in India, 69 to 115 in China, 25 to 36 in Hong Kong, and across Asia-Pacific it surged from 243 to 332.

Other Indians among top 100 include, Wipro chief Azim Premji at 36th spot (USD 16.8bn), Shahi and Ravi Ruia at 42nd place (USD 15.8 bn), Savitri Jindal has been ranked 56th (USD 13.2 bn), Gautam Adani at 87th (USD 10 bn) and Kumar Birla at 97th (USD 9.2 billion).

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Hu tops list of world's most powerful person; Sonia ranks 9th

NEW YORK: Chinese President Hu Jintao, who rules over one-fifth of world's population, has topped the list of world's most powerful person while UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been ranked ninth by the US Forbes magazine.

Jintao has been described by the magazine as a person who "unlike Western counterparts, can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts."

US President Barack Obama, who last year topped the list, has been placed behind Hu at second while Saudi King Abdullah stands third most powerful man in the world.

Sonia Gandhi, at ninth place, has been described as a person who wields unequaled influence over 1.2 billion Indians and "after being elected as Congress president for the record fourth term she has cemented her status as true heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been ranked 18th among the world's top 20 powerful people.

Forbes has described Singh as 'soft-spoken Oxford-trained economist credited with transforming India's quasi-socialist economy into world's second-fastest growing'.

The other Indian who have made to the list include Reliance Industries CMD Mukesh Ambani and NRI industrialist Lakshmi Mittal who are ranked 34th and 44th respectively.

Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has been placed at 29th in the list, while Osama bin Laden is at 57th and India's most wanted Dawood Ibrahim is at 63th spot.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin holds the fourth place and Pope Benedict XVI has been placed fifth, while German Chancellor is at sixth place, British Prime Minister David Cameron at seventh and Chairman of US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke is at eight place in the list.

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Dalai Lama to resign as political head of the exiled Tibetan movement

DHARAMSALA: The Dalai Lama announced on Thursday that he was stepping down as political leader of the Tibetan govermment in exile.

"As early as the 1960s, I have repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader, elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power," the Dalai Lama said in a prepared speech. "Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this into effect."

The Dalai Lama has long seen himself as "semi-retired" from political leadership with an elected prime minister already in place in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala. He remains Tibet's spiritual leader.

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Bangladesh HC upholds sacking of Yunus from Grameen Bank

DHAKA: In a major setback to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladesh high court on Tuesday upheld his dismissal from the Grameen Bank he founded nearly three decades ago.

The petitions by 70-year-old Yunus challenging legality of a Central Bank order removing him as Managing Director of the Grameen Bank "are rejected," said justice Momtaz Uddin Ahmed, the senior member of a two-judge bench which delivered a lengthy judgement after three days of hearing on his writ.

The bench, which had Gobinda Chandra Thakur as the other judge, said that despite being a mandatory provision, the prior permission of the Bangladesh Bank was not obtained when the Grameen Bank Board appointed Yunus as the executive chief of the pioneering micro-lending agency, which Yunus founded in 1983.

At the crowded courtroom, Yunus was represented by only one of his junior lawyers Sara Hossain, who said "what we had apprehended appeared true."

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and the Central Bank lawyers, however, were present as the judgement was passed.

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U-turn: 2 years on, Obama lifts freeze on Gitmo trials

WASHINGTON: US president Barack Obama on Tuesday lifted the freeze on military trials for Guantanamo Bay terror suspects by signing an executive order that will create a formal system of indefinite detention of such prisoners.

"I am announcing several steps that broaden our ability to bring terrorists to justice, provide oversight for our actions and ensure the humane treatment of detainees," Obama said in a statement.

Within hours of his taking over as the president, Obama announced a freeze on Guantanamo Bay trials along with a vow to shut down the infamous camp within a year.

Guantanamo Bay still holds 172 prisoners including key suspects from the September 11 attacks and other terror strikes against the US as well as key prisoners scooped from battle fields in Afghanistan. While announcing lifting of the freeze, Obama also issued new guidelines to ensure humane and lawful treatment of suspects considered too dangerous to be released.

"I strongly believe that the American system of justice is a key part of our arsenal in the war against al-Qaida and its affiliates, and we will continue to draw on all aspects of our justice system - including Article III Courts - to ensure that our security and our values are strengthened," Obama said.

"From the beginning of my administration, the United States has worked to bring terrorists to justice consistent with our commitment to protect the American people and uphold our values," he said.

The executive order also provides for periodic review of those detainees who are being held without trial. It also took steps to strengthen the international framework that provides for the humane treatment of detainees.

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Quake jolts Japan; tsunami alert issued

TOKYO: A 7.2-magnitude earthquake jolted northeastern Japan on Wednesday, the Meteorological Agency said.

The agency issued a tsunami alert on the coasts of the northeastern part of the country.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property after the quake hit at 11.45 a.m. (0245 GMT).

China's defence budget to rise 12.7% in 2011

BEIJING: China's defence budget will rise 12.7 percent in 2011 to 601.1 billion yuan ($91.7 billion), a government spokesman said on Friday, amid persistent concerns about Beijing's military build-up.

The figure was contained in a budgetary report submitted to the National People's Congress, the parliament's spokesman Li Zhaoxing told a news conference on the eve of the opening of the annual NPC session.

"China has always paid attention to controlling the size of defence spending," Li told reporters, describing spending as "relatively low" compared with the rest of the world.

Li, a former foreign minister, said the figure represented six percent of the total national budget in the world's second-largest economy.

The number however represents a return to double-digit increases, which have alarmed the United States and several of China's Asian neighbours. That trend had been broken last year when the defence budget rose 7.5 percent.

The People's Liberation Army -- the world's largest -- is hugely secretive about its defence programmes, but insists its modernisation is purely defensive in nature.

"This will not pose a threat to any country," Li said.

For Willy Lam, a China analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the published military budget -- which he said was likely only one-third to one-half of total spending -- will be poured into next-generation equipment.

"The return to this double-digit PLA budget reflects the growing power of the PLA," Lam told AFP. "They are trying to close the gap with Russia and the United States."

Experts say the spending hike also reflects a desire to keep the pressure on Washington, Tokyo and others in the region.

"The Chinese communist leadership needs to increase its military intimidation of the United States, Taiwan and neighbours like Japan and India," said Rick Fisher at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in the US.

"Spending increases advance this goal by ensuring that programmes entering their expensive procurement phase, like aircraft carriers and nuclear missile submarines, can proceed without delay," Fisher told AFP.

Tokyo has repeatedly questioned Beijing's military intentions, especially after collisions in disputed waters in September between two Japanese coastguard boats and a Chinese fishing vessel that sparked a major row.

"We regard the modernisation of China's military power and its growing and intense activities as concerns," top Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano said Thursday, after two Chinese planes approached a contested island chain.

"Our country will continue to pay close attention to moves by China's military."

Japan has said it plans to send more forces to its scattered southern islands and away from Cold War-era locations in the north near Russia, citing Beijing's increased assertiveness in the East and South China Seas.

India's defence minister last month expressed "serious concern" over China's growing military might, pledging to boost its own forces.

The two countries have long-standing border disputes in the Himalayas.

On Monday, India announced a nearly 12 percent jump in defence spending to $36 billion in its annual budget -- up from a four percent hike last year.

In January, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing to patch up frayed military ties -- and was instead greeted with the maiden flight of China's first next-generation stealth fighter.

Last month, the Pentagon proposed a record "base" defence budget -- excluding the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- of $553 billion for fiscal 2012.

"Advances by the Chinese military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare pose a potential challenge to the ability of our forces to operate and communicate in this part of the Pacific," Gates said after his China visit.

But he added that Washington and Tokyo were well-placed to counter the threat with high-tech hardware and that it was not a foregone conclusion that China would turn into a military rival.

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Gaddafi faces war crimes trial

AL-UQAYLA: Muammar Gaddafi struck at rebel control of a key Libyan coastal road for a second day on Thursday but received a warning he would be held to account at The Hague for suspected crimes by his security forces.

In Paris, French foreign minister Alain Juppe said France and Britain would support the idea of setting up a no-fly zone over Libya if Gaddafi's forces continued to attack civilians.

In Libya's east, the site of a struggle for control of a strategically vital Mediterranean coastal road and oil industry facilities, witnesses said a warplane for a second day bombed the oil terminal town Brega, 800 km east of Tripoli.

Warplanes also launched two raids against the nearby rebel-held town of Ajbadiya, witnesses said.

Gaddafi's son, Saif el-Islam, said the bombing of Brega was intended to scare off militia fighters and gain control of oil installations. "First of all the bombs (were) just to frighten them to go away," he said. "Not to frighten them."

But on the ground, events appeared to turn against Gaddafi, as rebels spearheading the unprecedented popular revolt pushed their frontline against government loyalists west of Brega, where they had repulsed an attack a day earlier. The opposition fighters said troops loyal to Gaddafi had been driven back to Ras Lanuf, home to another major oil terminal 600 km east of Tripoli. They also said they had captured a group of mercenaries.

In The Hague, International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Gaddafi and members of his inner circle, including some of his sons, could be investigated for alleged crimes committed since the uprising broke out in mid-February.

He said a request for arrest warrants over Libya could be made in a few months time. "We have identified some individuals in the de facto or former authority who have authority over the security forces who allegedly committed the crimes," Moreno-Ocampo said. "They are Muammar Gaddafi, his inner circle including some of his sons, who had this de facto authority."

Libyan government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told BBC Radio the news from The Hague was "close to a joke". "No fact-finding mission has been sent to Libya. No diplomats, no ministers, no NGOs or organisations were sent to Libya to check the facts. No one can be sent to prison based on media reports," he said.

The strife is causing a humanitarian crisis, especially on the Tunisian border where tens of thousands of foreign workers have fled to safety. reuters

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