LA Times News

LA Times News

Grim recovery effort along Japan's coast

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 05:38 PM PDT

As waters begin to recede, the extent of the damage from the quake and tsunami is coming into focus, revealing a world where up is down, with boats resting on roads and cars seemingly parked in water.

A smashed white pickup truck wedged beneath another vehicle was marked "Day 13, 3:15 p.m." in Japanese characters.

Japanese engineers work to contain nuclear reactor damage

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 08:30 PM PDT

They are pumping seawater laced with boron, to absorb radioactive emissions, in an attempt to cool two reactors and prevent a meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) plant.

Engineers are now pumping seawater laced with boron into two nuclear reactors at Japan's Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) power plant 150 miles north of Tokyo and are considering doing it at a third reactor in a last-ditch effort to stave off a meltdown that could release dangerous amounts of radioactivity into the environment. Hydrogen explosions have now occurred at two reactors at the facility. Here's a look at why they are doing it and what the potential consequences are, according to various experts.

In Japan, Tokyo's lights voluntarily dimmed after quake

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 02:08 PM PDT

After calls by Japan's government to conserve power and warnings about rolling blackouts, Tokyo businesses and residents band together to turn off lights.

It's hard to imagine this city without its trademark blaze of neon — the garish, flashing signs that routinely turn the Tokyo nightscape into a phantasmagoric riot of color. On Sunday night, though, little imagination was needed.

Violence in Bahrain, Yemen; Oman's ruler cedes some power

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 01:52 PM PDT

Protesters, police clash in Bahrain as hundreds of demonstrators block a main road in the capital. Yemeni security forces attack a huge sit-in; live ammunition is fired. Oman's sultan grants limited power to the state council.

Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of anti-government demonstrators blocking access to the financial district of Bahrain's capital on Sunday, as sectarian tension escalated in this tiny island kingdom.

Japan earthquake: Insurance cost for quake alone pegged at $35 billion, AIR says

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 12:52 PM PDT

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake could mean billions of dollars in insured-property losses, and that's without factoring in the tsunami, according to a new analysis from AIR Worldwide.

Japan's magnitude 9.0 earthquake could lead to insured-property losses of nearly $35 billion, making it one of the most expensive catastrophes in history, according to a risk-modeling analysis released Sunday by a U.S. consulting group.

Radiation from Japan not bound for U.S., says nuclear agency

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 12:57 PM PDT

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it does not expect the U.S. to experience any harmful levels of radiation released by Japan's Fukushima reactors.

The United States is not expected to experience "any harmful levels" of radiation from Japan's earthquake-damaged nuclear power reactors, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission .

Japan earthquake: Record-shattering breakwater can't hold back tsunami

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 10:55 AM PDT

The Kamaishi, Japan, breakwater was in the Guinness World Records as the deepest on the planet. It was a product of decades of research on wave dynamics and dissipation. But the tsunami made short work of it.

The breakwater in Kamaishi, Japan, is in the Guinness World Records as the deepest on the planet, but when the tsunami hit this small city in Iwate prefecture, waves swelled over the barrier, engulfing buildings and cars and smashing everything in its path to smithereens in a matter of minutes.

Search for Japan quake survivors continues amid bitter cold

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 11:46 AM PDT

Death toll rises from Japanese earthquake and tsunami that have left many without electricity, food or water.

As temperatures dropped in Japan overnight, rescuers searched for survivors of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left many stranded without electricity, food or water.

Israel vows to expand settlements after stabbings

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 12:58 PM PDT

Thousands attend services for five members of a family killed in their beds. As the hunt for their attackers continues, the Israeli government says it will build 500 more homes in the West Bank.

As thousands of Israelis gathered Sunday to bury five members of a family of Jewish settlers who were stabbed to death in their beds over the weekend, the government said it would respond to the attack by building an additional 500 homes in the West Bank.

Volcano in southern Japan erupts

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 11:08 AM PDT

The Shinmoedake volcano on Japan's Kyushu island, after lying dormant for a couple of weeks, resumes activity in a blast heard miles away. It was unclear if the eruption was linked to Friday's massive earthquake in the north.

The Japanese weather agency has reported that a volcano in southern Japan began spewing ash and rock even as the country struggled to recover Sunday from the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.

Japan quake: 2nd reactor cooled with seawater to avert meltdown

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 11:21 AM PDT

The last-ditch move indicates that the backup cooling system in a second quake-damaged reactor has failed. Japanese officials say radiation levels at another reactor being pumped with seawater have fallen, but hydrogen gas is building in a third.

Japanese officials have begun pumping seawater into a second nuclear reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant 140 miles north of Tokyo to cool the reactor core in a last-ditch effort to stave off a core meltdown.

Japan quake toll could number in tens of thousands

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 07:30 PM PDT

More than 500,000 people have been forced to evacuate in the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami, with many cut off from food, electricity and water. Los Angeles rescue team arrives in Japan. Power rationing begins.

With a death toll expected to climb into the tens of thousands, more than a half-million people displaced and a nuclear crisis continuing to unfold, rescuers converged Monday on Japan's devastated earthquake zone while workers in relatively unaffected areas struggled to return to offices and factories.

Libyan rebels flee Port Brega as Kadafi's forces advance

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 09:43 AM PDT

Rebels retreat farther into eastern Libya as Moammar Kadafi's troops overrun Port Brega and push on toward the opposition headquarters in Benghazi.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi pushed deeper into rebellious eastern Libya on Sunday, overrunning an important oil town while forcing lightly armed rebels back toward the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.

With earthquake, Japan faces toughest crisis since WWII, prime minister says

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 05:24 AM PDT

Kan's call for unity comes as rescue teams struggle to reach the battered northeast and new fears emerge over a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear complex.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters on Sunday that his country was facing its most difficult challenge since World War II and called on his people to unite in the face of a devastating earthquake and tsunami and potential nuclear crisis.

Bahrain protesters clash with police

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 08:12 AM PDT

Sunday's clashes between police and anti-government protesters are among the most violent since a Feb. 17 protest. At Bahrain University, Shiite Muslims clash with Sunnis amid rising sectarian tension.

Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of anti-government demonstrators blocking access to the financial district Sunday morning, as sectarian tension escalated in this tiny island kingdom.

Libyan government forces say they've retaken Port Brega

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 07:18 AM PDT

Port Brega 'has been liberated' from 'terrorist gangs,' Libyan television says. Loyalists to Moammar Kadafi continue their advance toward rebel headquarters in Benghazi.

The regime of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi claimed on Sunday it had retaken the rebel-controlled city of Port Brega as it continued its advance toward the opposition government headquarters in Benghazi.

Wisconsin's Democratic senators return, join protesters at Capitol

Posted: 12 Mar 2011 03:44 PM PST

The 14 Democrats, who had fled to Illinois in hopes of blocking legislation limiting the collective-bargaining rights of public employees, join tens of thousands of demonstrators. 'Your fight to protect workers' rights has become a fight to protect all our rights,' Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller tells the crowd.

Fourteen wayward Democratic state senators who fled Wisconsin last month to try to derail legislation stripping most public employees of nearly all their collective-bargaining rights returned to the state Saturday and joined tens of thousands of raucous protesters outside the state Capitol.

'Blood money' tradition might help resolve U.S.-Pakistani row

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 12:04 AM PST

The practice of a killer winning exoneration by paying his victim's family is common in the country, and some say it could help resolve the case of Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who killed two men in Lahore.

Aziz Ahmed was supposed to die. In 2006 he used a meat cleaver to kill a friend he thought had been sleeping with his wife. He confessed and was sentenced to be hanged.

9.0 Japan earthquake shifted Earth on its axis

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 10:02 AM PDT

Scientists in Pasadena say data from the temblor will show how Earth is deformed during massive earthquakes at sites where one plate is sliding under the other, including the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Friday's earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan was upgraded to a magnitude 9.0 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Kyodo News agency reported Sunday.

A look at Japan's damaged nuclear plants

Posted: 12 Mar 2011 08:56 PM PST

Where things stand at the Fukushima nuclear power plants, and what threat remains.

The situation at one of Japan's crippled nuclear power plants seemed to go from bad to worse as an explosion Saturday destroyed a building that houses one reactor and on Sunday another reactor began experiencing problems with its cooling system. An estimated 170,000 people who live within a 12-mile radius of the plant have been evacuated as a precaution in case the worst-case scenario occurs — a meltdown followed by the release of radioactive ash. An estimated 30,000 people have been evacuated within a six-mile radius of a nearby plant.