Japan fights to avert nuclear meltdown after quake
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan struggled on Monday to avert a nuclear disaster and care for millions of people without power or water, three days after an earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 10,000 people or more in the nation's darkest hour since World War Two.The world's third-largest economy opens for business later on Monday, a badly wounded nation that has seen whole villages and towns wiped off the map by a wall of water, leaving in its wake an international humanitarian effort of epic proportion.A grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the crisis at Japan's worst since 1945, as officials confirmed that three nuclear reactors were at risk of overheating, raising fears of an uncontrolled radiation leak."The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II," Kan told a news conference."We're under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis."As he spoke, officials worked desperately to stop fuel rods in the damaged reactors from overheating. If they fail, the containers that house the core could melt, or even explode, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.The most urgent crisis centers on the Fukushima Daiichi complex, where all three reactors are threatening to overheat, and where authorities say they have been forced to release radioactive steam into the air to relieve reactor pressure.The complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was rocked by an explosion on Saturday, which blew the roof off a reactor building. The government did not rule out further blasts there but said this would not necessarily damage the reactor vessels.Authorities have poured sea water in all three of the complex's reactor to cool them down.FEARS OVER OTHER REACTORSThe complex, run by Tokyo Electric Power Co, is the biggest nuclear concern but not the only one: on Monday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Japanese authorities had notified it of an emergency at another plant further north, at Onagawa.But Japan's nuclear safety agency denied problems at the Onagawa plant, run by Tohoku Electric Power Co, noting that radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi complex had been detected at Onagawa, but that these were within safe levels at a tiny fraction of the radiation received in an x-ray.Shortly later, a cooling-system problem was reported at another nuclear plant closer to Tokyo, in Ibaraki prefecture.Fukushima's No. 1 reactor, where the roof was ripped off, is 40 years old and was originally set to go out of commission in February but had its operating license extended by 10 years.Prime Minister Kan said the crisis was not another Chernobyl, referring to the nuclear disaster of 1986 in Soviet Ukraine."Radiation has been released in the air, but there are no reports that a large amount was released," Jiji news agency quoted him as saying. "This is fundamentally different from the Chernobyl accident."Nevertheless, France recommended its citizens leave the Tokyo region, citing the risk of further earthquakes and uncertainty about the nuclear plants.Broadcaster NHK, quoting a police official, said more than 10,000 people may have been killed as the wall of water triggered by Friday's 8.9-magnitude quake surged across the coastline, reducing whole towns to rubble.Almost 2 million households were without power in the freezing north, the government said. There were about 1.4 million without running water. Kyodo news agency said about 300,000 people were evacuated nationwide.Authorities have set up a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10 km (6 miles) zone around another nuclear facility close by.The nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl, sparked criticism that authorities were ill-prepared for such a massive quake and the threat that could pose to the country's nuclear power industry.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said there might have been a partial meltdown of the fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima. Engineers were pumping in seawater, trying to prevent the same happening at the No. 3 reactor, he said in apparent acknowledgement they had moved too slowly on Saturday."Unlike the No.1 reactor, we ventilated and injected water at an early stage," Edano told a news briefing.The No. 3 reactor uses a mixed-oxide fuel which contains plutonium, but plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it did not present unusual problems.TEPCO said radiation levels around the Fukushima Daiichi plant had risen above the safety limit but that it did not mean an "immediate threat" to human health.The wind over the plant would continue blowing from the south, which could affect residents north of the facility, an official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said.SEARCH FOR THE MISSINGKan said food, water and other necessities such as blankets were being delivered by vehicles but because of damage to roads, authorities were considering air and sea transport. He also said the government was preparing to double the number of troops mobilized to 100,000.Thousands spent another freezing night huddled in blankets over heaters in emergency shelters along the northeastern coast, a scene of devastation after the quake sent a 10-meter (33-foot) wave surging through towns and cities in the Miyagi region, including its main coastal city of Sendai.A Japanese official said 22 people have been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed. Workers in protective clothing used handheld scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centers.GOVERNMENT CRITICISEDThe government, in power less than two years and which had already been struggling to push policy through a deeply divided parliament, came under criticism for its handling of the disaster."Crisis management is incoherent," blared a headline in the Asahi newspaper, saying information and instructions to expand the evacuation area around the troubled plant were too slow.There has been a proposal of an extra budget to help pay for the huge cost of recovery.The Bank of Japan is expected to pledge on Monday to supply as much money as needed to prevent the disaster from destabilizing markets and its banking system. It is also expected to signal its readiness to ease monetary policy further if the damage from the worst quake since records began in Japan 140 years ago threatens a fragile economic recovery.The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.The 1995 Kobe quake killed 6,000 and caused $100 billion in damage, the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.(Additional reporting by Risa Maeda and Leika Kihara in Tokyo and Chris Meyers and Kim Kyung-hoon in Sendai; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers)
Yemen President reiterates to stay in power until 2013
SANAA/ADEN (Reuters) – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday reiterated that he would remain in power until his term ends in 2013, rejecting an opposition plan for him to step aside this year.
"The peaceful and smooth transition of power is not carried out through chaos but through the will of the people expressed through elections," an official source at the presidential office said in a statement.The opposition on Friday said Saleh was sticking to an earlier plan to step down in 2013 but had agreed to a proposal by religious leaders to revamp elections, parliament and the judicial system.Saleh, an ally of the United States in its battle against an al Qaeda wing based in his country, has struggled to cement a truce with Shi'ite rebels in the north and quell a budding secessionist rebellion in the south.Protests have taken place across Yemen, a country of 23 million which borders the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.The protesters say they are frustrated with widespread corruption and soaring unemployment in a country where 40 percent of its 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.Separately Yemen's Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Hashid Abdullah al-Ahmar, resigned from the ruling party on Saturday in protest at the use of violence against anti-government demonstrations, a source close to him told Reuters.His resignation comes just a day after an influential ally of the president, Ali Ahmad al-Omrani, a tribal sheikh from the southern al-Baida province, resigned.Omrani's resignation came a week after nine parliament members from the General People's Congress Party (GPC) resigned.WOUNDED IN ADENEarlier on Saturday witnesses told Reuters three protestors were wounded on Friday evening when Yemeni security forces fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators at a sit-in in the southern port city of Aden.Protestors were dispersed after they had gathered at a square in the city's Sheikh Othman district following Friday prayers, the witnesses said.Possibly more than 100,000 protested on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in Sanaa yet and similar numbers rallied in Taiz, south of the capital, a Reuters reporter said.More than 20,000 protesters marched in Aden and tens of thousands marched in Ibb, south of Sanaa.Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north of the country on Friday accused the Yemeni army of firing rockets on a protest in Harf Sufyan, where thousands had gathered. Two people were killed and 13 injured.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; Writing by Jason Benham; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Gaddafi forces try to retake western Libyan town
ZAWIYAH/BIN JAWAD, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan government forces launched a second attack on the western town of Zawiyah on Saturday after rebels drove them out in a morning of fierce fighting, while in the east, opponents of Muammar Gaddafi pushed toward his home town.
"The fighting has intensified and the tanks are shelling everything on their way. They have shelled houses. Now they are shelling a mosque where hundreds of people are hiding, Abu Akeel, a Zawiyah resident, told Reuters. "We can't rescue anyone because the shelling is so heavy," he said.Another resident in the main square told Reuters by telephone: "The attack has started. I see more than 20 tanks." Gunfire could be heard in the background.It was the second attempt by Gaddafi's forces to win control over the town in a matter of hours. Rebels pushed back an early morning attack in which residents said the government forces had fired high explosive rounds at civilians and dragged people from their homes."We captured 3 APCs, two tanks and one pick-up after an hour and a half of fighting," Youssef Shagan, the rebel force spokesman in the town, 50 km (30 miles) west of the capital, told Reuters after the first battle.People opposed to Gaddafi's 41-year rule have been fighting his forces in Zawiyah for more than a week, after rebels took over large parts of eastern Libya in an uprising inspired by the overthrow of veteran rulers in Egypt and Tunisia this year.Residents said Gaddafi forces stormed residential buildings and killed people inside to secure the rooftops for snipers.A doctor in Zawiyah told Reuters at least 30 people, mostly civilians, had been killed during the morning clashes on Saturday, bringing to 60 the death toll from two days of battles for control of the coastal town.A reporter for Britain's Sky television said she had seen at eight dead soldiers and five burning armored vehicles in the central square.The doctor said Gaddafi's tanks had fired at residential buildings and civilian cars trying to flee."There is a lot of destruction in the city, I look around and all I see is destruction. Bombed buildings and burning cars everywhere -- I cannot even count how many," he said.Before the latest fighting, the rebels appeared to have half a dozen armored vehicles, a similar number of anti-aircraft guns and numerous machine guns. One fighter vowed to fight to the death."Gaddafi will never enter this city. He will never set foot here. The only way for him to enter the city is when we are all dead. He has to kill us all to control the city," the rebel, who gave his name as Ibrahim, said by telephone.Rebels in eastern Libya said they were pushing further west after driving forces loyal to Gaddafi from the oil town of Ras Lanuf on Friday.Doctors said at least 26 people had died in Friday's fighting around Ras Lanuf and what rebels said was an attack by Gaddafi's forces on an arms store on the edge of the eastern town of Benghazi, where the uprising began in mid-February.Rebel fighters said they had taken the town of Bin Jawad some 525 km east of Tripoli and were moving on toward Sirte, Gaddafi's heavily guarded home town 160 km (100 miles) away."We're going to Bin Jawad to attack Sirte. Bin Jawad is ours," said Abdul Rahim Massoud, a rebel fighter on one of a column of pick-up trucks on the road to Bin Jawad.In the town itself, rebels played the pre-Gaddafi monarchist national anthem over a loudspeaker. Government fighter jets and a helicopter circled overhead but did not open fire, although the rebels fired at the helicopter with anti-aircraft guns.The latest fighting suggested front lines between government forces, including militia and mercenaries, and the rebels, who are fighting with everything from captured tanks to sticks and winning support from some police and soldiers along the way, were far from clear and could shift quickly.Dissident soldiers manned a rebel checkpoint at the entrance to Ras Lanuf and said it was safely in rebel hands.A day earlier, flashes and thuds had resounded from fighting around the town, 660 km east of Tripoli. Helicopters had strafed positions of rebels, who fired rifles back.On Saturday the offices of the Harouge Oil Operations, a key oil terminal in the North African OPEC member, were abandoned and rebels commandeered vehicles."Gaddafi stole from the people and now the people are taking it back," said one armed looter, Nasr al-Abdili, who was taking a pick-up truck.The streets were calm, with people queuing for bread. "I am very pleased, we all are. We are finished with Gaddafi," said Saleh Mohamed, 37, who works as an administrator in an oil firm.The revolt is the bloodiest yet against long-entrenched rulers in the Middle East and North Africa. Brega and Ajdabiyah, eastern coastal oil terminals in rebel hands, have both been fired on from the air in the past few days.The International Energy Agency said the revolt had blocked about 60 percent of Libya's 1.6 million bpd (barrels per day) oil output. [ID:nWEB3662] The loss, due largely to the flight of thousands of foreign oil workers, will batter the economy.Libyan crude exports were set to slide in the coming days. "You now have a situation where everything is pointing toward a more or less complete shutdown of Libyan production," said Samuel Ciszuk, a senior analyst with IHS Energy.U.S. crude prices rose to their highest levels since September 2008, and Brent crude futures for April delivery closed at $115.97 a barrel on Friday, up $1.18.Western leaders have urged Gaddafi to go and are considering various options including the imposition of a no-fly zone, but are wary about involving their militaries after wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that were deeply unpopular at home.Britain said on Saturday it was hoping to send a diplomatic taskforce to Libya soon to make contact with opposition leaders and had readied a battalion of troops to aid humanitarian and evacuation efforts if needed.Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the rebel February 17th coalition, told Reuters in Benghazi the international community seemed to be waiting to see who would get the upper hand."It's about who can hold his breath under the water longest and I think it will be us," he said.(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy in Tripoli and Alexander Dziadosz in Ajdabiya, writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Japan fights to avert nuclear meltdown after quake
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan struggled on Monday to avert a nuclear disaster and care for millions of people without power or water, three days after an earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 10,000 people or more in the nation's darkest hour since World War Two.The world's third-largest economy opens for business later on Monday, a badly wounded nation that has seen whole villages and towns wiped off the map by a wall of water, leaving in its wake an international humanitarian effort of epic proportion.A grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the crisis at Japan's worst since 1945, as officials confirmed that three nuclear reactors were at risk of overheating, raising fears of an uncontrolled radiation leak."The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II," Kan told a news conference."We're under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis."As he spoke, officials worked desperately to stop fuel rods in the damaged reactors from overheating. If they fail, the containers that house the core could melt, or even explode, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.The most urgent crisis centers on the Fukushima Daiichi complex, where all three reactors are threatening to overheat, and where authorities say they have been forced to release radioactive steam into the air to relieve reactor pressure.The complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was rocked by an explosion on Saturday, which blew the roof off a reactor building. The government did not rule out further blasts there but said this would not necessarily damage the reactor vessels.Authorities have poured sea water in all three of the complex's reactor to cool them down.FEARS OVER OTHER REACTORSThe complex, run by Tokyo Electric Power Co, is the biggest nuclear concern but not the only one: on Monday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Japanese authorities had notified it of an emergency at another plant further north, at Onagawa.But Japan's nuclear safety agency denied problems at the Onagawa plant, run by Tohoku Electric Power Co, noting that radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi complex had been detected at Onagawa, but that these were within safe levels at a tiny fraction of the radiation received in an x-ray.Shortly later, a cooling-system problem was reported at another nuclear plant closer to Tokyo, in Ibaraki prefecture.Fukushima's No. 1 reactor, where the roof was ripped off, is 40 years old and was originally set to go out of commission in February but had its operating license extended by 10 years.Prime Minister Kan said the crisis was not another Chernobyl, referring to the nuclear disaster of 1986 in Soviet Ukraine."Radiation has been released in the air, but there are no reports that a large amount was released," Jiji news agency quoted him as saying. "This is fundamentally different from the Chernobyl accident."Nevertheless, France recommended its citizens leave the Tokyo region, citing the risk of further earthquakes and uncertainty about the nuclear plants.Broadcaster NHK, quoting a police official, said more than 10,000 people may have been killed as the wall of water triggered by Friday's 8.9-magnitude quake surged across the coastline, reducing whole towns to rubble.Almost 2 million households were without power in the freezing north, the government said. There were about 1.4 million without running water. Kyodo news agency said about 300,000 people were evacuated nationwide.Authorities have set up a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10 km (6 miles) zone around another nuclear facility close by.The nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl, sparked criticism that authorities were ill-prepared for such a massive quake and the threat that could pose to the country's nuclear power industry.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said there might have been a partial meltdown of the fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima. Engineers were pumping in seawater, trying to prevent the same happening at the No. 3 reactor, he said in apparent acknowledgement they had moved too slowly on Saturday."Unlike the No.1 reactor, we ventilated and injected water at an early stage," Edano told a news briefing.The No. 3 reactor uses a mixed-oxide fuel which contains plutonium, but plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it did not present unusual problems.TEPCO said radiation levels around the Fukushima Daiichi plant had risen above the safety limit but that it did not mean an "immediate threat" to human health.The wind over the plant would continue blowing from the south, which could affect residents north of the facility, an official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said.SEARCH FOR THE MISSINGKan said food, water and other necessities such as blankets were being delivered by vehicles but because of damage to roads, authorities were considering air and sea transport. He also said the government was preparing to double the number of troops mobilized to 100,000.Thousands spent another freezing night huddled in blankets over heaters in emergency shelters along the northeastern coast, a scene of devastation after the quake sent a 10-meter (33-foot) wave surging through towns and cities in the Miyagi region, including its main coastal city of Sendai.A Japanese official said 22 people have been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed. Workers in protective clothing used handheld scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centers.GOVERNMENT CRITICISEDThe government, in power less than two years and which had already been struggling to push policy through a deeply divided parliament, came under criticism for its handling of the disaster."Crisis management is incoherent," blared a headline in the Asahi newspaper, saying information and instructions to expand the evacuation area around the troubled plant were too slow.There has been a proposal of an extra budget to help pay for the huge cost of recovery.The Bank of Japan is expected to pledge on Monday to supply as much money as needed to prevent the disaster from destabilizing markets and its banking system. It is also expected to signal its readiness to ease monetary policy further if the damage from the worst quake since records began in Japan 140 years ago threatens a fragile economic recovery.The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.The 1995 Kobe quake killed 6,000 and caused $100 billion in damage, the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.(Additional reporting by Risa Maeda and Leika Kihara in Tokyo and Chris Meyers and Kim Kyung-hoon in Sendai; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers)
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan struggled on Monday to avert a nuclear disaster and care for millions of people without power or water, three days after an earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 10,000 people or more in the nation's darkest hour since World War Two.
The world's third-largest economy opens for business later on Monday, a badly wounded nation that has seen whole villages and towns wiped off the map by a wall of water, leaving in its wake an international humanitarian effort of epic proportion.
A grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the crisis at Japan's worst since 1945, as officials confirmed that three nuclear reactors were at risk of overheating, raising fears of an uncontrolled radiation leak.
"The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II," Kan told a news conference.
"We're under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis."
As he spoke, officials worked desperately to stop fuel rods in the damaged reactors from overheating. If they fail, the containers that house the core could melt, or even explode, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.
The most urgent crisis centers on the Fukushima Daiichi complex, where all three reactors are threatening to overheat, and where authorities say they have been forced to release radioactive steam into the air to relieve reactor pressure.
The complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was rocked by an explosion on Saturday, which blew the roof off a reactor building. The government did not rule out further blasts there but said this would not necessarily damage the reactor vessels.
Authorities have poured sea water in all three of the complex's reactor to cool them down.
FEARS OVER OTHER REACTORS
The complex, run by Tokyo Electric Power Co, is the biggest nuclear concern but not the only one: on Monday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Japanese authorities had notified it of an emergency at another plant further north, at Onagawa.
But Japan's nuclear safety agency denied problems at the Onagawa plant, run by Tohoku Electric Power Co, noting that radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi complex had been detected at Onagawa, but that these were within safe levels at a tiny fraction of the radiation received in an x-ray.
Shortly later, a cooling-system problem was reported at another nuclear plant closer to Tokyo, in Ibaraki prefecture.
Fukushima's No. 1 reactor, where the roof was ripped off, is 40 years old and was originally set to go out of commission in February but had its operating license extended by 10 years.
Prime Minister Kan said the crisis was not another Chernobyl, referring to the nuclear disaster of 1986 in Soviet Ukraine.
"Radiation has been released in the air, but there are no reports that a large amount was released," Jiji news agency quoted him as saying. "This is fundamentally different from the Chernobyl accident."
Nevertheless, France recommended its citizens leave the Tokyo region, citing the risk of further earthquakes and uncertainty about the nuclear plants.
Broadcaster NHK, quoting a police official, said more than 10,000 people may have been killed as the wall of water triggered by Friday's 8.9-magnitude quake surged across the coastline, reducing whole towns to rubble.
Almost 2 million households were without power in the freezing north, the government said. There were about 1.4 million without running water. Kyodo news agency said about 300,000 people were evacuated nationwide.
Authorities have set up a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10 km (6 miles) zone around another nuclear facility close by.
The nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl, sparked criticism that authorities were ill-prepared for such a massive quake and the threat that could pose to the country's nuclear power industry.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said there might have been a partial meltdown of the fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima. Engineers were pumping in seawater, trying to prevent the same happening at the No. 3 reactor, he said in apparent acknowledgement they had moved too slowly on Saturday.
"Unlike the No.1 reactor, we ventilated and injected water at an early stage," Edano told a news briefing.
The No. 3 reactor uses a mixed-oxide fuel which contains plutonium, but plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it did not present unusual problems.
TEPCO said radiation levels around the Fukushima Daiichi plant had risen above the safety limit but that it did not mean an "immediate threat" to human health.
The wind over the plant would continue blowing from the south, which could affect residents north of the facility, an official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said.
SEARCH FOR THE MISSING
Kan said food, water and other necessities such as blankets were being delivered by vehicles but because of damage to roads, authorities were considering air and sea transport. He also said the government was preparing to double the number of troops mobilized to 100,000.
Thousands spent another freezing night huddled in blankets over heaters in emergency shelters along the northeastern coast, a scene of devastation after the quake sent a 10-meter (33-foot) wave surging through towns and cities in the Miyagi region, including its main coastal city of Sendai.
A Japanese official said 22 people have been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed. Workers in protective clothing used handheld scanners to check people arriving at evacuation centers.
GOVERNMENT CRITICISED
The government, in power less than two years and which had already been struggling to push policy through a deeply divided parliament, came under criticism for its handling of the disaster.
"Crisis management is incoherent," blared a headline in the Asahi newspaper, saying information and instructions to expand the evacuation area around the troubled plant were too slow.
There has been a proposal of an extra budget to help pay for the huge cost of recovery.
The Bank of Japan is expected to pledge on Monday to supply as much money as needed to prevent the disaster from destabilizing markets and its banking system. It is also expected to signal its readiness to ease monetary policy further if the damage from the worst quake since records began in Japan 140 years ago threatens a fragile economic recovery.
The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.
The 1995 Kobe quake killed 6,000 and caused $100 billion in damage, the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.
(Additional reporting by Risa Maeda and Leika Kihara in Tokyo and Chris Meyers and Kim Kyung-hoon in Sendai; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers)
Yemen President reiterates to stay in power until 2013
SANAA/ADEN (Reuters) – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday reiterated that he would remain in power until his term ends in 2013, rejecting an opposition plan for him to step aside this year.
"The peaceful and smooth transition of power is not carried out through chaos but through the will of the people expressed through elections," an official source at the presidential office said in a statement.
The opposition on Friday said Saleh was sticking to an earlier plan to step down in 2013 but had agreed to a proposal by religious leaders to revamp elections, parliament and the judicial system.
Saleh, an ally of the United States in its battle against an al Qaeda wing based in his country, has struggled to cement a truce with Shi'ite rebels in the north and quell a budding secessionist rebellion in the south.
Protests have taken place across Yemen, a country of 23 million which borders the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
The protesters say they are frustrated with widespread corruption and soaring unemployment in a country where 40 percent of its 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.
Separately Yemen's Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Hashid Abdullah al-Ahmar, resigned from the ruling party on Saturday in protest at the use of violence against anti-government demonstrations, a source close to him told Reuters.
His resignation comes just a day after an influential ally of the president, Ali Ahmad al-Omrani, a tribal sheikh from the southern al-Baida province, resigned.
Omrani's resignation came a week after nine parliament members from the General People's Congress Party (GPC) resigned.
WOUNDED IN ADEN
Earlier on Saturday witnesses told Reuters three protestors were wounded on Friday evening when Yemeni security forces fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators at a sit-in in the southern port city of Aden.
Protestors were dispersed after they had gathered at a square in the city's Sheikh Othman district following Friday prayers, the witnesses said.
Possibly more than 100,000 protested on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in Sanaa yet and similar numbers rallied in Taiz, south of the capital, a Reuters reporter said.
More than 20,000 protesters marched in Aden and tens of thousands marched in Ibb, south of Sanaa.
Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north of the country on Friday accused the Yemeni army of firing rockets on a protest in Harf Sufyan, where thousands had gathered. Two people were killed and 13 injured.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; Writing by Jason Benham; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
ZAWIYAH/BIN JAWAD, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan government forces launched a second attack on the western town of Zawiyah on Saturday after rebels drove them out in a morning of fierce fighting, while in the east, opponents of Muammar Gaddafi pushed toward his home town.
"The fighting has intensified and the tanks are shelling everything on their way. They have shelled houses. Now they are shelling a mosque where hundreds of people are hiding, Abu Akeel, a Zawiyah resident, told Reuters. "We can't rescue anyone because the shelling is so heavy," he said.
Another resident in the main square told Reuters by telephone: "The attack has started. I see more than 20 tanks." Gunfire could be heard in the background.
It was the second attempt by Gaddafi's forces to win control over the town in a matter of hours. Rebels pushed back an early morning attack in which residents said the government forces had fired high explosive rounds at civilians and dragged people from their homes.
"We captured 3 APCs, two tanks and one pick-up after an hour and a half of fighting," Youssef Shagan, the rebel force spokesman in the town, 50 km (30 miles) west of the capital, told Reuters after the first battle.
People opposed to Gaddafi's 41-year rule have been fighting his forces in Zawiyah for more than a week, after rebels took over large parts of eastern Libya in an uprising inspired by the overthrow of veteran rulers in Egypt and Tunisia this year.
Residents said Gaddafi forces stormed residential buildings and killed people inside to secure the rooftops for snipers.
A doctor in Zawiyah told Reuters at least 30 people, mostly civilians, had been killed during the morning clashes on Saturday, bringing to 60 the death toll from two days of battles for control of the coastal town.
A reporter for Britain's Sky television said she had seen at eight dead soldiers and five burning armored vehicles in the central square.
The doctor said Gaddafi's tanks had fired at residential buildings and civilian cars trying to flee.
"There is a lot of destruction in the city, I look around and all I see is destruction. Bombed buildings and burning cars everywhere -- I cannot even count how many," he said.
Before the latest fighting, the rebels appeared to have half a dozen armored vehicles, a similar number of anti-aircraft guns and numerous machine guns. One fighter vowed to fight to the death.
"Gaddafi will never enter this city. He will never set foot here. The only way for him to enter the city is when we are all dead. He has to kill us all to control the city," the rebel, who gave his name as Ibrahim, said by telephone.
Rebels in eastern Libya said they were pushing further west after driving forces loyal to Gaddafi from the oil town of Ras Lanuf on Friday.
Doctors said at least 26 people had died in Friday's fighting around Ras Lanuf and what rebels said was an attack by Gaddafi's forces on an arms store on the edge of the eastern town of Benghazi, where the uprising began in mid-February.
Rebel fighters said they had taken the town of Bin Jawad some 525 km east of Tripoli and were moving on toward Sirte, Gaddafi's heavily guarded home town 160 km (100 miles) away.
"We're going to Bin Jawad to attack Sirte. Bin Jawad is ours," said Abdul Rahim Massoud, a rebel fighter on one of a column of pick-up trucks on the road to Bin Jawad.
In the town itself, rebels played the pre-Gaddafi monarchist national anthem over a loudspeaker. Government fighter jets and a helicopter circled overhead but did not open fire, although the rebels fired at the helicopter with anti-aircraft guns.
The latest fighting suggested front lines between government forces, including militia and mercenaries, and the rebels, who are fighting with everything from captured tanks to sticks and winning support from some police and soldiers along the way, were far from clear and could shift quickly.
Dissident soldiers manned a rebel checkpoint at the entrance to Ras Lanuf and said it was safely in rebel hands.
A day earlier, flashes and thuds had resounded from fighting around the town, 660 km east of Tripoli. Helicopters had strafed positions of rebels, who fired rifles back.
On Saturday the offices of the Harouge Oil Operations, a key oil terminal in the North African OPEC member, were abandoned and rebels commandeered vehicles.
"Gaddafi stole from the people and now the people are taking it back," said one armed looter, Nasr al-Abdili, who was taking a pick-up truck.
The streets were calm, with people queuing for bread. "I am very pleased, we all are. We are finished with Gaddafi," said Saleh Mohamed, 37, who works as an administrator in an oil firm.
The revolt is the bloodiest yet against long-entrenched rulers in the Middle East and North Africa. Brega and Ajdabiyah, eastern coastal oil terminals in rebel hands, have both been fired on from the air in the past few days.
The International Energy Agency said the revolt had blocked about 60 percent of Libya's 1.6 million bpd (barrels per day) oil output. [ID:nWEB3662] The loss, due largely to the flight of thousands of foreign oil workers, will batter the economy.
Libyan crude exports were set to slide in the coming days. "You now have a situation where everything is pointing toward a more or less complete shutdown of Libyan production," said Samuel Ciszuk, a senior analyst with IHS Energy.
U.S. crude prices rose to their highest levels since September 2008, and Brent crude futures for April delivery closed at $115.97 a barrel on Friday, up $1.18.
Western leaders have urged Gaddafi to go and are considering various options including the imposition of a no-fly zone, but are wary about involving their militaries after wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that were deeply unpopular at home.
Britain said on Saturday it was hoping to send a diplomatic taskforce to Libya soon to make contact with opposition leaders and had readied a battalion of troops to aid humanitarian and evacuation efforts if needed.
Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the rebel February 17th coalition, told Reuters in Benghazi the international community seemed to be waiting to see who would get the upper hand.
"It's about who can hold his breath under the water longest and I think it will be us," he said.
(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy in Tripoli and Alexander Dziadosz in Ajdabiya, writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Giffords flies to Texas rehab center
HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords arrived in Texas on Friday to start the next phase of her recovery at a Houston rehabilitation center following 13 days of treatment at an Arizona hospital for a gunshot wound to the head.
Doctors told a news conference after the congresswoman's arrival that Giffords' transfer went "flawlessly." They said she would begin physical therapy on Friday but remain for now in the intensive care unit because of a drain in place to remove a buildup of fluid in her skull, which puts her at higher risk for infection.
Giffords, 40, left Tucson's University Medical Center by ambulance earlier in the day and was flown from an Air Force base in Arizona to a Houston airport aboard a private jet owned by Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta.
She and her entourage were then whisked by three helicopters to the rooftop of the Memorial Hermann hospital, and she was admitted to the neurological-trauma intensive care unit for immediate evaluation.
The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at the hospital is renowned for its treatment of brain and spinal cord injuries. Once she is out of the intensive care unit, doctors said, she still faces at least four to six months of intensive therapy to recover.
Giffords suffered a gunshot wound to the head at close range on January 8 when a gunman opened fire at an event where she was meeting with constituents. Doctors have described her progress so far as nothing short of a miracle.
Dr. John Holcomb, trauma surgeon at Memorial Hermann, said the bullet wound "could have been a lot worse."
"Clearly it did not damage large portions of her brain. It did damage some portions," he said.
SPECIALLY FITTED HELMET
Giffords is wearing a specially fitted helmet to protect her brain, which remains partially exposed after doctors removed part of her skull in surgery.
Dr. Dong Kim, chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Texas Medical School, said Giffords was "alert, awake, calm" when she arrived and "she looked comfortable."
"She's got very good movement on the left side of her body" but "varying stages of what we would call either paralysis or weakness" on her right, Kim said. "She didn't like us shining the light in her eye," which he said was a good sign. "She just looks spectacular."
Giffords was accompanied on her 900-mile flight from Tucson to Texas by her astronaut-husband Mark Kelly, her mother and a medical team from Tucson.
Scores of well-wishers, some with "Get Well Gabby" signs and American flags, lined the streets near the hospital in Tucson to wave and applaud as Giffords was driven by ambulance from the hospital in a police-led motorcade.
Kelly is scheduled to command NASA's last planned space shuttle mission in April. Giffords' relocation allows him to be closer to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where his crew is currently in training. He has remained at her side almost constantly since she was shot.
Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old college dropout, is charged with the shooting. Six bystanders including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl were killed in the incident, and 13 others were wounded, Giffords among them.
The shootings sparked a national debate about whether vitriolic political discourse was encouraging violence against politicians and whether stricter gun-control measures should be adopted in the United States.
(Additional reporting by Brad Poole in Tucson and Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Will Dunham)
News Source: Yahoo
