North Korea agreed Tuesday to the repatriation of only 27 of its 31 nationals held in South Korea after their wooden boat drifted to the South last month, withdrawing its earlier demand that all of them, including four who have expressed their wish to defect, be returned, officials said. The agreement, expressed through the Red Cross channel of the two countries, ends the deadlock that has laste...

TOKYO, March 15, 2011 (AFP) - Tokyo shares plunged 11.03 percent as Japan's nuclear crisis escalated on Tuesday, after radiation levels near a quake-stricken nuclear plant surged following explosions and a fire. The Nikkei index lost 1,061.35 points to 8,559.14.

SOMA, Japan (AP) _ Japan's nuclear safety agency says a fire in a reactor at a crippled nuclear power plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan has been extinguished. The fire broke out Tuesday at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in one of the hardest-hit provinces in last week's massive earthquake and tsunami. Meanwhile, radiation was spewing from the Dai-ichi plant in a dramatic escalat...

TOKYO (AP) _ Japan's nuclear safety agency says it suspects an explosion at a nuclear power plant may have damaged a reactor's container and fears a radiation leak. An agency spokesman, Shigekazu Omukai, says the nuclear core of Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was not damaged in the explosion early Tuesday. But the agency says it suspects the bottom of the container that surrounds the ge...

...plosion Tuesday, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman said. "We have moved our staff to a safer area," except for those working to cool the reactor, the TEPCO spokesman said. An official from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told AFP "that workers near the reactor No.2, excluding those who are pumping water to cool the reactor, have been evacuated." But the official added: "the evac...

TOKYO (AFP) - The death toll from a killer earthquake and tsunami that flattened much of Japan's northeast coast topped 2,400, police said Tuesday. The National Police Agency said 2,414 people are confirmed dead and 3,118 missing, with 1,885 injured in the disaster which struck on Friday afternoon. The official toll yesterday stood at 1,647. On Sunday, the police chief of Miyagi, one of the ha...

...safety campaigns. The Ministry of Employment and Labor signed with Pizza Hut, Mr. Pizza and Domino’s Pizza as well as the Korean Franchise Association a memorandum of understanding on safe delivery. ...ation and guidelines. The launch of the campaign came as public denouncement of the pizza industry’s “delivery in 30 minutes, or it’s free,” policy grew when a 24-year-old college student died while ...

...Senior pastor Cho Yong-gi of Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest Christian church in the world, has faced vicious public condemnation as he called the catastrophic Japanese quakes and tsunamis "God’s warnings." "I fear that this disaster may be warnings from God against the Japanese people’s atheism and materialism," an online Christian press quoted the elderly religious leader as saying Saturday. "I hope that these series of events will drive the Japanese to turn their eyes towards Go...

Samsung Group, South Korea's largest business conglomerate, said Tuesday that it has donated 100 million yen ($1.22 million) to help Japan's earthquake relief. In addition to the donation, the group...so that the recovery efforts can take place as soon as possible," said the letter signed by Samsung's vice chairman Choi Gee-sung and president Lee Jae-yong. Samsung's founding family has been keepin...

...ontainer, which contains water used to cool down the reactor and control air pressure inside. "But we have not recorded any sudden jump in radiation indicators," Edano said without elaborating. If confirmed, it will be the first direct damage to the reactor since a massive earthquake and tsunami battered Japan's northeast coast on Friday, knocking out nuclear plants in Fukushima, north of Tokyo.