The Korea Herald

Heroic workers risk lives to avert meltdown

Mar 17, 2011

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AP) ― They risk explosions, fire and an invisible enemy ― radiation that could kill quickly or decades later ― as they race to avert disaster inside a dark, overheated nuclear plant. The 180 emergency workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi complex are emerging as public heroes in the wake of a disaster spawned by an earthquake and a tsunami. Dubbed by some as modern-day...
Bahrain curfew as uprising surges

Mar 17, 2011

Sunni leaders desperate to hold on to power, Shiites calling for end to dynasty MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) ― Soldiers and riot police in Bahrain overran a protesters’ camp, imposed a 12-hour curfew and choked off movement nationwide Wednesday. Witnesses described helicopters firing on homes in a hunt for Shiites and attacking doctors treating the wounded, while the government called the demonstrators ...
More governments advising citizens to leave Tokyo

Mar 17, 2011

TOKYO (AP) _ Australia, Britain and Germany advised their citizens in Japan to consider leaving Tokyo and earthquake-affected areas, joining a growing number of governments and businesses telling their people it may be safer elsewhere. The advisories came as the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the northeast deepened in the wake of last week's earthquake and ensuing tsunami....
4 New York Times journalists missing in Libya

Mar 17, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) _ Four New York Times journalists covering the fighting in Libya were reported missing Wednesday, and the newspaper held out hope that they were alive and in the custody of the Libyan government. Editors last heard from the journalists on Tuesday as they were covering the retreat of rebels from the town of Ajdabiya, and Libyan officials told the newspaper they were trying to locate...
4 New York Times journalists missing in Libya

Mar 17, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) _ Four New York Times journalists covering the fighting in Libya were reported missing Wednesday, and the newspaper held out hope that they were alive and in the custody of the Libyan government. Editors last heard from the journalists on Tuesday as they were covering the retreat of rebels from the town of Ajdabiya, and Libyan officials told the newspaper they were trying to locate...
Japan helicopters dump water on nuclear plant

Mar 17, 2011

TOKYO, March 17, 2011 (AFP) - Japanese military helicopters dumped water Thursday from huge buckets onto the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant in a bid to douse fuel rods, television images showed. A total of three twin-rotor CH-47 Chinooks of the Self-Defence Forces each emptied more than seven tonnes of water onto reactors three and four, according to public broadcaster NHK.
Crisis deepens at quake-hit Japan nuclear plant

Mar 16, 2011

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's nuclear crisis deepened Wednesday with another fire at a quake-hit atomic power plant and a radiation spike there that forced the temporary evacuation of workers. Military helicopters carrying giant buckets were preparing to drop water on the stricken plant, which has been hit by four explosions and two fires since last Friday's earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling sy...
Tokyo shares end 5.68 percent higher

Mar 16, 2011

TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo shares closed up 5.68 percent Wednesday on bargain hunting following a huge two-day selloff, as Japan scrambled to avoid a nuclear catastrophe.
Radiation levels fall in Tokyo area: officials

Mar 16, 2011

TOKYO (AFP) - The levels of radiation detected in Tokyo and neighboring Chiba fell back Tuesday after rising above normal levels possibly due to radiation emitted from a quake-hit nuclear power plant, officials said. Tokyo officials said they detected 0.809 of a micro-sievert between 10:00 and 11:00 am in the capital, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the troubled Fukushima plant on t...
Japan: 70 pct of reactor fuel rods may be damaged

Mar 16, 2011

TOKYO (AP) _ Japan's nuclear safety agency says 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods in an earthquake-stricken reactor may have been damaged following an explosion. An agency spokesman, Minoru Ohgoda, said Wednesday that the damage occurred in Unit 1 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. The facility has suffered explosions and fires since Friday's massive quake and tsunami damaged its cool...
Nuclear catastrophe looms in Japan

Mar 15, 2011

P.M. warns of high-level radiation leak following blasts at 2 more reactors Residents ordered to stay indoors and not to turn on ventilators SOMA, Japan (AP) -- 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...
In tragedy, Japan impresses the world

Mar 15, 2011

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Despite the horrific scenes of destruction, Japan may emerge from its quake-tsunami disaster with a stronger international brand-name as the nation’s resilience wins wide praise. Television stations around the world have broadcast the footage of the seismic waves as they razed homes and carried away cars as if they were toys, stranding dazed survivors on the brutalized landsc...
Fire at Japan nuke plant, radiation rises: Kan

Mar 15, 2011

TOKYO (AFP) - A fire has broken out at the number-four reactor at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 atomic power plant and radiation levels have risen considerably, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday.
Japan suspects nuclear reactor container damaged

Mar 15, 2011

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...
Japan's TEPCO evacuates some staff from nuke reactor

Mar 15, 2011

TOKYO (AFP) - Some workers have been evacuated from the number-two reactor at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant after it was hit by an explosion 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 wor...