TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Emperor Akihito said Wednesday he was praying for the safety of the people in the wake of last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami, in a rare public address on live television.“The number of people killed is increasing day by day and we do not know how many people have fallen victim,” Akihito said in the brief speech."I pray for the safety of as many people as possible.

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. 

   BEIJING (AP) _ Japan's neighbors have ordered strengthened radiation monitoring of shipments from Japan, but said they don't foresee their countries having any immediate effects of contamination from the Japanese nuclear crisis.   China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued an order Wednesday calling for radiation monitoring to track any goods contami

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 the

  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

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 landscape.But coverage has also shown another side -- Japanese showing calm as they search for loved ones or

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.

   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 th

   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 "tha

   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 o

TOKYO (AFP) - Part of the container of a troubled nuclear reactor appears to be damaged, the Japanese government said early Tuesday, indicating possible serious radiation leaks.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters that "damage appears on the suppression pool" -- the bottom part of the container, which contains water used to cool down the reactor and control air pressure inside."But w

TOKYO (AFP) - An explosion was heard at another reactor of an earthquake-damaged nuclear power plant early Tuesday, the Japanese government said, according to local media.