GERMAN chancellor Angela Merkel, an unflappable pastor’s daughter, is closing in on a third term in Sunday’s general election, cementing her title as the world’s most powerful woman.

Which group the chancellor’s party will be in coalition with is her biggest conundrum, says Noah Barkin

A Japanese cabinet panel has called for the phasing out of nuclear power over the next three decades as part of an overhaul of the country’s energy policy following the Fukushima meltdowns.

Thousands of people formed "a human chain" around Japan's parliament complex today to demand the government abandon nuclear power - the latest in a series of peaceful demonstrations that are on a scale not seen for decades.

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear crisis was a preventable disaster resulting from “collusion” among the government, regulators and the plant operator, an expert panel said, wrapping up an inquiry into the worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

Japan posted its first trade surplus in five months in February on a recovery in car and electronics exports to the United States.

For 70-year-old Toshiko Murakami, memories of the terrifying earthquake and tsunami that destroyed much of her seaside town and swept away her sister brought fresh tears, exactly a year after the disaster.

A group of Japanese businessmen have invited the founder of Chernobyl Children International, Adi Roche, to take part in high-profile ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

AN explosion in a furnace at the Marcoule nuclear waste treatment site in southern France yesterday killed one person, but there was no leak of radioactive material outside the site, officials said.

JAPAN’S premier-designate Yoshihiko Noda has vowed to provide a safe pair of hands in rebuilding the country from its tsunami-nuclear disasters after he was elected the ruling party chief.

GERMANY’S Angela Merkel faces the biggest challenge to her leadership since coming to power in 2005, with traditionally loyal conservative allies openly criticising her approach to the eurozone crisis and her hands-off Libya policy in shambles.

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recognised a humiliating defeat last night in referendums aimed at blocking nuclear power and abolishing a law intended to give him legal immunity.

Japan is scrapping plans to generate half its energy needs from nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

The Fukushima disaster has reinforced Ireland's distrust of nuclear energy, according to a new poll out today.

JAPAN ordered an immediate safety upgrade at its 55 nuclear power plants in its first acknowledgement that standards were inadequate when an earthquake and tsunami wrecked a facility nearly three weeks ago, sparking the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

Germany’s anti-nuclear Greens scored a remarkable victory over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party in a state election that turned into a referendum on nuclear power in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.

Japan's nuclear experts admitted today that the Fukushima reactor disaster was worse than anything they ever imagined could have happened.