Radioactivity in contaminated water in one reactor unit at a damaged Japanese nuclear power plant tested 10 million times higher than normal, forcing the evacuation of workers and again delaying efforts to bring the complex under control, the plant’s operator said today.

US naval barges loaded with freshwater sped toward Japan’s overheated nuclear plant today to help workers scrambling to stem a worrying rise in radioactivity and remove dangerously contaminated water from the facility.

The metal container sheltering a nuclear reactor was not affected by an explosion that destroyed the building it is in, Japan’s government spokesman said today.

An earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale rocked Japan’s eastern coast today, unleashing a 33ft (10m) tsunami which swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland.

An earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale rocked Japan’s north-eastern coast today, unleashing a 33ft (10m) tsunami which swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland.

Japan was struck by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake off its north-eastern coast today, triggering a 13-foot tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast near the epicentre.

IT MAY sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan’s space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collectsolar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams ormicrowaves.

An American destroyer is following a North Korean ship suspected of transporting weapons toward Burma, as anticipation mounted today that the North could soon test-fire short- or medium-range missiles off its eastern coast.

Australia and New Zealand appealed to Japan today to halt a fleet headed for the Antarctic to hunt humpback whales.

JAPAN’S central bank raised interest rates for the first time in six years yesterday, lifting its key rate to 0.25% from 0% and affirming the end of a long era of deflation and economic stagnation.

China and Japan began talks today on a dispute over gas deposits in the East China Sea amid increasingly strained relations.

A 1km (3,300ft) -high column of water vapour shot up from the Pacific Ocean off a tiny Japanese island today, indicating a possible undersea volcanic eruption, a report said.

Japan’s government apologised today for an accident in which three people in Southern China inhaled poison gas from decaying chemical weapons abandoned by Japan’s former Imperial army.

After years of disappointing speculation about suitors, the engagement of Princess Sayako to a Tokyo city bureaucrat, a commoner, became official today with an announcement by Japan’s Imperial Household Agency.

A Japanese woman kidnapped by Iraqi militants last month said she backed Tokyo’s rejection of her captors’ demands that it withdraw its troops from Iraq or see her burned alive.