2011 Japan Disaster

Emergency teams staged a mock operation to respond to a catastrophic 7.8-magnitude quake in Los Angeles, saying the West Coast megalopolis needs to be ready for an "overdue" Big One.

The Bank of Japan's new governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday pledged "all-out efforts" to rid Japan of growth-sapping deflation as gloomy new trade data underlined the scale of the task ahead.

A rat may have caused a power cut that knocked out cooling systems at Japan's tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, the operator said Thursday, an episode that highlighted the jerry-rigged nature of the fix.

Flanked by Germany, which is phasing out nuclear power, and Austria, which has already done so, the Czech Republic is pinning its future on atomic energy.

Technicians have restored power to all cooling systems at the reactors of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, the operating company said Wednesday after a blackout sparked a new crisis.

A giant statue from Chile's Easter Island was unveiled in Tokyo Wednesday before it is erected in a small tsunami-devastated northeastern Japanese town as a symbol of recovery.

Technicians have restored power to all cooling systems at the reactors of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, the operating company said Wednesday after a blackout sparked a new crisis.

Technicians have restored power to all cooling systems at the reactors of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, the operating company said, after a blackout sparked a new crisis.

Engineers at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant succeeded Tuesday in restarting three cooling systems after a power cut underlined its still-precarious state, two years after a tsunami struck.

Flanked by Germany, which is phasing out nuclear power, and Austria, which has already done so, the Czech Republic is pinning its future on atomic energy.

The operator of Japan's tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday power for cooling systems at three spent fuel pools was still out more than 14 hours after it failed.

A power failure at Japan's tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant forced operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to suspend systems to cool spent fuel pools at three reactor units, a report said Tuesday.

Japan's estimate for the amount of debris from the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster that will reach North America later this year has sharply increased, a report said Friday.

US service members are suing the Tokyo Electric Power Co. for more than $2 billion on grounds the utility lied about the dangers of helping clean up the nuclear disaster that struck two years ago, a newspaper reported Thursday.

A 38-tonne wind turbine crashed 50 metres (165 feet) to the ground in western Japan after the steel column supporting it snapped, according to officials.

Global losses from natural disasters hit $138 billion in 2012, with half the sum claimed by drought and Hurricane Sandy in the United States, the UN said Thursday.

Author Tan Twan Eng became the first Malaysian author to win Asia's top literary prize on Thursday for his novel set during the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

Japan provided $1 million on Wednesday to help clean up debris from the March 2011 tsunami that has washed up along Canada's shores.

An international agreement to protect sharks could spell trouble for one tsunami-wrecked port in Japan as it struggles back to its feet two years after being swept away, locals say.

Japan said Tuesday it had successfully extracted methane hydrate, known as "fire ice", from its seabed, possibly unlocking many years' worth of gas for the resource-starved country.