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GMT: Obama says he has ordered a "comprehensive review" of US nuclear
safety and vows to learn lessons from Japan's nuclear accident.
1945 GMT: "We will stand with the people of Japan as they contain
this crisis, recover from this hardship and rebuild their great nation,"
he says.
1943 GMT: President Barack Obama says he does not expect harmful
radiation from Japan's nuclear crisis to reach the United States or any
of its territories.
1925 GMT: Obama is due to make remarks on Japan's crisis any minute now in the White House's Rose Garden.
1901 GMT: Welcomed by the ambassador at the Japanese embassy in
Washington, Obama inscribes the condolence book placed on a table with a
vase of flowers near a Japanese flag.
"Because of the strength and wisdom of its people, we know that Japan
will recover and indeed will emerge stronger than ever. And as it
recovers, the memory of those who have been lost will remain in our
hearts and will serve only to strengthen the friendship between our two
countries," he writes."May God bless the people of Japan."
1830 GMT: The Pentagon dispatches a team of experts to evaluate how
American forces can assist Japan with the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear
plant.
The nine-member team "will work with the Japanese military and they
will provide advice to the (US) commander to determine if any additional
US forces are required for that mission," spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan
says.
1820 GMT: A study released in the United States says the risk of
thyroid cancer among people exposed as children to the nuclear fallout
at Chernobyl has not declined nearly 25 years after the disaster.
The National Institutes of Health-led study examined more than 12,500
people who were under 18 at the time of the Chernobyl accident on April
26, 1986, and who lived near the accident site in one of three parts of
Ukraine.
Each person's thyroid radioactivity levels were measured within two
months of the accident, and they were screened for thyroid cancer four
times, beginning as early as 12 years after the disaster and continuing
for 10 years.
When researchers examined the cancer risk in relation to how much
exposure to radioactive iodine-131 (I-131) each person received, they
found a two-fold increase for each additional gray, an international
unit of absorbed radiation.
"The researchers found no evidence, during the study time period, to
indicate that the increased cancer risk to those who lived in the area
at the time of the accident is decreasing over time," says.
1808 GMT: President Barack Obama pays an unannounced visit to the
Japanese embassy in Washington to sign a condolence book for victims of
the disaster.
Obama is due to make a statement on the attempts by Tokyo to stave
off a catastrophe at its damaged nuclear reactors at 3:30 pm (1930 GMT).
1804 GMT: Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the
quake-hit Japanese nuclear reactors, opens an official Twitter account,
immediately drawing more than 117,000 followers.
"We sincerely apologise for causing serious worries and trouble over
the accident at Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant, radiation leak,
planned blackouts," TEPCO says in its profile in Japanese on the
micro-blogging site.
1801 GMT: Oscar-winning Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock has donated
$1 million to help victims of Japan's earthquake and tsunami crisis, the
latest celebrity to pledge aid, the American Red Cross says.
Other celebrities who have stepped in include Lady Gaga who raised
$250,000 in 48 hours by selling red and white wristbands bearing the
message "We Pray for Japan" for $5 a piece via her merchandise website.
1758 GMT: First US charter flight taking Americans out of Japan left
for Taiwan four hours ago with "just under 100 people" on board: State
Department.
1745 GMT: The situation at Japan's stricken nuclear plant has not
worsened "significantly" over the past 24 hours, but it would be
premature to talk about a ray of hope, according to an expert at the
UN's atomic energy watchdog.
"At the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant the situation remains
very serious. But there has been no signficant worsening since
yesterday," Graham Andrew, scientific and technical advisor to the head
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says.
Asked whether his assessment represented a small ray of hope, Andrew
replies: "I think it's too early to say that. It hasn't got worse, which
is positive. But it's still possible that it could get worse. So I'd
rather not speculate. I think we'd say it's reasonably stable compared
to yesterday."
1734 GMT: US senators call for a review of nuclear sites to test
their ability to withstand attack or disasters like the one in Japan.
Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Tom Carper deliver their appeal in a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
"We call on the NRC to conduct a comprehensive investigation of all
nuclear facilities in the United States to assess their capacity to
withstand catastrophic natural or man-made disasters including scenarios
that may be considered remote like the recent events in Japan," they
write.
"Special and immediate attention should be given to those US nuclear
reactors that share similar characteristics as the failing reactors in
Japan, including similar designs or located near a coastline or seismic
fault line."
1722 GMT: EU nations behind the former Iron Curtain are unbowed in
their support for atomic power, setting themselves apart from many of
the bloc's western member states.
Eastern Europe was on the frontline of the world's worst nuclear
accident, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in what was then the Soviet Union,
and many of its atomic plants pre-date the fall of the communist
regimes in 1989-1991.
But regional leaders have warned that Japan's crisis must not lead to
a knee-jerk reaction in the European Union, which their countries
joined in 2004. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas has denounced what he
dubbed anti-nuclear "hysteria" and the country's president, Vaclav
Klaus, has slammed as "political opportunism" calls for restrictions on
nuclear power.
1704 GMT: US officials say there is still no concern about raised radiation levels in the United States or its territories.
This follows a day of near-panic buying of iodide pills in the United
States, notably in California and Hawaii, the Pacific island state some
4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) east of Japan.
Demand for potassium iodide, which can protect against the effects of
radioactive iodine, surged on the US West Coast, where some fear a
cloud spewing from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant could be blown, drug
company Anbex says.
1655 GMT: Stretched Japanese authorities have asked for European
Union relief to be coordinated to ease delivery to the devastated
nation, Europe's aid chief Kristalina Georgieva says.
1630 GMT: The American military, which is allowing families of troops
and civilian employees stationed on the main Japanese island of Honshu
to leave, says most evacuees will be sent home on commercial airlines,
including charter flights being secured by the US state department.
1610 GMT: Germany says it will temporarily move its embassy from
Tokyo to Osaka as a "preventative measure" as fears grow that dangerous
radiation could leak from the damaged nuclear reactor.
1600 GMT: The latest situation in Japan following the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear alert:
- Millions remain without water, electricity, fuel or enough food and
hundreds of thousands more are homeless, the misery compounded by heavy
snowfalls, freezing cold and wet conditions.
- Military helicopters and trucks have sprayed water over the
stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant in a bid to restore water levels
in cooling ponds where spent fuel rods are stored. Plant owner Tokyo
Electric Power Co says it cannot tell if the spraying was successful but
efforts will continue.
- Tepco is attempting to reconnect electricity supplies so that pumps can be restarted in the plant's cooling systems.
- Countries from the United States to Europe and Australia have warned their citizens to get out of Tokyo.
- The official number of dead and missing has topped 15,000. The
number of confirmed dead rose to 5,692 while the official number of
missing increased to 9,522, the National Police Agency said in its
latest update. A total of 2,409 people were injured in the disasters.
