Spain's jobless rate tops 21% as all major sectors lose jobs

Spain's jobless rate tops 21% as all major sectors lose jobs

Young people with placards reading 'Without a house, without a job, without pension' during protests in April.

Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- Spain's unemployment rate rose nearly a point to 21.29%, with 4.9 million jobless for the first quarter of 2011, the government reported Friday, as the prolonged economic crisis continues to squeeze the nation.

Some analysts had predicted the number of jobless might surpass 5 million. But while that didn't happen, the latest statistics were another blow to the economy and to the embattled socialist government.

The numbers for the fourth quarter of 2010 -- 20.33% unemployment and almost 4.7 million jobless --- already represented the highest joblessness rate in 13 years.

The latest numbers, for the first quarter of this year, added more somber news. The number of unemployed increased by 213,000, pushing the overall number to 4.9 million.

All major sectors --- industry, construction, services and agriculture --- shed jobs during the quarter. The number of Spanish households in which no adult had a job increased by 58,000, to a new total of 1.38 million, the government said.

Earlier this month, embattled Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced he would not seek a third term. Elections are due by March 2012.

For months, Zapatero's Socialists have trailed in opinion polls behind the main opposition conservative Popular Party.

In announcing his decision on April 2 to Socialist Party leaders, Zapatero said, "We have made mistakes."

He added that "recent months have been very difficult for the work of the government" because even after enacting a budget austerity plan to reduce the public deficit that put Spain under pressure from international financial markets, the destruction of jobs continued.

Local elections in all Spanish cities and for 13 of its 17 regional parliaments will be held May 22. They are widely seen as a bellwether of voter sentiment for the general elections to follow.

More than 450 escape Kandahar prison

More than 450 escape Kandahar prison

Prisoners look out from their cells in the maximum security wing at Sarposa Prison in Kandahar City in this July 25, 2010 photo. (Bill Graveland/Canadian Press)

Taliban insurgents dug a more than 320-metre tunnel underground and into the main jail in Kandahar city and whisked out more than 450 prisoners, most of whom were Taliban fighters, officials and the insurgents said Monday.

The massive jailbreak overnight in Afghanistan's second-largest city serves as a reminder of the Afghan government's continuing weakness in the south, despite an influx of international troops, funding and advisers. Kandahar city, in particular, has been a focus of the international effort to establish a strong Afghan government presence in former Taliban strongholds.

The 1,200-inmate Sarposa Prison has been part of that plan. The facility has undergone security upgrades and tightened procedures following a brazen 2008 Taliban attack that freed 900 prisoners. Afghan government officials and their NATO backers have regularly said that the prison has vastly improved security since that attack.

But on Sunday night, around 475 prisoners streamed out of a tunnel dug between the prison and the outside and disappeared into Kandahar city, prison supervisor Ghulam Dastagir Mayar said. He said the majority of the missing were Taliban militants.

Five months of digging

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said insurgents on the outside dug the tunnel to the prison over five months, bypassing government checkpoints and major roads. The tunnel finally reached the prison cells Sunday night, and the inmates were ushered through it to freedom by three prisoners who had been informed of the plan, Mujahid said.

He said more than 500 inmates were freed, and that about 100 of them were Taliban commanders.

Four of those who escaped were provincial-level Taliban commanders, said Qari Yousef Ahmadi, another Taliban spokesman.

The highest-profile Taliban inmates would likely not be held at Sarposa. The U.S. keeps detainees it considers a threat at a facility outside of Bagram Air Base in eastern Afghanistan. Other key Taliban prisoners are held by the Afghan government in a high-security wing of the main prison in Kabul.
 
Obtained keys

A man who Taliban spokesmen said was one of the inmates who helped organize the escape from the inside said a group of inmates obtained copies of the keys to the cells ahead of time.

"There were four or five of us who knew that our friends were digging a tunnel from the outside," said Mohammad Abdullah, who said he had been in Sarposa prison for two years after being captured in nearby Zhari district with a stockpile of weapons. "Some of our friends helped us by providing copies of the keys. When the time came at night, we managed to open the doors for friends who were in other rooms."

He said they woke the inmates up four or five at a time to get them out quietly. Abdullah spoke by phone on a number supplied by a Taliban spokesman. His account could not be immediately verified.

The governor of Kandahar province confirmed at least 475 escaped and said that a search operation is going on to recapture them.

"Some of the prisoners have already been recaptured," Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said. He did not provide further details.

Asked how the tunnel was dug without anyone noticing, Wesa said only that the incident was still under investigation.

In the 2008 attack, dozens of militants on motorbikes and two suicide bombers assaulted the prison. One suicide bomber set off an explosives-laden tanker truck at the prison gate while a second bomber blew up an escape route through a back wall. About 900 inmates escaped, including 400 Taliban fighters.

Japan launches largest search for quake victims

Japan launches largest search for quake victims

Shichigahamamachi residents look for their neighbours' usable belongings at Shobudahama fishery port Monday as Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members search for missing people in their third major recovery operation since the March 11 earthquake. 

Japanese Self-Defense Force members are carrying out the largest search yet for 12,000 people who went missing after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The U.S. military and the Japanese police are also taking part in the search, which will involve 25,000 people, 90 aircraft and 50 ships over the next two days.

The search is covering inland and coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, along with the offshore waters. It will also include areas within 30 kilometres of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that were not previously covered.

Official figures show the quake and tsunami, along with the aftershocks on April 7 and 11, have killed about 14,300 people.

An activist wearing an anti-nuclear mask takes part in a rally against nuclear power plants in Tokyo on Sunday. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

In the town of Shichigahamamachi on Monday, a line of about two dozen Japanese soldiers walked in unison across soggy earth and muddy pools, plunging their poles about 60 centimetres into the muck to ensure they don't miss any bodies buried below.

The search focused on a marsh drained in recent weeks by members of the army's 22nd infantry regiment using special pump trucks.

Several dozen other soldiers cleared mountains of rubble by hand from a waterfront neighbourhood filled with gutted and teetering houses. Four people in the neighbourhood were missing, said 67-year-old Sannojo Watanabe.

"That was my house right there," he said, pointing to a foundation with nothing atop it.

He surveyed the neighbourhood: "There's nothing left here."

In all, 370 troops from the regiment were searching for a dozen people still missing from Shichigahamamachi. The regiment had been searching the area with a far smaller contingent, but tripled the number of troops it was using for the two-day intense search, said Col. Akira Kun itomo, the regimental commander.

The search is far more difficult than that for earthquake victims, who would mostly be buried in the rubble, said Michihiro Ose, a spokesman for the regiment. The tsunami could have left the victims anywhere, or even pulled them out to sea.

"We just don't know where the bodies are," he said.

Bodies likely unrecognizable


Bodies found so many weeks after the disaster are likely to be unrecognizable, black and swollen, Ose said.

"We wouldn't even know if they would be male or female," he said.

The military's first intense sweep for bodies uncovered 339, while its second turned up 99 more, Defence Ministry spokesman Norikazu Muratani said. By Monday evening, searchers had found 38 more.

After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, bodies turned up along the Indonesian coast for several months afterward as people cleared debris in reconstruction efforts. However, 37,000 of the 164,000 people who died in Indonesia simply disappeared, their bodies presumably washed out to sea.

Last week, two undersea robots provided by the non-profit International Rescue Systems Institute conducted five-day searches in waters off Japan's northeastern coast near three tsunami-hit towns.

The robots found cars, homes and other wreckage in the sea, but no bodies, said Mika Murata, an official with the institute.

The Japanese government has come under criticism for its response to the quake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster, with some members of the country's opposition urging Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan answers a lawmaker's question at a budget committee meeting in the upper house of parliament in Tokyo on Monday. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

 On Monday, Kan stressed to a sometimes hostile parliament that his government was doing everything it could to gain control of the radiation leaks at the nuclear plant, which has prompted the government to evacuate residents from a 20-kilometre area around the crippled reactors.

"The nuclear accident is still ongoing," he said. "The top priority right now is to stabilize it."

In Fukushima prefecture, the government has launched an operation to euthanize some of the farm animals left in the no-entry zone.

Six officials, including veterinarians, entered the area on Monday, the first day of the mission. There are more than 370 livestock farms in the no-go zone, with 4,000 cattle, 30,000 pigs, 630,000 chickens, and 100 horses. But many of these animals have died or are facing starvation since their owners evacuated the area. Some of them remain outdoors.

The plan is to kill the weakened animals and disinfect carcasses. A veterinarian says animals found alive will get medical examinations. The prefecture says it will not kill any animals unless their owners agree because there is no law stipulating what should be done in such a situation.

People are concerned about pets in the exclusion zone, too.

An animal welfare coalition in Japan is hoping the government will allow it to continue to search for pets that have been abandoned.

The town that wants nuclear waste

The town that wants nuclear waste

(CNN) -- Like the energy source itself, it's the question that won't go away: what can be done with spent nuclear fuel?

Sweden believes it has the answer.

The plan is to bury the country's expected 12,000 tons of nuclear waste in corrosion-resistant copper canisters under 500 meters of crystalline bedrock. There it will remain isolated from human contact for at least 100,000 years.

The idea, which still needs final approval, was developed by Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management company (SKB) -- a collective of Sweden's nuclear power companies.

After three decades of research, SKB believes that Osthammar in central Sweden is the perfect final resting place for the country's nuclear waste. Not only is the 1.9 billion year old bedrock ideal says SKB, but the locals are largely in favor of the plan and it is close to the nuclear power plant at Forsmark.

I grew up not far from the Forsmark nuclear power plant. In school they took us on tours of the facility and many friends' parents worked at the plant. The region also has a long history of mining and ironworks, so having the nuclear industry as neighbor was nothing strange.

My parents still live there and recently my mother got a call from a researcher asking her what she thought of the planned repository.

"Do you trust the authorities to solve the problem today in your neighborhood, or do you want to wait for a better technology and leave the waste to future generations who did not actually benefit from the nuclear power?" she was asked.

The latest poll showed that 88% of Osthammar residents are in favor of having the storage site in their community.

Swedes have a complicated relationship to nuclear power. Following the Three Mile Island incident in the U.S. in 1979, Sweden voted to shut down all its nuclear reactors by 2010.

However the decision was overturned by a new government and only two reactors were decommissioned. Today Sweden's 10 nuclear reactors produce almost half of the country's electricity.

Sweden has so far accumulated more than 5,000 tons of spent fuel. It is stored in a bright blue water tank, 40 meters underground in the southern city of Oskarshamn. But even though the radiation is shielded by eight meters of water, this facility has to be monitored 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

"And we will certainly not do that for the next 100.000 years," Brita Freudenthal, SKB's guide at the facility told me.

After a few mishaps in the early stages of looking for a community that would be willing to accept the final repository, SKB started visiting the locals in their homes to have a face-to-face dialogue over some coffee and biscuits.

"The women talk more about the water, if they can eat the berries in the forest, if they can eat the moose they hunt. Men are more interested in the technology, if the canister will be safe. If there is a question, I've heard it," said Saida Laârouchi Engstrom from SKB.

Erik and Catharina Waernulf live in Forsmark with their four young children.

"SKB are very good at giving information" Catharina said.

"I think the closer you live the less scared you are. The waste has to be stored somewhere, so why not here?" Erik added.

For the mayor of Osthammar, Jacob Spangenberg, whether or not to accept the repository has nothing to do with the new investment and the new jobs it would generate.

"This is a possibility for our nation and our society to solve a very, very difficult problem," he said.

The industry's application is now undergoing a thorough review by the Swedish authorities. Mayor Spangenberg has the ultimate right of veto if he is not satisfied with the results.

There was another community, Oskarshamn, that also wanted the repository, but SKB's geological surveys showed that the bedrock was much safer near Forsmark.

But if the application doesn't go through, or Osthammar doesn't accept the results of the review, what is Sweden going to do with the waste? It's a tricky question that not only for this Nordic country has to face.

'Dead alien' found in Siberian snow

'Dead alien' found in Siberian snow

It may just be an elaborate hoax, but a video has surfaced showing the body of an alien found dead in snow in Siberia.

The slender, badly damaged corpse was found lying on a bed of snow with its head to one side and mouth slightly open, the Daily Mail reported.

The video, posted on April 17 on YouTube, has already had over 100,000 views and showed the body of the unidentified "creature".

Irkutsk, Russia is apparently a known UFO hotspot, and UFO believers think the body was left behind by alien visitors after an accident, or was missed in a clean-up by the Russian government as part of some sort of alien cover-up.

Dozens of UFO sightings are reported every year in the area, and only last month there were reports of an unidentified object hurtling into the nearby Irkutsk region of Siberia.

"We couldn't believe it when we saw it. And what was spooky is that there was no sign of the spaceship. Perhaps that was taken away and the body overlooked," said Igor Molovic, one of the pair that uploaded the video.

However, not everyone is a true believer.

Some believe it is actually a carefully crafted model of an alien's body, and not the real deal.

However, many UFO lovers still believe.

"It's so lame how people always get thrilled by having another excuse to shout 'Fake! fake!' every time something weird shows up. Unless proven otherwise, this is in fact plausible," posted one user.
Another said; "If this is fake - then they are masters at models/puppets. I think it's real - one of the very few, great vid."

MP arrested on child porn charges

MP arrested on child porn charges

South Australian police arrested the MP on Wednesday evening. (ABC News)

The ABC understands a South Australian MP has been arrested and charged with child pornography offences.

The MP cannot be named but police arrested him at his home on Wednesday evening and took him to the City Watch House.

Police searched a car parked in his driveway and left with several items.

The MP has been charged with possession of child pornography, aggravated possession of child pornography and two counts of taking steps to access child pornography.

Police say the man was arrested as part of Operation Decimate which targets offenders who use the internet for child exploitation related offences.

He has been released on bail and will appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on May 20.

Prairies flood fears see no relief

Prairies flood fears see no relief

City of Regina workers pile onto a dyke along the south side of Wascana Creek in Regina on Monday.

More than 1,000 people in Manitoba and Saskatchewan have been forced from their homes as flood waters continue to rise, with concerns that the Assiniboine and Red rivers could crest at the same time in Winnipeg.

Both are expected to crest in late April to early May, CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe said.

The number of evacuees has risen to nearly 800 in Manitoba, with almost 600 provincial and municipal roads affected by flooding and 32 municipalities under states of emergency.

Wagstaffe said the Red and Assiniboine are now virtually ice-free, but that water levels are rising as crest dates approach.

Manitoba officials say about 700 provincial staff are working on the flood response across the province, as well as municipal staff, private contractors and non-government agencies such as the Salvation Army, Mennonite Disaster Service and the Red Cross.

Steve Ashton, Manitoba's emergency measures minister, says the province will be wrestling with the legacy of this year's flood long after its rivers crest and the water drenching much of the province recedes.
Damage expected to total at least $70M

Water levels are at least as high as they were in 2009 — the second-worst flood season in the last 150 years.

That flood caused $70 million in damage and this year is expected to be just as costly.

Ashton says water levels will cause problems well into May. He says cottage owners and residents will have to remain vigilant and keep an eye on wind that has the potential to whip up swollen lakes.

In Saskatchewan, 15 communities have declared states of emergencies and more than 440 people on two First Nations have been forced from their homes.

Lynn Acoose, chief of the Sakimay First Nation, says some roads are inundated and many homes are waterlogged. She also says there's concern that wells and cisterns people use for drinking water may have become contaminated.

Cool temperatures have saved a lot of communities from worst-case scenarios. Wagstaffe warned, however, that temperatures are expected to rise and there is still some snowpack left to melt.

The province's Watershed Authority says the City of Regina can expect water levels in Wascana Lake to peak by the end of the week.

Smith, ADA say abuse liability is possible

Smith, ADA say abuse liability is possible

Complaints of physical and sexual abuse in the military will be investigated says Defence Minister Stephen Smith.

The Australia Defence Association (ADA) agrees with the Defence Minister that the Commonwealth may be legally liable for physical and sexual abuse in the military.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith's office has received hundreds of complaints from people who claim they have suffered physical and sexual abuse in the military, dating back decades.

The complaints follow wide publicity about the treatment of an 18-year-old female cadet at Canberra's Australian Defence Force Academy who had a sexual encounter with a male cadet transmitted to others via the internet without her knowledge.

A string of inquiries have been set up in response to the scandal, which has prompted others to raise allegations of abuse.

Mr Smith says the Commonwealth may be legally liable and he has promised all of the allegations will be investigated.

ADA executive director Neil James agrees with Mr Smith.

"He is probably right to the extent that they could be liable. But obviously each allegation will have to be checked out," he said.

"They'll have to check whether they have already been investigated or been the subject of previous inquiries."

Mr James says it will be difficult to prove many of the allegations.

"The trouble is a lot of the allegations are old, some are clearly exaggerated, some are the result of peoples' personal views and not necessarily the facts, some could even be false memory syndrome," he said.

But he also says the investigations will be far-reaching.

"Well they should go back as far as you can satisfactorily investigate the inquiry in terms of known facts and the availability of documents and witnesses," he said.

"Trying to rely just on peoples' memories as we know from other inquiries say into child sex abuse are exceptionally difficult to do."

On Saturday it emerged that South Australian police were investigating an allegation of serious sexual assault of a recruit at the former HMAS Leeuwin in Western Australia in 1971.

Allegations have also emerged of systemic bullying and bastardisation, sometimes bordering on sexual assault at the Defence Force Academy.

Defence said it was also investigating personnel who allegedly set up a Facebook hate page to vilify serving gay members of the Defence Force.

Afghan suicide bomber kills 9 troops

Afghan suicide bomber kills 9 troops

Afghan policemen keep watch at the site of a suicide attack that killed three officers Friday in Kandahar province. The next morning, another suicide bomber killed nine soldiers at a base near Jalalabad in Laghman province.

Five NATO and four Afghan soldiers died Saturday morning at the Afghan military's eastern headquarters after a suicide bomber dressed in an army uniform approached the base on foot and blew himself up.

The explosion also injured four Afghan soldiers and four translators, according to Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

In an email to journalists, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest assault against foreign forces this year. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the bomber was from Day Kundi province in central Afghanistan.

"A month ago, he joined with the Afghan army and his aim was to carry out the suicide attack," Mujahid said. "Today, when there was a meeting going on between Afghan and foreign soldiers, he used the opportunity to carry out the attack."

Militants have conducted an increasing number of attacks in the east and north since many of them were routed from their strongholds in the south by an influx of tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO forces last year.

The assailant approached the base, located in Laghman province near the city of Jalalabad, and detonated a vest of explosives at about 7:30 a.m. local time at the entrance, Azimi said.

"The attacker had the Afghan security force uniform on and that gave him the opportunity to reach the entrance to the base and carry out the attack," Azimi said.

NATO issued a statement confirming that five soldiers in its International Security Assistance Force, as the deployment to Afghanistan is known, were killed in "an insurgent attack."

The nearly 100 ISAF troops posted at the base are there mainly to train Afghan army soldiers, NATO spokesman Maj. Tim James said.

The military alliance did not release further information on the service members killed pending notification of their next of kin.

Saturday's attack was the deadliest against foreign forces since a car bomber killed six U.S. soldiers in December in the province of Kandahar.

It came on the heels of a suicide bombing on Friday in which a Taliban fighter disguised in a police uniform made his way into the outer perimeter of police headquarters in Kandahar and blew himself up, killing the provincial police chief and two other officers.

More than 120,000 foreign soldiers are serving in Afghanistan, two-thirds from the United States. Canada's military mission to the country counts about 2,900 forces, most of whom are based in Kandahar in the south.

Russell Williams divorce to stay muzzled

Russell Williams divorce to stay muzzled

An Ottawa judge has ruled that divorce proceedings involving convicted killer Russell Williams — a former Canadian Forces colonel — and his estranged wife shall remain under a publication ban, at least for now.

An Ottawa judge has ruled that divorce proceedings involving convicted killer Russell Williams — a former Canadian Forces colonel — and his estranged wife shall remain under a publication ban, at least for now.

Williams' wife last month applied to the court asking for sensitive records to be under a publication ban — particularly a domestic contract signed between the two shortly after he was arrested for two murders.

In support, she filed sensitive medical information which her lawyers said outlined the harm she might suffer, should any divorce proceedings be made public.

On Tuesday, Justice Jennifer MacKinnon ruled that until there is a divorce trial in open court (unlikely if Williams and his wife mutually agree to part ways), then the domestic contract should not be available to the public.

The judge also sealed sensitve portions of the woman's medical records that were put before the court.

The CBC, Ottawa Citizen and other media organizations had intervened, arguing the public had a right to know whether Williams tried to shield assets — including his military pension — by signing them over to his wife after getting caught by police.

Williams was arrested in February 2010 and pleaded guilty last fall to the sado-sexual murders of Jessica Lloyd of Belleville, Ont., and Marie France Comeau of Brighton, Ont. He was also convicted for assaulting two women in Tweed, Ont., as well as for dozens of fetish raids and break-ins in eastern Ontario and Ottawa, where he shared a home with his wife.

16 police officers arrested in connection with Mexico mass graves

16 police officers arrested in connection with Mexico mass graves

Mexico City (CNN) -- Sixteen municipal police officers from the northeastern Mexican town of San Fernando have been arrested for allegedly protecting those responsible for the mass graves uncovered there, the country's attorney general said.

The police officers worked to cover up the killings of the Zetas drug cartel, Attorney General Marisela Morales said.

Authorities recovered six more bodies from the mass graves Wednesday, bringing the total number of bodies found to 122, state attorney general's spokesman Ruben Dario Rios Lopez said.

Morales said that to date, investigators have identified 17 people who participated in the executions of the victims.

Bank of Canada holds rate steady

Bank of Canada holds rate steady

The Bank of Canada has opted to leave the country's key lending rate unchanged at one per cent.

The Bank of Canada kept its benchmark lending rate unchanged at one per cent in its latest decision on Tuesday.

Since raising its overnight lending rate to one per cent in September, the bank has held steady for five consecutive policy decisions.

Economists had expected the central bank to hold rates steady, citing the fact that inflation still appears to be under control in Canada.

"We judge that the BoC will want to monitor core CPI for signs of 'consistency' for at least a couple months more," Michael Gregory, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets Economics, said in a report a week ago.

For its part, the Bank of Canada said economic growth in the United States appears to be picking up steam, while emerging markets continue to expand at a robust pace.

But the recent Japanese earthquake will cause supply disruptions, the monetary authority said.

In addition, while Canada's gross domestic product growth is better than anticipated, the expansion is not setting off inflationary alarm bells, the bank said.

Canada steady, Europe not so

The bank’s decision comes in the face of an interest rate hike in Europe. Earlier in April, the European Central Bank raised its trend-setting rate by one-quarter of one percentage point to 1.25 per cent.

Historically, European monetary authorities have been much quicker to clamp down on economic growth to ease inflationary pressures than either Canada or the United States.

Most central banks have begun worrying that soaring commodity prices, including for foodstuffs, and gathering strength among the world’s major economies could reignite a general round of price hikes in industrialized countries.

But, as of yet, the U.S. Federal Reserve is still taking a “wait-and-see” approach before hiking U.S. rates.

“Most Fed members have made it clear that rising commodity prices are not [the] result of U.S. monetary policy nor does it require a policy response,” noted Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotia Capital in a Tuesday note.

Japan PM urges calm as nuclear level raised

Japan PM urges calm as nuclear level raised

Japan's prime minister urges the public not to panic after the government boosts the severity level of the nuclear crisis to the highest rating, on par with the 1986 Chornobyl disaster. 

Japan's prime minister is urging the public not to panic after the government boosted the severity level of the crisis at a tsunami-damaged nuclear plant to the highest rating — on par with the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people in a televised address to focus on recovering from the country's disasters.

"Right now, the situation of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant has been stabilizing step by step," he said. "The amount of radiation leaks is on the decline. But we are not at the stage yet where we can let our guards down."

Japanese regulators said they raised the rating from five to seven after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The country's nuclear watchdog said that while the radiation emission rate at the stricken plant is only about 10 per cent of that released at Chornobyl, the crippled Japanese facility has emitted a huge amount of radioactive substances that pose a risk over a large area.

Until now, the Chornobyl disaster in Ukraine was the only event rated Level 7.

The Fukushima crisis was previously rated Level 5, equalling the 1979 Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania.

Although the upgrade was dramatic, the two disasters — Fukushima and Chornobyl — are not all that similar, experts say.

In Chornobyl, it was the reactor core itself that exploded, releasing a huge amount of radioactive material in a very short time. Fukushima experienced a less critical hydrogen explosion. And the total amount of radioactive particles released so far is believed to be only a small fraction of that seen in Ukraine.

The upgrade came as at least two new earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 6.0 hit Japan's northeast on Monday night and Tuesday morning. The area has been rocked by numerous aftershocks since then. Until the subducted plate settles back into position, any quake within the rupture zone — in this case an area 300 kilometres long by 150 kilometres wide off the Japanese coast — that has less force than the initial quake is considered an aftershock.

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11 and the tsunami it generated are believed to have caused as much as $310 billion in damage. Japanese officials have updated the death toll from the disaster to 13,219 people. More than 14,000 others are still missing and more than 145,000 people are living in evacuation centres across the country.

Two Japanese people have a moment of silence on a burial ground, one month after the earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11. 

The Fukushima Daiichi plant has been spewing radiation since, and even a month on, officials say they don't know how long it will take to cool reactors there.

In a move unrelated to Monday's aftershock, the Japanese government is expanding the evacuation zone around the plant to 30 kilometres from 20, citing the risks of cumulative radiation exposure.

The latest calculations from Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission found that an area stretching 60 kilometres north of the nuclear plant and 40 kilometres south have, in the month since the earthquake, already been exposed to radiation equivalent to the annual dosage limit. Within the old 20-kilometre evacuation zone, radiation exposure has reached up to 100 times the annual limit.
 
Work resumes

At the plant itself, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as TEPCO, has resumed efforts to contain the plant's radioactive leak, after a one-day delay because of strong aftershocks.

TEPCO will begin pumping contaminated water from the No. 2 reactor Tuesday and transfer it to a condenser, after checking the safety of equipment.

The radioactive water has been hampering work to restore cooling functions in the damaged reactors. TEPCO says it also resumed injecting nitrogen into the containment vessel of the No.1 reactor late on Monday night. That's aimed at preventing further hydrogen explosions.

Japanese leader invokes WWII to urge quake recovery

Japanese leader invokes WWII to urge quake recovery

A Japanese flag stands amid the devastation of the tsunami in the town centre of Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture, on April 6, 2011.

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan invoked his country's recovery from World War II on Tuesday as he sought to turn the nation's attention to the arduous task of rebuilding.

Yet the challenges awaiting Japan remained on full display the day he spoke: The country rated the crisis at a nuclear plant stricken after last month's earthquake and tsunami as the most severe on an international system for rating nuclear accidents.

And a fresh round of earthquakes rumbled across an already battered landscape. One with a magnitude of 6.3 was the latest of 52 quakes with a magnitude of 6 or greater since a monster 9.0 quake rocked the country and spawned a tsunami, leaving nearly 28,0000 people dead or missing.

The prime minister noted that he was born in 1946, a year after the end of World War II, and that his family used an unexploded bomb to help stabilize a pickling tub in their home. He said the Japanese people "stood up bravely and achieved a reconstruction that amazed the world" after the war.

"We must renew the determination that we had in the post-World War II reconstruction period, and we must tackle the task of reconstruction after this earthquake," he said.

The devastation left behind by the March 11 earthquake is an opportunity to build "a new, better future than before," said the prime minister. He spoke at a news conference that had been originally scheduled to take place Monday but was delayed because of a series of aftershocks that rattled northern Japan.

In one of the lastest developments following the wave of aftershocks, the Iwaki Fire Department said the death toll from landslides set off by a 6.6-magnitude quake on Monday had risen to six.

Iwaki is located about 100 miles (164 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo and about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The landslides in Iwaki buried three houses.

Does 'American Idol' have lady problems?

Does 'American Idol' have lady problems?

The elimination of front-runner Pia Toscano on "American Idol" has sent shockwaves through the audience.

(CNN) -- It would be so easy to blame the teenage girls.

Check out the studio audience of "American Idol," and you will see throngs of them waving signs and screaming for their favorite contestants. They are the ones who rushed the stage Wednesday night after contestant Scotty McCreery sang an Elvis Presley song to hug him and tug on his clothes.

But were the teen female fans, with their faster-than-lightning voting fingers, to blame for the shockingly early ouster of front-runner Pia Toscano on Thursday night?

Maybe.

"The overwhelming skewing of the males lasting much longer than the females over the past couple of seasons is definitely there, and not just with the teen girls, but the older women who get really wrapped up in the show, too," said Jim Cantiello, who covers 'Idol' for MTV.

"A lot of fans and 'Idol' bloggers have done their own independent research and have noted that once texting became a big thing on 'Idol,' a lot of the females were going earlier."

The landscape is certainly looking bleak this season for the female contestants.

Of the five contestants voted off so far this season, all have been women: Ashthon Jones, Karen Rodriguez, Naima Adedapo, Thia Megia and Toscano [Casey Abrams received the lowest number of votes during the Top 11, but the judges used their one-per-season save to keep him on the show].

That leaves only two females in the Top 8 and six males.

Richard Rushfield, author of "American Idol: The Untold Story," said the show absolutely has a strong female base of fans.

"Every piece of evidence says that the 'Idol' electorate is overwhelmingly female, and women don't seem to vote for women on 'American Idol," he said. "This season has been enormous, but it's been the case every year for about four years now that the 'Idol' voting has turned into this sort of popularity contest of your favorite cute boy."

Adedapo addressed that phenomena after she and Megia were cut last week during a double elimination resulting from the judges using their save the week before for contestant Abrams.

"When it comes down to it, the reality is that more than 50 percent of the audience is little teenage girls, and once they get a crush, we're done," Adedapo told The Hollywood Reporter.

It's hard to nail down how females factored into the voting because of the veil of secrecy that covers the competition.

Fox steadfastly refuses to release voting figures, though host Ryan Seacrest will often trumpet the total millions of votes received overall in a given week.

Brian Mansfield, who blogs about the show for USA Today, said Seacrest's silence this week on the totals led him to believe that the voting totals were down and when that occurs "weird things can happen."

Mansfield said he doesn't buy into the lack of women voting for Toscano as the reason for her shocking exit, which elicited boos from the audience and a social-networking explosion of disbelief. He said he believes it is more complex than simply a lack of girl power.

"As I think back to what my readers typically said about Pia, I saw a lot of respect for her, but I didn't necessarily see a lot love for her," Mansfield said. "I think everybody pretty much assumed that she would be in the Top 3, but most of them had another favorite."

Cantiello, Rushfield and Mansfield all pointed out the judges are also culpable in Toscano being sent home as they praised her stellar singing voice each week without hammering home her lack of stage presence until it was too late.

Mansfield said the lack of judge Simon Cowell -- who went to start "Idol" competitor "The X Factor" -- also left a void in terms of a strong opinion that fans could choose to even embrace or reject in their voting.

"The judges this year are taking a completely different approach in that they are trying to nurture everybody and give that constructive criticism that a lot of the hard-core viewers of the show have said that they wanted," Mansfield said.

"The problem is that the judges' real function historically is that they don't do a whole lot for the performers; they are there to be a guide to the voters, and that's not the new function that this new panel is taking."

Glenn Gamboa has been covering "Idol" for Newsday since the show began 10 seasons ago and said Toscano's strength -- an amazing set of pipes and poise -- may have also been her downfall.

"She kind of projected the air of 'I'm really good and I'm going to be fine,' " Gamboa said. "People were like, 'OK, then I am going to vote for someone else who I think is in trouble.' "

While the theories as to why abound, one thing is for sure: So much buzz over the shocker might be a good thing for the competition seeking to return to the astronomical ratings of yesteryear.

Writing for Forbes, Cover Awards editorial director Mark Pasetsky said, "While 'American Idol' appears to have lost one of its top contestants of the season, Pia Toscano, the reality show certainly won't lose out in the ratings department thanks to all of the attention her departure is receiving in the Twitterverse."

iReporter shocked by 'Idol' results

Even two former "Idol" contestants who were themselves victims of early elimination expressed disbelief.

"I can not believe they just eliminated Pia! ReAlly..????," Tweeted Jennifer Hudson whose seventh-place finish the third season still has fans crying foul. "Long as she walked away with that voice she will be alright !! Just hate to see talent like that go!"

Rocker Chris Daughtry finished fourth in season five despite being favored to win and Tweeted "What the crap!!?? I thought Pia was THE best singer on the show this year!"

MTV's Cantiello said Toscano's departure could go either way in the ratings with fans tuning in and voting to ensure their favorite stays or some deciding that since the "best singer" is gone there's no need.

Still, the show was a wonder this week in terms of buzz, Cantiello said.

" 'Idol' needed a big moment," he said. "I think the Casey Abrams save was a good kick-start, and this is just going to make it all the more interesting."

NATO strikes Libyan tanks near key cities

NATO strikes Libyan tanks near key cities

Taking position: A rebel fighter on the turret of a destroyed tank near the eastern part of Ajdabiya.

NATO warplanes have destroyed 11 regime tanks on the road to the eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya and another 14 tanks near Misrata in the west.

Earlier Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi's artillery had heavily bombarded Ajdabiya, and his forces had forced their way inside, in their most determined assault on the strategic town for at least a week.

Rebels cowered in alleyways from sustained artillery, rocket and small-arms fire and appeared to be losing control of the town.

"The situation in Ajdabiya, and Misrata in particular, is desperate for those Libyans who are being brutally shelled by the regime," said Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, the NATO operation's commander.

"To help protect these civilians we continue to strike these forces hard, with 11 tanks destroyed today as they approached Ajdabiya, and 14 tanks destroyed earlier this morning in the outskirts of Misrata."

Ajdabiya is the gateway to the rebels' stronghold of Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, and has been the launch point for insurgents during a week-long fight for the oil port of Brega further west.

Rebels said Mr Gaddafi's forces had killed at least four rebel fighters in the second day of fighting for Ajdabiya.

"I saw the four this morning," said a rebel, Mohammed Saad, at a checkpoint on the eastern edge of the town.

"Their throats were slit and they were all shot through the chest and dumped on the road. Their car was also riddled with bullets."

Insurgent Hassan Bosayna said eight Gaddafi fighters and four rebels were killed in fighting on Saturday, with one of the rebels shot in the forehead by a sniper.

Another rebel, Muftah, said: "There are Gaddafi forces inside Ajdabiyah in sand-coloured Land Cruisers and we know there are Gaddafi snipers in civilian clothing in the city as well."

A reporter near Ajdabiya's eastern gate heard shooting and artillery fire and saw plumes of black smoke, suggesting pro-Gaddafi forces had pushed towards the centre.

The mostly untrained rebels have tried to reorganise and re-equip but were unable to hold ground last week in the fight for Brega.

Misrata besieged


The NATO official said another 14 regime tanks were destroyed near Misrata, the rebels' last major bastion in the west, besieged by Moamar Gaddafi's forces for more than a month.

The alliance had already taken out 15 tanks near Misrata on Friday and Saturday, bringing to 29 the total number of tanks destroyed around Libya's third largest city in the past three days.

Libyan rebels have criticised NATO in recent days, accusing the alliance of failing to protect the population in Misrata. But NATO says it is picking up the pace.

Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, head of Operation Unified Protector, said on Saturday that warplanes had destroyed ammunition stockpiles and several armoured vehicles in the previous 24 hours.

NATO aircraft struck ammunition stockpiles east of Tripoli that were being used to resupply regime forces that were shelling innocent civilians in Misrata, the alliance said.

"In addition to hitting their supplies, our aircraft successfully destroyed a significant percentage of the Libyan government's armoured forces," Lieutenant General Bouchard said in a statement from his headquarters in Naples, Italy.

"Some of these armoured forces also were involved in the indiscriminate shelling of Misrata," he added.

Mr Gaddafi's forces appear bent on seizing Misrata and crucially its port, which some analysts say is vital if Mr Gaddafi is to survive, because it supplies the capital Tripoli.

Rebel spokesman Mustafa Abdulrahman said by telephone that Saturday's Misrata fighting centred on a road to the port, where a Red Cross vessel brought in badly needed medical supplies earlier in the day.

A government-organised trip to Misrata revealed deserted streets and many heavily shelled buildings in the city's south.

As fighting raged on for the coastal town, where conditions are said to be desperate, a buoyant Moamar Gaddafi made his first television appearance for five days on Saturday.

Wearing his trademark brown robes and dark glasses, he was shown smiling and pumping his fists in the air at a school where he was welcomed ecstatically. Women ululated, one wept with emotion and pupils chanted anti-western slogans.

NDP pledges 'immediate action' in 5 key areas

NDP pledges 'immediate action' in 5 key areas

NDP Leader Jack Layton delivers a speech during a rally Saturday, April 9, 2011 in Saskatoon, Sask. Layton released the party's platform in Toronto on Sunday. 

The NDP says it would take "immediate action" in five key areas within 100 days of the election, as part of a broader platform aimed at balancing the books by 2014-2015 without major service cuts.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said the "practical, affordable plan" would eliminate the deficit without major service cuts. The party says it would do this by hiking corporate tax rates to 19.5 per cent, stopping fossil fuel subsidies, cracking down on tax havens and saving on crime legislation.

"Despite what they say, Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff are telling Canadian families to wait at the back of the line," Layton told a crowd of supporters after the NDP platform was unveiled Sunday morning.

The platform outlined five "practical" first steps, many of which were outlined earlier in the campaign, including:
Hiring more doctors and nurses.
Working with the provinces to strengthen the pension systems, with the eventual goal of doubling benefits.
Giving small businesses a tax cut and introducing targeted job-creation tax credits.
Capping credit card fees at prime plus 5 per cent, while taking federal sales tax off home heating.
Working to "fix" Ottawa to stop scandals and encourage co-operation between parties.

"I've laid out my commitment," Layton said. "Real action within 100 days to give your family a break, and I won't stop until the job is done."

The platform included a number of previously announced commitments, including help for family caregivers, a defence policy that prioritizes ships for Canada's navy instead of fighter jets, and a crime prevention and community safety program that would cost roughly $255 million.

It also includes plans to create more affordable housing, reduce poverty and improve access to child care and post-secondary education.

The NDP said it would put a price on carbon through a cap-and-trade system, with revenue from the new system to go to green initiatives.

The party also returned Sunday to the theme of "fixing" a broken system in Ottawa, saying it would work to abolish the Senate and restrict the prime minister’s power to prorogue Parliament.

"I think so many people just shake their head at what they see going on in Ottawa," Layton said.

"We've got to reform our democracy, and that means working towards some form of proportional representation in our country, and we’re committed to that."

The NDP won roughly 18 per cent of the popular vote in the last election and are hoping to make gains this time around. Layton has been positioning himself as a solid alternative to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper at campaign stops across the country.

Final party platform release

The Conservatives, Liberals and Green Party have already released their platforms.

The Conservative election platform included pledges to eliminate the federal deficit by 2014-15 — a year earlier than forecast in its March 22 budget.

When he unveiled the Conservative platform in Mississauga, Ont., Harper said he would find efficiencies through a strategic and operating expense review.

He also said the Conservatives would also push both a tough-on-crime agenda and support for families and businesses.

The Liberals focused on families in their platform, laying out five priority areas in their $8 billion two-year strategy.

The Liberal platform included support for early childhood education, post-secondary students and people caring for elderly parents or sick relatives. It also included changes to the pension system and a green renovation tax credit.

The Green Party said it would raise corporate taxes to 2009 levels and charge $60 per tonne of carbon emitted — but they promised a revenue-neutral "green tax shift" that would cut EI and CPP contributions for both workers and employers.

European Central Bank 'encouraged' Portugal to seek aid

European Central Bank 'encouraged' Portugal to seek aid

European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet has said that it encouraged crisis-hit Portuguese authorities to seek financial aid.

Portugal is braced for austerity measures following the EU bail-out

He was speaking after the ECB raised rates to 1.25%, which may add to the problems of debt-ridden countries.

Portugal's troubles are also expected to be discussed at a two-day meeting of EU finance ministers in Budapest.

Portugal's caretaker Prime Minister Jose Socrates said on Wednesday he would ask for financial assistance.

"We have encouraged the Portuguese authorities to ask for support and that was commanded by the situation after what has happened previously in Portugal," said ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet.

A European Commission spokesman said that a formal request for aid had not yet been received, but that the EU would be negotiating a deal with Portuguese authorities even though there is only a caretaker government in place at the moment.

"The Commission stands ready to send a mission to Lisbon along with European Central Bank staff as soon as we are asked to do so," said spokesman Amadeu Altafaj.

The finance ministers' meeting will begin on Friday.

'No contagion risk'

Portugal follows Greece and the Irish Republic in seeking a bail-out.

However, Spain was quick to say it would not be following these countries in seeking assistance.

Analysts have expressed concerns about Spain as it has EU's highest unemployment rate and is struggling to deal with a banking crisis and the collapse of its property boom.

But Spain's Economy Minister Elena Salgado said that financial markets were perfectly capable of distinguishing between the situations in Portugal and Spain.

In an interview on the national radio station SER, she said that the risk of contagion was "absolutely ruled out", and added it was clear that Spain's economy was much more competitive than Portugal's.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde later supported this view.

"I don't think that there is any risk of contagion to Spain at all because Spain has led a number of reforms, in particular to its banking system, and is much more solid as an economy given the measures that have been taken, and the markets know that," she told France 3 television.

Ms Lagarde also said she was relieved at Portugal's request for aid.

In Portugal, Mr Socrates had put off a bail-out request for as long as he could, having stepped down as prime minister after failing to pass austerity measures.

"I always said asking for foreign aid would be the final way to go but we have reached the moment," he said.

"Above all, it's in the national interest."


Borrowing costs

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement that Portugal's request would be processed "in the swiftest possible manner, according to the rules applicable".

He also reaffirmed his "confidence in Portugal's capacity to overcome the present difficulties, with the solidarity of its partners".

Mr Socrates did not say how much aid Portugal would ask for. Negotiations will now be under way and the BBC's business editor Robert Peston said rescue loans could amount to as much as 80bn euros ($115bn; £70bn).

That amount would be equivalent to nearly half of the country's entire economic output in 2010.

On Wednesday, the government raised about 1bn euros after tapping the financial markets in order to repay loans, but will have to pay a higher interest rate to lenders.

Portugal's cost of borrowing has risen sharply since the minority socialist government resigned last month after its proposed tougher austerity measures were defeated in parliament.

Since then several rating agencies have downgraded the country's debt.

Elections are due to take place on 5 June.

Low growth 

Portugal's problems have been different from those of the other countries that have needed bailing out.

Low economic growth and high wages have meant that the country has struggled to raise enough money through taxation to pay for government spending.

When the banking crisis came, it found itself dealing with the same rising costs of debt that other countries had to deal with, and has finally had to concede that it cannot raise the money it needs through financial markets.

The UK has said that it will not be extending the sort of bilateral loans it offered to the Irish Republic, because it does not have such a close relationship.

But the UK is committed to contribute to one of the EU's temporary bail-out funds as well as the International Monetary Fund's scheme, either of which could be used to assist Portugal.

It will not be clear how much the UK will have to contribute until the details of the bail-out have been agreed.

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who will face criticism if the UK ends up supporting Portugal, said that Portugal's problems showed why it was so important for the UK to cut its own budget deficit.

"If you hear the stories about the cuts and still wonder why our country needs to take these difficult decisions, then look at what is happening around us," he said.

Ai arrest highlights China's crackdown

Ai arrest highlights China's crackdown

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is pictured on April 10, 2009, at his home in an arts district on the outskirts of Beijing.

Beijing, China (CNN) -- Week by week, China is tightening its grip on dissent.

From political activism to the internet, media to the arts, the Chinese government is silencing citizens who dare challenge its rule.

The latest victim: Ai Weiwei, 53, one of China's most prominent avant-garde artists and human rights activists. Ai was detained at the Beijing airport on April 3 on his way to Hong Kong. He has not been heard from since.

"I have no idea where he is, why he was taken away, where he is kept now," said Gao Ying, Ai's mother, in a phone interview with CNN five days after Ai's disappearance. "I am very worried about him. He is very stubborn. He won't change his attitude."

Ai, one of the country's best-known artists, helped design the iconic Bird's Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics. Later, however, he called for a boycott of the 2008 Games because he said China was using the showcase event as propaganda.

Since then, the burly and brash artist has used art and social networking to ridicule government policies. He organized hundreds of volunteers to investigate the deaths of schoolchildren in school buildings that collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Ai later published the names of the dead on his popular Twitter account to demand government accountability.

The maverick artist has also accused the Chinese government of trying to silence dissidents. "They crack down on everybody who has different opinions -- not even different opinions, just different attitudes," he told CNN last year. "Simply to have different opinions can cost (dissidents) their life; they can be put in jail, can be silenced and can disappear."

Observers say Ai's prominence as an artist and as the son of a widely respected poet gave him a measure of protection. That protection is gone. "Mr. Ai Weiwei is under investigation on suspicion of economic crimes," said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei, answering a reporter's question at a regular press briefing. "It has nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression."

He added, "China is a country under the rule of law ... other countries have no right to interfere."

Gao Ying, Ai's mother, dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous."

In the past several weeks, China has detained and arrested a number of lawyers, human rights activists and bloggers amid calls for anti-government protests -- a "jasmine revolution" similar to those that have swept the Middle East and toppled authoritarian regimes.

The government has blocked internet links to such phrases as "jasmine revolution" and names like "Ai Weiwei." Police have also stepped up the harassment of journalists who try to report on these disturbances.

Protests, or what the government refers to as "mass incidents," frequently occur across China every year. Many have sprung from the country's rapid industrialization and urbanization, which have triggered disputes over wages, land seizures, income disparity and pollution.

"But the Chinese authorities seem unable to respond to dissent without taking drastic, even brutal, action," noted Richard Burger, a China-watcher and blogger.

"The willingness on the part of the authorities to employ raw power and make individuals simply disappear is a very troubling aspect of this latest effort," said Joshua Rosenzweig of Dui Hua Foundation, a non-profit organization which seeks to promote human rights in China. "It seems aimed at intimidating both those who have already been taken into custody and those who might worry about being next on the list."

Chinese call this tactic "killing the chicken to scare the monkey" -- a traditional practice of persecuting "scapegoats" to nip dissent in the bud.

In some cases, intimidation seems to work. I had tried twice this week to meet up with a well-known dissident in Beijing to ask his views on the ongoing crackdown. Twice, he canceled, saying that police had dissuaded him from making contact with reporters like me.

But harsh repression, observers say, could backfire. "It only makes icons out of otherwise obscure rabble-rousers," said blogger Richard Burger, citing the persecution of AIDS activist Hu Jia, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and now Ai Weiwei. "The pattern is simple," he said. "Go after an activist who has the eyes and ears of the media with no apparent consideration of the story inevitably becoming big global news." While Beijing may succeed in silencing the troublemaker, he explained, the resulting publicity is far worse than if they'd left him alone." All three of these examples went from being obscure outside of China into poster children of Communist repression, he added.

China's other dilemma is how to contain the spread of information. According to government figures, over 420 million people can access the internet through the use of computers and smart phones. Many of the Web users are young, highly educated, influential and affluent -- just the sort of people who might be inclined to question authority or sympathize with freedom-seeking activists.

That is why Beijing has set up the "Great Firewall," a sophisticated filtering network that blocks various Internet and social networking web sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, which have helped fuel the protests in the Middle East.

Beijing is gambling that, with its relatively tight grip on information, Ai and other activists at home and overseas can do little to get their message heard at home.

So far, most Chinese do not know who Ai Weiwei is.

Japan nuclear plant releases radioactive water into sea

Japan nuclear plant releases radioactive water into sea

Officials say the discharge means highly radioactive water leaking from reactor No 2 can be stored

Workers at Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant have begun dumping water with low levels of contamination into the sea to free up room to store more highly radioactive water leaking at the site.

About 11,500 tonnes of water will be released into the sea at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Water with a higher level of radioactivity leaking from the No 2 reactor can then be stored.

Efforts to tackle that leak are continuing.

The source of the leak was identified at the weekend as a 20cm (8in) crack in a concrete pit at reactor 2.

Workers are now using dye to try to trace the route of the water, after earlier efforts to plug the hole using a highly absorbent polymer failed.

'No choice'

Operator Tepco has been struggling for more than three weeks to regain control at the plant after the huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out the cooling systems.

Workers face a dilemma - they must keep feeding water into the reactors to stop them overheating, but must then deal with the accumulation of waste water.

Top government spokesman Yukio Edano said that there was no choice but to release some water.

"We are already aware that the water at the No 2 unit is highly radiated," he said.

"So as to prioritise to stop the leakage of this water into the sea... we will release the water stored in the exterior building of the unit, which also unfortunately contains radioactivity but far lower than the highly contaminated water."

The water to be released into the sea contains some 100 times the legal limit of radiation - a relatively low level, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo.

"As it is not harmful to people's health and as it is necessary to avert an even bigger danger, we decided it was inevitable," said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa).


Stopping the leak from reactor 2 remains the priority, Mr Edano said earlier.

Tepco says it will inject the polymer again to try to block the flow of radioactive water as soon as it has identified the path of the leak.

As a temporary measure, Nisa is considering building embankments of silt near reactor No 2 to stem the leak into the ocean.

Search operations

The official death toll from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami which struck north-east Japan on 11 March stands at 12,157, with nearly 15,500 people still unaccounted for.

More than 80% of the victims have been identified and their bodies returned to their families.

Search operations within the 20km exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have been suspended because of radiation concerns.

More than 161,000 people from quake-ravaged areas are living in evacuation centres, officials say.

A three-day joint operation by Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the US military to find the missing recovered 78 bodies.


The operation, which ended on Sunday, involved about 25,000 troops, more than 60 ships and 120 aircraft.

It covered Pacific coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.

2,600 to lose jobs in first round of Navy and Army cuts

2,600 to lose jobs in first round of Navy and Army cuts

Sir Stephen Dalton expects operations over Libya to last months, rather than weeks

Some 1,600 Navy personnel and 1,000 soldiers are to be laid off in the first tranche of redundancies from the Armed Forces, the government says.

Personnel, including 150 Gurkhas, will be told in September, but no one currently involved in Afghanistan or Libya will face compulsory redundancy.

Defence Minister Andrew Robathan said the move - part of £5bn defence review cuts - would help reduce the deficit.

The RAF earlier announced plans to lay off an initial 1,000 staff.

In total, 11,000 serving personnel will lose their jobs over four years.

Mr Robathan said UK military operations in Libya and Afghanistan will not be impacted "adversely" by the redundancies from the armed forces.

He told the Commons that voluntary redundancies were being sought, which could include personnel currently on operations.

The announcement comes as Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton has warned that the RAF would need "genuine increases" in its budget to run the range of operations which ministers demand.

He told the Guardian that without more investment, the RAF would struggle to maintain levels of capabilities.


Libyan mission

Sir Stephen said his assumption was that the RAF's warplanes and surveillance aircraft would be needed over Libya for a number of months, rather than weeks.

"In general terms [we] are now planning on the basis of at least six months, and we'll see where we go from there," he said.

A poll for BBC News on Sunday suggested that two-thirds of people believed Britain's military involvement in Libya would go on for some time.

Of 2,000 people asked, 65% said the UK's involvement in Libya "will last for some time", while just 14% chose the option "will be over pretty quickly", and 20% did not know.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Sunday that the military intervention in Libya would not lead to a stalemate between pro-Gaddafi forces and rebels.

He said Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime had no future because it was isolated and could not sell any oil.

Meanwhile, Scottish police and prosecutors are due to meet Foreign Office officials on Monday to try to gain access to former Libyan foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, who arrived in the UK last week.

They want to talk to Mr Koussa about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in which 270 people died.
 
'National security'

Sir Stephen issued a warning that the RAF would need an increase in spending from the next Comprehensive Spending Review in 2014.

Without "genuine increases", he said the RAF would find it "very difficult" to maintain its current levels of capability - with operations in Afghanistan, the Falklands and Libya.

"The key factor is that if we are to meet the requirements laid upon us, there is no question that more investment will be needed to achieve that," he said.

"What I am seeking to do is maintain core competencies and bricks on which we can then build the future."

Commenting on Sir Stephen's interview, shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said forces' families would want to know that those "serving on crucial operations in Libya will not be sacked on their return".

"On the day the air chief marshal warns about the pressures being placed on the RAF, and when our forces are being asked to do more overseas, the country will want the Tory-led government to explain the impact of their actions," he said.

"Our forces deserve better. The government should pause, think again and reopen their rushed defence review."

Soldiers and sailors in the groups targeted for job losses will be seen by their commanding officers on Tuesday.

Under the plans, the Ministry of Defence will also lose 25,000 civilian staff.

Unveiling the strategic defence and security review in October, Prime Minister David Cameron said defence spending would fall by 8% over four years.

He said the UK would still meet Nato's target of spending 2% of GDP on defence and would continue to have the fourth largest military in the world and "punch above its weight in the world".

But he said the country had to be "more thoughtful, more strategic and more co-ordinated in the way we advance our interests and protect our national security".

In February, the Army apologised to 38 soldiers who learned they were losing their jobs by e-mail.

The men - all long-serving warrant officers and including one working in Afghanistan - were told they were victims of the defence cuts.