TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that the government is not liable for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, dismissing thousands of evacuees' demands that the state, not just the utility, pay compensation for damage to their lives.
DILI, East Timor (AP) — The foreign ministers of Australia and China were both making their final stops Friday on what has become an island-hopping diplomatic duel in the South Pacific.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrived in Tonga where she met with Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku and other officials including King Tupou VI.
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court on Tuesday ordered a utility not to restart a nuclear power plant because of inadequate tsunami safeguards, backing the safety concerns of residents at a time the government is pushing for more reactors to resume power generation after pledging to ban imports of Russian fossil fuels.
TOKYO (AP) — The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency stressed the importance of transparency on Friday after visiting the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, where he observed preparations for the release of treated radioactive wastewater that has prompted concerns inside and outside Japan.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan announced Thursday that it will donate 2 million euros ($2.1 million) to the International Atomic Energy Agency for its efforts to ensure the safety of Ukrainian nuclear facilities that have come under Russian attack.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s nuclear regulator on Wednesday approved plans by the operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant to release its TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A strong earthquake struck off the east coast of Taiwan on Monday, shaking buildings in the capital, Taipei. No serious damage or injuries were reported, and authorities said there was no danger of a tsunami.
FUTABA, Japan (AP) — Yasushi Hosozawa returned on the first day possible after a small section of his hometown, Futaba, reopened in January — 11 years after the nuclear meltdown at the nearby Fukushima Daiichi plant.
TOKYO (AP) — Residents in Fukushima and Miyagi were cleaning their homes after a sleepless night following a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck off the northern Japanese coasts, smashing furniture, knocking out power and killing four people.
TOKYO (AP) — A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in northern Japan on Wednesday night, smashing furniture, knocking out power and killing four people. A small tsunami reached shore, but the low-risk advisory was lifted by Thursday morning.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Friday paid tribute to the victims and renewed searches for those still missing from a massive earthquake and tsunami 11 years ago that also triggered a nuclear disaster in Fukushima where tens of thousands still cannot return home.
OKUMA, Japan (AP) — Eleven years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was ravaged by a meltdown following a massive earthquake and tsunami, the plant now looks like a sprawling construction site.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The first two booms from the volcano were scary enough, but the third explosion was immense, sending everyone from the village running from their homes in a reaction that would save all but one of their lives.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Tonga's main internet connection to the rest of the world has finally been restored more than five weeks after a huge volcanic eruption and tsunami severed a crucial undersea cable.
TOKYO (AP) — A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the site at Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant where more than a million tons of treated radioactive waste water are to be released into the ocean, as they seek to determine how to make the decades-long project safe.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A month after an undersea volcanic eruption and ensuing tsunami lashed Tonga, a U.N. official said Wednesday that 80% of the Pacific island nation’s 105,000 people were affected and the country needs over $90 million to start repairing damage and restoring its key farming and fishing sectors.
TOKYO (AP) — A remote-controlled robot has captured images of what appears to be mounds of nuclear fuel that melted and fell to the bottom of the most damaged reactor at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, officials said Thursday.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Every try scored in the first 10 rounds of Super Rugby Pacific this season will aid Tonga’s recovery from last month’s volcanic eruption and tsunami.
Rugby Australia and Rugby New Zealand on Wednesday announced the “Tries for Tonga” campaign which will see money donated to the Red Cross Pacific Tsunami Appeal every time a try is scored.
TOKYO (AP) — A remote-controlled robot on Tuesday was used to probe the hardest-hit nuclear reactor at Japan's wrecked Fukushima plant, as officials push forward with clean-up operations that have been mired in delays and controversy.
BANGKOK (AP) — For more than two years, the isolation of the Pacific archipelago nation of Tonga helped keep COVID-19 at bay.
But last month's volcanic eruption and tsunami brought outside deliveries of desperately needed fresh water and medicine — and the virus.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — British and Australian navy ships arrived in Tonga on Wednesday and attempted to deliver aid without making contact with anybody ashore to avoid spreading the coronavirus in a nation which has never had an outbreak.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Four Japanese aircraft left Australia on Monday to deliver more vital aid to Tonga as the Pacific nation deals with the aftermath of a volcanic eruption and tsunami.
The two Japanese Lockheed C-130 Hercules and two Kawasaki C-2 left the Royal Australian Air Force Base at Amberley in Queensland state to make the 3,300-kilometer (2,050-mile) journey east to the islands that were devastated by the Jan.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Aid flights from Australia, Japan and New Zealand carrying food, water, medical supplies and telecommunications equipment landed in Tonga over the weekend, as the Pacific nation grapples with the aftermath of an underwater volcanic eruption and tsunami.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck southern Alaska on Thursday night, and people reported shaking in Anchorage and surrounding areas, according to officials.
The epicenter was 49 kilometers, or 30 miles, northwest of Ninilchik, Alaska, the U.S.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The incredible story of a retired carpenter who survived overnight in the ocean after the Tonga tsunami swept him out to sea appeared to fit with events at the time, a New Zealand diplomat said Friday.
TOKYO (AP) — Several former residents of Futaba, the only remaining uninhabited town in Japan still recovering from effects of radiation from nuclear plant meltdowns in 2011, have returned to live for the first time since the massive earthquake and tsunami forced them out.
BANGKOK (AP) — As the massive undersea Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Saturday, Tongans from around the world gazed on as their relatives livestreamed images of billowing clouds of ash, gas and steam emerging from beneath the depths.
SYDNEY (AP) — Three of Tonga's smaller islands suffered serious damage from tsunami waves, officials and the Red Cross said Wednesday, as a wider picture begins to emerge of the destruction caused by the eruption of an undersea volcano near the Pacific archipelago nation.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — People around the world looked on in awe at the spectacular satellite images of an undersea volcano erupting in a giant mushroom cloud in the Pacific.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The tsunami threat around the Pacific from a huge undersea volcanic eruption began to recede Sunday, while the extent of damage to Tonga remained unclear.
Satellite images showed the spectacular eruption that took place Saturday evening, with a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a mushroom above the blue Pacific waters.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook parts of Indonesia’s main island of Java on Friday, damaging buildings and houses and sending people into the streets, but no casualties were reported.
BERLIN (AP) — Damage wrought by Hurricane Ida in the U.S. state of Louisiana and the flash floods that hit Europe last summer helped make 2021 one of the most expensive years for natural disasters, reinsurance company Munich Re said Monday.
GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization said Thursday that a record 9.5 million COVID-19 cases were tallied over the last week as the omicron variant of the coronavirus swept the planet, a 71% increase from the previous 7-day period that the U.N.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia lifted a tsunami alert Tuesday following a magnitude 7.3 undersea earthquake that struck off Flores Island, triggering panic in a region prone to fatal quakes but apparently causing no major damage or casualties.
TOKYO (AP) — The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant said Wednesday that a data simulation of its planned release of treated radioactive water into the sea suggests it would have an extremely small impact on the environment, marine life and humans.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's new prime minister on Sunday said the planned mass disposal of wastewater stored at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant cannot be delayed, despite concerns from local residents.
MADRID (AP) — The second 4.5 magnitude earthquake in two days rattled the Spanish island of La Palma on Friday, officials said, as scientists described a gushing river of molten rock from an erupting volcano as “a true lava tsunami.”
TOKYO (AP) — Officials at Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant have acknowledged they neglected to investigate the cause of faulty exhaust filters that are key to preventing radioactive pollution, after being forced to replace them twice.
TOKYO (AP) — Objective, science-based monitoring is the key to safely carrying out the planned release of treated but still radioactive water at Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, an International Atomic Energy Agency official said Thursday.
TOKYO (AP) — Too little is known about melted fuel inside damaged reactors at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, even a decade after the disaster, to be able to tell if its decommissioning can be finished by 2051 as planned, a U.N.
RIFU, Japan (AP) — Atsushi Muramatsu's handmade flyers are the size of a business card, written in several languages. “Welcome to Miyagi Stadium," one reads. "The gymnasium next door was the largest morgue for tsunami victims.”
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AP) — The bus transporting Olympic officials and media from downtown Fukushima to the suburban Azuma Baseball Stadium features a slickly produced video boasting of the region's recovery from a devastating 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The largest earthquake in the United States in the last half century produced a lot of shaking but spared Alaska any major damage in a sparsely populated region, officials said Thursday.
TOKYO (AP) — Of course, an Olympic medal has significance. But the bouquet of flowers that every medal winner is being handed at the Tokyo Olympics has deeper meaning. Much deeper.
The sunflowers and all the other flowers in the bouquet were grown in the three northeastern Japanese prefectures that were devastated by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and the subsequent meltdown of three nuclear reactors.