Japan faced a potential catastrophe on Tuesday after a quake-crippled nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies. The crisis appeared to escalate late in the day when the operators of the facility said one of two blasts had blown a hole in the building housing a reactor,... 

Devastation: The earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan on Friday was a once-in-a-millennium event, scientists say. The earthquake that struck Japan on Friday was so powerful that it actually moved the whole planet by 25cm, experts say. According to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology the 9.0 magnitude ‘quake was so powerful it shifted the axis around which the... 

Officials in protective gear near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in Koriyama, March 13, 2011. An American nuclear expert says radiation from Japan could spread across the Pacific and reach the United States if a complete meltdown occurs at a Japanese nuclear facility damaged as a result of last week’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Nuclear expert Joseph Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund... 

An official scans a woman for signs of radiation in Nihonmatsu City. Nuclear experts have warned the next few days will be crucial in determining exactly how bad the fallout from the Fukushima power plant disaster could be. They say advanced Japanese engineering at the 40-year-old facility will avoid a Chernobyl-style disaster, but any radiation leak could still have disastrous consequences. During... 

Catastrophe: The true scale of the devastation that the tsunami unleashed is clear in this picture of the port city of Minamisanriku town where 10,000 people are unaccounted for. Half of the population of a Japanese coastal town are still unaccounted for as the death toll from the massive earthquake and tsunami looks set to rise. Government officials revealed the fate of 9,500 people in the north eastern... 

In photo taken on March 12, 2011, people wait to be rescued from building rooftops in the city of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, where houses have been swept away by tsunami following a catastrophic earthquake in Japan the previous day. Damage caused by Friday’s catastrophic earthquake in Japan expanded Saturday, with the combined number of people who have died or are unaccounted for is feared... 

A file photo of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. An explosion and feared meltdown at a Japanese nuclear plant Saturday exposed the scale of the disaster facing the country after a massive quake and tsunami left more than 1,000 dead. Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the 8.9-magnitude quake and the terrifying tsunami which followed were an “unprecedented national disaster” and... 

Part of houses swallowed by tsunami burn in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture (state) after Japan was struck by a strong earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, March 11, 2011. A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan’s eastern coast Friday, killing at least 60 people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.... 

The bomb shelters of generations past? Maybe not so silly when it comes to surviving a nuclear attack, according to government officials who issued a study on emergency procedure following such an event. Their advice? Don’t flee; just get indoors. The New York Times says the Obama Administration is on a mission to make sure citizens are prepared if such an attack were to occur. This includes... 

Hungarian disaster management spokesman Dr Attila Nyikos says a large scale clean-up is under way Hungary says it will cost tens of millions of dollars and take at least a year to clean up the damage caused by a spill of toxic, red industrial sludge. Emergency workers are trying to stop the spill, from an alumina plant, from flowing into major waterways, including the River Danube A state of emergency... 

Large patches of thick oil from BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill washed ashore in Mississippi for the first time on Sunday while the Atlantic hurricane season’s first named storm posed an uncertain threat to the gulf. The oil spill, which began on April 20, has caused an economic and environmental disaster along the U.S. Gulf Coast, threatening fisheries, tourism and wildlife. Tropical... 

A sobering report circulating in the Kremlin today from President Medvedev’s meeting with other World leaders at the G8 summit in Muskoka, Ontario states that President Obama has warned his counterparts that the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster “will most likely kill millions, perhaps tens of millions” of people during the coming year. Fueling Obama’s dire assessment of this “Gulf Apocalypse”,... 

It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile ecosystem. The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying... 

Matt Simmons was on Bloomberg earlier, adding some additional perspective to his original appearance on the station, in which he initially endorsed the nuclear option as the only viable way to resolve the oil spill. Simmons refutes even the latest oil spill estimate of 45,000-60,000 barrels per day, and in quoting research by the Thomas Jefferson research vessel which was compiled late on Sunday,... 

Day 49 On Tuesday evening, with the disaster now pushed into a continual downward spiral, the President addressed the nation. By pushing the cap and trade agenda he was attempting to blow smoke to his sheeple. Lots of interesting keywords and phrases were used in the speech to quail the fear throughout the general public. During the speech, Obama had this to say about stopping this horrific spill,...