Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo The stocks of Japan’s electronics giants Sony and Panasonic have plunged to their lowest in over three decades with companies reporting USD 5.7 billion and USD 9.67 billion annual losses respectively. Sony’s shares dived 6.43 percent to 1,135 yen on Thursday, while Panasonic closed down 1.55 percent at 570 yen on Friday. The firms’ shares stood at their... 

This picture whows a tornado sweeping through Tsukuba city in Ibaraki prefecture, north eastern Tokyo on May 6, 2012 A massive tornado has swept through eastern Japan, killing a teenager and injuring dozens of others. The twister ripped roofs of buildings, smashed windows and toppled heavy billboards. ­The 14-year-old died of injuries received when the roof of a house collapsed. The raging vortex... 

A grim Ministry of Finance report circulating in the Kremlin today states that the shocking record rise this past week of the United States outstanding debt to $15.692 trillion (just $600 billion short of their debt ceiling) has pushed the world’s most powerful economy into a situation of its outstanding obligations now being 101.5% of its entire gross domestic product (GDP), which when coupled... 

TEPCO plans to use a robot today to photograph possible damage inside the suppression pool at the bottom of Fukushima’s damaged number 2 reactor. TEPCO is the operator of the tsunami damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. “We want to check whether there is no deformation or damage in the suppression pool. And, with any luck, we hope to see areas where water (injected into the reactor... 

Over the last year the threat of radiation hitting the United States from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has gone from a conspiracy theory, to a possibility, to a flat out fact. Now, scientists with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute have confirmed that a wave of highly radioactive waste is headed directly for the US west coast. In a segment on the Big Picture with Thom Hartmann, Kevin Kamps,... 

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Foreign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands during the next fortnight states that Russian diplomats were “stunned” after being told by their Japanese counterparts that upwards of 40 million of their peoples were in “extreme danger” of life threatening radiation poisoning and could... 

North Korea has threatened retaliation and “merciless punishment” against any country that shoots down the long-range rocket it is preparing to launch this coming week. Japan and South Korea have put their armed forces on standby in response to North Korea’s plans, prepared to shoot down the missile if it passes over their territory. North Korea was this weekend believed to be at... 

A view of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan Officials at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which acts as the operator of the crippled nuclear facility, say there is reason to believe some of the 12 tons of radioactive water has flowed into the Pacific Ocean. ­A leak was found in a pipe attached to a temporary decontamination system. The water, once it has been used... 

Despite the fact that the Japanese government and TEPCO were caught red-handed underplaying the severity of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, a study has found that almost a quarter of Fukushima residents hospitalized in the aftermath of last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami were treated as having a “psychiatric disorder” because of their concerns over radiation. “Some 24.4 percent of... 

North Korea has announced it will launch a rocket next month, which will put a satellite into orbit. But the U.S. and its allies see the plans as counter to international diplomatic efforts to deal with the reclusive state’s nuclear programme – and are worried the technology could be used to develop long range missiles in the future. It could also potentially violate UN Security Council... 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton The United States says it has exempted 11 nations including 10 European Union members and Japan from tough new sanctions on Iran as they have reduced oil purchase from Tehran. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement on Tuesday that the exemption covers financial institutions from 11 nations – Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France,... 

The U.S. military presence in Japan acquires special relevance recently due to proposals by Washington to reinstall a base on the island of Okinawa and indecision about Tokyo. According to various data, not even the recent visit to this island by prime minister Yoshihiko Noda has achieved consensus between the two parties, despite a bilateral pact that was in effect, signed in 2006. But the strongest... 

The speech-jamming gun Japanese researchers have invented a hand-held speech-jamming gadget that can painlessly force people into silence. Kazutaka Kurihara of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Koji Tsukada of Ochanomizu University developed the portable ‘SpeechJammer’ gun that can silence people more than 30 meters (100 feet) away. In their research... 

Widely known Physicist Dr Paolo Scampa, the publisher of the EU AIPRI Blog and an eminent chemical physicist, announced today his latest calculations of deadly radioactivity in Tokyo itself. Both the nuclear regulatory and media responses have been missing in action. However, the outrageous statement of a Japanese politician pretty well sums up the level of understanding of the parasitic political... 

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak (L) meets with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at the latter's official residence in Tokyo on February 15, 2012. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has warned Israel against the ramifications of launching a military strike on Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program. Noda told visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak...