Germany’s embassy in Japan Thursday moved its operations from Tokyo to the southern city of Osaka in light of the ongoing nuclear crisis in northern Japan. Tokyo is viewed as too close to the Fukushima nuclear plant, where fears of a meltdown are growing. But Osaka, 600 kilometres to the south, is considered relatively safe. The move does not mean an end to German diplomatic representation in... 

Japan suspends work at stricken nuke plant due to surge in radiation. Japan suspended operations to keep its stricken nuclear plant from melting down Wednesday after surging radiation made it too dangerous to stay. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers dousing the reactors in a frantic effort to cool them needed to withdraw. “The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the... 

Disaster: A satellite picture shows the remains of four reactors. By last night three of them had been hit by explosions while one had caught fire. -California ‘monitoring situation closely’ amid dramatic escalation of disaster -Japan’s nuclear crisis now appears worse than the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 – but not yet as bad as Chernobyl in 1986 -Japan PM tells... 

Russian nuclear specialists will leave for Japan Monday to help study the situation of Japan’s nuclear power stations after the devastating earthquake. Experts from Russian Atomic Energy Agency and the Institute for Safe Development of Nuclear Power Industry of the Russian Academy of Sciences will go to Japan, Rafael Arutyunyan, a representative of the industry told reporters here. The Russian... 

Vladimir Zhirinovsky Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the colorful and flamboyant leader of Russia’s LDPR party, has called on Japanese to leave “the dangerous islands” and move to the unpopulated Russian territories, the newsru.com website reported on Sunday. Zhirinovsky, 64, also deputy speaker of the lower house, offered Russian government to start talks with Japan over Japanese nationals’... 

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,... 

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... 

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that the United States rushed coolant to a Japanese nuclear power plant as a precaution after a 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit the U.S. ally. Obama told reporters at the White House that when he spoke to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday morning, he ” specifically asked him about the nuclear plants and their potential vulnerability as a consequence... 

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.... 

A road sign in Tokyo. Japan’s number of known child pornography victims surged by half last year, data showed Thursday, a new record in a country where it is legal to possess sexually explicit images of children. Japan’s number of known child pornography victims surged by half last year, data showed Thursday, a new record in a country where it is legal to possess sexually explicit images... 

China's economic success began in the 1980s. At the start of the decade the household responsibility system was changed to allow families to keep their surplus grain. In 1994, the pricing system was changed to allow freer price movements. These steps and others started opening up China's economy. China has overtaken Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy. Japan’s economy was...