TLC has announced plans to air a special documentary later this month focusing on Charlie Sheen's recent personal and professional troubles.
Charlie Sheen: On The Brink will document the string of controversies Sheen has been embroiled in this year, including reports of heavy drug use and porn star parties, as well as several public spats.
The hour-long special features original interviews about the actor, including MacKenzie Phillips discussing being a drug addict in the public eye.
It was confirmed this week that CBS had fired Sheen from his starring role on Two and a Half Men, leading the actor to launch proceedings to sue the company for $100 million.
NBC News is co-producing Charlie Sheen: On The Brink, which will air on TLC on March 20.
SÃO PAULO – Redes sociais como Facebook e Twitter enfrentam uma onda de links maliciosos e vídeos falsos alegando que o ator Charlie Sheen fora encontrado morto em sua casa.
As falsas informações se espalham trazendo frases como “RIP” e “Breaking News” e incluindo um link que leva o usuário a uma página falsa do YouTube, com variações como TouTube ou FouTube.
Ao clicar no vídeo o programa solicita que o usuário complete uma pesquisa para verificar se trata-se de um ser humano teclando. Então a máquina do usuário acaba sendo infectada com um malware.
A empresa de segurança Sophos sugere que, se você viu ou clicou em um desses links no Facebook, seja preciso remover o acesso do aplicativo ao seu perfil. Em outras redes sociais, como Twitter, é necessário alertar os contatos para não clicar em links, mesmo que enviados por você.
O ator Charlie Sheen ficou conhecido mundialmente pela série “Two and a Half Men”, exibida no Brasil pelo canal Warner Channel. Em fevereiro deste ano Sheen ganhou destaque ao brigar com os produtores da série e ter a mesma cancelada. Em contrapartida, o ator iniciou uma conta no Twitter onde entrou para o Guiness Book por atingir mais de 1 milhão de seguidores em menos de 24 horas.
O ator é um dos astros de 'Two and a Half Men' Foto: Reprodução
Após ser chamado de troll por Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, seu ex-companheiro de elenco em Two and a Half Men, quebrou o silêncio resolveu se pronunciar de forma bem-humorada sobre as ofensas. As informações são da People.
"Isso é muito doloroso para mim. Eu não acredito que estou dizendo isso, mas o fato é que eu sou um troll", disse Cryer no programa Conan, da TBS, nessa quinta-feira (10), e levou a plateia às gargalhadas.
"Não é algo que eu goste de falar. Meus pais nem sabem que eu sou um troll. É claro que agora eles sabem", brincou. "A verdade é que não existe muita tolerância para pessoas como eu em Hollywood. Para evitar ignorância e bullying, eu precisei esconder que eu era um troll. Vocês não têm ideia de quando dinheiro eu gastei em eletrólise, tinta de cabelo e cirurgias reconstrutivas", afirmou.
O ator aproveitou para esclarecer algumas confusões em relação aos trolls, que alguns acreditam que bebem néctar de flores e fazem biscoitos nas árvores. "Esses são os elfos, ok? Vamos deixar isso claro pessoal", declarou. Para terminar, Jon Cryer disse que está feliz por "estar livre" e não "viver mais embaixo da ponte". Além disso, mandou um recado para os jovens trolls e afirmou que "tudo melhora"
As entertainingly nutso and offensive as he may be (he clearly has a debatable problem with misogyny and anti-Semitism), the man's proven he's got the power. On Twitter. On the news every night. Everyfriggin'where.
So we say with not a little nudge that perhaps Charlie should take this newfound rebel power and...
Really help those who are in need—just as much, if not a whole lot more, than him.
Countless people have been devastated by this earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and many more will be suffering for a long time to come. And Charlie's bitching about needing a job, right? Why doesn't he ditch the tag-a-long trip to Haiti, which Scarlett and Sean so have already covered, and really help the tsunami victims recover?
A cryptic tweet is one thing, but Charlie's got the world's attention right now. Why the hell not really put it to some good use, besides entertaining the crap outta us, that is.
Charlie could match every 50 cents to the dollar, and you could be in his Big-Hearted Goddess Club, or something. Or if he really is broke, like he keeps screaming, hey, he could just get people to donate.
* Waves brush U.S., Mexico after thousands evacuated
* Floods in parts of Latin America, little major damage (Updates with Chile fully lifts tsunami alert)
By Dan Levine and Antonio de la Jara
SAN FRANCISCO/SANTIAGO, March 12 (Reuters) - Tsunamis triggered by Japan's devastating earthquake that prompted evacuations on the Pacific coast of North and South America caused flooding as far away as Chile on Saturday, but damage was limited.
The tsunami lost much of its energy as it moved thousands of miles (km) across the Pacific Ocean, although governments took no chances and ordered large-scale evacuations of coastal areas, ports and refineries.
Despite the power of Japan's biggest-ever quake that killed at least 1,300 people, the tsunami waves were relatively benign as they rolled into the Americas, causing only isolated flooding, and fears of a catastrophe proved unfounded.
The tsunami swept past Chile's remote Easter Island in the South Pacific, generating swells but no major waves. Wooden chalets on Chile's northern coast were damaged and some small boats were swept away when the tsunamis intensified, local television footage showed.
The sea later flooded as far as 330 feet (100 meters) inland in Dichato and Talcahuano, some 310 miles (500 km) south of the capital Santiago and near the epicenter of the massive 8.8 magnitude quake that struck Chile in February 2010.
The government stopped residents from returning to their coastal homes until Saturday afternoon as a precaution.
But the damage appeared relatively mild and officials on Saturday reopened copper exporting ports that had been closed as a precautionary measure ahead of the tsunami and recalled large ships sent out to sea to avoid damage.
"The alert is now over. People can be confident the danger is over," said government spokeswoman Ena Von Baer, adding fishermen should remain cautious because of swells and currents. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TAKE A LOOK on Japan earthquake, tsunami [ID:nL3E7EB0V5]
Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, a wildlife sanctuary and popular tourist spot, suffered some damage to infrastructure, and several harbors in California were hit.
Peru, which evacuated thousands, was largely unaffected.
U.S. HARBORS SMASHED
About 35 boats and most of the harbor docks were damaged in Crescent City near the California border with Oregon, where waves were more than 6 feet (2 metres). Santa Cruz south of San Francisco sustained about $2 million in damages to docks and vessels, emergency management officials said.
A 25-year-old man was swept out to sea while standing on a sandbar at the mouth of the Klamath River in California.
The port of Brookings-Harbor, the busiest recreation port on the Oregon coast, was largely destroyed, said operations manager Chris Cantwell. "Right now we are in the middle of a big mess," he said. "The surge pulled some (boats) out to sea, about a dozen sank and we've got boats everywhere sitting on top of one another and all over the place."
In Hawaii, 3,800 miles (6,200 km) from Japan, the main airports on at least three of the major islands -- Maui, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii -- were shut down as a precaution on Friday, when the U.S. Navy ordered all warships in Pearl Harbor to remain in port to support rescue missions as needed.
No injuries or property damage were reported after a series of four tsunami waves hit the Hawaiian island of Oahu, said John Cummings, a spokesman for emergency management in Honolulu. The tsunami warning for Hawaii was later lifted.
Ecuador took extreme precautions after President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency across the Andean nation on national television and urged residents to move inland.
Oil firm Petroecuador also halted production, but navy officials said on Friday night that the risk of danger had passed. [ID:nN11247132]
Many ports along Mexico's western coast closed, including Los Cabos and Salina Cruz in southern Oaxaca, the only oil-exporting terminal on the country's Pacific side.
Mexican officials said high waves had hit the northwestern Pacific coast but there were no reports of damage.
Authorities in Canada's British Columbia advised residents to evacuate marinas, beaches and low-lying areas. Officials there said the waves were minimal. (Reporting by Reuters correspondents in the Americas; writing by Ross Colvin and Robin Emmott; editing by Simon Gardner)
O Comitê Internacional da Cruz Vermelha (CICV), em parceria com a Cruz Vermelha Japonesa, lançou neste sábado (12) uma versão em português do site para reunir famílias e amigos que perderam o contato após o forte terremoto e tsunami que atingiram o Japão na última sexta.
As pessoas no Japão podem se cadastrar no site para informar a seus familiares e amigos que estão a salvo e fornecer dados atuais para contato. Aqueles que buscam parentes e amigos podem consultar as listas para informações. O serviço é gratuito.
O consulado geral do Japão em São Paulo emitiu um comunicado com links de operadoras telefônicas que disponibilizam um serviço de ajuda de contato. Segundo o consulado, "é preciso saber qual operadora é utilizada pela pessoa sobre quem se deseja a informação, e essa pessoa precisa ter deixado uma mensagem nesse serviço. Esse serviço está disponível em inglês ou em japonês."
• Explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant • Death toll said to be more than 1,700 • Up to 10,000 people in one town are missing • 215,000 people are in emergency shelters • Around 50,000 rescuers have been deployed • Google launches missing person finder
This page will update automatically every minute: On | Off
A Japanese Self-Defence Force helicopter rescues people in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture, after the earthquake and tsunami. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters
Among recent developments, it has been reported that three people are being treated for exposure to radiation from the Fukushima nuclear site, while a plant operator has confirmed there has been no damage to the container or the nuclear reactor following the earlier explosion.
•There has been an explosion at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant in north-eastern Japan, close to the epicentre of the quake. Officials say the blast is not a meltdown and radiation levels were low because the explosion had not affected the reactor core container.
•Tens of thousands of people in the areas surrounding Fukushima No 1 and No 2 plants have been urged to evacuate.
•Japanese authorities are preparing to distribute iodine to residents in the evacuation zones to protect them against radiation exposure.
•Dozens of aftershocks, some as strong as magnitude 6, struck Japan on Saturday. Japan's state broadcaster has warned people in coastal areas that there could be further tsunamis.
•Around 1,700 people are estimated to have been killed, according to local media reports, but that death toll is expected to rise dramatically.
•Around 9,500-10,000 people are missing in the town of Minamisanrikucho in Miyagi prefecture, according to Japanese news reports.
•More than 215,000 people are in emergency shelters and around 50,000 rescuers have been deployed across the country.
•At least 1.4m homes are without water and around three million are without power.
An official at the agency said it has given the incident a rating of 4 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which equates to an accident with local consequences. Three Mile Island was rated 5 while Chernobyl received the highest rating of 7, he added.
As the Saturday morning sun burst onto the coast of Minamisoma, you could not tell the border between the sea and land as the whole town remained submerged. The occasional spots of white concrete foundations were all that remained of the houses washed away in the deadly tsunami.
Mud-soaked residents searched frantically for members of their families unaccounted for since the quake. A 40-year-old woman found the name of her parents — but not the name of her husband — on a list of evacuees posted at the municipal office. "I wish he is safe," she said.
"The tsunami devoured all the farm fields in a moment," said Chusei Sato, a 61-year-old farmer. On Friday, he watched as the debris-laden monster rode over an embankment several meters tall, laying siege to the area. The massive wave was about 200 meters away when he first saw it, but was approaching him at an accelerating speed.
He managed to escape unhurt by rushing up a hill, but two of his relatives are missing. On Saturday morning, he searched the area where their houses once stood, and learned the whole neighbourhood had been swept away by the tsunami. All he saw were the muddy debris of destroyed houses and cars.
Satellite images of the north-east coast of Japan before (left) and after the earthquake and tsunami. Water is black or dark blue and the thin green line in the 'after' image indicates the shoreline. Photograph: Nasa
He writes that the "strong earthquake alert" broadcast on NHK radio warns:
Take precautions against strong shaking. Stay away from furniture that might fall. Get under a table if you can. Slow down in you are driving.
Watts adds:
"Although the range of threats is alarming, it is reassuring to have such up to date and detailed information. Without this I guess the casualties would have been much higher."
town of 17,000 seems to have only 3 buildings standing, hospital, some wedding place and one more building. rest are gone.
This town in Miyagi prefecture is just gone, incredible devastation, all buildings except hospital are gone, highway in pieces., ppl missing
•There has been an explosion at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant in north-eastern Japan, close to the epicentre of the quake. Officials say the blast is not a meltdown but exterior walls of one of the reactor buildings have been destroyed. There are also concerns about Fukushima No 2 plant.
•Tens of thousands of people in the areas surrounding both plants have been urged to evacuate.
•Japanese authorities are preparing to distribute iodine to residents in the evacuation zones to protect them against radiation exposure.
•There are reports of dozens of aftershocks, some as strong as magnitude 6, striking Japan in the wake of Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Japan's state broadcaster has warned people in coastal areas that there could be further tsunamis.
•Around 1,700 people are estimated to have been killed, according to local media reports, but that death toll is expected to rise dramatically. The official death toll now stands at 574, with 586 people declared missing and 1,105 injured.
•Around 10,000 people are missing in the town of Minamisanrikucho in Miyagi prefecture, according to Japanese TV reports.
•More than 215,000 people are in emergency shelters and around 50,000 rescuers have been deployed across the country.
•At least 1.4m homes are without water and around three million are without power.
The team of 63 UK fire service search and rescue specialists, two rescue dogs and a medical support team were organised by the Department for International Development (DfID).
Andrew Mitchell, international development secretary, said: "The Japanese government has appealed directly to us for help. We will immediately dispatch a team to help Japan search for survivors as quickly as possible. Our highly trained rescue teams will leave the UK this afternoon and travel directly to the disaster zone."
Train carriages lie overturned in Shinchi town, Fukushima prefecture, after being washed away by Japan's earthquake-triggered tsunami. Photograph: AP
The Guardian's Jon Watts who is heading to Sendai from Tokyo texts:
"Just felt our first aftershock. NHK were very quick - seemed like we heard their alert before the car started to rock. It was a level 5 quake, not too bad. Commentators warn bigger aftershocks are likely and people living near the coast should be aware that there could be more tsunamis."
The central area and beachfront of Sendai city after the Japanese tsunami. Photograph: blaiseplant/Twitter
The blast destroyed the exterior walls of the building, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, has confirmed there is no damage to the steel container housing the reactor, he added.
"We have confirmed that the walls of this building were what exploded, and it was not the reactor's container that exploded," said Edano.
Cargo containers thrown around by the tsunami in Sendai, northern Japan. Photograph: Itsuo Inouye/AP
He writes:
"Giant shipping containers have been swept inland and smashed against buildings, all around me are trees and rubble. The streets covered in mud that was swept inland. There are dozens and dozens of cars that were carried along, twisted and turned, and crushed by the wave. The gas and water have been cut off, fires are burning, and locals say hundreds of people died in this area."
Regan, professor of nuclear physics at the University of Surrey, said:
"It looks as if the coolant pumps had initially stopped working. They shut down automatically when the reactor shuts down, but there is a backup system running off a diesel generator - it looks as though that's the bit that failed.
"As a result there is no way of pumping heat out of the reactor, so it has to cool naturally. If the reactor gets too hot, in principle this means the fuel rods can melt - but it looks unlikely this has happened to any great extent in this case.
"To reduce the pressure, you would have to release some steam into the atmosphere from the system. In that steam, there will be small but measurable amounts of radioactive nitrogen - nitrogen 16 (produced when neutrons hit water). This remains radioactive for only about 5 seconds, after which it decays to natural oxygen.
"But if any of the fuel rods have been compromised, there would be evidence of a small amount of other radioisotopes in the atmosphere called fission fragments (radio-caesium and radio-iodine). The amount that you measure would tell you to what degree the fuel rods have been compromised. Scientists in Japan should be able to establish this very quickly using gamma ray spectroscopy as the isotopes have characteristic decay signatures. Current reports seem consistent with a small leak to relieve pressure.
"But we still need to establish the cause and exact location of the explosion, which is a separate issue. So far it looks like it's not the reactor core that's affected which would be good news."
"Getting information out of the nuclear industry is never easy (a legacy perhaps of its Cold War origins) and the Japanese political system is also notorious for keeping a tight lid on unwelcome news. This all means it will be hard to know what is exactly happening at any one time at Fukushima.
"But I have been talking to a top British nuclear engineer who visited that plant in Japan and he says it was built in the 1970s and is not as earthquake-proof as later models. He also said there had long been speculation about how strong was the containment dome over the top of the reactor - the final barrier for any radioactive emissions to be released into the environment.
"It is also not the first time there have been problems at Fukushima. There have been reports of a loss-of-power incident in June last year. I have also seen suggestions that one reactor at the complex began using MOX (mixed plutonium-uranium) fuel starting in September."
Kan added that he had spoken to several world leaders, including President Obama, and around 60 countries had expressed their sympathies to the Japanese people.
He added:
"At present, after the talks among political party heads held a while ago, government officials including the prime minister and the minister of economy, trade, and industry, along with experts, are making all-out efforts to get hold of and analyse the situation, and to take measures."
Miles from the ocean's edge, weary, mud-spattered survivors wandered streets strewn with fallen trees, crumpled cars, even small airplanes. Relics of lives now destroyed were everywhere half a piano, a textbook, a soiled red sleeping bag. Rescue workers plied boats through murky waters around flooded structures, nosing their way through a sea of detritus, while smoke from at least one large fire billowed in the distance. Power and phone reception was cut, while hundreds of people lined up outside the few still-operating supermarkets for basic commodities. The gas stations on streets not covered with water were swamped with people waiting to fill their cars. A convenience store three miles (5km) from the shore was open for business Saturday, though there was no power and the floors were covered with a thick layer of grime. "The flood came in from behind the store and swept around both sides," said shop owner Wakio Fushima. "Cars were flowing right by." The city's Wakabayashi district, which runs directly up to the sea, remained a swampy wasteland with murky, waist-high water. Most houses were completely flattened. Grief-stricken residents searched for their former homes, but many couldn't even tell where they had stood in the dark water. Occasionally there was something recognizable a chair, a tire or a beer cooler.
Papua New Guinea: The Boram hospital in Wewak suffered serious damage when it was flooded by waves. Around 50 of the 100 patients were evacuated to the police station compound where most are lying outside. Heavy rains are now reported in the area, causing concerns about sanitation.
The Solomon Islands: The worst damage was in the northern Isabel province. "The water is reported to have reached 50 metres inland and in one village, a house was destroyed and several canoes washed into the sea," said Oxfam representative Joe Weber.
Tonga: Oxfam programme manager Dolores Devesi, said: "There were no waves here, just big tides. People spent the night at consolidation points inland from the coast, but now there are lots of cars returning home."
Samoa: "There were warnings in place all night but the only wave activity looked smaller than Hawaii, which we saw on TV," said Women in Business Development Incorporated, an Oxfam partner agency.
He adds:
"Some say its impossible anyway given the design of the reactor. But I was down at Chernobyl two weeks ago to survey the clean-up there and it was certainly a sobering insight into how devastating an atomic accident can be.
"The Chernobyl plant is still highly radioactive - 25 years after that accident - and far from fully dismantled or decommissioned. The nearby town of Pripyat lies completely empty. 50,000 people were evacuated from there and told they would be back the following weekend. They never returned."
The four people injured in the nuclear plant explosion are conscious and their injuries are not life-threatening, it also reports.
Tania Branigan says that contrary to earlier reports the evacuation zone around Fukushima No 2 is only 10km (6 miles), not 20km. The evacuation zone around Fukushima No 1 plant is 20km, however.
He told the BBC:
"In these situations, Britain can offer help in the form of search and rescue teams or victim identification expertise. They have now asked for some help, we're nailing down the details of that and further announcement about that will be made later today."
Hague had this to say about possible British casualties:
"We have no confirmed British casualties as yet, but of course the picture will become clearer as recovery teams do their work, as communications are re-established in the affected area."
Ian Hore-Lacy, of nuclear industry body the World Nuclear Association, also said the blast may not necessarily have caused a radiation leak.
He told Reuters:
"It is obviously an hydrogen explosion ... due to hydrogen igniting. If the hydrogen has ignited, then it is gone, it doesn't pose any further threat. As far as we know there is no particular danger from radiation leaks. There may be, but we don't know that. There is no reason to suppose that there must be because of that."
Overnight reports had suggested that the incoming tsunami wave could be higher than many low-lying Pacific islands, with the potential to wash right over them. With thousands of islands to account for, it will be some time before the complete picture is available. However, early information suggests these islands so far appear to have avoided the worst-case scenario.
A the news agency reports that it is not clear if a reactor meltdown would cause a serious radiation risk, and if it did how far the risk would extend:
Yaroslov Shtrombakh, a Russian nuclear expert, said a Chernobyl-style meltdown was unlikely. "It's not a fast reaction like at Chernobyl," he said. "I think that everything will be contained within the grounds, and there will be no big catastrophe." In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and caught fire, sending a cloud of radiation over much of Europe. Pressure has been building up in Fukushima reactor it's now twice the normal level and Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters Saturday that the plant was venting "radioactive vapors." Officials said they were measuring radiation levels in the area. Wind in the region is weak and headed northeast, out to sea, according to the Meteorological Agency. The reactor in trouble has already leaked some radiation: Operators have detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room. Ryohei Shiomi, a nuclear official, said that each hour the plant was releasing the amount of radiation a person normal absorbs in a year. He has said that even if there were a meltdown, it wouldn't affect people outside a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius an assertion that might need revising if the situation deteriorates. Most of the 51,000 residents living within the danger area had been evacuated, he said.
•Japan's prime minister Naoto Kan has declared a state of emergency at two nuclear power plants as engineers try to establish whether a reactor at one of the stations has gone into meltdown.
• Diesel generators that normally would have worked as back-ups to keep cooling systems running had been disabled by tsunami flooding.
• Power supply systems to provide emergency electricity for the plants were being put in place, the World Nuclear Association said.
• Both plants are light water reactors operated by the Tokyo Electric Power company (or Tepco).
Fukushima Daiichi No 1 plant
– Japanese media said officials had detected caesium, one of the elements released when overheating causes core damage, around a reactor at Fukushima No 1 plant in Futuba, 150 miles (240km) north of Tokyo. The plant has six reactors, three of which have been shut down for maintenance.
– The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said it did not believe a meltdown was under way, but Ryohei Shiomi, an official with Japan's nuclear safety commission, said that it was possible.
Fukushima Daini No 2 plant
– has four reactors, and in units 1, 2 and 4 of them the operator has said it has lost cooling ability.
– Tepco says pressure is stable inside the reactors of the Daini plant but rising in the containment vessels.
• Both plants have been declared to be in a state of emergency by the government, and an evacuation of the 80,000 residents who live within the 10km zone around both plants is underway.
Here's a round-up of events so far in Japan on Saturday.
•There are growing fears about damage to two nuclear power stations following Friday's 8.9 magnitute earthquake. There has been an explosion at a building at one of the plants, Fukushima No 1 in Futuba, 150 miles (240km) north of Tokyo. Japanese authorities have extended the evacuation area at the Fukushima No 2 plant to 10km, the same distance as for Fukushima No 1 plant.
•The death toll from the disaster is expected to exceed 1,300, with most deaths due to drowning. The official death toll currently stands at 413, with 784 people missing and 1,128 injured.
•The tsunami swept about six miles (10km) inland in some areas. Police said between 200 and 300 bodies were found along the coast in Sendai, the biggest city in the area near the quake's epicentre.
•Police estimate that more than 215,000 people are taking refuge in emergency shelters in the east and north of the country. Many survivors have been trapped overnight on rooftops, surrounded by a sea of mud and water. Around 50,000 rescuers have deployed to the region.
•Tsunami warnings for most of Japan have been lowered, although there is still a risk of large waves along the north-eastern coast.
•The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at jet speed but had weakened before it hit Hawaii and the West Coast of the US. Initial reports suggest limited tsunami damage to Pacific island nations.
For more details of events in Japan overnight and this morning, please check our earlier live blog.
• Explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant • Death toll said to be more than 1,700 • Up to 10,000 people in one town are missing • 215,000 people are in emergency shelters • Around 50,000 rescuers have been deployed • Google launches missing person finder
This page will update automatically every minute: On | Off
A Japanese Self-Defence Force helicopter rescues people in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture, after the earthquake and tsunami. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters
Among recent developments, it has been reported that three people are being treated for exposure to radiation from the Fukushima nuclear site, while a plant operator has confirmed there has been no damage to the container or the nuclear reactor following the earlier explosion.
•There has been an explosion at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant in north-eastern Japan, close to the epicentre of the quake. Officials say the blast is not a meltdown and radiation levels were low because the explosion had not affected the reactor core container.
•Tens of thousands of people in the areas surrounding Fukushima No 1 and No 2 plants have been urged to evacuate.
•Japanese authorities are preparing to distribute iodine to residents in the evacuation zones to protect them against radiation exposure.
•Dozens of aftershocks, some as strong as magnitude 6, struck Japan on Saturday. Japan's state broadcaster has warned people in coastal areas that there could be further tsunamis.
•Around 1,700 people are estimated to have been killed, according to local media reports, but that death toll is expected to rise dramatically.
•Around 9,500-10,000 people are missing in the town of Minamisanrikucho in Miyagi prefecture, according to Japanese news reports.
•More than 215,000 people are in emergency shelters and around 50,000 rescuers have been deployed across the country.
•At least 1.4m homes are without water and around three million are without power.
An official at the agency said it has given the incident a rating of 4 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which equates to an accident with local consequences. Three Mile Island was rated 5 while Chernobyl received the highest rating of 7, he added.
As the Saturday morning sun burst onto the coast of Minamisoma, you could not tell the border between the sea and land as the whole town remained submerged. The occasional spots of white concrete foundations were all that remained of the houses washed away in the deadly tsunami.
Mud-soaked residents searched frantically for members of their families unaccounted for since the quake. A 40-year-old woman found the name of her parents — but not the name of her husband — on a list of evacuees posted at the municipal office. "I wish he is safe," she said.
"The tsunami devoured all the farm fields in a moment," said Chusei Sato, a 61-year-old farmer. On Friday, he watched as the debris-laden monster rode over an embankment several meters tall, laying siege to the area. The massive wave was about 200 meters away when he first saw it, but was approaching him at an accelerating speed.
He managed to escape unhurt by rushing up a hill, but two of his relatives are missing. On Saturday morning, he searched the area where their houses once stood, and learned the whole neighbourhood had been swept away by the tsunami. All he saw were the muddy debris of destroyed houses and cars.
Satellite images of the north-east coast of Japan before (left) and after the earthquake and tsunami. Water is black or dark blue and the thin green line in the 'after' image indicates the shoreline. Photograph: Nasa
He writes that the "strong earthquake alert" broadcast on NHK radio warns:
Take precautions against strong shaking. Stay away from furniture that might fall. Get under a table if you can. Slow down in you are driving.
Watts adds:
"Although the range of threats is alarming, it is reassuring to have such up to date and detailed information. Without this I guess the casualties would have been much higher."
town of 17,000 seems to have only 3 buildings standing, hospital, some wedding place and one more building. rest are gone.
This town in Miyagi prefecture is just gone, incredible devastation, all buildings except hospital are gone, highway in pieces., ppl missing
•There has been an explosion at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant in north-eastern Japan, close to the epicentre of the quake. Officials say the blast is not a meltdown but exterior walls of one of the reactor buildings have been destroyed. There are also concerns about Fukushima No 2 plant.
•Tens of thousands of people in the areas surrounding both plants have been urged to evacuate.
•Japanese authorities are preparing to distribute iodine to residents in the evacuation zones to protect them against radiation exposure.
•There are reports of dozens of aftershocks, some as strong as magnitude 6, striking Japan in the wake of Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Japan's state broadcaster has warned people in coastal areas that there could be further tsunamis.
•Around 1,700 people are estimated to have been killed, according to local media reports, but that death toll is expected to rise dramatically. The official death toll now stands at 574, with 586 people declared missing and 1,105 injured.
•Around 10,000 people are missing in the town of Minamisanrikucho in Miyagi prefecture, according to Japanese TV reports.
•More than 215,000 people are in emergency shelters and around 50,000 rescuers have been deployed across the country.
•At least 1.4m homes are without water and around three million are without power.
The team of 63 UK fire service search and rescue specialists, two rescue dogs and a medical support team were organised by the Department for International Development (DfID).
Andrew Mitchell, international development secretary, said: "The Japanese government has appealed directly to us for help. We will immediately dispatch a team to help Japan search for survivors as quickly as possible. Our highly trained rescue teams will leave the UK this afternoon and travel directly to the disaster zone."
Train carriages lie overturned in Shinchi town, Fukushima prefecture, after being washed away by Japan's earthquake-triggered tsunami. Photograph: AP
The Guardian's Jon Watts who is heading to Sendai from Tokyo texts:
"Just felt our first aftershock. NHK were very quick - seemed like we heard their alert before the car started to rock. It was a level 5 quake, not too bad. Commentators warn bigger aftershocks are likely and people living near the coast should be aware that there could be more tsunamis."
The central area and beachfront of Sendai city after the Japanese tsunami. Photograph: blaiseplant/Twitter
The blast destroyed the exterior walls of the building, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, has confirmed there is no damage to the steel container housing the reactor, he added.
"We have confirmed that the walls of this building were what exploded, and it was not the reactor's container that exploded," said Edano.
Cargo containers thrown around by the tsunami in Sendai, northern Japan. Photograph: Itsuo Inouye/AP
He writes:
"Giant shipping containers have been swept inland and smashed against buildings, all around me are trees and rubble. The streets covered in mud that was swept inland. There are dozens and dozens of cars that were carried along, twisted and turned, and crushed by the wave. The gas and water have been cut off, fires are burning, and locals say hundreds of people died in this area."
Regan, professor of nuclear physics at the University of Surrey, said:
"It looks as if the coolant pumps had initially stopped working. They shut down automatically when the reactor shuts down, but there is a backup system running off a diesel generator - it looks as though that's the bit that failed.
"As a result there is no way of pumping heat out of the reactor, so it has to cool naturally. If the reactor gets too hot, in principle this means the fuel rods can melt - but it looks unlikely this has happened to any great extent in this case.
"To reduce the pressure, you would have to release some steam into the atmosphere from the system. In that steam, there will be small but measurable amounts of radioactive nitrogen - nitrogen 16 (produced when neutrons hit water). This remains radioactive for only about 5 seconds, after which it decays to natural oxygen.
"But if any of the fuel rods have been compromised, there would be evidence of a small amount of other radioisotopes in the atmosphere called fission fragments (radio-caesium and radio-iodine). The amount that you measure would tell you to what degree the fuel rods have been compromised. Scientists in Japan should be able to establish this very quickly using gamma ray spectroscopy as the isotopes have characteristic decay signatures. Current reports seem consistent with a small leak to relieve pressure.
"But we still need to establish the cause and exact location of the explosion, which is a separate issue. So far it looks like it's not the reactor core that's affected which would be good news."
"Getting information out of the nuclear industry is never easy (a legacy perhaps of its Cold War origins) and the Japanese political system is also notorious for keeping a tight lid on unwelcome news. This all means it will be hard to know what is exactly happening at any one time at Fukushima.
"But I have been talking to a top British nuclear engineer who visited that plant in Japan and he says it was built in the 1970s and is not as earthquake-proof as later models. He also said there had long been speculation about how strong was the containment dome over the top of the reactor - the final barrier for any radioactive emissions to be released into the environment.
"It is also not the first time there have been problems at Fukushima. There have been reports of a loss-of-power incident in June last year. I have also seen suggestions that one reactor at the complex began using MOX (mixed plutonium-uranium) fuel starting in September."
Kan added that he had spoken to several world leaders, including President Obama, and around 60 countries had expressed their sympathies to the Japanese people.
He added:
"At present, after the talks among political party heads held a while ago, government officials including the prime minister and the minister of economy, trade, and industry, along with experts, are making all-out efforts to get hold of and analyse the situation, and to take measures."
Miles from the ocean's edge, weary, mud-spattered survivors wandered streets strewn with fallen trees, crumpled cars, even small airplanes. Relics of lives now destroyed were everywhere half a piano, a textbook, a soiled red sleeping bag. Rescue workers plied boats through murky waters around flooded structures, nosing their way through a sea of detritus, while smoke from at least one large fire billowed in the distance. Power and phone reception was cut, while hundreds of people lined up outside the few still-operating supermarkets for basic commodities. The gas stations on streets not covered with water were swamped with people waiting to fill their cars. A convenience store three miles (5km) from the shore was open for business Saturday, though there was no power and the floors were covered with a thick layer of grime. "The flood came in from behind the store and swept around both sides," said shop owner Wakio Fushima. "Cars were flowing right by." The city's Wakabayashi district, which runs directly up to the sea, remained a swampy wasteland with murky, waist-high water. Most houses were completely flattened. Grief-stricken residents searched for their former homes, but many couldn't even tell where they had stood in the dark water. Occasionally there was something recognizable a chair, a tire or a beer cooler.
Papua New Guinea: The Boram hospital in Wewak suffered serious damage when it was flooded by waves. Around 50 of the 100 patients were evacuated to the police station compound where most are lying outside. Heavy rains are now reported in the area, causing concerns about sanitation.
The Solomon Islands: The worst damage was in the northern Isabel province. "The water is reported to have reached 50 metres inland and in one village, a house was destroyed and several canoes washed into the sea," said Oxfam representative Joe Weber.
Tonga: Oxfam programme manager Dolores Devesi, said: "There were no waves here, just big tides. People spent the night at consolidation points inland from the coast, but now there are lots of cars returning home."
Samoa: "There were warnings in place all night but the only wave activity looked smaller than Hawaii, which we saw on TV," said Women in Business Development Incorporated, an Oxfam partner agency.
He adds:
"Some say its impossible anyway given the design of the reactor. But I was down at Chernobyl two weeks ago to survey the clean-up there and it was certainly a sobering insight into how devastating an atomic accident can be.
"The Chernobyl plant is still highly radioactive - 25 years after that accident - and far from fully dismantled or decommissioned. The nearby town of Pripyat lies completely empty. 50,000 people were evacuated from there and told they would be back the following weekend. They never returned."
The four people injured in the nuclear plant explosion are conscious and their injuries are not life-threatening, it also reports.
Tania Branigan says that contrary to earlier reports the evacuation zone around Fukushima No 2 is only 10km (6 miles), not 20km. The evacuation zone around Fukushima No 1 plant is 20km, however.
He told the BBC:
"In these situations, Britain can offer help in the form of search and rescue teams or victim identification expertise. They have now asked for some help, we're nailing down the details of that and further announcement about that will be made later today."
Hague had this to say about possible British casualties:
"We have no confirmed British casualties as yet, but of course the picture will become clearer as recovery teams do their work, as communications are re-established in the affected area."
Ian Hore-Lacy, of nuclear industry body the World Nuclear Association, also said the blast may not necessarily have caused a radiation leak.
He told Reuters:
"It is obviously an hydrogen explosion ... due to hydrogen igniting. If the hydrogen has ignited, then it is gone, it doesn't pose any further threat. As far as we know there is no particular danger from radiation leaks. There may be, but we don't know that. There is no reason to suppose that there must be because of that."
Overnight reports had suggested that the incoming tsunami wave could be higher than many low-lying Pacific islands, with the potential to wash right over them. With thousands of islands to account for, it will be some time before the complete picture is available. However, early information suggests these islands so far appear to have avoided the worst-case scenario.
A the news agency reports that it is not clear if a reactor meltdown would cause a serious radiation risk, and if it did how far the risk would extend:
Yaroslov Shtrombakh, a Russian nuclear expert, said a Chernobyl-style meltdown was unlikely. "It's not a fast reaction like at Chernobyl," he said. "I think that everything will be contained within the grounds, and there will be no big catastrophe." In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and caught fire, sending a cloud of radiation over much of Europe. Pressure has been building up in Fukushima reactor it's now twice the normal level and Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters Saturday that the plant was venting "radioactive vapors." Officials said they were measuring radiation levels in the area. Wind in the region is weak and headed northeast, out to sea, according to the Meteorological Agency. The reactor in trouble has already leaked some radiation: Operators have detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room. Ryohei Shiomi, a nuclear official, said that each hour the plant was releasing the amount of radiation a person normal absorbs in a year. He has said that even if there were a meltdown, it wouldn't affect people outside a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius an assertion that might need revising if the situation deteriorates. Most of the 51,000 residents living within the danger area had been evacuated, he said.
•Japan's prime minister Naoto Kan has declared a state of emergency at two nuclear power plants as engineers try to establish whether a reactor at one of the stations has gone into meltdown.
• Diesel generators that normally would have worked as back-ups to keep cooling systems running had been disabled by tsunami flooding.
• Power supply systems to provide emergency electricity for the plants were being put in place, the World Nuclear Association said.
• Both plants are light water reactors operated by the Tokyo Electric Power company (or Tepco).
Fukushima Daiichi No 1 plant
– Japanese media said officials had detected caesium, one of the elements released when overheating causes core damage, around a reactor at Fukushima No 1 plant in Futuba, 150 miles (240km) north of Tokyo. The plant has six reactors, three of which have been shut down for maintenance.
– The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said it did not believe a meltdown was under way, but Ryohei Shiomi, an official with Japan's nuclear safety commission, said that it was possible.
Fukushima Daini No 2 plant
– has four reactors, and in units 1, 2 and 4 of them the operator has said it has lost cooling ability.
– Tepco says pressure is stable inside the reactors of the Daini plant but rising in the containment vessels.
• Both plants have been declared to be in a state of emergency by the government, and an evacuation of the 80,000 residents who live within the 10km zone around both plants is underway.
Here's a round-up of events so far in Japan on Saturday.
•There are growing fears about damage to two nuclear power stations following Friday's 8.9 magnitute earthquake. There has been an explosion at a building at one of the plants, Fukushima No 1 in Futuba, 150 miles (240km) north of Tokyo. Japanese authorities have extended the evacuation area at the Fukushima No 2 plant to 10km, the same distance as for Fukushima No 1 plant.
•The death toll from the disaster is expected to exceed 1,300, with most deaths due to drowning. The official death toll currently stands at 413, with 784 people missing and 1,128 injured.
•The tsunami swept about six miles (10km) inland in some areas. Police said between 200 and 300 bodies were found along the coast in Sendai, the biggest city in the area near the quake's epicentre.
•Police estimate that more than 215,000 people are taking refuge in emergency shelters in the east and north of the country. Many survivors have been trapped overnight on rooftops, surrounded by a sea of mud and water. Around 50,000 rescuers have deployed to the region.
•Tsunami warnings for most of Japan have been lowered, although there is still a risk of large waves along the north-eastern coast.
•The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at jet speed but had weakened before it hit Hawaii and the West Coast of the US. Initial reports suggest limited tsunami damage to Pacific island nations.
For more details of events in Japan overnight and this morning, please check our earlier live blog.
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