Quake Kills at Least 3 in Turkey

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake on Wednesday in the same region hit by a larger quake two weeks ago killed at least three people and trapped others who had moved into damaged buildings that collapsed Wednesday, the Turkish media ...

Thai PM pledges flood relief as fight for Bangkok goes on

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra pledged more than US$4 billion (RM12.47 billion) today to help Thailand recover from the worst floods in half a century, as workers slowed the flow of water threatening the commercial heart of the capital, Bangkok.

Evacuation orders have spread to a third of Bangkok’s districts, mostly in the north of the densely populated city of 12 million people, since late October, as floodwater strewn with trash slowly seeps in from northern and northeastern provinces.








Yingluck, a political novice elected this year, said about US$3.9 billion had been set aside for a flood recovery effort, a figure that rises to US$4.2 billion when local government funds are added.

On the streets of Bangkok, few see an end to the slow-moving disaster that began after tropical storm Nock-ten battered Southeast Asia in late July. Since then, at least 529 people have been killed, many electrocuted or drowned, in floods that have affected 63 of Thailand’s 77 provinces.

Some hard-hit regions have started to recover since the end of the August-to-October monsoon season, with only 24 provinces now classified as flooded. But for low-lying Bangkok, the disaster is far from over, as the authorities struggle to keep inner-city neighbourhoods and business districts dry.

“I’m concerned about more water reaching Bangkok and I just want to know when it will recede. It’s rising and it should recede but when will that be?” said Bangkok resident, Nee Jiranantawat, 53.

Others said they feared they may run low on food and other supplies, especially in homes flooded in waist-high water.

Nikom Teo-au, a 56-year-old garage owner, said he was facing difficulty delivering food to his family at his home on a street under up to 1.5 metres of water in Bangkok’s Din Daeng neighbourhood, just 7km from the main Silom business district where buildings are ringed with sand bags.

Yingluck, a 46-year-old former businesswoman and sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said the money would ease the suffering of victims and repair damaged infrastructure.

She spoke at a special session of parliament called to debate the flooding and her management of the crisis a day after announcing she had pulled out of a weekend summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Hawaii to concentrate on relief work.

ECONOMIC TOLL

The toll on Thailand’s economy and hundreds of global manufacturers who rely on its low-cost factories keeps rising.

The central bank has slashed its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.6 per cent from 4.1 per cent, citing the repercussions of floods which forced seven big industrial estates to close in central provinces in October.

The economic impact will be even worse if Bangkok, which accounts for 41 per cent of gross domestic product, is overrun.

Workers and soldiers are trying to hold the line at the city’s Bang Sue canal, pushing water into the Chao Phraya river and stopping it from overflowing to the south. Reporters in the area said they had mostly achieved this so far.

Even so, with each week, the water has slowly drawn closer to the business district and the Ratchaprasong intersection, whose swanky shopping malls and five-star hotels were closed for weeks by political protests in April-May last year.

The major north-south Ratchadaphisek and Viphavadi-Rangsit roads were flooded in the vicinity of the Bang Sue canal. A reporter said the area was under 60cm of dark, foul-smelling water in places, with trash on the surface.

Chatuchak market, whose 11,000 stalls are a draw for tourists and residents alike, opened last weekend but was now submerged, with vendors’ carts and tables washed away and stray dogs taking refuge on the rooftops, the reporter said.

Barefoot soldiers were ushering people from the elevated Skytrain – still working across the capital, like the MRT underground railway – onto buses crammed with passengers.

In the east of the capital, floodwater still threatened two big industrial estates, Bang Chan with 93 factories including Nestle SA and Lat Krabang with 254 including Unilever Pcl and Honda Motor Co .

“The water level situation in Beung Kratiem on the north side of Bang Chan Industrial Estate is still a concern. Even with the water pumps there, water keeps rising,” said Thanes Weerasiri, secretary-general of the Engineering Institute of Thailand.

“The water level has risen by 3cm from yesterday,” he said, adding that efforts to divert the water into a major canal nearby had been stepped up. Channel 3 television said water had got into one factory compound.

However, the situation inside the Lat Krabang Industrial Estate was still normal.

The estates are about 10km north of Bangkok’s main Suvarnabhumi airport, which is functioning normally inside a reinforced dike at least 3 metres high.

The Chao Phraya river snaking through Bangkok has another phase of high tides from Thursday to Monday and riverside communities are braced for floods, especially on the relatively dry east bank, although a navy official said the river should not reach the record high levels seen at the end of October.

Thursday sees the Loy Krathong festival, when Thais like to float offerings of food, flowers and candles on rivers and lakes, a symbolic pushing away of bad feelings and bad luck.

But Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra has cancelled a big event on the fast-flowing river scheduled for Thursday and urged people not to float their offerings in flooded areas. They would add to the tonnes of rubbish lying in sodden piles in the streets, he said, and the candles were a fire hazard.

Deadly Thai floods close factories, threaten Bangkok

Nearly 200 factories, including one run by Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co Ltd , closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya because of flooding, which could threaten Bangkok this week, officials said today.

About 261 people have died since late July in flood-related incidents, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said. Some 2.3 million people have been affected in the worst flooding to hit parts of Thailand in 50 years, mainly in the centre, north and northeast.

The Rojana estate in Ayutthaya province, run by Rojana Industrial Park Pcl , was flooded after a wall of sandbags failed to hold back water overnight.




“All 198 factories at Rojana have to be closed because the water is about 5.1 metres high,” Industry Minister Wannarat Channukul told Reuters.

A Honda spokeswoman said it had moved about 3,000 assembled cars from the estate to other areas. Hana Microelectronics Pcl has also had to close its plant in Ayutthaya.

On Thursday the Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting, part of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, cut its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year to 3.6 per cent from 4.4 per cent because of the floods.

It put the impact of the flooding at between 1.0 and 1.3 percentage points of GDP and said its new growth forecast would have been lower but for recent strength in exports.

The commerce ministry said on Friday it had slashed its forecast for the main rice crop, which farmers are just starting to bring in, to 21 million tonnes from 25 million because of the flooding.

Thailand is the world’s biggest rice exporter. The crop damage will add to the pressure on export prices, already being forced up by the high buying price set under a government intervention scheme aimed at helping poor farmers.

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said in a statement the authorities were preparing an evacuation plan to move people from affected areas if floods hit the capital, much of which is just two metres above sea level.

Some riverside areas have already suffered minor flooding but the level of the Chao Phraya River could rise sharply from October 15-18 when a large amount of water will reach the area from the north, where dams are close to overflowing, at a time of high sea tides.

The government was trying to accelerate the drainage of water from the Chao Phraya into the sea before the high tide.

Other Southeast Asian countries have suffered serious flooding in recent weeks because of heavy monsoon rains combined with tropical storms.

The death toll from two strong typhoons that cut across the north of the Philippines’ main island and left behind widespread flooding had risen to 101 as of today, the national disaster agency said.

At least 167 people had died in Cambodia by late last week and 15 in Vietnam.

Despite warning, Karzai knows US is an ally, says Gates

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recognises that the United States is a friend and ally even as he warns that civilian casualties in Afghanistan risk making US-led troops appear to be an occupying force, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday.

Gates, who spoke to reporters in Hawaii while en route to an Asian security conference, was reacting to Karzai’s statement yesterday that raids on Afghan homes in pursuit of insurgents are “not allowed” and his threat to take action if a spate of civilian casualties does not stop.

Karzai expressed anger over Nato air strikes on Sunday in southern Helmand Province that killed at least nine people, most of them small children.



“This is a continuing challenge that we face in the kind of war that we are fighting in Afghanistan,” Gates told reporters, when asked about Karzai’s comments.

“I think joint investigations of these incidents, when they happen, are important so that we can mutually figure out what exactly happened and what, if anything, went wrong,” he said.

Gates noted that General David Petraeus, the head of Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, had a good dialogue with Karzai and that 80 per cent of civilian casualties in Afghanistan are caused by the Taliban.

“The Afghan people have put up with 30 years of war and I think President Karzai is reflecting the pain and suffering the Afghan people have had to endure,” Gates said.

“But at the same time I think he also recognises, and the Afghan people do, that we are their ally, that we are their friend and we are trying to help them develop the capability to protect themselves so that the Afghan people can see an end to this kind of conflict.”

President Barack Obama plans in July to start a gradual drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan.

White House spokesman Jay Carney earlier yesterday reiterated US regret for civilian casualties and said the United States would continue its efforts to reduce them in coordination with Nato and Afghan officials.

“We do not operate in a vacuum in that country and will continue to work with President Karzai on this important issue because we take very seriously his concerns and we share them,” Carney told reporters in Washington.

Another Tornado Reported, This One in Massachusetts

Residents of Springfield, Mass., sought cover Wednesday after a warning about another possible tornado. An earlier storm damaged buildings, toppled trees and caused numerous injuries

The National Weather Service says experts are preparing to go out and assess the severity of a severe weather system that has spawned apparent tornadoes and caused heavy damage in several Massachusetts communities.At least two tornadoes struck Springfield, Massachusetts, and numerous other communities in the western part of the state Wednesday, leaving behind "many injuries" and extensive damage, the state's governor said.

Deadly tornadoes churn across Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas

At least 15 people died in Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma in the latest round of severe weather to strike the US heartland, authorities said Wednesday, in what has already become a historic spring storm season.

Joplin deaths rise, more twisters in US Midwest

The death toll from a monster tornado that savaged Joplin, Missouri, rose to 125 today after an overnight search turned up more bodies but no new survivors, authorities said.

The tornado that wrecked up to a third of the city of 50,000 on Sunday was upgraded to an EF-5, or the highest rating possible on the Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado power and intensity. It had been rated an EF-4.

Search teams using dogs and heavy equipment pressed on through a harsh night of more stormy weather amid the wreckage of homes, business, schools and churches.



About 1,500 people have been reported missing and some 750 people were injured, according to authorities.

EF-5 tornadoes, with winds at or above 328 km/ph, are rare in the United States but already this year there have been at least four – two in Mississippi, one in Alabama, and in Joplin. They are so destructive that experts said they can turn a house into a missile.

A fresh line of tornadoes and thunderstorms rumbled through the Midwest again yesterday night, bringing more death and destruction to the region, though sparing Joplin.

The storms killed at least seven people and injured many more as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma, Kansas and into Arkansas.

President Barack Obama plans to visit Joplin on Sunday, after he returns from a weeklong, four-nation tour in Europe

Joplin Tornado wide spread destruction.

America's deadliest tornado for 64 years: Terrifying twister cuts six-mile swathe through a Missouri town, leaving up to 116 dead

* Devastating 198mph tornado tore a path a mile wide and six miles long straight through Joplin, Missouri
* Deadliest single tornado in over 60 years with at least 116 people killed
* Meteorologists issue new tornado warning for the ruined city
* Nearly 500 people have now died as a result of tornadoes in the U.S. in 2011
* Residents only had 20 minutes to take cover before monster tornado swept through the heart of the city
* Missouri governor declares state of emergency in city of about 50,000 people
* Emergency workers say thunderstorms are hampering efforts to find survivors as 1,500 rescuers search for missing
* Family and friends of the missing post moving appeals for information on Facebook and blogs
* Storm Prediction Center says more violent weather expected with further tornadoes through the middle of week

Thousands of people were left without homes to go tonight after the deadliest single tornado to strike the United States in over 60 years touched down on Missouri, reducing the city of Joplin to rubble, ripping buildings apart and killing at least 116 people in a 6-mile path of destruction.

Authorities said they had rescued seven people alive on Monday, but emergency warned that the death toll could climb higher as heavy winds, strong rain and hail quarter-sized hail stones hampered the search effort.

Meteorologists issued a new tornado warning for the devastated city as forecasters warned large swathes of the country to brace for more big storms on Tuesday.

Despair: A tree stripped of bark and leaves frames St John's Regional Medical Center

Relief: Maggie Kelley and her husband, Trey Adams hug their dog, Saint, after finding him amid the rubble of her home in Joplin

Map: Infrared image of the powerful tornado that spun through a densely populated part of Missouri

Devastation: Destroyed homes and debris cover the ground as a second storm moves in on Monday in Joplin, Missouri

Eye of the storm: The tornado tore a 6-mile path across southwestern Missouri

Desolation: A residential neighbourhood in Joplin is seen after it was levelled by the tornado

Aftermath: Aerial footage of the destruction in Joplin, Missouri, where a massive tornado tore straight through the city

Heatbreaking: Joplin resident Chue Vang, 50, reacts after coming home to discover that her home was destroyed by the devastating tornado

Widespread devastation: Another tornado in Minneapolis damaged at least 100 homes, toppling hundreds of trees and injuring at least 29 people

Emergency: Extensive damage can be seen at the St John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri. An emergency agency spokesman says fatalities had been reported but was unsure of the exact figure

Devastation: Emergency personnel walk through a neighbourhood severely damaged by a tornado near the Joplin hospital. There are are no firm details on the number of dead or injured, as the hospital is out of action

Unbelievable: Destroyed vehicles are piled on top of one another in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Centre

Levelled: Red Cross representatives say 75% of Joplin is gone - here, vehicles and houses in the vicinity of Twenty-fourth and Main Streets are a jumble of rubble after a the tornado swept through

Nothing remains: Anita Stokes salvages meat from a freezer at her home that was destroyed by a tornado in Joplin

Efforts: Rescue workers in lime-green jackets search for bodies and survivors inside St John's hospital

Soul destroying: Jean Logan surveys the damage to her home in Joplin after the tornado. She had taken refuge in her laundry room with her granddaughter

Homeless: Ted Grabenauer sleeps on his front porch the morning after a tornado ripped off the roof of his home when it hit Joplin, Missouri

Search: An emergency vehicle drives through a severely damaged neighbourhood in Joplin

Ruins: A view of the devastation after a tornado blew the roof off the St John's Regional Medical Center, rear, where about 180 patients cowered and were eventually evacuated

Raised to the ground: Blocks of homes lie in total destruction after the devastating tornado

Clean-up begins: 'There was significant damage caused by large hail, which broke windows and broke tree limbs,' Ms Watson said. The local post office and volunteer fire department were damaged

A total mess: Rachel Hurst picks through her belongings that were strewn about from her garage that was blown away in Minneapolis on Sunday

Path of destruction: No house escaped the wrath of nature in some of Minneapolis

Condolences: President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon during his visit to Dublin, Ireland. The President extended his condolences to all impacted by the deadly tornadoes

Flattened: Reading - a town of about 250 people, 50 miles south of capital city Topeka

A taste of spring? Trees were stripped of branches and many were left resting against houses

Re-united: A man carries a young girl who was rescued after being trapped with her mother in their home

Community spirit: Residents of Joplin help a woman who survived in her basement after a tornado tore a path a mile wide and four miles long destroying homes and businesses

Desperate: Amy Langford carries items from her house that she was in with her husband Mark when the tornado hit their home in Joplin

Tornadoes, storms rip through US South, 185 dead

Overnight tornadoes leaves part of Pratt City, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, in ruins April 28, 2011. Devastating storms and tornadoes raked though the US South, killing at least 185 people as they ripped houses to rubble, flipped cars and uprooted trees and power lines, officials said today.

Devastating storms and tornadoes raked though the US South, killing at least 185 people as they ripped houses to rubble, flipped cars and uprooted trees and power lines, officials said today.

In the deadliest series of storms in nearly four decades in the United States, 128 people were killed in Alabama, the worst-hit state.

In Mississippi, 32 were killed, while 10 people died in Georgia and 11 in Arkansas. Louisiana and Tennessee also reported deaths as the clusters of powerful tornadoes and storms tore a swathe of destruction from west to east.







Some of the worst devastation occurred yesterday in Alabama, where a massive 1.6km-wide tornado slammed into Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, killing at least 15 people, including some students.

Tuscaloosa resident Jannie Ross said she and her family took shelter in the basement of their home when the tornado struck.

“We could hear debris hitting the side of our house, glass breaking and the train sound often attributed to big storms such as these,” she told the University of Alabama newspaper, The Crimson White.

“We could hear it destroying everything outside.”

US President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for the state and ordered federal aid.

“Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation and (we) stand ready to continue to help the people of Alabama,” Obama said in a message on Twitter today.

The storms also forced the Tennessee Valley Authority to close three nuclear reactors at a power plant in Alabama and knocked out 25 high-voltage power lines. Hundreds of thousands of homes have lost power.

“We have never experienced such a major weather event in our history,” said the Tennessee Valley Authority, a US-owned company that provides electricity to 9 million people in seven states.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency and said he was deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen. Governors in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee also declared states of emergency.

“We’re in a search and rescue mode. We’re making sure that those that may be out there that are trapped, that we have not found, we are trying to find them,” Bentley told CNN.

“There has been massive devastation across northern Alabama. These long-track tornadoes really tear up the landscape as well as homes,” he said.

Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the US South and Midwest, but they are rarely so devastating.

Images from Tuscaloosa, a town of around 95,000 in the west-central part of the state, showed widespread damage.

“Everybody says it (a tornado) sounds like a train and I started to hear the train,” Anthony Foote, a resident of Tuscaloosa whose house was badly damaged, said. “I ran and jumped into the tub and the house started shaking. Then glass started shattering.”

The campus of the University of Alabama, home of the famous Crimson Tide football team, was not badly damaged but some students were killed off campus, Bentley said.

Damage in Alabama was spread over a wide area through the north and central part of the state, said Jennifer Ardis, Bentley’s press secretary.

The highest toll was in Franklin County in the rural northwest part of the state where 18 people died, according to figures from the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

Eleven people died in Jefferson County, home to Birmingham, the state’s largest city, the agency figures showed.

Authorities in Alabama and Mississippi said they expect the death toll to rise as emergency workers attempt rescues and recovery in the storm’s wake.

Japan to stop pumping radioactive water in sea

Kaichiro Saito, CEO of Kakuboshi Co, a sake maker since 1902, checks damages at his sake brewery in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture


Japan expects to stop pumping radioactive water into the sea from a crippled nuclear plant today, a day after China expressed concern at the action, reflecting growing international unease over the month-long nuclear crisis.

“The emptying out of the relatively low radiation water is expected to finish tomorrow,” a Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) official said late yesterday.

Tepco is struggling to contain the worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl, with its engineers pumping low-level radioactive seawater, used to cool overheated fuel rods, back into the sea for the past five days due to a lack of storage capacity.

Engineers say they are far from in control of the damaged reactors and it could take months to stabilise them and years to clear up the toxic mess left behind.



Nuclear reactor maker Toshiba Corp has proposed a 10-year plan to decommission four of the six damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 km north of Tokyo, said Kyodo news agency.

But the government has said it was too early to have a “specific road map” for ending the nuclear crisis.

The magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 left 28,000 people dead or missing, and north-eastern Japan a splintered wreck.

Several countries have restricted food imports from Japan over radiation fears as Japan’s economy reels from the country’s worst disaster since World War Two. Disruptions to Japanese supply chains are reverberating around the world.

China will ban imports of farm produce, including food and feedstuff, from 12 areas in Japan, the official Xinhua news agency said today. It did not identify the 12 areas.

China said earlier it had detected 10 cases of ships, aircraft or cargo arriving from Japan with higher than normal levels of radiation since mid-March.

Xinhua reported earlier that trace levels of radioactivity had been detected in 22 Chinese provinces.

Yesterday, China said it would closely monitor Japan’s actions to regain control of the plant and demanded Tokyo provide swift and accurate information on the crisis.

South Korea has also criticised Japan, accusing it of incompetence for failing to notify its neighbours that it would pump radioactive water into the sea.

Radiation from Japan spread around the entire northern hemisphere in the first two weeks of the nuclear crisis, according to the Vienna-based Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO).

CTBTO’s 30 monitoring stations detected minute levels of radiation in North America after three days, in Europe after 12 days and the entire northern hemisphere after 15 days.

Tepco said it was continuing to inject nitrogen into one of the reactors to prevent a repeat of last month’s hydrogen explosions, which would release highly radioactive particles.

The world’s third largest economy is now in a “severe condition”, the government said yesterday.

Finance leaders of the G20 group of countries will ask Tokyo for a plan to resuscitate its economy as they see the damage from the earthquake as a risk to global growth, Takatoshi Kato, a former IMF deputy managing director, told Reuters yesterday.

Automaker Toyota Motor Corp plans to idle some of US plants late in April, while Honda Motor Co Ltd has extended reduced US production until April 22.

Power blackouts and restrictions, factory shutdowns, and a sharp drop in tourists have hit the world’s most indebted nation, which is facing a damages bill as high as US$300 billion (RM1.02 billion), making it by far the world’s costliest natural disaster.

Economists expect Japan to slip into recession this year.

“Japan’s economy is suddenly in a severe condition due to the effects of the earthquake,” said the Cabinet Office after releasing a survey of hotel and restaurant staff and taxi drivers, showing a record fall in confidence to levels last seen during the depths of the global financial crisis.

In an obvious sign of the downturn, taxis park in long lines in central Tokyo each night, their drivers staying warm by idling the motor as they wait forlornly for a fare.

A major aftershock on Thursday forced two companies, including electronics giant Sony Corp , to stop production because of power cuts.

On a brighter note, Japan’s top automakers Toyota and Nissan Motor Co said they planned to resume production at all domestic factories in stages starting on Monday, although output levels would be at half of original plans.

One month to the day after Japan was devastated by the tsunami that left 25,000 dead, ANOTHER earthquake strikes off the SAME coast

* Tremors struck as country prepared to remember the dead
* Crippled nuclear plant evacuated after latest seismic activity
* Government pledges to do all it can to help survivors
* Frustrations increasing among residents of Fukushima exclusion zone
* Nuclear officials admit they cannot offer end date for plant crisis
* Evacuation zone around stricken plant could be expanded due to accumulation of radiation

A tsunami warning was issued for an hour after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Iwaki in Fukushima province, a month after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's north-east coast.

The latest quake came as sombre ceremonies were planned today to mark one month passing since the tragedy.

And there are fears it could have catastrophic ramifications for the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The plant has since been evacuated, although its operator said no nuclear damage has been reported after this latest burst of seismic activity.

 Silent reflection: Japan's Ground Self-Defence Force members in a moment of silence at 2:46 pm, exactly a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture

 Police officers in protective suits search for bodies at a destroyed area, about 18km from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power station

 Memorial: A group of Japanese Shinto priests (on the left) and Buddhist monks at Yugihama Beach during a pray for Japan memorial event in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture

 Police officers in protective suits observe a moment of silence for those who were killed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, as they search for bodies at a destroyed area in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture

 Buddhist monks pray in an area destroyed by tsunami in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, one month to the day after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the city

A warning was issued for a 3-foot tsunami, the same as after another 7.1 aftershock that shook the northeast coast last week, but was lifted after about an hour.

The U.S. Geological Survey said today's very shallow quake was centred 14 miles northeast of the town of Iwaki, to the south of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.

The Pacific Tsunami Center said the quake would had not triggered a widespread tsunami that could reach the U.S. and Canadian West coasts but could cause a local one.

People at a large electronics store in central Sendai screamed and ran outside during today's incident, though the shaking made it hard to move around. Mothers grabbed their children, and windows shook. After a minute or two, people returned to the store.

There were no new reports of damage. Aftershocks have repeatedly rattled the disaster-weary region, but there is little left in the northeast to ruin.

Last Thursday's 7.1-magnitude aftershock, which had been the strongest tremor since the day the original quake hit, did sink hundreds of thousands more households into darkness, however. Most of that electricity has been restored.

Buildings shook and Tokyo's main international airport briefly shut both of its runways, but there have been no immediate reports of damage or injuries after the latest quake, which comes as Japan reflected on the devastation wreaked by last month's disaster.

However, thousands of bodies are yet to be found, a tsunami-flooded nuclear power plant is still spewing radiation and more than 150,000 people remain living in shelters.

'We offer our deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones,' chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said today at a brief news conference where he pledged the government would do whatever it could to help survivors and end the nuclear crisis.

'We are sorry for causing inconvenience and difficulties to those who still live in shelters.'

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it generated flattened communities along hundreds of miles of coastline. The government has estimated the cost of damages from the disaster could grow to $310billion.

In an open letter printed in seven newspapers across the globe, Prime Minister Naoto Kan thanked other nations for their help since the disaster.

'Through our own efforts and with the help of the global community, Japan will recover and come back even stronger. We will then repay you for your generous aid,' he wrote.

'With this in our hearts, we now stand together dedicated to rebuilding the nation.'

People in hard-hit towns gathered for ceremonies at 2:46pm, the exact moment of the massive quake a month earlier.

'My chest has been ripped open by the suffering and pain that this disaster has caused the people of our prefecture,' said Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima, which saw its coastal areas devastated by the tsunami and is home to the damaged plant at the centre of the nuclear crisis. 'I have no words to express my sorrow.'

In a devastated coastal neighbourhood in the city of Natori, three dozen firemen and soldiers removed their hats and helmets and joined hands atop a small hill that has become a memorial for the dead.

Earlier, four monks in pointed hats rang a prayer bell there as they chanted for those killed.

In the industrial town of Kamaishi Governor Takuya Tasso led a moment of commemoration as a loud siren rang through a high school gymnasium being used as a shelter. He bowed while people who have lived there since the tsunami kneeled on makeshift futons, bowed their heads and clasped their hands.

The earthquake and tsunami flattened communities along hundreds of miles of coastline. More than 158,000 people are still without electricity and 210,000 have no running water, although some of that is because of the 7.1-magnitude aftershock that rattled the area last Thursday.

'Even after a month, I still cry when I watch the news,' said Marina Seito, 19, a student at a junior college who recalled being in a basement restaurant in Sendai when the earthquake hit. Plates fell and parts of the ceiling crashed down around her.

Adding to the misery is radiation spewing from the Fukushima Daiichi complex 140 miles northeast of Tokyo. The 70,000 to 80,000 people who lived within 12 miles of the plant must stay away from their homes indefinitely.

'We have no future plans. We can't even start to think about it because we don't know how long this will last or how long we will have to stay in these shelters,' said Atsushi Yanai, a 55-year-old construction worker. The tsunami spared his home, but he has to live in a shelter anyway because it is in the evacuation zone.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday that residents of five more communities, some more than 20 miles from the plant, are also being urged to leave because of high levels of radiation.

'This is not an emergency measure that people have to evacuate immediately,' Edano said. 'We have decided this measure based on long-term health risks.'

Meanwhile, nuclear safety official Hidehiko Nishiyama apologised for the worry and inconvenience caused by the radiation spilling from the plant, where cooling systems disabled by the March 11 tsunami still have not been restored and likely won't be for several months.

'We've done all we could to come this far,' Mr Nishiyama said yesterday.

'Unfortunately, we still cannot give any timeline for when we can move on to the next phase, but we are hoping to achieve a sustainable cooling system, contain radiation and bring the situation under control as soon as possible.'

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co reiterated that it is not considering entombing the hot reactors in concrete, as was done at Chernobyl in 1986 when a reactor fire burned out of control. Japan's nuclear crisis is the world's worst since then.

 

Chiyoko Sasaki, 67, covers her face as she sees her husband Sueo, 72, in a coffin at a makeshift mortuary in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan

 Clean-up: A remote-controlled truck removes debris at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

 Police officers in protective suits observe a moment of silence for those who were killed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, as they search for bodies at a destroyed area in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture

 Two-year-old Ayaka and family members pray her missing grandmother and great-grandmother at a vacant lot where they lived in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture

 Deep sea denizen: This 11ft yellow ribbonfish is usually only found in deep water, but may have been forced out of its habitat by the aftershocks. It was caught near Taiwan

 A worker in the installed de-contamination area of the quake-proof building, to help expand the protection area at TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant

 Masataka Shimizu, President of Tokyo Electric Power Company which owns the Fukushima nuclear plant (third right) offers a silent prayer for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami

 Buddhist monks pray in an area destroyed by tsunami in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, one month to the day after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the city

Daisuke Koizumi, a 30-year-old Ishinomaki Fire Department firefighter, prays as he searches for the missing, including three fellow firefighters, while young boys pray for the victims atTsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture