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Eric Talmadge

A man walks on driftwood piled up on a bridge after a powerful typhoon in Kiho, Mie Prefecture, central Japan, Monday, Sept. 5, 2011. Typhoon Talas, which was believed to be the worst to hit Japan since 2004, lashed coastal areas with destructive winds and record-setting rains over the weekend before moving offshore into the Sea of Japan. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Air drops bring aid to typhoon-isolated Japanese

Last updated Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 12:05pm

TOKYO — Helicopters ferried supplies Tuesday to thousands of people still cut off by Japan's worst storm in 28 years. Typhoon Talas left at least 46 dead and 54 missing in a nation still struggling to recover from its devastating tsunami just six months ago.

Japan, Tsunami, Typhoon, International Read more Comments

In this photo taken Friday, April 15, 2011, Japanese police officers in protective suits carry a victim at a tsunami-devastated area in the town of Namie, as towers of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant are seen in the distance at top right in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The Japanese government failed to adequately utilize radiation threat forecasts in the early days of its nuclear crisis and allowed thousands of residents, including hundreds of schoolchildren, to remain in areas it had ample reason to believe put them in serious danger. Eight thousand residents of Namie were not informed that they should move further away until March 16, almost a week after the disaster, despite predictions on the first day that a radioactive plume would drift across the town. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Japan ignored own radiation forecasts

Eric Talmadge, Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 10:30am

NAMIE, Japan -- Japan's system to forecast radiation threats was working from the moment its nuclear crisis began. As officials planned a venting operation certain to release radioactivity into the air, the system predicted Karino Elementary School would be directly in the path of the plume emerging from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

But the prediction helped no one. Nobody acted on it.

Earthquake, Japan, Nuclear, Radiation, Tsunami, International Read more Comments

Explosion at Japan nuke plant, disaster toll rises

Eric Talmadge, The Associated Press, Yuri Kageyama

Last updated Saturday, March 12, 2011 - 10:54am

IWAKI, Japan — An explosion shattered a building housing a nuclear reactor Saturday, amid fears of a meltdown, while across wide swaths of northeastern Japan officials searched for thousands of people missing more than a day after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The confirmed death toll from Friday's twin disasters was 574, but the government's chief spokesman said it could exceed 1,000. Devastation stretched hundreds of miles (kilometers) along the coast, where thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers cut off from rescuers and aid.

The scale of destruction was not yet known, but there were grim signs that the death toll could soar. One report said four whole trains had disappeared Friday and still not been located. Another said 9,500 people in one coastal town were unaccounted for and that at least 200 bodies had washed ashore elsewhere.

Earthquake, Japan, Nuclear, International Read more Comments

Shizuo Kambayashi/The Associated Press
Zoraya Judo of U.S. performs a pole dance during the International Pole Championships in Tokyo, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010.

Utah woman in pole dancing world championships

Eric Talmadge, The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, December 10, 2010 - 5:23pm

TOKYO -- Zoraya Judd says there is nothing she would rather do than pole dance.

Features, Pole dancing, Sports, Utah, International Read more Comments

(The Associated Press)
Tsuyuko Nakao, 92, (right) and Kinuyo Ikegami, 77, console each other as they pray for the victims at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Friday.

65 years since A-bomb: U.S. joins Hiroshima memorial for first time

Eric Talmadge, The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, August 6, 2010 - 11:31pm

HIROSHIMA, Japan -- A U.S. representative participated for the first time Friday in Japan's annual commemoration of the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima, in a 65th anniversary event that organizers hope will bolster global efforts toward nuclear disarmament.

National Government, War, History Read more Comments

(KIM JAE -HWAN/The Associated Press) Gen. Walter Sharp, the commander of the United Nations Command, speaks on the 57th anniversary of signing the Korean War armistice at the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission building in the cross-border village of Panmujeom on July 27, 2010.

Koreas mark truce, but drills underscore tensions

Eric Talmadge, The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 11:28am

ABOARD THE USS CURTIS WILBUR — On the 57th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War, U.S. and South Korean ships intensified high-profile military exercises Tuesday that underscore rising tensions in a region yet to truly find peace.

War, International Read more Comments