International

"The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was invited to the White House briefing today to assure Americans that they had nothing to fear from the nuclear radiation coming out of Japan's damaged reactors and that the nuclear reactors in the United States were safe. When he was finished taking questions there was very little reassurance on either front." In Japan, residents are beginning to wonder whether they can trust government reassurances that radiation levels present little threat to human health.

"U.S. stocks fell Monday as investors struggled to assess the financial fallout of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami."

"Even as workers race to prevent the radioactive cores of the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan from melting down, concerns are growing that nearby pools holding spent fuel rods could pose an even greater danger."

"Japan’s nuclear crisis verged toward catastrophe after an explosion further damaged one of the crippled reactors and a fire at another spewed large amounts of radioactive material into the air."

"The official announcement that two reactors at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant could be suffering meltdowns underscores the Japanese nuclear industry’s troubled history, and years of grass-roots objections from a people uniquely sensitive to the ravages of nuclear destruction."

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, shutting down major systems, killing at least 40, and causing a tsunami. Nuclear plants were shut down on an emergency basis after the cooling system at one plant failed. Tsunami warnings were issued through much of the Pacific, including Hawaii and parts of the U.S. West Coast and South America. Potential impact of tsunami on Hawaii within minutes of 8 am EST as hotels evacuate vertically.

"Protests over timber corruption that has made a billionaire of the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak and enriched his family at the expense of the state's indigenous and other citizens have spilled over to the streets of San Francisco, Seattle, Ottawa and London." Now there are charges of a political murder on US soil.

"The vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than previously estimated and that melting is accelerating, according to a new report that verifies 18 years of melting via two independent techniques."

"The mysterious collapse of honey-bee colonies is becoming a global phenomenon, scientists working for the United Nations have revealed."

The extent of Arctic sea ice cover reached a record low this winter, tying the record low mark set in the winter of 2005, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Scientists consider the decline of sea ice to be a sign of manmade global warming.