EARTHQUAKE

World number one Rafael Nadal and number two Novak Djokovic will lead a team of top tennis players for a soccer match agaisnt Fort Lauderdale Strikers professional team in a charity match for aiding the relief effort in Japan.

The official death toll from Japan’s epic earthquake-tsunami catastrophe has now surpassed 22,000 (including people who are listed as missing), according to the National Police Agency.

Summary of Conditions at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

The average transaction prices for key fuel-efficient Japanese imported cars in the United States are starting to creep up in the wake of the quake and tsunami in Japan that caused supply disruptions, according to an analyst.

Hewlett-Packard Co said on Tuesday it is assessing the impact to its business of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan earlier this month and that its office in Sendai, near the quake's epicenter, remains closed.

Babcock & Wilcox said it is in discussions with Toshiba Group to provide nuclear technical assistance and services to secure and maintain the safety of the nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan.

Japanese carrier NTT Communications said on March 22 it is steadily restoring communications services, although some still remain disrupted.

Sony Corp. has suspended production at more Japanese plants after a massive earthquake on March 11 has made it difficult for the plants to get raw materials and components.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said that radioactive Materials were detected from the seawater around the discharge canal (south) of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Professor Yuko Aoyama from Clark University Geography Department says the collective spirit in Japan is very high at the moment, in an interview to IBTimes on Japan's earthquake and the resultant tsunami and their impact on the world's third largest economy.

Japanese authorities are struggling to ascertain data and information on the number and status of foreigners who were in Japan when the earthquake and tsunami struck ten days ago.

The financial impact to Japan from last week’s earthquake-tsunami could be as high as $235-billion, according to a report issued on Monday by the World Bank.

With so much hype surrounding the upcoming Royal Wedding, it is no surprise that Lifetime is bringing the romance to life on the small screen.

Some Japanese are outraged by the alarmist tone and sensationalistic reporting of the earthquake-tsunami tragedy by foreign media. Some media sources have just plain printed factual errors.

Tokyo Electric Power Company is reporting that as of 7 a.m. Eastern time power is available in the four damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which will help to stabilize the reactor cores and the spent fuel pools.

As Haiti was preparing to vote for its next president, singer Wyclef Jean, who is a former presidential candidate, was shot in the hand.

In one of the few happy stories to come from the earthquake tragedy in Japan, an 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson have been rescued from the rubble of their home in the coastal city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, the epicenter of the tragedy, according to Kyodo news agency.

The Fukushima reactor buildings are square, not circular, and had to absorb the force of the tsunami wave straight on.

Japan's economy could shrink after a devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this month, but the government has the fiscal and credit means to deal with a disaster which could cost twice as much as the 1995 Kobe earthquake, ratings agency Moody's said on Monday.

Police in Haiti have dismissed singer and songwriter Wyclef Jean's claims that he was shot at citing doctors as confirming that the musician only sustained a minor cut from glass.

Summary of conditions at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as described by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA):