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Developments after major Japan earthquake

Updated: 2011-03-14 05:56

TOKYO - Following are main developments after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck northeast Japan on Friday and set off a tsunami. ?

- Death toll expected to exceed 10,000 from the quake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK says. Strong aftershocks persisting in the stricken area.

- Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) says radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which is 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, have risen above the safety limit but says this posed no "immediate threat" to human health. An explosion blew the roof off at reactor No. 1. ?

- Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says there is the risk of an explosion at another building housing the No. 3 reactor, although this is unlikely to affect the reactor's core container.

- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says the lowest state of emergency had been declared at a separate nuclear power plant north of the town of Sendai. But Japan's nuclear safety agency says there has been a rise in radiation at the Onagawa facility due to leakage from the Fukushima plant and there was no problem with the cooling process there. ?

- Authorities have set up a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10 km (6 miles) zone around another nuclear facility close by. ?

- About 300,000 people evacuated nationwide and almost 2 million households without power in the freezing north. ?

- Prime Minister Naoto Kan approves power outage plan by TEPCO that begins on Monday to address power shortage. TEPCO says the rolling blackout to affect 3 million customers, including large factories, buildings and households.

- France recommends its citizens leave the Kanto region that includes Tokyo and six other prefectures in its vicinity, citing the risk of further earthquakes and uncertainty about the situation at its damaged nuclear plants. ?

- Nuclear safety agency rates the incident a 4 on the 1 to 7 International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, less serious than Three Mile Island, which was a 5, and Chernobyl at 7.

- Quake triggered tsunami up to 10 metres (30 feet). Waves swept away homes, crops, vehicles and submerged farmland. ?

- Bank of Japan will hold policy meeting on Monday. It vows to provide ample liquidity to financial system first thing on Monday. It has extended a total of 55 billion yen to 13 financial institutions in the quake-struck northeast of Japan since Saturday. ?

* Moody's says dealing with disaster should add only temporary pressure to government finances.

- Toyota Motor Co to suspend operations at all 12 factories on Monday.

- Total insured loss could be up to $15 billion, equity analysts covering the industry say. Disaster-modeling company AIR Worldwide estimates the insured losses from the Japan eathrquake at between $14.5 billion and $34.6 billion. ?

- Tokyo Stock Exchange, other financial markets to operate as normal on Monday, Japan's financial services agency confirms, adding it will strictly implement existing ban on naked short selling.