Japanese authorities on Monday called off a tsunami advisory after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake off the country's northeast coast produced little more than ripples.
However, the Japan Meteorological Agency urged coastal residents to remain prepared to evacuate because of a continued threat of aftershocks that could spawn tsunamis.
Authorities issued a tsunami advisory Monday morning for coastal areas of Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan after a quake struck the region at 7:24 a.m. The tsunami advisory was cancelled at 9:05 a.m.
FULL STORYNATO agreed on Sunday to take military command of a coalition mission over Libya, including enforcement of a no-fly zone, but questions remain over how long and far the intervention will go as rebels push back forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Here is a look at this and some of the other stories CNN plans to follow this week:
NATO, African Union, Arab League to discuss Libya on Tuesday
The new NATO mandate will begin in two to three days, NATO officials said, taking leadership over the military mission as the U.S. government had wanted. Planes and missiles from a coalition led by the United States, the United Kingdom and France began attacking Libyan air-defense targets March 19 in part to establish a no-fly zone. It was authorized by a U.N. Security Council resolution, which approved military action - short of occupation - to prevent Gadhafi's forces from attacking civilians and cities.
The intervention comes amid a Libyan civil war, which began in mid-February after clashes between government forces and protesters. Opposition forces are seeking the ouster of Gadhafi, who has ruled for nearly 42 years. Buoyed by the coalition's air intervention - including airstrikes on military vehicles - rebels are advancing west from their strongholds in eastern Libya, pushing pro-Gadhafi forces out of cities they had captured days earlier.
NATO members have agreed to take over the full scope of the military mission in Libya.
French warplanes on Sunday led airstrikes on armored vehicles and on a large ammunition depot in the regions of Misrata and Zintan, according to the French Ministry of Defense.
FULL STORYHealth and safety concerns about Japanese nuclear power plants after this month's earthquake and tsunami have Lindsey Schiller wondering what could happen across the street from her own house in her Philadelphia suburb. Schiller, who is a registered nurse, has lived for nearly a decade with her husband and two children in the shadow of the Limerick Generating Station nuclear energy facility in Pottstown, about 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Long before the Japanese disaster, Schiller's unique neighborhood landmark has been the source of family jokes. "We kid around when we get really big flowers ... we're under the power plant, and I kid around that I glow," laughed Schiller as she held her baby Adam in sight of the plant's giant twin cooling towers. FULL STORY
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit northern Japan on March 11, triggering tsunamis that caused widespread devastation and crippled a nuclear power plant. Are you in an affected area? Send an iReport. Read the full report on the quake's aftermath and check out our interactive explainer on Japan's damaged nuclear reactors.
[9:16 a.m. ET Sunday, 10:17 p.m. Sunday in Tokyo] Tokyo Electric says it is re-checking its results for a form of radioactive iodine in water from the No. 2 reactor's turbine building at Fukushima Daiichi after Japan's nuclear safety agency questioned extremely high figures released earlier Sunday.
[1:30 a.m. ET Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Tokyo] Radiation levels in pooled water tested in the No. 2 nuclear reactor's turbine building at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are 10 million times normal, a power company official said Sunday. Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency reports the surface water showed 1,000 millisieverts of radiation. By comparison, an individual in a developed country is naturally exposed to 3 millisieverts per year, though Japan's health ministry has set a 250 millisievert per year cumulative limit before workers must leave the plant. One person was working in and around the No. 2 reactor when the test result became known, according to an official with the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant. That individual subsequently left, and work there has stopped until the government signs off on the power company's plan to address the issue.
The process to start removing pooled water from that building had been set for late Sunday morning, Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official with Japan's nuclear safety agency, previously told reporters.
[1 a.m. ET Sunday, 2Â p.m. Sunday in Tokyo] Radiation levels in pooled water tested in the No. 2 nuclear reactor's turbine building at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are 10 million times normal, a power company official said Sunday.
Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency reports the surface water showed 1,000 millisieverts of radiation. By comparison, an individual in a developed country is naturally exposed to 3 millisieverts per year, though Japan's health ministry has set a 250 millisievert per year cumulative limit before workers must leave the plant.
One person was working in and around the No. 2 reactor when the test result became known, according to an official with the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant. That individual subsequently left, and work there has stopped until the government signs off on the power company's plan to address the issue.
The process to start removing pooled water from that building had been set for late Sunday morning, Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official with Japan's nuclear safety agency, previously told reporters.
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