japan is devastated by a massive tsunami of the biggest earthquake in the country's history buildings trains and ships are washed away the official number of dead tonight is three hundred and fifty about number looks set to sit. down declares an emergency as pressure rises appear for push e-mail nuclear plant sparking risks of a radiation leak in the surrounding areas been evacuated but there's no danger to the public right now. in other news the man behind a string of deadly attacks across russia chechen warlord thought could borrow is put on the un's international terrorism list. and more violent clashes rock libya's

colonel gadhafi forces pushed the rebels back e.u. says it's not ruling out military action increasing fears of a possible intervention. it's now ten pm if you're watching the r.t. international news channel my name is kevin owen here in moscow and the main story dominating the news tonight the northeast of japan has been swamped by a major tsunami following the biggest earthquake in its history at least three hundred fifty people are reported dead but that figure appears very conservative tonight the real number looks likely to be many many more for example police say hundreds of bodies have been found drowned in the city of sendai the capital of the worst head region in the eight point nine magnitude quake off the eastern coast

unleashed ten metre high waves which reached miles inland causing huge damage large after she. continuing in northeast. meanwhile there are worrying reports of a possible radiation leak at the fukushima nuclear power plant them urgency situation has been declared at the facility after the malfunction of a cooling system there around the plant's been evacuated as of now authorities say the reactor is not leaking radiation and just go immediately danger to the public it's being watched closely. or just after the quake hit we had a chance to speak to an eyewitness who was in the capital tokyo. the art of the book you know i was working at home and suddenly felt like sharks i didn't know what to do sit at home and leave and the moment i saw a message on the screen of my t.v. it said that in twenty seconds there would be an earthquake i jumped up and it was shaking her to person for answers with. i live in

a kind of district of the city when many people just only ones with parents and young parents with children yesterday may need to. have we tried to call home but more of our connection was not asked although the epicenter most far away from tokyo that i thought might go was an issue. in which it seemed like everything around we crashed it was happening all day every time i returned home it started again. just the day the radiation levels have been rising for the past few hours we're hearing at the fukushima nuclear plant after a cooling system there failed following the earthquake experts say there is a high risk of a leak because they need to alleviate the pressure there at the moment they're also saying there's no immediate danger to the public are people within a two kilometer radius of the plant have been evacuated others just further out of been told to stay indoors that. warnings been going out all afternoon alarming of the situation but a striking resemblance to the nuclear disaster we saw in should novel we're going

to have some talk about that with our correspondent in. bit later is to stay with us for that get his take a reason expert on that he's covered that story many many times for us but we're catching up with him a little bit later just last hour i spoke to kate hudson she's the head of britain's campaign for nuclear disarmament she told me the need for nuclear power is dated and there's no need to risk a situation like we may be seeing now. people do need need power but in a situation where there are so many sustainable energy safe energy alternatives now being developed when you see the possible risks associated with nuclear power and of course the great dangers associated with nuclear waste as an organization we believe that the risk is just not worth it as yes we have no safe storage method devised for the large amount of nuclear waste that we already have and of course this situation in japan very clearly serves to underline the dangers both britain

and japan have some things in common one of which is that our nuclear power stations are of built on the shoreline because of the need for water passing through the nuclear power station for cooling purposes in the current situation where climate change and their kind of natural emergencies weather emergencies things like earthquakes can lead to either tsunamis or can lead to a rising water level this presents great dangers now that situation in japan i think and as i understand from nuclear activists there in japan is actually extremely dangerous if they cannot pool the core the radioactive core of that reactor then you run the risk of meltdown and then you run the risk of fire massive radioactive release and a situation like normal or worse and here in britain of course people are very

concerned about chernobyl because there are parts of britain where which still cannot be used for agricultural and food production because of the dangers so it's a very serious situation in japan our hearts go out to the japanese people but it's a very serious situation for elsewhere in the world. i'm talking to me the world i mentioned already talking to catch up with him to correspond with knows full well the what happened to the chernobyl nuclear power station rather an expert . on the new it's one of your pet projects if you like you know in great depth reporting on it many times and actually explained therefore exactly what kind of similarities there may be what could be happening at this japanese plant now the way it's largely under control and what happened in chernobyl all those years ago. well they initially may seem very similar incidents but in reality they're pretty much different first of all because what is now happening in japan is indeed an

aftermath of a natural disaster the earthquake what happened intern all the quarter of a century ago was a hundred percent hand made manmade disaster and this is of course the essential difference the other difference is the the fact that the reactor in japan is one hundred times more powerful than the one entered and in fact the two stations the two par plants in the fukushima region. produced the world's biggest joint amount of energy and this means of course that this reactor which is under threat now is far more powerful than the one in the fourth book of the trouble nuclear power station which exploded twenty five years ago and also one of the differences is that the security system in japan the power station is promising that should any nuclear it's occur at the station a certain doom will cover the nuclear power station preventing any leaks into the atmosphere something which is of course missing in the soviet era that you're noble station and that's why the whole the whole continent basically suffered great

consequences but at the same time we also heard that. basically the ultimatum security systems went on after the earthquake and most of the power stations across japan. and nobody knows whether this will be the case whether the security system will work should any nuclear incident occurred let's just hope this will not happen . for not one minute do we want to be alone one minute we want to say this is not a controlled authorities are saying tonight they could be very close on it the next couple of hours are very important to try to ease the pressure and not react to. being generated is not being cool properly because film didn't we made what was it i couldn't nine hundred seventy nine of memory says the china syndrome you know it's kind of worse case. nari was what they were worried about the at the time wasn't it explain to our viewers what that was about and if there's any danger if the worst happens praise it doesn't have the worst happened in japan and they

couldn't get this in control what could happen what's the worst case scenario. well the worst case scenario is much more great that what happened after the trade novel fall out according to several experts. already here in ukraine and has read some interviews on the internet as well basically because as i mentioned earlier the power station in japan is far more powerful than the one. this could lead to a serious contamination to a serious emission of radiation should anything should any accident any explosion happened at the fukushima nuclear power station this according to some experts from the russian academy of sciences means that the whole of the russian far east some part of china and to a large extent the korean peninsula may be affected by the possible radiation emission from this reactor in japan so far as we've heard as you mentioned the government is saying that the situation is out of the control despite the numerous

reports that the radiation levels are rising inside this nuclear power station in japan and also we've heard assurances from american scientists who are saying that right now the wind is blowing westward from japan so should any accident happen then the all the radioactive material will probably find itself in the middle of the pacific north in the russian mainland or china or korea or anywhere else but. the wind can. change any minute and obviously if something happens at the station this could be far far ten times more serious than what happened after chernobyl ok . nothing comes to nothing. but fifty five reactors then that provides about one third of the nation's heavily nuclear energy. thanks to bring in getting into the news line through. breaking news line coming through from

a. quakes. prefecture we're hearing that some top of what's caused all these awful awful problems. that will suffer the earlier on today is the way ten meters high crashing through the the nearest town to it going way inland and causing so many problems tonight and the latest we're hearing up to three hundred fifty dead but it is sadly fear that there may be many more as well we had reports earlier on of the train missing and of course a lot of fires blazing as well ok well we're now joined by dr richard phillips he is from the school of earth and environment in britain's university of leeds thanks for being with us on r.t. . apparently japan is one of the best prepared countries for such disasters but there is huge devastation there what could be done to reduce the risks of catastrophe it seems kind of catered for everything they have these regular drills

they build their nuclear power stations taking this into account i guess you can't cover all risks when you. well they're well prepared for earthquakes up to particular magnitude but this is unprecedented in size for japan so whilst you can make your building secure and you can mitigate against. the expected disaster this is well beyond what they might expect but a. sense that tsunami risk obviously is not much we can do other than to build very large barriers a log case it is costly. what about these nuclear power plants we know the ongoing problem one of the facilities that they've got as you're saying to our correspondent is of course highly. relying on its nuclear power it counts as i mentioned one third of japan's needs how well protected are its nuclear facilities again could they have forseen are protected against a situation like we've seen today. sure. very well prepared for earthquakes in

terms of the nuclear facilities and this is one of their core energy supplies obviously so buildings will be incredibly robust they will have done many tests going through lots of scenarios similar to what they're experiencing now so i think they will i'll be surprised if we do see any seriously cage from the fukushima plant lessons of course were learned from the horrendous events we saw in two thousand and four with sinatra with. the a tsunami we saw then what other pacific countries that were there were they right to move to a situation of alert against the tsunami just clarify again i trusted we learned a lot of lessons from two thousand and four today we saw a lot of countries rather pacific removing from situation of alert that they jumped the gun or was it safety they had in mind was it absolutely right. it was absolutely the right thing to do this is a very large magnitude earthquake maybe the fifth largest we've had in recorded

history so the expectation is that the tsunami would spread across the pacific it's already hit south america now about a half a meter high so it was exactly the right thing to do. i was just reporting as well just before you came online with us we're hearing of all powerful quake so rocking when a garneau prefecture tonight of course it's even more frightening for people involved because of course it's dark in japan how bigger threats are the likely aftershocks which we can expect like these in the next few days if you think it could be worse to come. well for eight point nine we'd expect the aftershocks to be an order of magnitude less as a maximum so maybe up to seven point nine many of the aftershocks that we've seen so far have been larger than the haiti earthquake yeah i was going to say can you put this in context for us the earthquake in christchurch the other day that was a six point nine if i remember what are we talking about when we're talking about

eight point nine on the on the scale of things get how bad was it. extremely bad the question recent christchurch earthquake was six point three so this is something he saw it in japanese earthquake is about eight thousand times more powerful terms of energy release and maybe seven. maybe six maybe seven hundred times more powerful than the haiti earthquake one of the sinatra earthquake back in two thousand and four again just to give our viewers some perspective on what's going on today you remind us how big that quake was. i'm sorry i didn't catch your question just talking about the smart equate the big one the tsunami of two thousand and four just to give our viewers some idea of what's happened today what happened there how big was that you know. there was nine point one so slightly larger comparable in size ok well that dr richard phillips from the school of earth and environment university of leeds both of your perspective on the break in tradition ok thank you thank you russia's far east as we braced for the tsunamis

all afternoon with people going to higher ground thankfully it seems the worst danger appears to have passed started to go has gone off as the latest on that angle of the story. well the cool islands are right here in the neighborhood just several my miles north of japan and previously one of these islands was hit by a three metre hide somebody that's around you claim told the story building thankfully no one was killed or injured in that incident and the local infrastructure was not damaged as well but the authorities did manage to evacuate around eleven thousand people to higher ground in the entire region and also declared a state of emergency now the local emergency services and rescuers are on the high alert getting ready for any possible scenario you know of anything that is the similar situation in the entire northern pacific region earlier on friday there

were a really poor soul for more possible tsunami stating the russian course line and rose the cruel violence now all these risks have declined but there is still a possibility of aftershocks so president meeting with the device ordered the local emergency services and rescue services to be ready for any type of a situation. of course we are really to help our neighbors in overcoming the effects of this severe earthquake a state of emergency has also been declared on our soil and the coral islands in the region were all necessary measures must also be taken to prevent damage and loss of life the tsunami has already reached our shores and we must all be consolidated its time now ordering their margin sees minister to present a plan of assistance to japan. emergencies ministry has already announced that it's prepared six the jets truly on standby which are ready to transport doctors

rescuers medical equipment even a mobile hospital to help japan always need it at the moment is unofficial recall. from japanese authorities. you go pushkin off some of the news briefly church and waldo called more office and i want to u.s. international terrorist list of the security council's know put him alongside the world's most dangerous man let's get the details from our she's going to turn she's in washington d.c. for us here on the talk of model so ready on the international wanted list how is this to susan any different having you're absolutely right the u.s. state department has previously previously put the man on their list of most wanted terrorist and now the u.n. has acknowledged that he is one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world and a threat to the whole of the international community is the leader of the al qaeda linked islamic caucuses emirates a terrorist group which operates in russia he took credit for the deadly suicide

bombing at the government datable international airport in moscow in january this year the attack killed thirty five people and wounded scores more the man also vowed to kill more civilians he released the video just gays ago saying that he also claimed responsibility for the moscow metro suicide bombings last march and the attack on the passenger train a little bit over a year ago dozens of people were killed as a result of those attacks so the u.n. has now included omar's into that list the you when all kind it end taliban sanctions committee what that means the thanks is in this age. acid free travel ban and end of arms embargo for individuals and entities associated with the taliban and they're. going to devote a series of close of your scruples few days the latest to go there are reports that a lot of militants have claimed responsibility for those attacks can you expound on that at all. well yes you have in the first one just just a few days ago on march the ninth a blast took off near the academy

a russian security service service the f.a.a. no casualties have been reported in just days later this friday we heard about these two explosions in a residential area in moscow again no casualties reported in a whole city fido kumar of group he says he claims responsibility for the blast on march the nine build though investigators suspect that he could be involved in the latest ones this friday as well what many security experts believe that terrorists will stop parading in russia get funding from abroad and some of the members are known to have been trained that right if you take take the deadly. bombing at the domodedovo airport those dogs that attack the busiest international airport in russia the terrorist clearly knew that not only russians were going to suffer we had french italian nationals who were caught up in this tragic attack and that really underscores course that the international dimension of what's going on there in russia and of perpetrators that instantly seem to care about nationality there

it's really shocking is that over the last year and a health russia has seen a number of her grandest terrorist attacks so. but only recently has the united states and the west in general all started to see it as part of international terrorism and not just russia is the mastic issues but the rhetoric hasn't always been like this for a long time the way the world see it the terrible things that terrorists have done in warfare as part of some rebel separatist movement but now it's very much clear to everyone everyone that these thugs are a threat to the whole of the international community going to washington d.c. correspondent thank you. who. live near the european union says it's keeping the military option open demanded gadhafi surrender a little mergence agreed to give brussels e.u. leaders showed political support for libya's opposition council but stopped short of official recognition don't you bushell's been following those events for us today. e.u. leaders at the summit here in brussels have backed libya's opposition council will

fall and short of officially recognizing the rebels as the legitimate rulers of that country it comes off the angle of merkel the chancellor of germany said gadhafi should go now and that she go longer recognizes him as the country's ruler but there are growing concerns that have not been stopped by this summit of military force in libya the czech president said that even the imposition of a no fly zone over libya as backed by the u.s. and u.k. means war with that country with all the consequences that would entail and germany's interior minister went further saying that there is no prospect of military intervention by nato or the e.u. for the time being russia strongly opposes the aerial bombardments of held areas of libya as proposed by president sarkozy of france and the country's deputy foreign minister says it opposes any union that's rude use of force against anyone

we can now hear from russia's envoy to nato the. first of all relevant committees should gather the facts only the facts on the table the un security council can lead to any serious discussion on the matter so far there have been no such facts and have only been journalists reports from the conflict zone on the whole we consider the situation very complex and it very much resembles a civil conflict of which there is a real danger in militarily intervening in the affairs of a foreign state in which garvey thanks to the with could easily become the most popular figure in the islamic world with an air of martyrdom around him so skepticism against military intervention against libya is growing stronger colonel moammar gadhafi says he will fight back against any foreign military intervention and even rebels have said they would not like to see that as it may turn the tide of public opinion against them so there's considerable horse. today it's a military intervention for those outside the country and within its as well. your

bushel europe correspondent more now on libya for metal show moves senior analyst from the institute for policy studies joining us from maryland in the us they're going to evening the u.s. president says all options are still of the consideration of libya the no fly zone is still possible as we quote slowly tighten the noose around gadhafi how possible is a military solution to the region do you think well it's still possible by the europeans but i think the united states has backed away from military intervention there harbor a wait and see out if your best moment even though they still quiet all options are on the table but the european nations as you just said they are considering no fly zone however made to. decide that they will not take even that action without your and resolution being approved by the united nations and i think

that's a wise decision on may those parts but what about nato draw in resolving the libyan crisis there's a kind of an impression isn't it that the alliance and its allies don't really know what to do but is true because the ground war is not really clear. there is some confusion on how the leadership of the country and also there is a confusion as to what's happening in tripoli more or the leadership is not well known around the west and that's why they are suspicious sometimes so the million dollar question but we don't have much time in your view what is the best way to deal with the situation in libya now. i think they should leave all art without any military intervention at all because the arabs wants to own it and higher resolution without interference with the from the west it would be detrimental and it will have really terrible consequences for the us what about the

notion of this much more than humanitarian concern behind western nations activity in libya with a beer with this be much more who would we see as much mobilization i.e. if oil wasn't involved in this region is no question well it's clearly. other oil producing companies there are contacts there i they have vital interest to the west and the united states so that's really the reason is the oil some former senator chuck hagel in the united states said there was an awful appearance there they wish we would have not considered. oshima senior analysts to institute a policy studies in the gulf of maryland thanks been program and our coverage of the japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami continue here on t.v. we're going to take a break from the coverage now that to bring you up to date on the latest business from moscow.

welcome to business plans economy is said to suffer significantly after being hit by one of the biggest earthquakes in its history now with massive blackouts the country's infrastructure is paralyzed some companies like toyota sony honda and nissan i've already holds its operations too early to gauge the exact economic impact with japan central bank has stepped up efforts to provide ample liquidity however devaney stocks reacted negatively to major losses posed in the final minutes of trading on friday in tokyo benchmark nikkei ended at a five week low shedding almost two percent b.n. also lost ground reacting reaching its lowest level in two weeks against the dollar but then regaining positions hong kong stocks also fell as you can see there one hundred percent quake comes the day after that was biggest one day drop since august therefore it was modestly negative open in the united states our first but now as you can see the dow and nasdaq came back into positive ground despite

worries over the global economy. continues to for its plans refiners shut down processing plants is the world's largest consumer light sweet down one whole building so that brant russian stocks the client preferred day as a result of this oil russia's main revenue and of course the oil it tumbled after the. trading session roughly one percent down one of the mice exposed to the percent. of the russian equity market had a relatively challenging week we started off at fifty two week highs which will prices a fifty two week highs and then after that risk aversion reappeared a lot of western investors are concerned about the downgrade in the credit ratings in greece and spain by moody's they're concerned with the instability in the middle east in how that me i mean oil prices stay elevated for higher than it was longer

than expected and thirdly they're concerned about the economic follow from this giant earthquake an accompanying tsunami in japan. right in just a few moments kevin will be back with a recap of what's going on and that's you know if you seconds. down the official ante up location i phone the i pod touch from the accused armstrong. like on the. video on demand keys mind bold colors and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. mission on the dot com wealthy british science.