Radiation falls at Japanese plant

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Radiation levels have fallen at Japan's earthquake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the government says.

The levels had spiked to harmful levels after a fire and a third explosion at the site.

Weather reports say winds are blowing radiation from the plant, on Japan's north-east coast, over the Pacific.

Friday's 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami devastated Japan's north-east coast, with more than 3,000 confirmed dead and thousands missing.

Officials have warned people within 20-30km of the nuclear plant to either leave the area or stay indoors.

Further strong aftershocks - one of 6.1-magnitude centred south-west of Tokyo - continue to rock the country.

Friday afternoon's earthquake was the strongest in Japan since records began to be kept. It hit the north-east of the main island of Honshu and triggered a powerful tsunami that devastated dozens of coastal communities.
The latest official death toll from the quake and tsunami stands at more than 3,000 - but thousands of people are missing and it is feared at least 10,000 may have been killed.
More than 500,000 people have been made homeless.
The government has deployed 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort.
Explosions The crisis at the Fukushima plant - which contains six nuclear reactors - has mounted since the earthquake knocked out the cooling systems.
Explosions rocked the buildings housing reactors one and three on Saturday and Monday.
On Tuesday morning a third blast hit reactor two's building. A fire also broke out at a spent fuel storage pond at the power plant's reactor four.

That reactor had been shut down before the quake for maintenance, but its spent nuclear fuel rods were still stored on the site.

Officials said the explosions were caused by a buildup of hydrogen.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said they were closely watching the remaining two reactors at the plant, five and six, as they had begun overheating slightly.
He said cooling seawater was being pumped into reactors one and three - which were returning to normal - and into reactor two, which remained unstable.
Japan's nuclear safety agency said earlier it suspected the blast may have damaged reactor two's suppression chamber, which would have allowed radioactive steam to escape.
The head of the UN's nuclear agency - the International Atomic Energy Agency - said there was a "possibility of core damage" at reactor two.
"The damage is estimated to be less than five percent," Reuters news agency quoted Yukiya Amano as saying.
The IAEA chief added that the nuclear emergency was "worrying", but much different from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says damage to the core or its container would make it a more serious incident than the previous explosions, which were thought just to have damaged the buildings housing the reactors.
Rolling blackouts
Radiation levels in the Japanese capital - 250km away - were reported to be higher than normal, but officials said there were no health dangers.
Tokyo residents have been stocking up on supplies, with some stores selling out of items such as food, water, face masks and candles.
Mariko Kawase, 34, told AFP news agency: "I am shopping now because we may not be able to go out due to the radiation."
Radiation levels in Chiba prefecture, next to Tokyo, were 10 times above normal levels, Kyodo News reported. Tokyo city officials said the radiation later fell to closer to normal levels.
After Tuesday's blast, radiation dosages of up to 400 millisieverts per hour were recorded at the Fukushima Daiichi site, about 250km north-east of Tokyo.
A single dose of 1,000 millisieverts causes temporary radiation sickness such as nausea and vomiting.

Three other nuclear power plants shut down automatically during Friday's earthquake and are in a safe and stable condition, the IAEA reported on Tuesday.

The loss of so much generating capacity in one blow has meant rolling blackouts have had to imposed for parts of Tokyo.
In other developments:

• An elderly man was pulled out from a collapsed building in Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture, 96 hours after the disaster
• A 70-year-old woman was rescued after 92 hours from rubble in the coastal town of Otsuchi
• Airlines from Asia and Europe - including Germany's Lufthansa, Air China and Taiwan's EVA Airways - halted flights to Tokyo
• The Nikkei share index tumbled again, ending 10.55% lower, as the central bank pumped almost $100bn (£62bn) more cash into the financial system, a day after its record $183bn intervention
• Ninety-one countries have offered aid to Japan, ranging from blankets to search dogs and military transport aircraft

Japan has also announced a 30-km no-fly zone around the site to prevent planes spreading the radiation further afield.