International

The Japanese nuclear crisis has sparked a call to review European nuclear strategies.

Germany has closed down seven of its nuclear power plants built before 1980 and is reconsidering its nuclear strategy. 

The reactors will be taken offline and the country is to carry safety checks on the remaining plants, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said. 

King Hamad of Bahrain has proclaimed a three-month state of emergency, a day after a Saudi-led military force entered the country to help put down protests.

The king had instructed the commander of the armed forces to restore order using the army, police forces, units of the National Guard and "any other force" if necessary.

Armed forces have been sent from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates into Bahrain, the home of the US Fifth Fleet.

Communities all across Japan are facing rolling blackouts and food shortages in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that crippled Japanese resources.

The rationing will affect millions of people along the north east coast of Honshu, spreading further south than Tokyo.

The government decided to conserve energy following the damage inflicted upon several of the country's nuclear reactors.

Investors are using gold as a safe haven in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake.

They are swinging away from dollars and other currencies into hard assets in the face of global political and financial uncertainty,.

The huge reconstruction effort will enhance gold’s appeal as a hedge against inflation, since much of Japan’s infrastructure was destroyed by the disaster.

The Japan market index has declined as investors began to panic over the risky economic outlook.

The Bank of Japan stepped in earlier to provide short-term liquidity and expand an asset-purchase programme. But it failed to control investor panic as stocks and commodities dropped.

The loss of confidence in Japanese government bonds as a result of the quake became overwhelming as nuclear plants were rocked by further explosions and a fire.

The earliest modern humans are now thought to have come from the Kalahari desert in southern Africa.

This contradicts the old theory that humans had originated from eastern African plains of Ethiopia and Sudan, after a new study by Stanford University.

Scientists studied the genes of the southern African bushmen and found that they had the most diverse DNA they had ever seen. This suggests that they are the direct descendents of the first recognisable modern people.

At least 20 people have been killed and more than 120 injured in a car bomb attack at a gas station in Faisalabad.

The bomb caused several gas cylinders at the station to explode, destroying cars and buildings. Police said that the number of dead could rise as many of the injured were in a critical condition.

Heavy diggers and cranes have been brought in because there are believed to be survivors still trapped in the debris.

Elephants may never forget but now it seems they can now also grasp the need to co-operate. This palces them in an "elite group" of intelligent and socially complex animals.

Researchers from Cambridge University built apparatus originally designed to carry out the same experiment on chimps. The test consisted of two elephants having to work together, by each pulling a rope in order to tug a platform towrds them.

International pressure is building from Britain and France to place a no-fly zone over Libya.

Forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi have dropped missiles on the oil port of Ras Lanuf, although there are no reports of immediate casualties this new attack has sparked further condemnation.

As western countries are drafting a no-fly zone resolution for the United Nations Security Council, the Libyan government claim that these countries have their own incentives for intervening.

The EU is to preside over the first high-level talks between Serbia and Kosovo since Pristina declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.

Belgrade has described the progress as "a historic reconciliation", although the Serbian capital still refuses to recognise the independence of its former province.

The talks in Brussels will include trade relations, customs and property records and are believed to have come about as a result of pressure from the EU.  It is seen as progress towards the eventual EU membership of the two countries.