The death toll in Joplin, Missouri rose on Tuesday to 123 after a tornado ravaged the Midwestern city, leaving scores injured and missing. The exceptionally powerful twister, with winds of nearly 200 mph, is the deadliest to hit the US since 1947.
Tepco, the operator of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, confirmed Tuesday that fuel rods at three of its reactors had partially melted early in the crisis triggered by a March quake and tsunami, though only one meltdown had been reported at first.
At least 116 people have been confirmed dead in the city of Joplin, in south-west Missouri, after a massive storm system spawned tornadoes across the Midwest.
US President Barack Obama has arrived in Tuscaloosa, a small Alabama town devastated by powerful tornadoes, to pledge federal support and have a close-up look at the worst US natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Japan's government approved a budget of $48.5 billion Friday to help fund reconstruction efforts after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami left much of the country in ruins.
BP has filed a $40 billion lawsuit against Transocean, the operator of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig, alleging the disastrous explosion on the oil rig was due to the firm’s "misconduct". The company also filed suit against Halliburton and Cameron.
One year after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig spewed 206 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the US is preparing to mark the anniversary of what has since been called the worst oil spill in history.
A vicious storm system has ripped through the South and East Coast of the United States, spawning tornadoes and flash floods that have claimed at least 43 lives, officials said on Sunday.
Japanese police began searching on Thursday for victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in a 10-kilometre radius around the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, which has been dubbed a "no-man's land".
Japanese nuclear monitors, citing levels of radiation leaks, now judge the post-earthquake nuclear crisis to be as severe as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
