• Officials watch for body bombs on US bound planes (ABC news)
• Occupy activists breathe new life into May Day (The Nation)
• Why you should be worried about the California mad cow case (Mother Jones)
  
• Number of painkiller addicted newborns soars (USA Today)
• New world trade center surpasses Empire State Building (CBS News)
• Why is safety a divisive issue for nuclear regulatory commission? (Los Angeles Times)
• Wind farms warming earth in Texas: Turbines mixing air at night could affect local climate and farming (Discovery)
• CMS:  Obama healthcare law has saved seniors $34 billion on prescription drugs (The Hill)
• Romney: Osama hit was easy call (The Hill)

• Mexico passes crime victims’ law (BBC)
• 2-horse race in final stretch for Egypt presidency (Reuters)
• Ugandan army says Sudan is backingJoseph  Kony’s  LRA (BBC)
• Tokyo soil samples would be considered nuclear waste in U.S. (Fairewinds)
• Transcript: Obama hails 'light of a new day' in Afghanistan

By Higuchi Takayuki

April 16, 2011 (Tokyo)—After living in San Diego for three years, while I attended grad school at SDSU and worked as an intern for East County Magazine, I returned home to Tokyo and now live about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from where the powerful 9.0 earthquake struck. My friend, a student in Sendai, witnessed the devastation first-hand near the epicenter of the quake, then experienced a harrowing survival following the tsunami.

Each person has his or her own story in life. Yet, often we are too busy to share it. Strangely, a tragedy like this gives us the opportunity to show we are each a piece of a moment in time. So, I would like to share our stories.

U.S., other nations issue travel warnings for Japan; France and Germany advise citizens to leave Tokyo

By Miriam Raftery

March 13, 2011 (San Diego) – Over 200,000 people have been evacuated from a 20-mile radius around nuclear plants at Fukushima, Japan, where cooling system failures have caused partial core meltdowns at two reactors and a third remains at risk. A fourth nuclear plant at Onagawa has declared a low-level emergency due to radiation detected.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan calls the combined impacts of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis the “worst since World War II.” France and Germany warn citizens to get out of Tokyo, citing radiation fears. Numerous nations include the U.S. advise against non-essential travel to Japan. The International Skating Union has announced it may cancel next week’s Worlds figure skating championships in Tokyo, 140 miles from the Fukushima reactors.