Tsunami in Japan

This is of course anything anyone has been talking about since I woke up tonight. It is pretty horrific but the worst might not be over yet.

Check this out:

UPDATE 1-Japan trying to fix nuclear plant cooling problem

8:08am EST

(Adds details)
TOKYO, March 11 (Reuters) - A cooling system for a nuclear reactor was not working after a powerful earthquake in Japan, prompting the government to declare an emergency situation as a precaution although it said there was no radioactive leakage at present.
Residents that live within a 3 km radius of Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been told to evacuate, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.
TEPCO confirmed that water levels inside the reactors at its Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant were on a falling trend, but added it was working to maintain water levels to avert the exposure of nuclear fuel rods.
The company has been trying to restore power to its emergency power system so that it can add water to the inside of the reactors, a TEPCO spokesman said. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Writing by Edwina Gibbs; Editing by Joseph Radford)

 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/japan-quake-reactor-idUSL3E7EB1K020110311

A New Egypt

 

Mubarak has finally stepped down. He has ceded power to the upper level of the military. This is the second successful uprising in the Arab world in the last few months. The rest of the repressive and totalitarian leaders are probably watching their own populations very closely.

Egypt, along with Tunisia, has been an overwhelming success for the power of the general public. Arab leaders will be more cautious in the future. The fact that an uprising can appear so spontaneously and unseat the most entrenched leaders in weeks has to give them a little caution in their decision making.

This is a positive force for good in the region, regardless how their government turns out.