(Associated Press: 0448 PST, March 18, 2011) Japan's nuclear safety agency raised the severity rating of the country's nuclear crisis from level four to level five on the seven-level international scale, putting it on par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.

Japan's Nuclear Crisis Deepens

(Al Jazeera English: 0800 PST, March 18, 2011) As Japan's nuclear safety commission upgrades the situation at the earthquake-damaged Fukushima plant to a level five on the seven-level International Nuclear Events Scale, the country's prime minister says circumstances remain grave.

Justin Dargin, nuclear analyst and research fellow at the Dubai initiative, tells Al Jazeera of the wider implications of Japan's ongoing emergency.

More information about the Sendai Earthquake from Wikipedia

Google Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake

Find out what you can do to help in the saving and rebuilding of lives in Japan

(Euronews: 0710 PST, March 17, 2011) Heavy snow is now blanketing northern Japan, making life even more difficult for those who survived last week's earthquake and tsunami. Emergency teams from around the world have come to do what they can in what is now more a case of recovery than rescue.

Official figures put the numbers of dead and missing at around 15,000. But this is likely to be a huge underestimation. Despite the death toll and freezing temperatures, the rescuers are refusing to give up.

More information about the Sendai Earthquake from Wikipedia

Google Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake

Find out what you can do to help in the saving and rebuilding of lives in Japan

(Euronews: 0720 PST, March 17, 2011) Army helicopters have once more been dumping sea water on the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in north-eastern Japan. They are concentrating on Reactor Number 3, trying desperately to bring down the temperature.

Japanese television broadcast some pictures shot from 35 kilometers away. The helicopters are taking off from a military base in Sendai. For days, people here and at the site itself have been working tirelessly to avert an environmental catastrophe.

Fallout Fears Force Foreigners to Flee

(Euronews: 0702 PST, March 17, 2011) Foreigners are packing their bags and heading out of Japan as many distrust government announcements about the true state of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Those gathering at Tokyo's Haneda and Narita airports say the earthquakes don't worry them, but nuclear fall out does: "They want to tell people it is safe. I personally feel that when stuff gets in the air, and the wind blows it around, I don't know which side of the exclusion zone would be safe," said one man on his way back to South Africa.

More information about the Sendai Earthquake from Wikipedia

Google Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake

Find out what you can do to help in the saving and rebuilding of lives in Japan

(Al Jazeera English: 0950 PST, March 16, 2011) With tens of thousands still missing along the country's north-east coast, battered by the earthquake and tsunami, rescue workers face an extra challenge in their already tough job - the snow. Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reports as the temperatures plummet in the worst-hit regions, where thousands have been made homeless.

More information about the Sendai Earthquake from Wikipedia

Google Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake

Find out what you can do to help in the saving and rebuilding of lives in Japan

(Associated Press: 0918 PST, March 16, 2011) Emergency crews were forced to retreat from Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant Wednesday after a spike in radiation. The pullback cost precious time in the fight to prevent a nuclear meltdown.