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Should traffic lights only flash amber at quiet times?

Could drivers be seeing much more of flashing amber?

Portsmouth is considering the use of a flashing amber signal on traffic lights during quiet periods, in an effort to aid traffic flow. So how safe is a flashing amber light?

Drivers who sit at a red traffic light on an empty road can sometimes feel a little frustrated.

Such discontent felt by motorists in Portsmouth has prompted the city council to look into the use of continuous flashing amber signals on traffic lights at quiet times.

It could be the first of many places to adopt such a change. For some time, the Department for Transport has been researching the impact this would have.

A driver faced with a flashing amber traffic light would be expected to cross the junction with caution after fully assessing the risks posed by other traffic and pedestrians.

The association of caution with an amber signal is already quite strong. A flashing amber at a pelican crossing advises the driver to give way to pedestrians and then proceed with caution.

And at traffic lights, a solid red and amber together precedes a green light, meaning drivers should prepare to set off, and a single solid amber light also precedes a red signal, to warn drivers not yet at the junction that they will have to stop. In the UK it is legal to pass through an amber light.

“Some will rush through the light and others will stop”

Maria McCarthy Motoring journalist

The proposals being looked at are already used in much of Europe, where a continuous flashing amber signal is coupled with a direction arrow to inform drivers who has priority when turning at an intersection.

Simon Moon, head of transport and street management at Portsmouth City Council, says residents had asked that traffic flow be improved and one recommendation had been the use of flashing ambers at traffic lights.

“The Department for Transport would need to authorise any trial, so we will be approaching them with a proposal to carry out a trial or join any that may be planned. An integral part of any trial would be ensuring pedestrians have the same level of safety and protection.”

Earlier this year, Transport Minister Norman Baker told the Commons he was looking at various options for traffic signalling during quieter periods of the day and the flashing amber signal was one of the techniques being considered.

Amber outside the UK

Italy, France, Germany, Australia and the US are among the countries to use a variation of the flashing amber system at night.

Some countries have give way signs near the lights for when they are set to flashing amber.

In Italy and parts of the US, at night traffic lights emit a flashing amber signal in directions with priority while the intersecting road shows a flashing red light

He said the key to any changes would be the ability to “ensure that any signalling technique provides a consistent and unambiguous message to all road users”.

He said that currently there was scope for confusion because they are strongly associated with pelican crossings and that any trials would require legislation to be amended. His department’s research is due to be published later this year.

As well as improving traffic flow and easing frustrations at quiet times, a flashing amber could also mean a drop in harmful emissions due to less waiting time at traffic lights. However, there are concerns about road safety.

Motoring journalist Maria McCarthy says: “The worry with any ‘give way’ system [at flashing ambers] is it depends on the temperament of the individual driver, as some will rush through the light and others will stop. It is also vital to choose which junctions would be used very carefully, ensuring they have suitable visibility.”

Andrew Howard, head of road safety at motoring organisation AA, says the idea had merits but he expressed deep concern about isolated pilot schemes because drivers could become confused about priority at junctions.

“The idea that drunks and young [reckless] drivers are going to get to the flashing lights after midnight and say ‘after you’ is nonsense.”

Although he did concede changes may result in environmental benefits, Mr Howard believes this positive is far outweighed by the possible impact upon road safety.

The road safety charity Brake has also condemned the plans. Spokeswoman Julie Townsend says proposed changes could “cause a great deal of confusion among drivers and pedestrians”.

Interestingly, there is evidence that traffic lights turned off completely result in no compromise of safety, because drivers take great care in negotiating the junction.

Devon County Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council have declared an interest in turning their traffic lights off overnight, with the former claiming savings of up to £300,000 on maintenance could be made over a two-year period.

But it remains to be seen what impact a continuous flashing of the amber signal would have on drivers’ behaviour.

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11. IanKemmish

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7. Amelia

Well this definitely won’t work in Aberdeen (assuming they try it). Drivers routinely ignore amber lights (even if they have time to stop) and some seem to treat red lights as ‘advice for other drivers’.

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Osprey ‘Lady’ returns to reserve

The osprey has nested at the reserve for 21 consecutive years

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An osprey thought to be the oldest breeding female ever recorded in the UK has returned to its nest at a wildlife reserve in Perthshire.

“Lady” has nested at the Loch of the Lowes reserve near Dunkeld for 21 consecutive years.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) feared the bird would not survive its migration to Africa last year after becoming weakened by illness.

But the charity said it had now “positively identified” Lady.

Wildlife experts said a close-up image of the bird’s iris seen from the camera trained on the nest had enabled them to confirm the identity of the osprey.

The news comes after an unidentified bird was spotted landing on the reserve’s nesting site at 1210 BST on Monday, where it remained for no more than a few minutes before disappearing from the area until dusk.

Robert Potter, from the SWT, said: “As our resident female osprey is not ringed the only way to positively identify her is to view a close-up image of her iris, which has distinctive markings.

“To get the close-up image required, we need the bird to sit on the nest for a reasonable length of time in daylight hours.

“Last year, we thought this bird would die on her nest but, at the eleventh hour, it managed to regain its strength”

Robert Potter Scottish Wildlife Trust

“At the first possible opportunity, we used the camera to zoom in on the bird. To our delight and astonishment, the close-up allowed us to confirm that this bird is, in fact, our resident female osprey, known by many as ‘Lady’.”

Mr Potter said the osprey was an “incredible specimen of nature”.

Lady suffered a bout of ill health in June 2010 and experts feared the bird would die when it stopped eating.

But thousands of people, watching via the webcam, witnessed the osprey’s sudden recovery days later.

Female ospreys live an average of eight years and produce about 20 chicks in that time. Lady has produced 56 eggs and has now seen 48 fledge.

Mr Potter added: “Last year, we thought this bird would die on her nest but, at the eleventh hour, it managed to regain its strength.

“Today, despite the odds, it looks healthy after just completing a 3,000-mile migration from West Africa.”

Bird experts and webcam viewers will now be watching keenly for the return of a male, which the trust expects to happen within the next week.

The charity said the “big question” on everyone’s lips was whether the bird would be fertile enough to breed this year.

Female ospreys generally lay two to four eggs in early April. They then hatch about six weeks later.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Obama defends Libya intervention

President Barack Obama: ”Broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake”

US President Barack Obama has defended the first war launched under his presidency, insisting US military involvement in Libya will be limited.

He told Americans US intervention as part of the coalition had saved “countless lives” threatened by the forces of the “tyrant” Muammar Gaddafi.

But having led the initial campaign, the US would hand over to Nato allies on Wednesday, he said.

Meanwhile, the rebel advance inside Libya has been slowed down near Sirte.

While Nato insists it is impartial in the conflict, Russia has renewed its expressions of concern, saying intervention in an internal civil war is not sanctioned by UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

Some 40 delegations – from the coalition, the UN, Nato, the African Union and Arab League – are preparing to meet in London on Tuesday to discuss the way forward for Libya.

“Tonight, I can report that we have stopped Gaddafi’s deadly advance,” Mr Obama said, speaking from the National Defense University in Washington DC.

Analysis

Critics on the left and right in the US are asking why their country is involved in Libya.

President Obama answered them in this major address, his first speech on Libya since action started some 10 days ago.

He said he had ordered military intervention to enforce the UN resolution because if the coalition had waited one more day, there could have been a massacre in Benghazi that would have stained the conscience of the world, eclipsed the dawning democratic impulses across the region and crippled the credibility of the UN.

He said he had refused to wait for images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.

But the president also addressed the limits of action: he said there was no question that the world would be better off with Gaddafi out of power but to broaden military aims to regime change would splinter the coalition and mean US troops on the ground.

But the lead in enforcing the no-fly zone “and protecting civilians on the ground” would now move to US “allies and partners”.

“Because of this transition to a broader, Nato-based coalition, the risk and cost of this operation – to our military, and to American taxpayers – will be reduced significantly,” Mr Obama said.

“We must always measure our interests against the need for action,” the president continued.

“But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what’s right…

“We were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. We had a unique ability to stop that violence: an international mandate for action, a broad coalition prepared to join us, the support of Arab countries and a plea for help from the Libyan people themselves.”

He said that to broaden the aims of the military mission in Libya to overthrowing Col Gadaffi would be a mistake. The US, he said, had gone down that road in Iraq and could not afford the cost in lives, time and money again

Earlier on Monday, Mr Obama spoke by video conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister David Cameron as part of his regular consultations with European allies.

The leaders agreed that Col Gaddafi “had lost any legitimacy to rule and should leave power, and that the Libyan people should have the political space to determine their own future”, a White House statement said.

Anti-Gaddafi rebels have seized a number of coastal communities and important oil installations in recent days, including Ras Lanuf, Brega, Uqayla and Bin Jawad.

However, repeated attacks by government troops have prevented them reaching Sirte, a symbolic target for the rebels as the birthplace of Col Gaddafi.

Bombardments of the road between Bin Jawad and Nawfaliyah reportedly sent the rebels fleeing back towards Bin Jawad.

Nato has denied its air strikes are meant to provide cover for a rebel advance.

Sir Emyr Jones Parry, a former British ambassador to Nato and the UN, dismissed concerns voiced by Russia as “puritanical”.

“Fundamentally, you’re protecting civilians and to do that, you’ve got to get at the sources of the attack and make sure that they are negated,” he told the BBC.

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Mali cheers Gaddafi footballers

Supporters of Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi reacts during a march in Bamako on Friday 25 March 2011

There have been several marches in support of Muammar Gaddafi in recent weeks in Bamako

Thousands of Malians turned out to cheer on Libya’s football team in an African Cup of Nations qualifier in Mali’s capital.

The match was held in Bamako because of security concerns in Libya.

About 20,000 Malians turned out to watch the game, many carrying posters protesting against the Western-led military intervention in Libya.

“We were very touched by the Malian crowd,” captain Tariq Ibrahim al-Tayib told the BBC after beating Comoros 3-0.

Bamako-based journalist Martin Vogl says Mali’s government has a close relationship with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and he enjoys a lot of support in the country.

After each goal at the game on Monday evening, the crowd shouted: “Gaddafi! Gaddafi,” he said.

Mr Tayib said that several players had not been able to play because they were based in Benghazi, the main town held by forces fighting Col Gaddafi.

But he said there were no political divisions in the national football side.

“The whole team is for Muammar Gaddafi,” he told the Associated Press.

On Friday, thousands of Libyans took to the streets of Bamako to show their support for Libya’s long-time leader – marching in protest to the French and US embassies against their involvement in the military campaign against Col Gaddafi.

France, the US and UK started bombing pro-Gaddafi forces earlier this month after a UN Security Council resolution was passed backing action to protect civilians.

Col Gaddafi had vowed to wipe out protesters who were demanding that he leave power after 42 years.

The intervention stopped pro-Gaddafi forces from attacking Benghazi.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Australian PM’s computer ‘hacked’

Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard

The cyber attacks are believed to have been on the Australian Parliament House email network

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Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s parliamentary computer and those of at least two senior ministers are suspected of being hacked, according to a newspaper report.

The government was alerted to the security breach by a US intelligence tip-off, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said.

It is reported that several thousand emails may have been accessed from the computers of at least 10 ministers.

The Australian authorities have refused to confirm or deny on the reports.

The cyber attacks are believed to have targeted the Australian Parliament House email network, the less secure of two networks used by MPs.

Among the computers allegedly breached were those belonging to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Stephen Smith.

Reports suggest the hackers may have been trying to access information on Australia’s lucrative mining industry.

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph quoted four unnamed government sources as saying Chinese intelligence agencies were among a number of suspected hackers.

The government says it will not comment on specific intelligence matters.

However, Attorney-General Robert McClelland said that the Australian authorities were “constantly strengthening cyber security measures”.

The US recently said China’s cyber-warfare capabilities were formidable, though China routinely denies hacking claims.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Live – New Zealand v Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka make a fast start to their reply as they chase New Zealand’s total of 217 all out in their World Cup semi-final in Colombo.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Welbeck called into England squad

Sunderland striker Danny Welbeck is called into the England squad for Tuesday’s international friendly against Ghana at Wembley.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Death rates ‘higher’ in youth

The new report says mortality rates are now higher for teenagers than for children

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Premature deaths are now more likely to occur in adolescence and early adulthood than in childhood, a new global report claims.

The study in The Lancet looked at data from 50 countries – rich, middle-income and poor – over 50 years.

It found that while mortality rates had fallen overall, rates were now relatively higher in teenagers and young adults, than in young children.

Violence, suicide and road accidents are being blamed.

The new study shows death rates among young people have fallen dramatically over the last 50 years across the globe.

Mortality in children aged one to nine has fallen by some 90%, thanks largely to fewer deaths from infectious disease.

“The teenage years were the healthiest time of our life. It’s no longer true”

Dr Russell Viner University College London

But it is not all good news. Mortality rates have not been dropping as fast among teenagers and young adults. Violent deaths are on the rise in both young men and women in real terms, and suicide rates have also risen among young men.

Road deaths continue to take their toll too, according to the report.

This means that although mortality rates have fallen overall, they are now higher among teenagers and young adults than in children.

Young men aged 15-24 are now two to three times more likely to die prematurely than young boys aged one to four, the researchers claim.

“Modern life is much more toxic for teenagers and young people,” says Dr Russell Viner of University College London, who led the study. “We’ve had rises in road traffic accidents, rises in violence, rises in suicide which we don’t see in young children.

“The teenage years were the healthiest time of our life. It’s no longer true.”

This might not be the complete picture. The study doesn’t take into account the poorest countries from sub-Saharan Africa, because the data was not available, say the researchers.

There are also regional variations. There was a peak in suicide rates observed during the post-communist countries in the late 1990s, for instance, while suicide rates have started to fall in rich countries in recent years.

But Dr Viner says trends first seen in the West are now being seen in developing countries, as the move to cities brings benefits and risks to the urban young.

“It seems that economic development, the move to cities, increasing urbanisation and social dislocation are actually quite toxic for our young people in terms of mortality,” he says.

Co-author Dr Michael Resnick, of the University of Minnesota, told the BBC: “What is clear is that the greatest threats to young peoples’ health, outside of living in extreme poverty and in ‘hot zones’ of infectious disease and war, stem from the behaviours in which young people engage, and the contexts in which they find themselves.”

He said governments had to focus “on violent neighbourhoods, extreme impoverishment and lack of access to fundamental resources and services, and the hopelessness that comes from utter lack of prospects and opportunity”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Amazon unveils cloud music player

Cloud Player users get 5Gb of storage, but can buy up to 1Tb

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Amazon has unveiled an online music service that lets users upload songs and play them from a range of devices.

The internet retailer launched its Cloud Player in the US, ahead of rivals Apple and Google which are rumoured to be developing similar systems.

Users are given 5Gb of storage space, roughly equivalent to 1,200 tracks, but can opt to pay for additional capacity.

Cloud Player works with Blackberry, Palm and Android mobiles, although there is no support for Apple’s iOS.

Commenting on the launch, Amazon’s vice president of movies and music, Bill Carr said: “Our customers have told us they don’t want to download music to their work computers or phones because they find it hard to move music around to different devices.”

Although a number of smaller cloud music services already exist, such as mSpot and AudioBox, Amazon is the first of the big technology companies to venture into this area.

Speculation has been rife that Apple would launch a cloud based version of iTunes since it purchased the online music service Lala in December 2009.

It is widely expected that its offering will come as part of a broader re-launch of the MobileMe platform.

Google, which already offers cloud services in the form of Gmail and Google Documents, is also believed to be testing a music storage system, or “locker”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

AUDIO: Briton in Libya ‘willing to die for freedom’

The BBC’s Kevin Connolly interviews a British Libyan about why he is willing to fight for Libya. And Lord Goldsmith analyses the legal situation of war in Libya.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Cities ‘feeling heat of climate’

Graphic showing Europe at night (Image: Science Photo Library)

In industrialised nations, urban living is demands more water, natural resources and energy

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Urban areas are set to become the battleground in the global effort to curb climate change, the UN has warned.

The assessment by UN-Habitat said that the world’s cities were responsible for about 70% of emissions, yet only occupied 2% of the planet’s land cover.

While cities were energy intensive, the study also said that effective urban planning could deliver huge savings.

The authors warned of a “deadly collision between climate change and urbanisation” if no action was taken.

The Global Report on Human Settlements 2011, Cities and Climate Change: Policy Directions, said its goal was to improve knowledge of how cities contribute to climate change, and what adaption measures are available.

Worrying trend

Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat, said the global urbanisation trend was worrying as far as looking to curb emissions were concerned.

“We are seeing how urbanisation is growing – we have passed the threshold of 50% (of the world’s population living in urban areas),” he told BBC News.

“There are no signs that we are going to diminish this path of growth, and we know that with urbanisation, energy consumption is higher.

According to UN data, an estimated 59% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2030.

Every year, the number of people who live in cities and town grows by 67 million each year – 91% of this figure is being added to urban populations in developing countries.

The main reasons why urban areas were energy intensive, the UN report observed, was a result of increased transport use, heating and cooling homes and offices, as well as economic activity to generate income.

The report added that as well as cities’ contribution to climate change, towns and cities around the globe were also vulnerable to the potential consequences, such as:

Increase in the frequency of warm spells/heat waves over most land areasGreater number of heavy downpoursGrowing number of areas affected by droughtIncrease in the incidence of extremely high sea levels in some parts of the world

Southern Africa is considered to be one of the areas at most risk from the impacts of climate change

The authors also said that as well as the physical risks posed by future climate change, some urban areas would face difficulties providing basic services.

“These changes will affect water supply, physical infrastructure, transport, ecosystem goods and services, energy provision and industrial production,” they wrote.

“Local economies will be disrupted and populations will be stripped of their assets and livelihoods.”

A recent assessment highlighted a number of regions where urban areas were at risk from climate-related hazards, such as droughts, landslides, cyclones and flooding.

These included sub-Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia, southern Europe, the east coast of South America and the west coast of the US.

Time to act

Dr Clos told BBC News that while climate change was a problem that affected the entire world, individual towns and cities could play a vital role in the global effort to curb emissions.

“The atmosphere is a common good, which we all depend upon – every emission is an addition to the problem,” he explained.

But, he added: “Consumption is carried out at an individual level; energy consumption is also an individual choice.

“This is why local governments and communities can a big role, even when their national governments do not accept or acknowledge the challenges.”

The report called on local urban planners to develop a vision for future development that considered climate change’s impact on the local area.

It said that it was necessary to include mitigation measures (reducing energy demand and emissions) as well as adaptation plans, such as improving flood defences.

In order to achieve the most effective strategy, it was necessary for urban planners to seek the views of the local community, including businesses and residents.

However, the UN-Habitat authors said international and national policies also had a role to play in supporting urban areas.

These included financial support, reducing bureaucracy and improving awareness and knowledge of climate change and its possible impacts.

Dr Clos was launching the report on Monday evening at an event in central London, hosted by the London School of Economics.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Third of high blood pressure fake

Having blood pressure checked by a doctor can make the reading spuriously high

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A third of hard-to-treat high blood pressure may actually be ‘fake’ and instead a patient’s nervous response to being seen by a doctor, say experts.

They made the discovery when they continuously monitored the blood pressure of nearly 700,000 people as they went about their normal lives.

Some 37% of 8,295 patients thought to have stubborn or resistant hypertension actually had “white coat” hypertension.

The experts call for mandatory 24-hour checks, Hypertension journal reports.

The NHS advisory body NICE has recently proposed that patients suspected of having high blood pressure will get another check at home because of fears that nerves from being at a GP surgery may be leading to too many people being diagnosed.

It says so-called white coat hypertension affects a quarter of all people.

“Patients benefit by knowing whether their blood pressure is normal during daily activities or still needs the reinforcement of dietary and drug measures”

The study authors

But the latest research suggests that the phenomenon may be more common and is leading some people to have aggressive medical treatment that they may not actually need.

Resistant hypertension occurs when a patient’s blood pressure remains above treatment goals, despite using three different types of drugs at the same time.

It was these patients that the researchers focused on.

They asked the patients to wear a portable “ambulatory” monitoring device that takes blood pressure readings every 20 minutes day and night.

This revealed only 63% had true resistant hypertension. These tended to be patients who either smoked or had diabetes or a heart condition.

Study leader Dr Alejandro de la Sierra, from the University of Barcelona in Spain, said: “Physicians should be encouraged to use ambulatory monitoring to confirm resistant hypertension in their patients as it would ensure the most effective treatment options are used.

“Patients benefit by knowing whether their blood pressure is normal during daily activities or still needs the reinforcement of dietary and drug measures.”

Ellen Mason, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said the findings suggest that medication can work for more people than realised.

“Visiting the doctor seemed to make some people falsely appear resistant to the effects of these drugs so the study was helpful in trying to identify which people seemed to be truly resistant and therefore more at risk of organ damage.

“It also adds weight to new draft guidelines to include a home blood pressure test for hypertensive patients here in the UK.”

But she said: “More worryingly though, nearly half of us who do have high blood pressure in the UK are not being treated for it.

“While the increasing use of home blood pressure monitoring is helpful for some, it will not target those who are unaware of the silent condition because it may have been many years since they had their blood pressure taken or because they simply think they are not at risk.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ponting resigns as Aussie captain

Ricky Ponting resigns as Australia Test and one-day captain but says he wants to play on for the team, ahead of the tour of Bangladesh.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Japan on ‘maximum’ nuclear alert

8-year-old Ayami Suzuki is tested for possible nuclear radiation, Fukushima, northern Japan March 28, 2011

Japan is in for the long haul in coping with nuclear fallout from the 11 March earthquake

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said his government is in a state of maximum alert over the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Plutonium was detected in soil at the facility and highly radioactive water had leaked from a reactor building.

Officials in China, South Korea and the United States have recorded traces of radioactive material in the air.

Earlier, Japan’s government strongly criticised the plant’s operator, Tepco, over mistaken radiation readings.

Mr Kan told parliament the situation “continues to be unpredictable”.

The government “will tackle the problem while in a state of maximum alert,” he said.

Speaking on Tuesday about how the government might fund relief and recovery efforts, Mr Kan said: “We need to pursue various possibilities.”

Scrapping a planned cut in corporate taxes was one option under consideration, he added.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said: “The situation is very grave.”

“We are doing our utmost efforts to contain the damage.

“We need to avoid the fuel rods from heating up and drying up. Continuing the cooling is unavoidable… We need to prioritise injecting water,” he said.

Correspondents say the government has been accused of indecision and delay.

A child holds bottled water in Tokyo, Japan (24 March 2011)

Q&A: Health effects of radiation

The Environmental Protection Agency in the United States said it had detected traces of radiation in rain water in the north east of the country.

It said these were consistent with the Fukushima nuclear accident and also said they did not constitute a health hazard.

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has said that “extremely low-level” doses of iodine-131, a radioactive material, have been found in coastal areas including Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong and Guangxi.

It had already reported traces of the radioactive material in the air above the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.

However, the doses were so small as to not pose a threat to public health and no measures against it were necessary, the agency statement said.

Water and food is being tested for radiation; bans on some imported Japanese foodstuffs remain in place.

In Vietnam, the Thanh Nien newspaper has reported that Vietnamese scientists have found small amounts of radiation in the air.

The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety said it had detected traces of iodine-131 in Seoul and seven other places across South Korea.

However, an agriculture ministry official told AFP that “no trace of radiation has been found so far either in our own fish or those imported from Japan”.

FUKUSHIMA UPDATE (28 MAR)Reactor 1: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas explosion. Highly radioactive water detected in reactorReactor 2: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage suspected. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor and adjoining tunnelReactor 3: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage possible. Spent fuel pond partly refilled with water after running low. Highly radioactive water detected in reactorReactor 4: Reactor shut down prior to quake. Fires and explosion in spent fuel pond; water level partly restoredReactors 5 & 6: Reactors shut down. Temperature of spent fuel pools now lowered after rising highQ&A: Fukushima radiation alert A new way to look at radiation

Highly radioactive water has been found for the first time outside one of the reactor buildings at Fukushima plant.

The leak in a tunnel linked to the No 2 reactor has raised fears of radioactive liquid seeping into the environment.

Plutonium has also been found in soil at the plant, but not at levels that threaten human health, officials say.

Tepco later said that plutonium had also been detected in soil at five locations at the plant but not at levels that represented a risk to human health.

It said the results came from samples taken a week ago and would not stop work at the plant.

Plutonium was used in the fuel mix for only one of the six reactors, No 3.

On Sunday ,Tepco said radiation levels at reactor No 2 were 10 million times higher than normal, before correcting that figure to 100,000.

“Considering the fact that the monitoring of radioactivity is a major condition to ensure safety, this kind of mistake is absolutely unacceptable,” said Mr Edano.

Tepco has been criticised for a lack of transparency and failing to provide information more promptly and for making a number of mistakes, including worker clothing.

Workers are battling to restore power and restart the cooling systems at the stricken nuclear plant, which was hit by a quake and tsunami over two weeks ago.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake on 11 March and the powerful tsunami it triggered is now known to have killed 10,901 people, with more than 17,000 people still missing.

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Relics revelations

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They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave. They could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born.

A group of 70 or so “books”, each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.

A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin.

“As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck”

Philip Davies Sheffield University

The Israeli Bedouin who currently holds the books has denied smuggling them out of Jordan, and claims they have been in his family for 100 years.

Jordan says it will “exert all efforts at every level” to get the relics repatriated.

The director of the Jordan’s Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, says the books might have been made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his crucifixion.

“They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than, the Dead Sea Scrolls,” says Mr Saad.

“Maybe it will lead to further interpretation and authenticity checks of the material, but the initial information is very encouraging, and it seems that we are looking at a very important and significant discovery, maybe the most important discovery in the history of archaeology.”

The texts might have been written in the decades following the crucifixion

They seem almost incredible claims – so what is the evidence?

The books, or “codices”, were apparently cast in lead, before being bound by lead rings.

Their leaves – which are mostly about the size of a credit card – contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.

If the relics are of early Christian origin rather than Jewish, then they are of huge significance.

One of the few people to see the collection is David Elkington, a student of ancient religious archaeology who is heading a British team trying to get the lead books safely into a Jordanian museum.

He says they could be “the major discovery of Christian history”, adding: “It’s a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church.”

He believes the most telling evidence for an early Christian origin lies in the images decorating the covers of the books and some of the pages of those which have so far been opened.

Mr Elkington says the relics feature signs that early Christians would have interpreted as indicating Jesus, shown side-by-side with others they would have regarded as representing the presence of God.

“It’s talking about the coming of the messiah,” he says.

“In the upper square [of one of the book covers] we have the seven-branch menorah, which Jews were utterly forbidden to represent because it resided in the holiest place in the Temple in the presence of God.

“So we have the coming of the messiah to approach the holy of holies, in other words to get legitimacy from God.”

Philip Davies, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament Studies at Sheffield University, says the most powerful evidence for a Christian origin lies in plates cast into a picture map of the holy city of Jerusalem.

“As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck. That struck me as so obviously a Christian image,” he says.

“There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city. There are walls depicted on other pages of these books too and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem.”

The books were bound by lead rings

It is the cross that is the most telling feature, in the shape of a capital T, as the crosses used by Romans for crucifixion were.

“It is a Christian crucifixion taking place outside the city walls,” says Mr Davies.

Margaret Barker, an authority on New Testament history, points to the location of the reported discovery as evidence of Christian, rather than purely Jewish, origin.

“We do know that on two occasions groups of refugees from the troubles in Jerusalem fled east, they crossed the Jordan near Jericho and then they fled east to very approximately where these books were said to have been found,” she says.

“[Another] one of the things that is most likely pointing towards a Christian provenance, is that these are not scrolls but books. The Christians were particularly associated with writing in a book form rather than scroll form, and sealed books in particular as part of the secret tradition of early Christianity.”

The Book of Revelation refers to such sealed texts.

Another potential link with the Bible is contained in one of the few fragments of text from the collection to have been translated.

It appears with the image of the menorah and reads “I shall walk uprightly”, a sentence that also appears in the Book of Revelation.

While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism, it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection.

It is by no means certain that all of the artefacts in the collection are from the same period.

But tests by metallurgists on the badly corroded lead suggest that the books were not made recently.

The archaeology of early Christianity is particularly sparse.

Little is known of the movement after Jesus’ crucifixion until the letters of Paul several decades later, and they illuminate the westward spread of Christianity outside the Jewish world.

Never has there been a discovery of relics on this scale from the early Christian movement, in its homeland and so early in its history.

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