Clashes were also reported in the city’s main square and university.
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Troops from a number of Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have arrived in Bahrain in response to a request from the small Gulf kingdom, officials say.
It comes a day after the worst violence since seven anti-government protesters were killed in clashes with security forces last month.
Dozens of people were injured on Sunday as protesters pushed back police and barricaded roads.
Bahrain’s opposition said the foreign troops amounted to an occupation.
A Saudi official said about 1,000 Saudi Arabian troops arrived in Bahrain early on Monday.
The troops are part of a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) deployment, a six-nation regional grouping which includes Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
It is believed they are intended to guard key facilities such as oil and gas installations and financial institutions.
Bahrain’s Shia majority has long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Sunni ruling elite, but large-scale protests broke out last month after the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were toppled in uprisings.
In a statement issued before the arrival of the GCC troops was confirmed, the Shia-led opposition said: “We consider the arrival of any soldier, or military vehicle, into Bahraini territory… an overt occupation of the kingdom of Bahrain and a conspiracy against the unarmed people of Bahrain.”
King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifah has offered dialogue with the protesters but they have refused, saying they want the government to step down.
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An Oscar-winning special effects expert is cleared of health and safety breaches over the death of a cameraman during filming of the last Batman film.
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The BBC reconsiders plans to close digital station the Asian Network saying “no decisions have been made”.
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Tokyo resident Luke Cummings gives a first hand account of what he experienced when he arrived in Sendai to help with the relief effort.
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The German government’s decision to extend the lives of nuclear plants has aroused deep hostility
Germany has responded to the Japanese nuclear crisis by suspending for three months a plan to extend the lives of its ageing nuclear power stations.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government announced last year that the country’s 17 power stations would close around 12 years later than planned.
The government has faced growing calls for the extension to be scrapped.
The EU has called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to review safety measures at nuclear reactors.
In a statement, the EU said it wanted to assess the Japanese situation and the EU’s state of preparedness “in case of similar incidents”. It said the aim was to get “first-hand information on contingency plans and safety measures in place.”
The Swiss government also announced on Monday that it was suspending its nuclear plans because safety was its first priority.
Switzerland currently has four nuclear plants with five functioning reactors and the country’s regulatory authorities have now frozen the regulatory process for a further three sites.
However, Polish PM Donald Tusk said his country would go ahead with its plans to build two new plants, noting that Poland did not have the same risk of earthquakes as Japan.
The German decision to suspend the controversial extended life policy for 17 power stations came after growing political pressure.
Tens of thousands of people took part in demonstrations in Germany at the weekend against the Berlin government’s nuclear policy. They formed a 45km (27mi human chain) in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg from Stuttgart to one of the power plants affected by the nuclear extension policy.
German voters go to the polls in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democrats are faring badly in opinion polls.
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Dramatic pictures have emerged of how Friday’s tsunami unfolded, moving everything it its path.
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The oil town of Brega has changed hands several times in the past few days
Rebel forces in Libya say they have re-taken the eastern oil town of Brega, capturing a number of elite government troops and killing others.
The statement has not been independently confirmed.
It came hours after the rebels had themselves been driven from the town by air and ground attacks by forces loyal to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Elsewhere, the rebel-held town of Ajdabiya is reported to have come under heavy aerial bombardment.
On the diplomatic front, France is stepping up its efforts to persuade the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.
The rebel statement admitted that they have no answer to Col Gaddafi’s air power, and backed demands for a no-fly zone, says the BBC’s Jon Leyne in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.
Those demands can only get louder if and when Col Gaddafi’s forces come closer to the major population centre of Benghazi, our correspondent says.
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By Stephen Evans
Germany’s decision to extend the lives of 17 power stations has attracted large protests
The immediate concern is how to contain the crisis in Japan’s nuclear plants. But thoughts are also turning to the future and, in the world’s two big industrial blocs, the politics of nuclear power has already changed.
In Germany, there’s already been a long debate about what to do with the country’s 17 nuclear power stations. Last October, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government decided, with much opposition, to extend their lives by another 12 years so that the last one is now due to be closed in 2035.
That fractious debate has now reopened. The political difficulty for Mrs Merkel is that support for the Greens had already been rising in her heartland just as important elections take place.
In two weeks, the voters of Baden Wuerttemberg go to the polls. This is her natural territory. It has been controlled by the Christian Democrats for decades but Japan’s disaster may now change that.
On Saturday, a previously scheduled anti-nuclear demonstration in the region attracted tens of thousands more than expected. That evening, the chancellor met her ministers to discuss the Japanese events and announced that safety standards in Germany would be reviewed.
But her dilemma is how to answer concerns without undoing her policy.
In France, too, the debate has changed.
“It begs the question of the need for civil nuclear power. Is it not time to sound the alarm?”
Daniel Cohn-Bendit Green Euro MP
France gets 75% of its energy from nuclear power, exporting the excess and earning useful currency by so doing.
In addition, some in government want to sell French reactors to emerging economies.
Greenpeace immediately called for a reversal of this nuclear policy which France embraced in the 1970s after the “oil shock” when the price of oil jumped.
The group Sortir du Nucleaire protested by the Eiffel Tower, unfurling banners saying “Nuclear is killing the future”.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who is a member of the European Parliament for the Green Party, told French radio that there should be a national referendum on the country’s dependence on nuclear power. “It begs the question of the need for civil nuclear power,” he said. “Is it not time to sound the alarm?”
This is difficult for the government because France’s dependence is so great.
France has 58 reactors in 19 plants and gets 75% of its energy from nuclear power
Three-quarters of its electricity is generated by nuclear power stations. The country has 58 reactors in 19 plants, second only to the United States in its use of nuclear. In addition, France has been eyeing markets in developing countries which might want to buy reactors.
French industry minister Eric Besson pointed out that France did not have the same risk of earthquake as Japan: “All French nuclear plants have been designed with seismic risk and flooding risk factored in.”
But he added (in a phrase which may be a template for pro-nuclear politicians): “We don’t wait for an accident to happen in Japan to raise the question over here – but this doesn’t mean that we can’t re-evaluate the situation.”
Austrian environment minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said he would ask his fellow ministers in the European Union to approve “a stress test of nuclear plants” – similar to stress tests on banks where extreme situations are imagined by computers.
In the United States, too, the debate has changed. At the moment, President Obama is in pro-nuclear agreement with Republicans. He believes that nuclear power provides a relatively cheap form of energy, and one which doesn’t produce global warming gases like coal, gas and oil-fired power stations do.
Even environmental groups in the United States, unlike in Europe, believe that nuclear power has a place because of its light carbon footprint.
But this was a fragile consensus and it is hard to see how it won’t now come under pressure. Over the weekend, Senator Joseph Lieberman told CBS programme Face The Nation: “I think it calls on us here in the US, naturally, not to stop building nuclear power plants but to put the brakes on right now until we understand the ramifications of what’s happened in Japan.”
The New York Times quotes Jason Grumet, an adviser to President Obama, from the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington: “It’s not possible to achieve a climate solution based on existing technology without a significant reliance on nuclear power.”
The United States has recently witnessed disasters with oil in the Gulf of Mexico and coal with the mining disaster a year ago in West Virginia which claimed 29 lives, and both underlined the cost of alternatives to nuclear.
But Japan may tip back the balance of debate. As Mr Grumet put it: “The accident certainly has diminished what had been a growing impetus in the environmental community to support nuclear power as part of a broad bargain on energy and climate policy.”
The problem for pro-nuclear governments is that explosions at nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most advanced economies must play strongly in the public mind, whatever the assurances of safety and cool calculations of costs, benefits and risk.
The debate has changed.
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The Japanese port town of Minamisanriku was completely wiped out by the Friday’s tsunami, with the scale of the devastation just becoming clear some 72 hour later.
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Derrick Bird killed 12 people and injured 11 others before turning the gun on himself.
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“Extreme” pornography was found on the computer of gunman Derrick Bird by police, an inquest heard.
The taxi driver was also described by a former girlfriend at the hearing as cold and “emotionally void”.
Judith Fee, who had a six-year relationship with Bird, said he headbutted her after she tackled him about ogling other women.
After his shooting rampage in west Cumbria, police found extreme internet pornography on his computer.
The 52-year-old killed 12 people and injured 11 before shooting himself on 2 June 2010.
In a statement read out to the inquest into the deaths, Ms Fee said he did not support her when her sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“Derrick’s feelings on the matter was that it’s life and I had to get on with it,” she said.
“He seemed emotionally void and when I needed him the most, he wasn’t there for me.”
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Property developer Mr Tchenguiz was questioned by police earlier this month
Some of the holding companies behind Vincent Tchenguiz’s Peverel Group have been put into administration.
Peverel Limited, Peverel Group Limited, Aztec Opco Developments and Aztec Acquisitions have all been put into administration.
The administrator, Zolfo Cooper, has pointed out that the move only affects these holding companies and not the group’s operating companies.
Peverel is the UK’s largest property management company.
Property developer Mr Tchenguiz was arrested and questioned by police earlier this month. He was later released the same day.
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Two people were hurt in the Stockholm blasts in December
A 30-year-old man who was arrested in Glasgow in connection with a suicide bombing in Sweden has been charged with terrorism offences.
Strathclyde Police said the man, a foreign national, faced various charges under the Terrorism Act.
He was arrested following a police raid at a block of flats in the Whiteinch area of the city on Tuesday 8 March.
The man, who has not been named, is expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Two people were hurt in two explosions in Stockholm in December. A man with an explosive device was later found dead.
The Stockholm bomber was named as 28-year-old Iraqi-born Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly.
He had settled in Luton with his wife Mona, with whom he had three young children – two girls and a boy.
He previously attended the University of Bedfordshire.
The attack was believed to be the first suicide bombing in Sweden’s history.
Detectives have been investigating whether Abdulwahab was supported by others or acted as a lone attacker.
The Swedish Security Service said the 30-year-old man’s arrest in Glasgow was made following collaboration between Scotland and Sweden.
He was detained six days ago after a dawn raid on the 19th floor of a high-rise block of flats in Whiteinch.
At the time, the Strathclyde force said there was no direct threat to Scotland.
They confirmed the man was a foreign national and that the arrest was part of an intelligence-led operation into the attack in Sweden in December 2010.
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David Cameron: “Every day Gaddafi is brutalising his own people”
Imposing a no-fly zone over Libya is “perfectly deliverable”, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
Mr Cameron, who attended an EU meeting on the country’s crisis on Friday, said his fellow leaders were “crystal clear” Col Muammar Gaddafi should go.
He told MPs the Libyan leader was “brutalising” his people and there must be “no let-up of pressure”.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband said the government had to “translate the ‘no-fly zone’ phrase into a plan”.
Britain and France are spearheading moves to prevent further air attacks on rebels by forces loyal to Col Gaddafi.
But other countries are more cautious about the idea of any military intervention in Libya.
In a statement to the Commons, Mr Cameron said there had been “progress” at the European Council.
He added that there “should be tougher measures against [foreign] mercenaries [employed by the Gaddafi regime to fight rebels] and the states from which they come”.
Mr Cameron said Col Gaddafi was “brutalising his own people and that “with time of the essence, there should be no let-up of pressure on this regime.
“We’ve seen the uprising of a people against a brutal dictator and it will send a bad signal if their aspirations are crushed,” he said.
“Do we want a failed pariah state festering on Europe’s border? Of course we do not want that.”
The prime minister also said: “Work has been done within the UK to look at options… [A no-fly zone is] perfectly deliverable… [if it is] as widely supported as possible.”
But Mr Miliband said: “It seems to us now that the priority must be to translate the ‘no-fly zone’ phrase into a plan.”
The prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters that no decision on action against Libya was expected when the United Nations Security Council meets later in New York.
He described discussions as “orientational”, with a possible no-fly zone, the freezing of assets and sanctions against countries sending mercenaries to Libya among the measures to be discussed.
Asked about what the government would do if Col Gaddafi were to prevail, the spokesman replied: “Our position is that he shouldn’t.”
Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight major world powers are meeting in Paris to consider whether to back calls for a no-fly zone over Libya.
The Arab League supports a UN mandate but Russia has so far opposed military intervention and the US, Italy and Germany have also voiced reservations.
The UN Security Council is expected to consult on the proposal later.
In the Commons, Mr Cameron announced that more than 600 UK citizens had been evacuated from Libya since the crisis began, with around 250 still there.
Meanwhile, increased sanctions meant the value of Libyan assets frozen in the UK had risen from £2bn to £12bn.
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By Richard Black
In Tokyo, Tepco officials formally apologised for the Fukushima incident
The fuel rod exposure at Fukushima Daiichi number 2 reactor is potentially the most serious event so far at the plant.
A local government official confirmed the fuel rods were at one point largely, if not totally exposed; but we do not know for how long.
Without coolant around the rods, temperatures can rise to levels hot enough to melt metallic components over a prolonged period.
This opens the possibility of a serious meltdown – where molten, highly radioactive material from the reactor core falls through the floor of the containment vessel and into the ground underneath.
However, engineers appear to have restored some water flow into the reactor vessel and if they are successful, temperatures will begin to fall again rapidly.
What the incident illustrates is the ad-hoc nature of the operation being mounted at Fukushima.
An official with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which runs the site, said seawater was being pumped in both by fire engines and via the system installed to extinguish fires in the power station’s turbine hall.
“Meltdown wouldn’t be a good scenario, but much better it does that than explodes”
Paddy Regan Surrey University
He told BBC News that the use of this methodology had never been foreseen – it had been invented by the team on the ground at Fukushima.
Even the mere use of seawater in this way is an extraordinary step to take.
According to the main Japanese news agency Kyodo, the rods were exposed when the flow of seawater into reactor number 2 stopped simply because a fire pump ran out of fuel.
With the entire region of Honshu island reportedly low on fuel and other vital supplies, a key question is whether plans are in place to keep the power station supplied with diesel.
With reactor 2, what is not yet known is how long the rods were exposed to the air, and what temperatures were reached.
In the absence of cooling, temperatures in the core could rise up to 2,000C (3,600F), said Paddy Regan, professor of nuclear physics at the UK’s University of Surrey – hot enough to melt the zirconium cladding that surrounds the fuel rods.
In addition, the zirconium reacts at these temperatures with water molecules to form hydrogen.
This makes the cladding more brittle and likely to fall away from the rods.
The fuel itself – being in the form of ceramic pellets – should not directly melt, although the hotter it gets the more likely it is that steam can leach out radioactive substances from the pellets.
A nightmare scenario for any nuclear plant is a total meltdown – where the molten core collapses in the bottom of the steel containment vessel and heats it so much that it falls through.
This possibility was highlighted by the 1979 incident at Three Mile Island in the US – and dramatised in the contemporary movie The China Syndrome.
The steel containment vessel, though, is designed to withstand temperatures substantially higher than 2,000C – so is meltdown a realistic possibility?
“It is possible,” Professor Regan told BBC News.
“It didn’t happen at Three Mile Island, though.
“If it did happen, it would still be localised; it wouldn’t be a good scenario, but much better it does that than explodes.”
The key issue for technicians in the plant now is to get enough water into the reactor to bring the temperature down again.
Further releases of mildly radioactive steam from the containment vessel are likely, because the hot core will vapourise much of the water that is injected.
Releasing the steam is also the main way to take heat out of the vessel.
Tepco is reportedly considering making holes in the roof of the reactor 2 building so hydrogen released with the steam will not collect and lead to a third explosion.
The chain of failures illustrates the capacity of events such as this massive earthquake and tsunami to overwhelm systems that are designed to be “redundant” – to have more than one means of doing the same thing.
Displaced residents of the Fukushima area were taken to evacuation centres
The earthquake caused Fukushima Daiichi and other power stations to shut down – taking away the electricity driving the reactors’ cooling systems.
Back-up was supposed to come from diesel generators.
They cut in – but then cut out again after about an hour, probably due to being overwhelmed by water from the tsunami, although Tepco has not confirmed this.
The diesels themselves were backed up further by batteries, but these were designed to function only for eight hours.
When they ran out, nothing else was available.
Reports say that five fire pumps were then deployed to provide water, but that the explosions in buildings 1 and 3 knocked four of them out of action.
Meanwhile, devastation from the tsunami as well as the fear of aftershocks means simply driving new pumps or fuel to the site is much more difficult than it would be under normal circumstances.
All this is already providing material for anti-nuclear groups to argue that no nuclear facility can be designed to be completely safe.
This is manifestly correct; but the same is true for any industrial operation.
Supporters of nuclear power will point to the fact that so far casualties number just a few, that engineers have so far – however desperately – been able to confine the problem, and that far fewer people die each year from nuclear accidents than in coal-mining.
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