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Detractors say the F-35 stealth fighter, the costliest military plane ever, is destined to go down as one of the biggest follies in aviation history. But it may have found a savior: deep-pocketed U.S. allies hungry to add its super high-tech capabilities to their arsenal.
The devastating March tsunami and shift of manufacturing overseas plunged Japan's trade account into the red for the first time since 1980. Experts said the years of Japan running massive trade surpluses are likely over.
It's getting a bit more crowded under the sea in Asia, where Andrew Peterson commands one of the world's mightiest weapons: a $2 billion nuclear submarine with unrivaled stealth and missiles that can devastate targets hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.
Fukushima was just emerging from the snows of winter when the disaster hit — a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the strongest in Japan's recorded history, followed by a tsunami.
North Korea's newly minted leader presents the U.S. and its allies with an even more unknown character than his recently deceased father — and the strategic challenge of dealing with an inexperienced young man who sits on a nuclear arms program, a stash of chemical weapons and the world's fourth-largest army.
Japan's government on Tuesday selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter to bolster its aging air force, announcing it will buy a total of 42 aircraft under a multiyear deal.
Sebastian Vettel knows there's work coming up. But that doesn't mean the youngest racer to win two straight Formula One titles can't belt out a few numbers at a karaoke bar.
It is a daunting task. Contamination from the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl has spread far and wide, across fields and farms, rivers and forests. Tens of thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes.
Japan's system to forecast radiation threats was working from the moment its nuclear crisis began. As officials planned a venting operation certain to release radioactivity into the air, the system predicted Karino Elementary School would be directly in the path of the plume emerging from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan's administration announced Thursday it was firing three senior nuclear policy officials amid scandals suggesting Japan's government had grown too cozy with the nuclear power industry.
Japan intervened in the foreign currency market Thursday and its central bank engineered a monetary boost, landing a one-two punch to knock the yen from levels that threaten the country's post-disaster recovery.
Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday called for a long-term and careful effort to scale back the nation's reliance on nuclear power over the next four decades and make more use of solar energy and other renewable power sources.
When Unit 2 began to shake, Hiroyuki Kohno's first hunch was that something was wrong with the turbines. He paused for a moment, then went back to logging the day's radioactivity readings.
Her village is irradiated, but Shigeko Nikaido says she isn't going anywhere.
Life in evacuation shelters is taking a severe psychological toll on those left homeless by Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami, a situation likely to worsen as tens of thousands face the prospect of staying at least the rest of the year in temporary housing.
The U.S. is developing aircraft carrier-based drones that could provide a crucial edge as it tries to counter China's military rise.
Though earthquakes can't be predicted, experts say an early warning system that detects the earth's rumblings before they can be felt saved countless lives when Japan's once-in-a-millenium disaster struck two months ago.
Under a brilliant, cloudless sky, a half-dozen cows and a pony wander freely, batting the flies off their ears and chewing on fresh green sprouts. A pair of friendly Shiba dogs — cautious for just a moment — trot up and wag their tails, expectantly awaiting scraps of food. At the entrance to Main Street is a sign with the town's motto: "Nuclear Power is the Energy of a Bright Tomorrow."
Workers battling the crisis at Japan's stricken nuclear plant suffer from insomnia, show signs of dehydration and high blood pressure and are at risk of developing depression or heart trouble, a doctor who met with them said Wednesday.
After nearly two weeks of uncertainty, the recommendation finally came on Monday: Evacuate.
The farmhouse sits at the end of a mud-caked, one-lane road strewn with toppled trees, the decaying carcasses of dead pigs and large debris deposited by the March 11 tsunami.
The Odaka neighborhood seems frozen in time since it was abandoned after the tsunami nearly a month ago: Doors were left hanging open and bicycles were abandoned. A lone taxi sits in front of the train station. Mud-caked dogs roam empty streets, their barking and the cawing of crows the only sounds.
At the edge of a no man's land around Japan's tsunami-slammed reactor complex lies a grassy athlete's village that now serves as base camp for an army of workers battling the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Since World War II, Japan's military has never been involved in combat. Its forces have never fired a shot in war. But few are questioning their value now.
Bundled up against the wind, Junpei Endo gets off his bicycle, sets it on its kickstand and ponders the dusty mementos he has collected in its wire basket. There is a stained and torn photo album. A few magazines. An old Pentax SLR camera. The kind that still uses film.
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