For the Japanese to wheel out their Emperor to make a televised address on the nuclear crisis is virtually unprecedented.

Jim Eagles travels to the edge of civilisation, and stands on the brink of ... nothingness.

Two New Zealand rescue workers in Japan have had to be decontaminated after they were found to have been exposed to radiation after landing at the Fukushima airport.

People in New Zealand do not need to worry about radiation poisoning should a quake-damaged nuclear power plant in Japan suffer catastrophic meltdowns, an expert says.

New Zealand's Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team in Japan are settled in the northern part of the country and about to start work helping to find survivors of Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

The Philippines government wants extra compensation for the families of its citizens killed in the Christchurch earthquake if inquiries find the Canterbury TV building was not up to scratch.

Live TV coverage from Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Yoshimi Okazaki lost her home and job in the Christchurch quake. Now her loved ones are missing in the devastating Japanese quake and tsunami.

Chinese parents who lost their only child in last month's Christchurch earthquake will not be getting special compensation, Prime Minister John Key says.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker says the thoughts of his quake-stricken city are with Japan following Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake which devastated much of the country and left thousands dead.

Japanese officials have confirmed a second hydrogen explosion has occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, while a warning of a second tsunami has been cancelled.

More than half a million people have been forced from their homes in quake and tsunami-hit northern Japan, petrol has run dry and supermarkets are empty in what its prime minister says is the worst crisis to hit Japan since WWII.