Some 40 minutes later, a Japanese government official stressed at a news conference that the explosion had not resulted in leakage of radiation, even while ordering residents within 20 kilometers of the plant to evacuate.

FORBES: Dispatch From Tokyo: In Wake Of Disaster, Japan Is At War

Power shortages have become a major issue in Pakistan, with the government ordering an investigation into a nation-wide power cut on Sunday blamed on a technical fault in a plant in south-western Balochistan province.

BBC: Pakistan-Iran pipeline work 'to begin on 11 March'