They were designed after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster by GIE Intra, a company owned by EDF Energy, which is masterminding Britain's nuclear rebuilding. A plane took off from Paris last night with 130 tons of the robot vehicles, some as large as tanks. Also on board were six EDF engineers who can control the robots from six miles away.

Tepco hopes to restore power to all six reactors tomorrow, which would allow the site's water cooling pump system to be restarted. Workers are also drilling holes in roofs to prevent gas explosions.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he will file a complaint at the UN after Saturday's unusually large barrage. In a statement, Lieberman said the Palestinians "primary goal is destroying Israel." The violence comes amid increasing calls for reconciliation between Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his bitter rivals, the Islamic militant group Hamas. Abbas is seeking UN recognition for a Palestinian state by the fall and is currently lobbying for votes worldwide.

Hamas used force to disperse a reconciliation rally in Gaza. Some reporters were later beaten up, threatened and briefly detained. Israeli police spokesman Tamir Avtabi said Gaza militants fired 54 mortar shells at Israeli border communities within 15 minutes. He said two Israeli civilians were lightly wounded by shrapnel and residents were advised to stay at home or in bomb shelters.

Hayim Yellin, head of the Eshkol region where the mortars exploded, said they were of the same type as those intercepted on a cargo ship last week loaded with weapons Israel said were sent by Iran to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Hamas acknowledged it launched some of the mortars - an unusual move as the Islamic militant group does not usually take responsibility for such attacks. Hamas fears triggering another Israeli invasion similar to a three-week operation aimed at stopping daily Palestinian shelling two years ago that killed about 1,400 Palestinians.

Israeli police said the mortar barrage Saturday was the heaviest since that round of fighting.

One of the organisers, Zaid Ali, 22, a British-born Iraqi from Wembley, London, said: 'We're supporting the peaceful protesters and we're supporting them because they're seeking democracy. They want their rights - one man, one vote. We want the British government to put pressure on the Bahraini government to either give people their rights or run away and leave them alone.'

'Let them set up their own government, let them vote for who they want in their own government. They don't want dictators any more and that's simply what this is. The fact they are shooting unarmed civilians in the street and they have called in a foreign army to repress and attack their own people is completely unacceptable. We're also here to send a message to the British government, that it is a complete travesty that they are backing these dictators and makes an utter mockery of any notion that Britain stands in favour of liberation and democracy.'

But on Friday and Saturday something changed. Several thousand Syrians publicly gathered to cast off that yoke by calling for greater freedoms. The extraordinary protests took place across several cities; in Dara'a in the south, Banias, along the Mediterranean, in the capital Damascus at the renowned Umayyad Mosque, and in Homs - not to be confused with Hama, site of a merciless crackdown in the 1980s against the Muslim Brotherhood by Bashar's late father, former President Hafiz Assad. Tens of thousands of people were killed in that uprising, which still remains a potent reminder of the price of rising against the Assads.

It's unclear exactly how many people were killed on Friday in Dara'a after police opened fire on the crowd. Some media reports say six, others five. On Saturday, police in Dara'a reportedly fired tear gas at thousands of mourners taking part in a funeral procession for two protesters killed the day earlier, Wissam Ayyash and Mahmoud al-Jawabra. Mazen Darwish, a Syrian human rights activist just released after spending several days in custody, told the media that Dara'a has been cordoned. The police were letting people leave but not to return into the town.

Assad has moved quickly to tamp down unrest in Dara'a, according to Ayman Abdel Nour, a prominent Syrian dissident and former political prisoner who now edits www.all4syria.info from Dubai. The 45-year-old president has ordered the release of those detained in Friday's protests, and sent a high-ranking Baath delegation to offer his condolences. "Ten bodies were delivered to their parents," Abdel Nour told TIME. "It is the start of a Syrian revolution unless the regime acts wisely and does the needed reforms," he says. "It will continue in all cities, even small groups, but the brutality the regime will use - it will show its Gaddafi face, the one it has been trying to hide for the last 30 years after the Hama massacres," Abdel Nour says, referring to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

US President Barack Obama condemned the violence, urging Mr Saleh to allow peaceful protests. In a statement, he said those responsible for Friday's violence "must be held accountable". Separately, France demanded an end to attacks "by security forces and armed pro-government groups... against people exercising their rights to free speech and demonstration", Reuters reports.

Yassin Noman, rotating president of Yemen's umbrella opposition group, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying there was "no longer any possibility of mutual understanding" between the protesters and President Saleh, and he should resign. Another opposition spokesman, Mohammad al-Sabri, accused Mr Saleh of presiding over a "massacre".

A doctor treating the injured said "This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen today," he told the Associated Press news agency. Photographs from Sanaa showed bloodstained, injured people being carried through crowds on stretchers or in men's arms. Other photos showed a row of dead bodies, with injuries which appeared to be consistent with bullet wounds, laid out in a mosque.

Yemen is one of a number of countries in the region that have seen unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts. Thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in cities including Sanaa, Aden, Taiz and elsewhere, calling for corruption and unemployment to be tackled and demanding the president step down. Some 40% of the population live on $2 (1.20 pounds) a day or less in the country, and a third face food shortages.

When it came down to the crunch, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle decided that Germany should side with China and Russia. Together, the three members of the United Nations Security Council abstained from Thursday's vote on a resolution to impose a no-fly zone on Libya. It is a curious political development, to say the least.

The trio makes for strange bedfellows. There is Germany, a democracy which puts great store in the rule of law and human rights, siding with a communist, one-party dictatorship and a country with a dubious track record on political freedoms. On the other side are Germany's traditional allies - the United States, France and Britain - not to mention parts of the Arab and African world. Lebanon had been one of the countries presenting the resolution, which was backed by the Arab League. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have already said they would take part in a military operation, according to UN diplomats.

And despite the Libyan regime's move on Friday afternoon to declare a cease-fire - at least for now - and inviting international observers into the country, Berlin's move could have lasting repercussions. Although Berlin has not blocked military action by abstaining, the German government has marginalized itself. It is effectively telling its allies: You will have to deal with this one alone - we're not going to help you.

Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the plant's six. It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the sprawling 40-year-old complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not work. "It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.

Even if engineers restore power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the pumps may be too damaged from the earthquake, tsunami or subsequent explosions to work. The first step is to restore power to pumps for reactors No. 1 and 2, and possibly 4, by Saturday, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, Japan's nuclear safety agency spokesman.

And in the rebel-controlled east, the government declaration was dismissed as a ruse or a sign Gaddafi was desperate. "We have to be very cautious. He is now starting to be afraid, but on the ground the threat has not changed," a French spokesman said. Britain, like France a strong advocate of armed action, said it would judge Gaddafi by "actions, not his words".

Turkey, an opponent of military action, said the ceasefire should go into effect immediately. "We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations," Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa told reporters in Tripoli on Friday, after the UN Security Council passed a resolution authorising military action.

He called for dialogue with all sides. Gaddafi had vowed to show "no mercy, no pity" on Thursday, and rebels pleaded for foreign aid before time ran out.

The crisis was prompted by last week's huge quake and tsunami, which has left at least 17,000 people dead or missing. Japanese nuclear officials said core damage to reactors 2 and 3 had prompted the raising of the severity grade. The 1979 incident at Three Mile Island in the US was also rated at five on the scale, whereas the 1986 Chernobyl disaster was rated at seven.

Further heavy snowfall overnight all but ended hopes of rescuing anyone else from the rubble after the 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami. Millions of people have been affected by the disaster - many survivors have been left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food; hundreds of thousands are homeless.

Fractured Fukushima

Reactor 1: Fuel rods damaged after explosion last Saturday

Reactor 2: Damage to the core, prompted by a blast on Tues, helped prompt raising of the nuclear alert level

Reactor 3: Contains plutonium, core damaged by explosion on Monday; roof blown off building; water level in fuel pools said to be dangerously low

Reactor 4: Hit by explosion on Tuesday, fire on Wednesday; roof blown off building; water level in fuel pools said to be dangerously low

Reactors 5 & 6: Spent fuel pool temperatures way above normal levels

It was passed as troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi advanced on the rebel-held second city of Benghazi. Before the announcement of the ceasefire, heavy fighting between pro-Gaddafi forces and rebels was reported to be continuing. Rebels said government forces had also been bombarding the western city of Misrata, and there are unconfirmed claims that this has continued despite the ceasefire announcement.

UN Security Council Resolution 1973 gave broad backing to taking military action against all threats to civilians, which could include bombing Colonel Gaddafi's forces on the ground if necessary. Ms Kussa said Libya, as a member of the UN, was "obliged to accept the UN Security Council's resolutions".

The ceasefire announcement came only hours after Colonel Gaddafi had insisted that the Security Council had "no mandate" for such a resolution, "which we absolutely do not recognise. This is not a war between two countries that permits the council to intervene," he said in an interview on Portuguese television. The UN Charter "does not permit interference in domestic affairs", he added. The Libyan military had previously warned that civilian and military activities in the Mediterranean would become "the target of a Libyan counter-attack" following any foreign operation.

Critics said it was further evidence that banks had become divorced from reality, especially in the wake of RBS's 1.1 billion pounds financial loss. The bank's annual report revealed that 323 'key staff' shared a pay and bonus pot of 375 million pounds last year. More than 100 employees made seven-figure sums and the overall average was 1.16 million pounds each - 46 times the national average salary of 25,000 pounds. Ellen Alemany, chief executive of RBS's American arm Citizens, was on 1.78 million pounds - a salary swollen to 7.5 million pounds by bonus and pension payments.

David Cameron, who is on 142,500 pounds, and his entire Cabinet put together are paid less than half that sum. RBS boss Stephen Hester picked up 7.7 million pounds.

Last night, Lord Oakeshott, former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: 'It is high time that RBS got a grip on the biggest supporting cast since Ben Hur.'

The warning was issued after America formally backed a joint British and French initiative for a no-fly zone over Libya and other military action against Colonel Gaddafi's regime. Amid growing international concern at the deteriorating situation in the country, the first bombing raids, possibly by unmanned drones, could happen as early as today. There were reports last night that the first attacks would be unilateral actions by British and French air forces with logistical support from Arab states.

The United Nations was meeting to discuss the plan as Colonel Gaddafi's troops massed on the outskirts of Benghazi, the last stronghold of rebel fighters. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said that a no-fly zone would involve bombing ground targets. "A no-fly zone requires certain actions taken to protect the planes and the pilots, including bombing targets like the Libyan defence systems," she said during a visit to Tunisia.

"Gaddafi must go," she added, calling him "a ruthless dictator that has no conscience and will destroy anyone or anything in his way." In a statement, the Libyan defence ministry warned of swift retaliation against foreign intervention. "Any foreign military act against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea to danger and civilian and military [facilities] will become targets of Libya's counter-attack," it said.

Three reactors have had at least partial meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, where wisps of white steam rose from the stricken units Friday morning. But Japanese and US officials believe a greater danger exists in the pools used to store spent nuclear fuel: Fuel rods in one pool were believed to be at least partially exposed, if not dry, and others were in danger. Without water, the rods could heat up and spew radiation.

It could take days and "possibly weeks" to get the complex under control, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jazcko said. He defended the US decision to recommend a 50-mile evacuation zone for its citizens, a much stronger measure than Japan has taken.

A senior official with the UN's nuclear safety agency said there had been "no significant worsening" at the nuclear plant but that the situation remained "very serious." Graham Andrew told reporters in Vienna that nuclear fuel rods in two reactors were only about half covered with water, and in a third they were also not completely submerged.

The resolution, approved with the backing of the United States, France and Britain, imposed a no-fly zone over Libya and authorized force short of a ground offensive to protect its people from Gaddafi's forces. The UN action bans all flights in Libyan airspace in order to protect civilians. While it was unclear how the West might proceed, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said earlier in the day that a no-fly zone would require bombing targets inside Libya, including some of its defense systems.

Gaddafi, calling in to Libyan television on Thursday, said his forces would "rescue" the people of Benghazi, the Mediterranean port city that has become the capital and staging ground for the opposition. For those who resist, Gaddafi said, there would be "no mercy or compassion. This is your happy day, we will destroy your enemies," he said, warning the people of Benghazi not to stand alongside the opposition. "Prepare for this moment to get rid of the traitors. Tomorrow we will show the world, to see if the city is one of traitors or heroes."

His ground forces were still about 80 miles south of the city on Thursday evening Libya time, so it was unclear whether they would move on the city as quickly as he suggested. Speaking moments before in an interview with Portuguese television broadcast just before the vote at the UN, Gaddafi pledged to respond harshly to UN-sponsored attacks. "If the world is crazy," he said, "we will be crazy, too."

At the UN headquarters in New York, the vote was 10-0. The United States, France and Britain had all pushed for speedy approval. "We had said all along that Gaddafi must go," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "It is necessary to take these measures to avoid greater bloodshed." Five nations abstained, including Russia and China, which hold veto power on the council.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery settled up $3.44, or 3.5%, at $101.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, settling above $100 for the first time since Monday. May Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange recently rose $4.30 per barrel, or 3.9%, to settle at $114.90 a barrel.