More than 1,000 Saudi troops rolled over the causeway that links it to the island kingdom and the United Arab Emirates also said it would send 500 police at the request of Bahrain's rulers after weeks of protests against the government and royal family. Over 60 percent of Bahrainis are Shi'ites who complain of discrimination at the hands of the Sunni royal family. Calls for the overthrow of the monarchy have alarmed the Sunni minority, which fears that unrest could serve non-Arab Shi'ite power Iran.

Iran, which sits across the Gulf from Bahrain, sharply criticised the Saudi intervention. "The presence of foreign forces and interference in Bahrain's internal affairs is unacceptable and will further complicate the issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly news conference in Tehran.

The United States has urged Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and a key US ally in the Gulf Arab region, to show restraint, though analysts said the escalation showed the limits of US influence when internal security was threatened. In a sign that security in Bahrain could deteriorate, the US State Department advised against all travel to the island due to a "breakdown in law and order."

The intervention by Gulf Arab troops is highly sensitive in a region where tensions soared after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq overthrew a Sunni dictator and ushered in a Shi'ite-dominated government. Accusations already abound of Iranian backing for Shi'ite activists in Bahrain - charges they deny.

The most serious damages were near Kealakekua Bay and Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. Haleiwa and Keehi Lagoon on Oahu, as well as areas of Maui and Molokai, also lost significant value. At least 25 boats sank at Keehi Lagoon, and an undetermined number of homes may have been destroyed along the Big Island's west coast beyond the two previously reported, including one that floated out to sea.

No one was killed or injured during the tsunami, which arrived in Hawaii early Friday morning as a result of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan. "It's in the millions in terms of property, but it's very small in terms of personal injury and deaths. Of course, we're very, very fortunate," said Governor Neil Abercrombie.

Additional losses may pile up because thousands of Japanese tourists have already canceled vacations to Hawaii since the tsunami, dealing a crushing blow to the state's tourism-dependent economy. "The economic consequences will be severe for us," Abercrombie said. "It's going to be terrible. It's going to be rough. It's something we have to come to grips with."

Japanese stocks were pressured by news of another explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, this time at its No. 4 reactor. This was shortly after radiation levels rose sharply as the No. 2 reactor suffered an explosion following damage to its suppression pool. Japan's prime minister Naoto Kan said there's a high risk of elevated levels of radiation from the crippled reactors, and urged people within 30 kilometers of the plant to stay indoors.

"What the world is watching right now is whether Tepco's Fukushima nuclear power plant is going to turn into Chernobyl," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. "Foreign investors are rushing to sell nuclear-power-plant-related stocks," said Masayoshi Yano, senior market analyst at Meiwa Securities. "There is no sense of calmness to examine the health of the Japanese economy as a whole." Exporters were lower due to production halts with Toyota Motor down 7.4% and Sony down 8.9%.

It was hard to predict how the crisis at the crippled nuclear power plants will end, and that was boosting demand for safe-haven assets, said Deutsche Securities strategist Makoto Yamashita. Also, "there is a risk that, even if the government tries to provide fiscal help (on post-quake reconstruction), production activities and sentiment (among firms and households) will deteriorate sharply," he added.

"There was a huge explosion" between 6:00 am (2100 GMT Monday) and 6:15 am at the number-two reactor of Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, a Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) spokesman said. The government also reported apparent damage to part of the container shielding the same reactor at Fukushima 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, although it was unclear whether this resulted from the blast.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters the suppression pool of the number-two nuclear reactor appeared to have been damaged. This is the bottom part of the container, which holds water used to cool it down and control air pressure inside. Earlier a cloud of radioactive dust billowed from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant after it suffered its second explosion in three days.

The Fukushima crisis now rates as a more serious accident than the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in the US in 1979, and is second only to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, according to the French nuclear safety authority. After insisting for three days that the situation was under control, Japan urgently appealed to US and UN nuclear experts for technical help on preventing white-hot fuel rods melting. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was "unlikely" that the accident would turn into another Chernobyl, but failed to rule it out completely.

Around the world, Germany and Switzerland reacted by suspending plans for new reactors. Italy and Poland said they would rethink plans to invest in nuclear energy, and Friends of the Earth urged the British government to scrap its own plans for new reactors. Andy Atkins, the campaign group's executive director, said: "We can't keep heading down the nuclear route until the lessons from this crisis have been learnt."

Millions of people faced a fourth night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the northeast coast devastated by Friday's disasters. Meanwhile, a third reactor at a nuclear power plant lost its cooling capacity and its fuel rods were fully exposed, raising fears of a meltdown. The stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.

On the coastline of Miyagi prefecture, which took the full force of the tsunami, a Japanese police official said 1,000 bodies were found scattered across the coastline. Kyodo, the Japanese news agency, reported that 2,000 bodies washed up on two shorelines in Miyagi. In one town in a neighboring prefecture, the crematorium was unable to handle the large number of bodies being brought in for funerals.

"We have already begun cremations, but we can only handle 18 bodies a day. We are overwhelmed and are asking other cites to help us deal with bodies. We only have one crematorium in town," Katsuhiko Abe, an official in Soma, told The Associated Press. While the official death toll rose to nearly 1,900, the discovery of the washed-up bodies and other reports of deaths suggest the true number is much higher. In Miyagi, the police chief has said 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone.

Friday's double tragedy has caused unimaginable deprivation for people of this industrialized country - Asia's richest - which hasn't seen such hardship since World War II. In many areas there is no running water, no power and four- to five-hour waits for gasoline. People are suppressing hunger with instant noodles or rice balls while dealing with the loss of loved ones and homes.

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."

For Greece, the terms are a fire-sale of 50 billion euros (43.2 billion pounds) of national assets within four years, a tenfold increase from the original 5 billion euros that premier George Papandreou thought he signed up to a year ago. When the IMF first mooted this sum last month he told the inspectors not to "meddle in the internal matters of the country."

State holdings in Hellenic Post, Hellenic Railways, Athens Public Gas, the Pireaus port authority, Athens airport, Thessaloniki water, and ATEbank, to name a few, will not fetch more 15 billion euros. What next? In return, Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed to cut the penal interest rate on the EU share of Greece's 110 billion euros loan package by 100 basis points (still penal), and stretch the maturity to 7.5 years.

This does not restore solvency. Greece's debt spiral is too far advanced. The debt load will approach 150 per cent of GDP this year, and debt service costs are 14.4 per cent of tax revenue. Meanwhile, austerity is biting harder. The jobless number jumped almost a full point to 14.8 per cent in January. Youth unemployment hit 39 per cent. For Portugal, the condition is more hairshirt retrenchment, a fiscal squeeze of 5.3 per cent in one year. Pensions, welfare, and health will be cut, following wage cuts already under way. "A descent into Hell," said the Bloco de Ezquerda.

Almost 300,000 youth took to the streets of Lisbon and Oporto on Saturday in a day of wrath by the "Desperate Generation", openly invoking the events of Egypt's Tahrir Square. A wing from the ruling Socialist Party said it would not vote for a "disastrous policy". They said the cabinet did not even know about the cuts imposed by Brussels before Wednesday night. Fiscal tightening of this magnitude in a country with public-private debt of 330 per cent of GDP, an over-valued currency, and reliance on fickle foreign financing, is not a happy prospect.

The 1,421-metre (4,689-feet) Shinmoedake volcano in the Kirishima range saw its first major eruption for 52 years in January. There had not been any major activity at the site since March 1. Authorities have maintained a volcano warning at a level of three out of five, restricting access to the entire mountain. In April last year, the eruption of the Eyjafjoell volcano in Iceland dispersed a vast cloud of ash, triggering a huge shutdown of airspace that affected more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers.

- 42 survivors have been pulled out of the rubble

- Official death toll hits 1,597, but many hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves

- Toll will soar after around 2,000 bodies were found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture

- Second explosion at nuclear power plant

- Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160

- Region hit by hundreds of aftershocks, some up to 6.8 magnitude

- Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters

- 70,000 people evacuated to shelters in Sendai

Rescue efforts have been hampered by hundreds of aftershocks, and it is feared the final death count could rise sharply once a full picture of the catastrophe emerges. In Minami Sanriku alone, 10,000 people could have died - more than half of the city's population.

It only took a few minutes for the 30ft wave to wash the town away with terrifying force. The locals desperately tried to escape to higher ground. But most did not stand a chance.

It is hard to imagine any life remains among the debris. Where last week fishing boats bobbed in the harbour, it is now impossible to tell where the sea begins and the land ends. One of the few buildings left standing is the town's Shizugawa Hospital but the rest of what was once the town centre is flooded with filthy sea water.

In the city of Sendai, authorities have had to evacuate nearly 70,000 people to shelters. To add to problems, there has been a spate of panic buying as most petrol stations and supermarkets are out of service. At least a million households had gone without water since the quake, and food and gasoline were quickly running out across the coastal regions hit by the tsunami.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan tried to support the economy, saying it would inject 15 trillion yen ($183 billion; 114 billion pounds) into the banking system to stabilise markets. Carmaker Nissan was down by 9.5% after it shut all its plants, while Toshiba, whose products include semiconductors and nuclear reactors, fell 16%.

A Toshiba competitor, Hitachi, also fell 16% and shares in Tokyo Electric Power Company fell by 24%. Honda, Japan's third-largest carmaker, fell 9.1%.

With production stopped in a number of major factories and therefore the demand for power reduced, the price of oil fell. Brent crude lost 2.4% to $111.16, a two-week low, whilst US light, sweet crude fell by $1.37 to $99.79. But industrial and materials companies gained on hopes they will be in demand once Japan starts rebuilding. Construction company Kajima rose 17.9% and Nishimatsu Construction soared 21%.

On an "ultimate risk" basis that includes the potential loss on derivatives and credit guarantees of different kinds, the figure rises to $2.51 trillion as of September 2010, well above the headline figure of $1.76 trillion in cross-border loans. The sheer scale highlights the systemic dangers if the EU fails to stabilize the debt crisis.

Eurozone leaders agreed to boost the lending power of the EU bail-out fund on Friday, but Germany vetoed proposals for a debt buy-back scheme or an activist policy of bond purchases. The BIS, the central bank of central banks, said in its quarterly report that Germany had $569 billion of exposure to the quartet, France $380 billion, and the UK $431 billion.

Hours after the explosion, the government confirmed that Fukushima Daiichi plant's No 2 reactor had suffered a loss of its cooling function. Officials said that water levels at the reactor were dropping, but added that efforts were under way to prevent what would be the plant's third explosion since Saturday.

As officials battled to cool off the overheating reactors, elsewhere rescue workers found 2,000 bodies on shores in two locations in Miyagi prefecture, the area hit hardest by last Friday's fearsome tsunami. The discovery dramatically increased the estimated death toll, with more than 10,000 people already unaccounted for in the prefecture. The official fatality count stands at 1,647, but the figure is expected to rise significantly in the coming days.

The prime minister, Naoto Kan, said 15,000 people had been taken to safety as part of a rescue effort involving tens of thousands of Japanese troops and teams of experts from several countries, including Britain and China.

The economic impact of the disaster became clearer on Monday when Tokyo stocks suffered big losses, while car manufacturers announced they would suspend production at plants across the country. The Bank of Japan, meanwhile, pumped 15 billion yen into the financial system to ensure liquidity for private lenders.

Polling for the campaign launch shows that 61 per cent would like a referendum on whether Britain should remain within the European Union, with just 25 per cent against. A majority of supporters of all three parties back the idea. It means support for a referendum on the EU is more than double the level for the referendum on changing Britain's voting system planned for May 5.

Voters will now be invited to sign up to the 'People's Pledge', promising to only support candidates at the next election who vow to support a referendum. The pledges will be registered by constituency on the campaign's website - allowing MPs and rival candidates to see the level of support in their area. The aim is to focus initially on the 100 most marginal seats, where campaigners believe their number of supporters could quickly exceed the majorities of serving MPs.

Prominent Left-winger Mark Seddon, director of the campaign, said the initiative had the potential to tap into 'huge latent demand' for a referendum. He added: 'Our message is simple - if you believe that the people, and not politicians, should decide the UK's relationship with the EU, sign the People's Pledge.'

As a result, the effective lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility will be increased to the full 440 billion euros, from a current level of around 250 billion euros. That should ensure that the fund is capable of bailing out any euro zone states beyond Greece and Ireland that require assistance, with Portugal seen as the next most likely country to need financial help, and possibly Spain after that.

The leaders also agreed to lower the interest rate and lengthen the maturity on loans extended to Greece, reducing the rate by 100 basis points to bring it into line with IMF lending. The term on the 110 billion euros of EU/IMF loans was lengthened to 7.5 years from three, giving Athens more time to repay.

"Pricing of the EFSF should be lowered to better take into account debt sustainability of the recipient countries," Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, told reporters after the summit of the leaders concluded. While Portugal, which is currently paying around 7.5 percent on its 10-year bonds, is regarded as a candidate for a bailout, it reiterated on Saturday that it did not need help and had no intention of asking the EU for assistance.

Bad debts in the European banking system continue to undermine efforts to get on top of the broader crisis, exacerbating sovereign debt problems. Many analysts say the sovereign debt crisis cannot be resolved without a solution to the bad banking debts, which could involve debt restructuring.

As eruptions continued at two spots, seismic activity grew more vigorous and poisonous sulfur dioxide gas emissions peaked at 10,000 tons per day, over 30 times last weekend's levels, before dropping off again by more than half, according to scientists at the US Geological Survey.

The 2,000-degree Fahrenheit molten lava from Kilauea's summit and the newly ruptured Kamoamoa fissure have destroyed 78 acres of rain forest since Saturday and buried 162 acres of park land. The ground around the eruptions has continued to collapse, and forests downwind of the fissure were choked with volcanic fumes that are toxic to the vegetation, said Mardie Lane, an official at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory.

Kilauea is one of five volcanoes that formed the Big Island, officially known as the island of Hawaii. Periodic eruptions of the volcano have destroyed 213 homes since the volcano emerged from a period of dormancy in 1983. The latest episode began with the 370-foot collapse of the floor of the Pu'u O'o crater and opening of the 535-yard long Kamoamoa fissure on March 5.