Snapshot - Japan's nuclear crisis

- The World Health Organisation says the detection of radiation in food is a more serious problem than first expected, and food contamination is not a localised problem. It says, however, there is no evidence of contaminated food from Fukushima reaching other countries.

- China and South Korea say they will toughen radioactivity tests on imports of Japanese food, and Japan tells four prefectures near the nuclear plant to halt shipments of spinach.

* Government also bans milk shipments from Fukushima province.

- Official death toll from earthquake and tsunami 8,450 with 12,931 missing. Police say more than 15,000 feared dead in Miyagi prefecture alone.

- IAEA says some positive developments but overall situation remains very serious.

- Japan's nuclear safety agency says it sees risk of radioactive dust being inhaled by workers at stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but there are no signs that has happened yet.

- Reactors at the Daiichi nuclear power plant are showing some improvement but the situation remains uncertain, Tetsuro Fukuyama, Japan's deputy chief cabinet secretary, says.

- Nuclear safety agency says pressure is rising in the most damaged No. 3 reactor and workers there are considering whether to release pressure by venting. It says it does not believe much water from the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors is seeping underground.

- Engineers have re-established power cables to all six reactors. Electricity restored at No. 2 reactor and a pump in reactor No. 5 is now running on power from grid.

- If engineers are unable to cool the reactor, the last option would be entombing the plant with concrete and sand to prevent a catastrophic radiation leak, the method used at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.

- Tests detect radiation above the national safety level in spinach and milk produced near the Fukushima plant. A sample of tap water from Tokyo shows a tiny level of radioactive.

- The health ministry said that radiation levels exceeded safety standards in Fukushima and nearby Ibaraki prefecture. It said it had prohibited the sale of raw milk from Fukushima prefecture.

- The earthquake and tsunami will depress growth briefly before reconstruction kicks off and gives the beleaguered economy a boost, the World Bank says in a report.

(Tokyo bureau; Compiled by World Desk Asia)