TOKYO (Reuters) - Following are main developments after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck northeast Japan on Friday and set off a tsunami.
* Death toll expected to exceed 10,000 from the quake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK says. Strong aftershocks persisting in the stricken area.
- Kyodo reports 10,000 people in one town unreachable.
* Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) says radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have risen above the safety limit but says this posed no "immediate threat" to human health. An explosion blew the roof off at reactor No. 1.
* Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says there is the risk of an explosion at another building housing the No. 3 reactor, although this is unlikely to affect the reactor's core container. He said fuel rods may have been partially deformed but a meltdown is unlikely to have occurred.
Officials are venting reactor no. 3 and pumping in seawater, to act against the effects of possible meltdown.
- Evacuation ordered of 110,000 from 20-km (12-mile) radius around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 30,000 from 10-km (6-mile) radius around nearby Fukushima Daini plant. Kyodo says 300,000 evacuated overall, 5.5 million without power.
* Meteorologists say the wind will keep blowing from the south, which could affect residents north of the power plant.
* A Japanese official said there were 190 people within a 10-km radius of the nuclear plant when radiation levels rose and 22 people have been confirmed to have suffered contamination.
- Nuclear safety agency rates the incident a 4 on the 1 to 7 International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, less serious than Three Mile Island, which was a 5, and Chernobyl at 7.
- Quake triggered tsunami up to 10 metres (30 feet). Waves swept away homes, crops, vehicles and submerged farmland.
- Bank of Japan to hold policy meeting on Monday. The central bank vows to ensure financial market stability.
- Toyota Motor Co to suspend operations at all 12 factories on Monday.
- Total insured loss could be up to $15 billion, equity analysts covering the industry say.
- Disaster sends oil, metals, and grain prices sliding on fears over its impact on demand, deepening their biggest decline in months; yen rises broadly on risk aversion by Japanese investors and expectations of repatriations by Japan's insurance companies; oil prices slide more than $3 a barrel.
- Tokyo Stock Exchange to trade as normal on Monday.
(Tokyo bureau; World Desk Asia, Singapore +65 6870 3815)
