TOKYO (Reuters) - Following are main developments after a massive earthquake struck northeast Japan on Friday and set off a tsunami.
- Workers ordered to leave the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan were allowed back in after radiation levels fell.
- Authorities plan to bulldoze an emergency route to crippled reactor No.4 to allow access for fire trucks.
- France urges nationals living in Tokyo to leave country or move south. Two Air France planes on their way to begin evacuation.
- Radiation levels in Ibaraki, north of Tokyo, 300 times normal level but well below hazardous levels, Kyodo says.
- Seawater pumped into Daiichi reactors No.1, 2, and 3 to cool fuel rods. Workers also trying to bring down temperatures at reactors No.5 and No. 6 from normal levels. U.S. military help sought.
- Fire breaks out at reactor No.4 earlier on Wednesday a day after a blast blew a hole in the building housing spent fuel rods. White smoke seen coming from the nuclear facility.
- No plans yet to extend evacuation zone near the facility, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
- Fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor were 70 percent damaged and the rods in the No. 2 reactor were 33 percent damaged, Kyodo says.
- Winds over the radiation-leaking nuclear power plant in northern Japan will blow from the northwest and out into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency says.
- Japan's benchmark Nikkei average up 4.5 percent on Wednesday after suffering its worst two-day rout since 1987. The index surged over 6 percent at one point.
- Tens of thousands of people still missing since Friday's quake and tsunami. Food and water in short supply in parts of the northeast.
- About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather
- Some residents leave the capital. Others stock up on food.
- Death toll is expected to exceed 10,000, and rescue workers are continuing to search coastal cities for survivors.
(Tokyo bureau; Compiled by World Desk Asia)
