By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) – Meet Rosalind, Bianca and Cordelia, sisters who, like many siblings, profess mutual love but sometimes don’t like each other that much.

These three heroines of Eleanor Brown’s debut novel, “The Weird Sisters,” grew up in a house dominated by their professor father, who specializes in Shakespeare studies, named his girls for Shakespearean heroines and communicates — sometimes hilariously, often cryptically — through Shakespeare quotations.

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) – The rapid rise of e-books could lead to a “reading divide” as those unable to afford the new technology are left behind, even as U.S. reading and writing skills decline still further.

At particular threat are African-American communities where many students are already falling behind their majority peers in terms of literacy, said award-winning writer Marita Golden — and this despite the growing ranks of noted African-American writers, such as Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

March 16 (Reuters) – Japan’s nuclear crisis worsened on
Wednesday, with workers ordered to withdraw briefly from the
stricken power plant after radiation levels spiked, just hours
after smoke was seen rising from the quake-crippled nuclear
facility.

Q: What does the smoke mean?

A: The smoke is most likely to be steam, a natural byproduct
of pouring water into the reactors to cool them down and keep
the fuel rods covered. Authorities are also trying to maintain
water levels at a spent-fuel storage pool at the plant’s No. 4
reactor, which experts now view as the real threat.

By Elaine Lies

(Reuters) – Japan’s nuclear crisis worsened on Wednesday, with workers ordered to withdraw briefly from the stricken power plant after radiation levels spiked, just hours after smoke was seen rising from the quake-crippled nuclear facility.

Q: What does the smoke mean?

A: The smoke is most likely to be steam, a natural byproduct of pouring water into the reactors to cool them down and keep the fuel rods covered. Authorities are also trying to maintain water levels at a spent-fuel storage pool at the plant’s No. 4 reactor, which experts now view as the real threat.

March 15 (Reuters) – The focus of Japan’s nuclear crisis
switched to reactor No. 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi power station
on Tuesday after an explosion and fire blasted holes in the
unit’s outer building.

Media said a pool used to store spent nuclear fuel at the
reactor, which shut down when the earthquake and tsunami struck
last week, might be boiling. Reports also said radiation levels
near Tokyo stood at more than 10 times above normal.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Fears of a nuclear disaster in Japan heightened on Tuesday after radiation levels around its quake-stricken power plant soared following two separate explosions at the complex.

Many of the worrying milestones mapped out by experts have now been passed, with some workers having left the complex and people living within 30 km of the site to stay indoors.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Fears of a nuclear disaster in Japan heightened on Tuesday after radiation levels around its quake-stricken power plant soared following two separate explosions at the complex.

Many of the worrying milestones mapped out by experts have now been passed, with some workers having left the complex and people living within 30 km of the site to stay indoors.

TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Japan is counting on four to eight inches of super strong steel to prevent the crisis at its stricken nuclear plant from becoming a radioactive disaster.

The steel containment vessel, 60 feet high and 16 feet wide, is the most critical line of defence protecting the outside world from the nuclear core. Most experts are confident the unit can hold, even in the event of a full-scale meltdown.

TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Japan is counting on four to eight inches of super strong steel to prevent the crisis at its stricken nuclear plant from becoming a radioactive disaster.

The steel containment vessel, 60 feet high and 16 feet wide, is the most critical line of defense protecting the outside world from the nuclear core. Most experts are confident the unit can hold, even in the event of a full-scale meltdown.

TOKYO (Reuters) – The key to averting a nuclear disaster at the quake-stricken Fukushima power complex in Japan is ensuring the thick protective steel walls around the reactor cores remain intact.

So far that is the case, authorities say, but experts will be watching closely for any of the following developments: