TOKYO — Radioactive iodine detected in Tokyo’s water supply prompted Japanese authorities on Wednesday to warn that infants in Tokyo and surrounding areas should not be given tap water to drink, adding to the anxiety about public safety posed by Japan’s unfolding nuclear crisis. Ei Yoshida, head of water purification for the Tokyo water department, said at a televised news conference that iodine 1

Tokyo JAPANESE people are accustomed to earthquakes. I myself have experienced many since childhood. So I remained calm when the shaking started on the sixth floor of an old multipurpose building in central Tokyo. I only thought, “This is bigger than normal.” But the shaking didn’t stop and the swaying grew more severe. I rushed down a narrow staircase through a cloud of dust. When I turned around

U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High;’ Sees Japan Nuclear Crisis Worsening Evacuees receiving radiation scans in Nihonmatsu, Japan. Americans were advised by their embassy to evacuate a radius of 50 miles from the Fukushima plant.Credit...Go Takayama/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — The chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave a far bleaker appraisal on Wedn

FICTION KAFKA ON THE SHORE By Haruki Murakami. Alfred A. Knopf, $25.95. This graceful and dreamily cerebral novel, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel, tells two stories -- that of a boy fleeing an Oedipal prophecy, and that of a witless old man who can talk to cats -- and is the work of a powerfully confident writer. ON BEAUTY By Zadie Smith. Penguin Press, $25.95. In her vibrant new b