Killer typhoon brings new misery to Japan

TOKYO — Rescuers and search parties scoured central Japan on Monday as the death toll from the worst typhoon to hit the country in seven years climbed to 34, adding more misery to a nation still reeling from its catastrophic tsunami six months ago.

Typhoon Talas, which was later downgraded to a tropical storm, lashed coastal areas with destructive winds and record-setting rains over the weekend before moving offshore into the Sea of Japan. In addition to the 34 dead and 55 missing, thousands were stranded as the typhoon washed out bridges, railways and roads. Tens of thousands of households were still out of electricity and land telephone lines remained disrupted Monday night.

The scenes of destruction from the typhoon were another unwelcome reminder of Japan's vulnerability to the forces of nature as the country tries to recover from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Quick response pledged
In one of his first acts in office, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda — sworn in just one day before the storm made landfall — vowed the government would provide as much assistance as quickly as it could.

His predecessor, Naoto Kan, was forced out in large part because of public anger over the response to the tsunami, which left nearly 21,000 people dead or missing and touched off the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

"We will do everything we can to rescue people and search for the missing," Noda said.

The typhoon was believed to be the worst to hit Japan since 2004, when 98 people were killed or reported missing. It caused most of its damage on the Kii Peninsula in central Japan southwest of Tokyo and hundreds of miles from the country's tsunami-ravaged northeastern coast.

Hunting for survivors
The extent of damage from the typhoon was still emerging Monday.

Rescuers and reconnaissance teams spread out over the worst-hit areas to look for survivors or people stranded in flood zones, which though far smaller in scale were reminiscent of the debris-ridden, mud-caked wasteland created by the tsunami.

Television footage showed washed-out train bridges, whole neighborhoods inundated by swollen rivers and police using rope to pull frightened survivors out of homes awash in the murky waters.

The government's emergency headquarters put the death toll at 26 as of Monday morning. Evacuation advisories remained in place for about 100,000 people, although the storm itself was no longer over land.

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Most of the dead were in Wakayama prefecture (state), said local official Seiji Yamamoto. He said 17 were killed there and another 28 missing.

"There are so many roads out that it is hard to count them all," he said. "Hundreds of homes have been flooded."

Hundreds of thousands issued evacuation orders
Rains and wind were recorded across wide swaths of Japan's main island, but no significant damage was reported in the tsunami-ravaged northeast.

As the typhoon approached, evacuation orders or advisories were issued to 460,000 people. At least 3,600 people were still stranded by flooded rivers, landslides and collapsed bridges that were hampering rescue efforts, Kyodo News agency reported.

The center of the season's 12th typhoon crossed the southern island of Shikoku and the central part of the main island of Honshu overnight Saturday.

Talas has mostly moved at about 6 mph, roughly the speed of a bicycle, and its slow progress caused heavy and prolonged rainfall over Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Talas is a word from the Philippines that means "sharpness."

Reuters contributed to this report from The Associated Press.

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Norway police face review, think killer acted alone (Reuters)

OSLO (Reuters) – Police are increasingly certain that mass killer Anders Behring Breivik acted alone, but are leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for collaborators as they try to close one of the bloodiest chapters in Norway's history.

Breivik, 32, killed eight people in a bomb attack in central Oslo last Friday and then shot 68 at an island summer camp for the ruling Labor Party's youth wing.

He has told police he was part of a network in his self-styled "crusade" against Islam and multiculturalism -- but Norwegian authorities doubt this.

"So far we have no indication that he has any accomplices or that there are more cells," the head of the Norwegian Police Security Service, Janne Kristiansen, told Reuters on Wednesday. His claim was likely to have been a play for publicity, she said.

Kristiansen said there would be no let-up in hunting Breivik's possible partners, however unlikely, or in police monitoring of extremists.

"As long as there is a tiny chance...we have to investigate it -- that is our main focus," said Kristiansen, who added that Breivik was "too calculated, too focused" to be considered insane.

Norway's parliament has promised a review of the country's security services and their actions during Breivik's attacks. The government said on Wednesday it would pay the costs of burying the mostly teenaged and twenty-something victims.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg urged his countrymen to participate in the open debate and democracy that Breivik had cruelly silenced at the camp.

Days after the attacks, Norwegians may be doing just that, with the Labor Party reporting a surge in applications. An opinion poll showed 80 percent believed the prime minister had performed "extremely well" in the crisis.

Staring at thousands of flowers outside Oslo cathedral in the sunshine, physiotherapist Aase Bergheim, 41, said she now saw Stoltenberg, and Norway, differently.

"The prime minister, I now see him in a new light, because he's shown he can gather the people. People are smiling at each other now. I don't usually vote for him, but maybe in future," she said.

(Writing and additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Louise Ireland and Mark Trevelyan)

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Norwegian killer causes Putin potential embarrassment

MOSCOW — Norwegian killer Anders Behring Breivik has caused potential embarrassment for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by describing him as worthy of respect and one of the two men he would most like to meet.

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Putin's spokesman dismissed the comments as the "ravings of a lunatic" and a pro-Kremlin youth group distanced itself from Breivik after it was also praised in a manifesto he wrote before Friday's bombing and shooting spree.

But the remarks have started making waves on the blogosphere and the Russian social networking site Vkontakte, which resembles Facebook, said it had blocked access to a friend group that had voiced support for Breivik.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted by newspaper Kommersant as saying Breivik "was the devil incarnate".

"He is absolutely insane and, no matter what he wrote or said, these are the ravings of a lunatic," he said. He could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters on Tuesday.

Breivik killed at least 76 people in a bomb attack in Oslo's government district and in a shooting spree at a summer camp for the ruling Labour Party's youth wing.

Putin, who has a tough-guy image after serving as president from 2000 to 2008 before becoming prime minister, is described in Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto as "a fair and resolute leader worthy of respect."

"Name one living person you would like to meet," Breivik asks rhetorically. His answer: "The Pope or Vladimir Putin."

"I'm unsure at this point whether he has the potential to be our best friend or our worst enemy," he wrote, noting that Putin would have no choice but "to openly condemn us at this point."

Breivik also in his manifesto described Japan as a model country, praising it for shying away from multiculturalism and saying he would like to meet former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, a right-leaning conservative.

MARK ON THE KREMLIN?

Breivik also called in his manifesto for Norway to create a youth movement modeled on the pro-Kremlin group Nashi. A spokeswoman for the group said it would not respond to "the opinions of a madman."

Nashi, which translates as "Our People", was set up by Kremlin officials under Putin in 2005 to as a counterweight to any popular dissent after youth activism was decisive in toppling a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine's Orange Revolution.

They have mobilized large-scale demonstrations as a show of force against Russia's opposition and regularly launch acerbic campaigns against Kremlin critics.

A Russian blogger, Chudinovandrei, said Breivik's writings left a mark on the Kremlin.

"It's as if Hitler himself materialized and called Putin's leadership worthy of his praise. How the Kremlin will ever wash its hands of this, I don't know," he wrote on blogging site Livejournal.

Blogger j_mihalych warned: "I am 95 percent sure that half-witted followers of Breivik will soon appear in Russia, and not only in Russia. Bad ideas are very contagious."

"On aggressive Russian patriots of Slavic appearance, I'll keep silent," he added.

President Dmitry Medvedev promised to crack down on any signs of racial, ethnic or religious hatred in Russia following nationalists demonstrations which saw attacks on ethnic minorities near Red Square in December. He has also criticized political extremism and called for a return to tolerant values.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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