AP’s Todd Pitman reports
MINAMISANRIKU, Japan — The only thing left of Minamisanriku City Hall are its two front steps.

David Guttenfelder / AP

(Left) A dead octopus lies next to submerged debris, March 23, in a seawater puddle where the City Hall offices previously stood in the destroyed town of Minamisanriku, Japan (Right) A neighborhood lies in ruin in Minamisanriku, Japan. Of the 17,666 people who once lived here, over 300 have been confirmed dead and thousands more have are missing. They are either still buried in the ruins or they were sucked out to sea as the tsunami waters receded.

Nearby, a pink octopus lies dead in a pool of seawater, its tentacles wrapped around a crumpled sheet of corrugated aluminum that may have been a roof, a gate, a wall. Beside it, a broken tarmac road runs as far as the eye can see through fields of demolished houses and debris.

As post-tsunami Japan turns to the enormous task of putting towns like this back together, the sheer extent of the devastation wrought on March 11 raises existential questions: Should the dozens of shattered communities along these shores be rebuilt at all? Can they be, when up to half their inhabitants are gone and survivors know it could happen again?

David Guttenfelder / AP

Jin Sato, the mayor of Minamisanriku, is surrounded by local media as he gives a daily briefing inside the shelter where he temporarily works and lives. The mayor had a staff of around 230 before the tsunami but says that 35 of them are missing.

"The future is not bright," Jin Sato, the 56-year-old mayor of Minamisanriku, says matter-of-factly.

The statistics for this town alone are grim. Of the 17,666 people who once lived here, at least 322 have been confirmed dead and thousands more have disappeared, still buried in the ruins or sucked out to sea. Another 9,325 lost their homes and live in 45 shelters, mostly schools, spread on hills along the bay.

The tsunami swept away nearly every business, every job. There is no electricity or running water and very little fuel. Some 70 percent of Minamisanriku's 5,574 houses were destroyed.

Inside a hilltop sports arena that serves as shelter, morgue and makeshift office, Sato sits red-eyed behind a small desk. "Whatever happens," he says, "we're going to need a lot of help." 

Minamisanriku has long been a small blue-collar fishing town, a place where hardy residents in rubber boots fished the chilly sea, farmed seaweed and sold octopus and oysters.

A collection of villages lining coves along a C-shaped bay, Minamisanriku was scenic and peaceful. The website for the Hotel Kanyo — damaged but still standing — shows visitors dipping in hot springs and snapping pictures of seagulls from balconies overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

On March 11, two days after an earthquake shook buildings from here to Tokyo but caused no major damage, Sato was talking to staff at City Hall about the need to boost disaster preparedness. As he spoke, one of the strongest quakes ever recorded rocked the Japanese archipelago at 2:46 p.m., triggering tsunami sirens that began howling across town.

David Guttenfelder / AP

The Minamisanriku Disaster Emergency Center headquarters stands gutted in the tsunami zone on March 23. The headquarters, which sounded the tsunami alert signal on March 11, was later totally submerged under the incoming wave. The town's mayor, Jin Sato, spent the night on the roof clutching a fence.

People hurried to designated hilltop refuges, and Sato scrambled atop a government disaster readiness center next door. Half an hour later, he watched in awe as the thunderous wave surged over a sea wall in the harbor, kicking up plumes of mist and dust.

Horrified onlookers screamed in terror as the churning water swallowed Minamisanriku's main district, Shizugawa. Entire houses made of wood swirled atop the dark, debris-filled wave, a vast, deadly froth filled with shorn power pylons, boats and even trains.

Sato clung precariously to a steel railing on the disaster center's rooftop as ice cold waves washed repeatedly over it. About 30 people had fled to the roof with him; some 20 were swept away.

Sato and the other survivors spent a shivering night atop the three-story building, which had been reduced to a skeleton of itself, its walls torn completely off. The next day, he climbed down to the ground on a chaotic tangle of fishing nets that the tsunami had deposited over the building. Most of the town was simply gone.

Two weeks later, Reiko Inaba was walking through ruins when she stumbled on two yellow crates filled with muddy photo albums, placed at the edge of a mountain of rubble by Japanese soldiers separating valuables from debris.

David Guttenfelder / AP

(Left) Japanese military search through the rubble of Minamisanriku on March 23. (Right) A mud-covered wedding photo rests inside a box of photographs that Japanese soldiers collected and left on the side of a road while searching in Minamisanriku.

There were pictures of newborn babies, of school classes and laughing children. There were wedding photos covered in dirt and grime. Were they alive? Dead? She did not know.

Halfway through the crate, one photo caught Inaba's eyes. The 35-year-old retirement home worker brushed away the dirt covering it with a white mitten and was astounded by what she saw: a picture of her now 13-year-old son, Rukya, staring back at her.

Here, a mile from the spot on which her home once stood, by pure chance or persistence, she had come across four snapshots taken 10 years earlier. Two showed Rukya standing over a white birthday cake when he was 3. The boy survived with the rest of the family.

"I had given up finding any of this," Inaba said, clutching the water-ruined photos close to her breast. "We have nothing else left."

Nothing, she said, equals this: one white kitten piggy bank with 500 yen ($6) inside it, a few bank statements, and the clothes on her back. Other lives will never be put back together again.

At the entrance of the sports arena where the mayor is struggling to run the town, 60-year-old Sachiko Sato studied a list of names posted on a glass wall inside the door.

David Guttenfelder / AP

(Left) A woman reads a list on March 24 which describes the dead for families searching for missing loved ones, posted at a shelter in Minamisanriku. (Right) Members of a family console each other inside a shelter after discovering the death of a loved one.

No. 104 was unknown, identified by his height, his weight and a black mole on his right shoulder.

No. 49 was identified but unclaimed: Kazuo Izawa.

Of her husband, Sakae, there was no sign. Sato last saw him the day the tsunami struck. He had left home in a brown suit headed for the town council, where he worked. It was the final meeting of a session, and "he told me, 'After it's over, let's meet for a drink,'" Sato recalled. "I told him, OK. I'll see you later."

Her husband was the pillar of the family and made all the decisions, she said. "Without him," she added quietly, staring at the list, "I have no idea what we'll do."

On a hilltop across town, Reiko Sato stood in her doorway, looking down over Minamisanriku. She is one of the lucky ones: She lost no family, and her home was untouched. But just a few feet (meters) from her doorstep, the tsunami's legacy begins.

Every day, she wakes up to the sound of military bulldozers reorganizing debris into separate mounds: piles of wood to be burned, piles of scrap metal to be hauled away. The four-story hospital where she worked as a nurse is one of the few buildings left standing, but she wonders if it will ever reopen.

With no stores stocked, she must line up at a nearby school-turned-shelter to get rations of miso soup and rice balls. She gathers water for her family in plastic jugs.

"You cannot look at this and feel lucky," she said. Her daughter pointed a tiny index finger repeatedly toward something rarely seen here before: a military helicopter circling the sky.

For decades, Japan's youth have abandoned towns like this in favor of the urban bustle of glittering cities like Tokyo. In Minamisanriku, the population has remained approximately the same for the last half century.

David Guttenfelder / AP

Toshiko Suda, right, and her husband Michio Suda wait to load their few remaining belongings into a truck at the site of their destroyed home and seaweed business.

Many younger people moved away long ago, said Toshiko Suda, 63, who ran a business selling seaweed. "Now their parents may follow."

Suda's children live in the nearest big city, Sendai, parts of which were also heavily damaged. She put her life into the business she started with her husband, 64-year-old Michio.

Now, the fishermen who brought them seaweed are missing, and the boats that once lined the harbor are gone. So is their house, their business and the fish shops across the street.

"We don't want to leave," Suda said. "But if nobody else comes back, we can't stay. You cannot build a life by yourself."

Elsewhere in the ruins, construction worker Kazuhiro Watanabe stood over the foundation of his home, trying to figure out where the things in it may have been swept to. Nobody will live in any part of Minamisanriku touched by the tsunami, he said.

David Guttenfelder / AP

A vending machine lies on top of the rubble on March 15 as a relief helicopter crosses the sky in Minamisanriku.

"Maybe everyone will just move to the hills — if they stay here at all," he added. The town is still in shock, still mourning: "This is not the time to think about rebuilding."

And first, some crucial questions must be answered: Should the entire town shift inland, high on the hills, safe from the waves? Is it humanly possible to protect against such a mighty force of nature?

Many here still remember the last tsunami that wrecked the town in 1960. Propelled across the ocean by a massive quake off Chile, that wave arrived at a height of nearly 8 feet (2.4 meters) and killed more than 40 people. The disaster prompted the town to stage annual tsunami drills and build a thick, one-story-high concrete sea wall, which Sato says contributed to a false sense of security.

David Guttenfelder / AP

Men stand near a section of the collapsed sea wall in Minamisanriku on March 15. The town's mayor, Jin Sato, said that he does not know what can be done to protect his people from a future tsunami. "What can we do?," he asked. "Build a 25 meter high sea wall?"

This month's tsunami was four or five times higher, Sato said. It easily toppled the breaker across the harbor, destroying about half of it.

"We understand now that our disaster plan was meaningless," he said. "We must rethink everything."The town, Sato added, "will have to undergo a drastic change."

For now, he has more immediate problems. The homeless live just a few yards from his feet, sleeping in cardboard cubicles in the corridors. With no money and few belongings, they will need to be fed for months. Outside the shelter, they line up eagerly to sift through boxes of used clothes donated from private companies in Tokyo.

In Sato's makeshift office, electrical company officials are studying maps, trying to figure out how and where to install mobile transformers. Firefighters are coordinating operations to recover bodies. Outside, American helicopters are landing on the lawn with boxes of food.

David Guttenfelder / AP

(Left) Refugees gather at an aid station, March 24, set up outside a shelter in Minamisanriku. (Right) A refugee sleeps inside his floor space, separated from his neighbors by the walls of a cardboard box, in a hallway at a shelter in Minamisanriku.

The prefectural government plans to erect thousands of prefabricated homes, the mayor says, but that is only a temporary solution.

"My concern is not whether we can rebuild," Sato says. "We can rebuild everything in time. The question is whether people will do it here. I cannot decide whether they stay or go."

Emmanuel Braun / Reuters

Forces loyal to Ivorian presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara gather outside the capital Abidjan, April 3. Fighters loyal to Ivory Coast presidential rivals Laurent Gbagbo and Ouattara held onto positions around the main city Abidjan on Sunday, a day that saw less fighting than the previous three. Soldiers of Ivory Coast's rival leaders battled for the presidential palace, military bases and state TV in the main city Abidjan on Saturday, in a conflict becoming so brutal that it killed 800 people in one town alone. Advancing soldiers backing Alassane Ouattara, who U.N.-certified results show won a Nov. 28 presidential election, met stiff resistance from fighters remaining loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down.

Fighters backing democratically elected leader Alassane Ouattara entered Abidjan by the truckload Monday afternoon as part of a final offensive to take the last piece of the West African country still largely controlled by Gbagbo.

Emmanuel Braun / Reuters

A fighter loyal to Ivorian presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara displays traditional hunters' charms as forces gather outside the capital Abidjan, April 3.

A convoy of several dozen vehicles containing heavily armed pro-Ouattara troops and outfitted with mounted machine guns entered Ivory Coast's main city at midday, the first elements of a large force that had massed on the northern outskirts for what they called a "final assault," according to a Reuters eyewitness.

Emmanuel Braun / Reuters

Forces loyal to Ivorian presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara prepare to head to the frontline in the capital Abidjan, April 2.

 Heavy machine gun fire and a few explosions could be heard minutes after they entered the city limits.  Read full story here.

Sometimes seeing pictures that are up-close and personal is the only way to understand a news event. In fact, that approach is used by journalists every day. It puts a face on an event, and that helps us care. Caring leads to the desire to understand.

However, sometimes an event is so big that seeing it from way up high is the only way to comprehend how big it is.

Toru Hanai / Reuters

Fallen plastic crate boxes are seen outside a factory compound in an area damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, Japan, April 1, 2011.

Toru Hanai / Reuters

Cars travel on an intersection near Sendai, Japan on April 1, 2011.

Toru Hanai / Reuters

A cargo container that was damaged and left on the beach by the earthquake and tsunami is seen on a coastline near Sendai, Japan, April 1, 2011.

See more by clicking below:

• PhotoBlog posts about the disaster in Japan

 

• Continuing slideshow coverage

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, named after the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, is transported to its launch pad at Baikonur cosmodrome on April 2, 2011. The International Space Station crew of U.S. astronaut Ronald Garan and crew mates Russian cosmonauts Alexandr Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko is scheduled to launch on April 5.

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

The Soyuz is transported to its launch pad by train.

Reported by Space.com
A veteran NASA astronaut and two rookie cosmonauts are poised to begin their journey into space Monday by launching into orbit aboard a Russian spaceship named Gagarin.

The spaceflyers were due to liftoff from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 6:18 p.m. EDT aboard the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, nicknamed the Yuri Gagarin in honor of the 50th anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's first human spaceflight on April 12, 1961. 

Flying on the Soyuz Gagarin will be NASA astronaut Ron Garan and cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev, who are beginning a planned six-month mission to the International Space Station. They will join three other crew members already living aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Click here to read the full story.

Sajjad Hussain / AFP - Getty Images

Indian women dressed in traditional attire at a procession to celebrate 'Gudi Padwa' or the Maharashtrian new year in Mumbai on Monday, April 4. Gudi Padwa is the Hindu new year for the people of India's state of Maharashtra, that falls on the first day of the month of Chaitra according to the lunar calendar and is celebrated by dancing and singing on the occasion of Thanksgiving. This day marks the end of a harvest and the beginning of a new one, which for an agricultural community signifies the beginning of a New Year.

Rajanish Kakade / AP

People dressed in traditional attire dance during a procession to mark "Gudi Padwa," or Maharashtrian New Year, in Mumbai on Monday.

Sajjad Hussain / AFP - Getty Images

Indians watch a procession during celebrations of 'Gudi Padwa' or the Maharashtrian new year in Mumbai on Monday.

Sajjad Hussain / AFP - Getty Images

An Indian dressed up at a procession celebrates 'Gudi Padwa' or the Maharashtrian new year in Mumbai on Monday.

AFP reports that 'Gudi Padwa,' or the Maharashtrian new year, is the Hindu new year for the people of India's state of Maharashtra, that falls on the first day of the month of Chaitra according to the lunar calendar and is celebrated by dancing and singing on the occasion of Thanksgiving. This day marks the end of a harvest and the beginning of a new one, which for an agricultural community signifies the beginning of a New Year.

Dutch Defense Ministry via AP

In this photo taken Sunday, April 3 and released by the Dutch Defense Ministry on April 4, suspected pirates stand on deck with their hands raised as Dutch marines approach a hijacked Iranian fishing boat off the coast of Somalia in an operation to free it from pirates. The Dutch Defense Ministry says its marines have killed two pirates and captured 16.

AP reports from The Hague, Netherlands: The Dutch defense ministry says its marines have killed two pirates and captured 16 in an operation to free a hijacked Iranian fishing boat off the coast of Somalia.

The ministry says in a statement marines from the frigate HMS Tromp opened fire on the pirates Sunday after they shot at two Dutch inflatable speed boats sent to investigate a suspicious fishing vessel.

Ten suspected pirates were captured as they tried to flee in a high-speed skiff and six more were detained on the fishing boat. The bodies of two suspected pirates killed in the firefight also were recovered on the boat.

Roslan Rahman / AFP - Getty Images

A featherless Humboldt penguin (2nd right) in a wetsuit walks past king penguins in the enclosure at the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore on April 4. The 10-year-old penguin has been experiencing continued feather loss since 2010 and is being treated with customised wetsuits. The suit acts like a natural feather covering, providing warmth and insulation which also helps new feathers grow and prevents moulting.

Roslan Rahman / AFP - Getty Images

Angelin, an avian management officer, puts a wetsuit on a featherless Humboldt penguin at the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore on April 4.

Roslan Rahman / AFP - Getty Images

A featherless Humboldt penguin in a wetsuit goes for a swim in the enclosure at the Jurong Bird Park on April 4.

 See more great animal images in our Animal Tracks slideshow.

Julian Smith / AFP - Getty Images

Emergency services workers attend the site of an accident after a car plunged six storys from a multi-level parking lot in Melbourne, Australia on April 4. The driver, aged 41, was freed 40 minutes after the vehicle fell an estimated 30 metres before becoming stuck at ground level in a lane between the walls of the car park and another building.

Julian Smith / EPA

Emergency services workers attend the site of a car accident in Melbourne on April 4. The driver was injured after she drove through a Melbourne car park safety barrier and plunged six storys to the street below.

 Australia's Herald Sun newspaper reports:

A woman who had a miraculous escape after driving her car off a six-storey car park can thank her 4WD - and luck.

Paramedic Matthew Riddle, who was first to treat the 41-year-old woman, said he was amazed she survived.

"I think a lot of things contributed to keeping her alive today -- airbags, her seatbelt, luck," he said.

Another extraordinary story of bravery and foolhardiness out of Libya today: a young boy says that he stole a vehicle from Moammar Gadhafi's forces in order to escape the besieged town of Brega. He then drove at speed through the rebel front line, causing panic and coming under fire as he did so.  

Ben Curtis / AP

A young boy who said he had spent two days in besieged Brega and stolen a vehicle belonging to Moammar Gadhafi's forces in order to return to the rebel side, is questioned by rebel fighters near the front line east of Brega on April 3. Rebel fighters shot the tires out of the vehicle as it sped through the front line but released the boy after listening to his story.

Ben Curtis / AP

Rebel fighters shoot the tires out of a vehicle, unseen, belonging to Gadhafi's forces as it sped through the rebel front line on April 3. The vehicle was driven by a young boy who said he had spent two days in besieged Brega and stolen the vehicle in order to return to the rebel side.

 See more images from the conflict on PhotoBlog and in our slideshow.

EPA

Conservation workers watch a turtle swimming after been captured at Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi, Vietnam on April 3. The turtle's health is in serious condition and requires treatment, according to local media and veterinarian experts. Residents believe the giant turtle brings luck because it is said that a giant turtle lent King Le Loi a magical sword, with which he was able to defeat the Chinese invaders in 1427.

Back on March 8, we chronicled the attempts to rescue a giant turtle from Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake. Today those efforts paid off, as AP reports:

An ailing giant turtle considered sacred by many Vietnamese was captured in a lake in central Hanoi on Sunday by rescuers who hope to give it medical attention.

Thousands of onlookers cheered at Hoan Kiem Lake as the mammoth creature was pulled in after escaping capture last month.

It took 50 workers two hours to net the turtle and lure into a cage which was then transported by boat to a small island that was recently expanded and equipped with a small pond, known as the "turtle hospital," said Ha Dinh Duc, who has studied the creature for 20 years and considers himself its caretaker.

He said it will be kept on the island for medical treatment, but it's unclear how long it will take.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Demonstrators battled police in southern Afghanistan's main city on Sunday and took to the streets in the turbulent east for the first time as Western pleas failed to halt a third day of rage over a Florida pastor's burning of the Quran.

Rahmat Gul / AP

A protestor beats a burning effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama during a rally in Jalalabad, Afghanistan on Sunday, April 3. Afghan protests against the burning of a Quran in Florida entered a third day with a demonstration in the major eastern city Sunday, while the Taliban called on people to rise up, blaming government forces for any violence.

An officer was shot dead in a second day of clashes in the city of Kandahar, said provincial health director Qayum Pokhla. Two officers and 18 civilians were wounded, he said.

In Jalalabad, the largest city in the east, hundreds of people blocked the main highway for three hours, shouting for U.S. troops to leave, burning an effigy of President Barack Obama and stomping on a drawing of a U.S. flag. More than 1,000 people set tires ablaze to block another highway in eastern Parwan province for about an hour, said provincial police chief Sher Ahmad Maladani.

Rahmat Gul / AP

Protestors shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration in Jalalabad, Afghanistan on Sunday, April 3.

 The violence was set off by anger over the March 20 burning of the Quran by a Florida church — the same church whose pastor had threatened to do so last year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, triggering worldwide outrage. Continue reading.

As P.T Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute. Full story.

Carlos Osorio / AP

An image of Charlie Sheen is projected in the background as he performs at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Saturday, April 2. Promising "the real story," the 45-year-old former "Two and a Half Men" star hit the road for a month-long, 20-city variety show tour, with the first stop Saturday's sold-out show in Detroit.

Geoff Robins / AFP - Getty Images

A patron of Charlie Sheen's show at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan April 2 shows her displeasure following a performance which saw Sheen walk off the stage. Saturday was the first date in Sheen's cross country tour of his show "Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option".

Mohammed Saber / EPA

Palestinian Hamas members carry the body of senior Hamas militant Ismail Lubad, 42, during his funeral in Al Shatea refugee camp in the west of Gaza City on Saturday, April 2. Three Hamas militants were killed early Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on a car they were travelling in near the southern Gaza Strip city of Kahn Younis, doctors and Hamas sources said. The Israeli airstrike came a few days of relative calm. Last month the Gaza Strip witnessed an escalation of violence between Israel and Gaza militants, where at least 13 Palestinians were killed and more than 30 wounded. Around 30 Israelis were injured.

Ali Ali / EPA

Palestinian Hamas members carry the body of senior Hamas militant Ismail Lubad, 42, during his funeral in Al Shatea refugee camp in the west of Gaza City, on Saturday.

Ali Ali / EPA

Palestinian relatives of senior Hamas militant Ismail Lubad, 42, react during his funeral in Al Shatea refugee camp in the west of Gaza City on Saturday.

Read the New York Times story here.