Holidaymakers have descended on a beach near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, the first time they have been allowed to swim in the area since last year's triple meltdown.

Local authorities decided to open Nakoso beach, located just 65km (40 miles) south of the stricken plant, after declaring the water safe. Radiation doses in the air were also low, at up to 0.07 microsieverts an hour, far below those considered a threat to health.

On Monday, which was a national holiday held to celebrate the ocean, about 1,000 people, including young families, headed to the beach for the first time in two summers.

"The water's still cold, but it's going to be a good season," Yukiei Hakozaki, a local guide, told Kyodo News. "We want lots of people to come."

The fictitious nation of Czervenia has just attacked its neighboring country with a "massive military offensive" and several Army soldiers sit around a conference table, planning how to rescue refugees and send a long-range surveillance team into enemy territory.

A helicopter hovers over a refugee camp in the rain, its blades whirring as rain falls. Soldiers parachute into the forest near a Czervenian staging area and watch through night-vision scopes.

The scenes are part of "America's Army," a graphic novel launched by the U.S. Army in 2009. Once available only in a static form through a web-based reader, the panels now come alive with sound effects and partial animation in a new iPad and Android app released last week.

Soldiers can be heard rustling in leaves as they try to hide from Czervenian forces on a night mission. Gunfire rattles as the screen flashes with "BOOM," "PING," and "PANG."

A large fire has swept through a 42-storey building in the centre of the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Television footage showed the Polat Tower building engulfed in thick black plumes of smoke, with pieces of debris falling to the ground.

Firefighters - backed by helicopters - later managed to contain the blaze, the cause of which is being investigated.

Officials said no-one was injured in the building which houses shops, apartments and offices.

The officials said hundreds of people were safely evacuated.

Turkey's Anatolia news agencies earlier reported that many people had been stranded inside.

The risk of a new depression - a sustained, severe recession - has struck fear into the heart of markets and driven monetary policy in developed economies since the current financial crisis began. "We're in a very unfortunate position to be here," Richard Duncan, author of The New Depression, warned on CNBC's Squawk Box Europe Monday.

"When we broke the link between money and gold, this removed all constraints on credit creation. This explosion of credit created the world we live in, but it now seems that credit cannot expand any further because the private sector is incapable of repaying the debt it has already, and if credit begins to contract, there's a very real danger that we will collapse into a new Great Depression," he argued.

"If this credit bubble pops, the depression could be so severe that I don't think our civilization could survive it."

The explosion in cheap credit has been widely blamed for the global financial crisis, but the debate about how to fix the problem continues.

Two people were killed and at least 19 injured in a shooting at an outdoor party in Toronto, police said on Tuesday, raising fresh fears of a rise in gun crime in Canada's largest city.

Police said it was too early to say what prompted the shooting late on Monday in which a young man and young woman were killed. Many of those hurt were injured in the panic that ensued after shots were fired.

"This is the most serious crime of its kind to ever take place in the city of Toronto," Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair told reporters at the scene.

Two dismembered bodies were found Tuesday morning in a canal near the Detroit river. Both were found without arms, legs or heads.

Detroit police tell 7 Action News that 911 calls came into their department saying the bodies were floating in a the Detroit River's canal, near Riverside and Alter Road.

One body appeared to be male, the other female.

An agent from U.S. Customs and Border Protection found the first body around 6 a.m. while on routine patrol near the Riverfront-Lakewood Park/Alfred Brush Ford Park area.

A second body was found a short time later about a half mile down the river.

"A medical examiner's determination for confirmation on their sexes and cause of death will be needed," said a Detroit Police Department spokesperson.

Utah - The St. George Airport was closed Tuesday following an incident involving a SkyWest plane.

Details about the incident remain sketchy.

"While the airport was closed overnight, a SkyWest aircraft at the St. George Municipal Airport in Utah was involved in a ground incident while the aircraft was not in service," SkyWest said in a brief prepared statement. "Until the airport is reopened, passengers with Delta Connection flights to and from St. George are being re-accommodated on other flights as well as with ground transportation from nearby Cedar City."

The terminal at the St. George Airport sustained minor damage and vehicles in the parking lot were also damaged as well as a SkyWest plane, according to St. George spokesman Mark Mortensen.

A 7-year-old Brooklyn girl is miraculously alive and well today after plummeting three stories - thanks to a heroic neighbor who raced into action and broke her fall.

Cops said little Keyla McCree pushed out one of the accordion pieces that was holding a brand- new air conditioner in a bedroom window of her Coney Island apartment and squeezed through the tiny opening before she fell off.

"She's fine," said the autistic girl's mom, Shaleema McCree.

"Not a scratch on her. The man caught her, thank God.

"It's a miracle."

Digital Eye Glass

I believe that Digital Eye Glass will ultimately replace glasses, and will help many people see better, and improve the quality of their lives through Augmediated Reality.

Personal introduction

I wear a computer vision system, and carry a letter from my family physician, as well as documentation on this system when I travel.

I have worn a computer vision system of some kind for 34 years, and am the inventor of the technology that I wear and use in my day-to-day life.

Although it has varied over the last 34 years, I have worn the present embodiment of this system (pictured below) for 13 years. This simple design which I did in collaboration with designer Chris Aimone, consists of a sleek strip of aluminum that runs across the forehead, with two silicone nose pads. It holds an EyeTap device (computer-controlled laser light source that causes the eye itself to function as if it were both a camera and display, in effect) in front of my right eye. It also gives the wearer the appearance of having a "glass eye", this phenomenon being known as the "glass eye" effect (Presence Connect, 2002). Over the years the EyeTap has also therefore been known as the "Glass Eye" or "Eye Glass", or "Digital Eye Glass", using the word "Glass" in its singular form, rather than its plural form "Glasses" (See figure caption, "EyeTap digital eye glass", Aaron Harris/Canadian Press, Monday Dec. 22, 2003).

Recent news has described me as "the father of wearable computing" in the context of various commercially manufactured versions of similar eye glass, such as those made by companies like Google, Olympus, and the like (see below), so as this technology becomes mainstream, McDonald's might need to get used to it.

Almost 300 "brand police" are soon to hit the streets of the UK, working to protect the advertising rights of major corporate Olympic sponsors, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, BP Oil, General Electric, Adidas, Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble and others, the Independent reports.

Protesters are defacing BP's London Olympics advertisements over the oil company's involvement in activities the protesters call "environmentally destructive." In sharp contrast to the scandal involving the under-staffing of security for the Olympic spectators, staffing has not been an issue when it comes to policing the interests of corporate sponsors. 3,500 British soldiers on leave are being brought in to bail out the security firm G4S which admitted last week it could not supply the numbers of security staff it had promised.

The special 'brand police' will hit the streets wearing purple caps and tops and have the right to enter shops and offices near Olympic sites and bring court action with fines of up to $31,000 for the 'misuse' of words such as "gold", "silver" and "bronze", "summer", "sponsors" and "London". Only 42 companies have been licensed to associate themselves with the Olympics.