My finance view

St. Louis-based Ralcorp Holdings has rejected ConAgra Foods’ offer to buy the company.

Ralcorp issued a statement Monday morning saying the company intends to move forward with its plans to spin off its branded food business, Post Foods, as a separate public company rather than sell the entire company to Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra. ConAgra’s earlier offers to buy Ralcorp this year so far have been rejected.

Last week, ConAgra issued a statement saying it would retract its offer to buy Ralcorp for $94 a share, or nearly $5.2 billion, by today unless Ralcorp entered into negotiations for a sale. So far, Ralcorp’s board of directors has refused to meet with ConAgra executives about a sale fast payday loans.

“Post Foods is on track to be spun off to Ralcorp shareholders, at which time I will become chairman of the board of the new Post Foods,” Ralcorp Chairman Bill Stiritz said in a statement today. “Post Foods’ main asset is its great brand name — it has untapped potential. Looking forward, the management of this valuable asset will not be a combination of the past, but rather it will be creative, imaginative and adaptive in pursuit of shareholder value creation — nothing is off the table.”

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The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 300 points and erased its gains for the year as investors grew more concerned about economic weakness in the U.S. and Europe.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell more than 3 percent, bringing it 10 percent below its recent high of 1,363 reached on April 29. A decline of 10 percent is considered to be a market correction. The Dow Jones industrial average is now down more than 1,100 points from July 21.

Oil fell 4 percent to $88 a barrel on worries demand will fall because of the slowing economy. Oil had traded over $100 as recently as June 9.

“We are continuing to be bombarded by worries about the global economy,” said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Financial.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 325 points, or 2.7 percent, to 11,571 in midday trading. The S&P 500 lost 39, or 3.3 percent, to 1,221. The Nasdaq composite shed 89, or 3.3 percent, to 2,603. The losses in the Dow were the largest since June 2010, when it fell 323 points.

Money poured into investments that are seen as relatively safe when markets are turbulent. Gold rose 1 percent to $1,680 an ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.51 percent, its lowest level of the year. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note hit a record low of 0.265 percent. Bond yields fall when demand for them increases.

Large investors have moved so much money into cash accounts at Bank of New York that on Thursday the bank said it would begin charging some clients a 0.13 percent fee to hold their cash.

“In the past month, we have seen a growing level of deposits on our balance sheet from clients seeking a safe-haven in light of the global interest rate and credit environment,” the bank said in a statement to The Associated Press. Bank of New York clients include pension funds and large investment houses.

“Investors are deciding that now is the time to take risk off the table,” said Brian Gendreau, market strategist for Cetera Financial Group. Gendreau said that some investors are now wondering whether stocks will have a prolonged slump similar to the aftermath of the Great Depression.

European stocks fell broadly because of concerns that Italy or Spain may need help from the European Union. The benchmark stock indexes in Italy, Germany and England each fell 3 percent.

Companies that make most of their profits when the global economy expands fell the most. Caterpillar, Alcoa and Chevron led the Dow lower with losses of nearly 4 percent each.

Some traders are selling ahead of Friday’s employment report, which is expected to show that unemployment remained at 9.2 percent last month. A rise in the unemployment number would likely push stocks lower again.

The U.S. government said before the market opened that the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits for the first time was only slightly lower last week to 400,000. That’s still above the 375,000 level that economist say indicates a healthy job market. It was the latest indication of weakness in the U.S. economy.

Kraft Foods was the only company among the 30 stocks in the Dow to rise. Kraft rose 2 percent after the company said Thursday that it plans to split into two. One company will focus on snacks such as Oreo cookies and the other will target the North American grocery business.

All 10 industry groups in the S&P index fell. Energy, financial and industrial companies each lost 2 percent or more.

Stock trading has been volatile this week because of concerns that the U.S. economy is weakening. Manufacturing, consumer spending and hiring by private companies are below levels that are consistent with a healthy economy. Those reports have called into question estimates from economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, that the economy will grow more quickly in the second half of the year.

The sell-off comes at a time when corporate profits are growing. The forward price to earnings ratio of the S&P 500 has fallen to about 12, well below its long-term average of 16. That means that investors who buy now are paying less for each dollar in profits.

General Motors Co. fell 2 percent despite beating analyst estimates. CVS Caremark fell nearly 4 percent after its revenue slipped last quarter.

Several national retailers are announcing July sales results throughout the day. Target, Gap Inc. and Macy’s each fell by more than 1 percent, in part because of concerns that consumers would spend less if the economy continues to slow down.

The Dow rose 30 points Wednesday _ after being down 166 _ to break an eight-day losing streak. Nine days would have been the longest since February 1978. The S&P 500 index rose 6 points and broke a seven-day streak.

—

AP business writers Dave Carpenter and Pallavi Gogoi contributed to this story.

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Market analysts and investors around the world remained on edge Sunday as Congress continued to work out a deal to avoid a U.S. debt default.

If there is no agreement to raise the nation’s borrowing limit and defuse the building financial crisis, analysts say they expect Monday to bring a steep slide in stocks across the globe.

In the U.S. that would add to six straight days of stock losses. The Dow fell 581, or 4 percent, in that time.

John Brady, a senior vice president for futures and options at MF Global predicts the Standard & Poor’s 500 index could fall another 7 percent on Monday if a deal falls apart. The S&P closed at 1,292 on Friday and was down 3.9 percent last week. A loss of the size Brady suggests could send the S&P down to 1,200, a level it hasn’t seen since last November.

The Treasury Department has said that after Tuesday the U.S. government won’t have enough money to meet all of its financial obligations if Congress does not raise the nation’s debt ceiling. If a deal is not reached, the Treasury Department will have to decide which bills to pay and which to delay. Among them: interest payments on bonds, salaries of federal employees, and Social Security payments to retirees. The Treasury Department has not indicated which payments will take priority if the debt ceiling is not raised.

Treasury bonds have long been considered the world’s safest investment and are a top holding of the largest pension funds in the U.S., the Chinese government and millions of Americans who own mutual funds.

Thomas Tzitzouris, head of fixed income research at Strategas Research Partners says to avoid a steep decline, the market needs to at least see some progress.

If not, he says: “That would be a double whammy. When (Congress says) there is progress and then there isn’t, that really spooks the market.”

That’s exactly what happened last week when a series of proposals gave investors fleeting hope for a deal. That is, until one party or the other shot them down. Nearly every measure of market confidence fell last week as Congress edged closer to Aug. 2 without a deal. The price of gold rose 2 percent for the week. The price of gold tends to rise when investors aren’t confident about other investments. A measure of stock market volatility, the VIX, jumped 6 percent.

On the other hand, if a deal is reached to raise the borrowing limit, MF Global’s Brady says the S&P 500 could add 6 percent.

“Stocks will rally, and stocks will rally big,” Brady said.

A deal would remove a major source of something investors hate most: Uncertainty. But there’s another reason the so-called deal rally might be a big one no credit check payday loans. Companies have reported strong earnings in recent days, but traders have been reluctant to buy stocks because they were afraid the debt wrangling in Washington might set off a financial crisis. In turn, the yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to its lowest level of the year on Friday, 2.80 percent. Treasury yields fall when demand for them goes up. Demand tends to rise when investors are reluctant to put money in stocks.

“If this issue can be taken out of the headlines and the focus on Washington can be redirected toward corporate earnings and economic fundamentals, the market will have removed a significant obstacle,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.

Even so, there are other problems suppressing investor enthusiasm. A report Friday said that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of only 1.3 percent between April and June. This year, the economy has grown as its slowest pace since the recession ended in June 2009 _ just 1.7 percent. A debt deal that significantly cuts short-term government spending could further weaken the economy, experts say.

Even with a deal to raise the borrowing limit and cut spending, analysts say companies won’t be ready to hire workers and invest in new projects until some other Washington issues are resolved, like the cost of health care legislation passed last year and financial reform legislation.

Analysts say that if a deal is ultimately reached before Aug. 2, investors will chalk up the market-rattling debt drama as another example of ultimately harmless Washington theatrics.

If the current deal falls apart, however, they say politicians will have done lasting damage to the nation’s credibility. Over time, this could make U.S. government debt less desirable to the worldwide market. That, in turn, could raise the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government.

Lawmakers expressed optimism that a deal could yet be reached Sunday. A number of other promising deals have fallen through in recent days. This has left some investors frustrated at Washington for adding to the economic uncertainty by failing to reach a deal before the deadline became so close at hand.

“This is the worst crisis I can remember and I’ve been in the markets for many of them,” said Uri Landesman, the president of Platinum Partners, a New York hedge fund. “There has been incredibly weak leadership all the way around.”

–Associated Press writer David Carpenter contributed to this report.

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The economy slowed in the first six months of 2011 to its weakest pace since the recession ended. High gas prices and scant income gains forced Americans to sharply pull back on spending.

The Commerce Department says the economy expanded only 1.3 percent in the April-June period. And it downwardly revised the January-March figures to show growth of just 0.4 percent, the weakest since the recession ended two years ago.

Consumer spending was almost flat this spring. It increased only 0.1 percent, after 2.1 percent growth in the winter. Spending on long-lasting manufactured goods, such as autos and appliances, fell 4.4 percent.

Government spending fell for the third straight quarter. And state and local governments cut spending for the seventh quarter in eight since the recession ended.

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The European Union is introducing new rules that would make it cheaper to use mobile and smartphones abroad.

The proposals from the EU’s executive Commission Wednesday seek to spur competition among providers and put new caps on roaming charges.

For the first time, the EU is slapping caps on the price individuals have to pay for going online from a smartphone or tablet computer when moving from one country to another. The EU is made up of 27 countries.

The European Commission also said that from July 2014 operators will have to open their networks to providers from another EU state, which would give consumers more providers to choose from. At the same time, consumers will be able to sign a separate roaming contract, allowing them to take advantage of cheaper offers when moving about.

The new rules will kick in when the bloc’s existing regulation on mobile roaming expires at the end of June next year.

While the current rules have forced the price of making calls down to 35 euro cents (about 50 U.S. cents) a minute when traveling in another EU country and kept a lid on the cost of receiving calls and sending text messages, the Commission believes that charges remain way too high.

The Commission’s goal is to bring roaming prices in line with national ones by 2015, an important step in getting the 27-country bloc closer together and spurring business and freedom of movement in the EU’s internal market. The new rules would also apply in non-EU states Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

“This proposal tackles the root cause of the problem _ the lack of competition on roaming markets _ by giving customers more choice and by giving alternative operators easier access to the roaming market,” Neelie Kroes, who is in charge of the EU’s digital agenda, said in a statement.

For the first time, the rules would also cap the price of going online from a smartphone or tablet computer. Using mobile Internet in another EU country can quickly drive up phone bills, with prices for downloading one megabyte of data averaging euro2.23 ($3.22) but sometimes going up to euro12 ($17.35), according to the Commission.

One megabyte is equivalent to about 100 e-mails without attachments or a few seconds of streaming video online. Under the new proposal, charges for data roaming would have to come down to 90 cents a megabyte by July next year and sink to 50 cents by 2014.

By that date, the price of making calls would be capped at 24 cents a minute, while incoming calls and text messages would cost 10 cents.

At the center of the Commission’s proposals are efforts to increase competition between providers. From July 2014, operators will have to open their networks to providers from another EU state, which would give consumers more services to choose from.

At the same time, consumers will be able to sign a separate roaming contract, allowing them to take advantage of cheaper offers from a different provider while keeping their regular number and SIM card.

The Commission believes that more competition is the best way of forcing operators to bring down prices and stop price ceilings from effectively becoming price floors.

The new rules still have to be approved by EU states and the European Parliament.

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The United Nations will open eight new peacekeeping bases in western Ivory Coast in an effort to restore law and order ahead of upcoming legislative elections, local U.N. mission chief Choi Young-jin said.

The bases will be located in areas where fighting was the fiercest in March, and where tens of thousands of people still refuse to return home in fear of reprisal attacks.

“There is a pressing need to restore law and order throughout the country,” Choi told journalists on Thursday.

Former President Laurent Gbagbo was arrested in April after holding onto power for five months after he lost an election. Fighters loyal to the democratically elected leader Alassane Ouattara finally removed Gbagbo from power with the help of U.N. and French military forces.

The fighting during the political crisis left an estimated 3,000 people dead, and sent more than 1 million people fleeing their homes. The U.N. refugee agency says that 300,000 people are still displaced, more than two months after the fighting ended.

Human Rights groups allege that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by both sides during the power struggle over the presidency.

While 15 members of Gbagbo’s government have been charged with crimes, not a single member of president Ouattara’s forces has been arrested.

The International Criminal Court sent an investigation team to Ivory Coast last week and pledged to bring all those responsible for crimes to justice.

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Maybe the global economy isn’t in such bad shape after all.

After weeks of worries about the economy pulled stocks down, indexes have risen sharply for two days in a row.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 120 points in midday trading Tuesday, thanks in part to signs that concerns of a global slowdown may be overblown. Quarterly results from Nike Inc. bested analysts’ expectations helped spark a rally in stocks of clothing stores, restaurants and jewelers. Such companies tend to do well when consumers are less worried about things like high gas prices and are willing to spend on themselves.

Other industries that do well during periods of economic expansion led the stock market higher. Caterpillar Inc., one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow, gained the most, rising 2.3 percent. Industrials gained 1.2 percent overall. Consumer discretionary companies gained 1.6 percent.

Signs that the housing market is improving helped lift Home Depot Inc., a company that benefits when consumers spend money on home improvement. Home Depot gained 2.1 percent following a report that home prices rose in April in 13 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index. The index rose for the first time in eight months thanks to an annual push to buy homes in the spring.

The long slump in the housing market has been a drag on the U.S. economic recovery. Housing usually leads the economy out of recessions. But that hasn’t been the case with the current recovery, which began in June 2009 Low fee payday loans.

A decline in U.S. consumer confidence to a seven-month low, largely because of worries about jobs, did not slow down the gains in stocks.

The Dow gained 121 points, or 1 percent, to 12.164 in afternoon trading. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 14, or 1.1 percent, to 1,294. The Nasdaq composite index added 34, or 1.3 percent, to 2,722.

Signs that the Greece may be making progress in its debt crisis also boosted markets. Greek lawmakers are debating austerity measures that must be passed to secure the next installment of emergency loans from international lenders. On Monday French banks agreed to accept slower repayment on Greek debts, another key step in avoiding a Greek debt default.

Among U.S. companies, Accenture rose 3.5 percent after S&P announced that the company would be added to its S&P 500 index. And tobacco company Altria Group fell 2 percent after the Food and Drug Administration announced it is reviewing research to determine the public health impact of menthol cigarettes.

Government bond prices fell as investors put a greater value on riskier assets like stocks. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury rose to 3.03 percent from 2.93 percent Monday. Bond yields rise when prices fall. Bond yields fell to their lowest level of the year last week due to concerns that Greece’s debt problems would spread to other European countries.

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Test results returned Monday found that DNA from former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn matched material on the work clothes of a Manhattan hotel maid who says he attacked her, two people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.

The two people would not describe the material found on the shirt, but said DNA matched a sample from Strauss-Kahn, who submitted to testing after his arrest more than a week ago. He denies the charges.

The two people said additional testing was being performed on other items. They were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

During their investigation, authorities cut out a piece of carpet and swabbed sinks and other surfaces in his hotel room. Investigators told the AP they believed the carpet in the hotel room may contain Strauss-Kahn’s semen, spat out after an episode of forced oral sex by the maid.

The forensic evidence is the first to link Strauss-Kahn to the woman _ and it’s also on track with what his lawyers have suggested would be his defense.

Strauss-Kahn’s attorney Benjamin Brafman declined to comment on Monday. At a court hearing last week, he told a judge that forensic evidence developed in the investigation “will not be consistent with a forcible encounter” _ leading to speculation that Strauss-Kahn’s defense would argue that it was consensual.

NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne and the Manhattan district attorney’s office would not comment.

The one-time French presidential contender has been charged with a criminal sex act, attempted rape and sexual abuse and is free on $1 million bail, under house arrest at a lower Manhattan apartment. He has been accused of attacking the 32-year-old West African immigrant on May 14 in his luxury suite at the Sofitel hotel near Manhattan’s Times Square. His lawyers say he is innocent.

Staff at the Sofitel told authorities that the 62-year-old had made passes at them the day before the alleged attack, including flirting with a clerk and calling another employee to ask her up to his room, according to a third person with direct knowledge of investigators’ interviews with staff.

Strauss-Kahn had flirted with one female staff member who accompanied him to his suite to make sure his accommodations were satisfactory after he checked in on May 13, the person said. Later, he phoned the desk clerk who had checked him in, asking her if she would like to get together with him when she got off duty, the person said. The desk clerk refused, saying she was not allowed to socialize with the VIP guest, the person said.

That person also wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

On Monday, lawyers for Strauss-Kahn continued to search for new digs for their client as he awaits trial. His bail agreement hit a snag late last week after tenants at the Upper East Side apartment building chosen for his house arrest refused to allow him, citing unwanted media attention.

Strauss-Kahn is currently being housed at a temporary location under watch by armed guards with Stroz Friedberg, the same company that guarded disgraced financier Bernard Madoff. It was not clear when he would be moved. French and U.S. media have been staking out the building where Strauss-Kahn spent the weekend after he was released from his Rikers Island jail cell.

He resigned last Wednesday from the IMF.

His attorneys have described Strauss-Kahn as a loving father and family man. They say his actions after the alleged attack are not those of a guilty man eager for a quick escape. He left the hotel, had lunch and then phoned later to ask if he’d left anything behind. When he was told by hotel staff they had his cellphone, he told them exactly where he was: at John F. Kennedy International Airport on a flight bound for Paris. Authorities pulled him from the jetliner.

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Nuclear plant operators trying to avoid complete reactor meltdowns said Thursday that they were close to completing a new power line that might end Japan’s crisis, but several ominous signs have also emerged: a surge in radiation levels, unexplained white smoke and spent fuel rods that U.S. officials said could be on the verge of spewing radioactive material.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said in Washington on Wednesday that all the water was gone from the spent fuel pools at Unit 4 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, but Japanese officials denied it. Hajime Motojuku, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the “condition is stable” at Unit 4.

If Jaczko is correct, it would mean there’s nothing to stop the fuel rods from getting hotter and ultimately melting down. The outer shells of the rods could also ignite with enough force to propel the radioactive fuel inside over a wide area.

Jaczko did not say how the information was obtained, but the NRC and U.S. Department of Energy both have experts at the complex of six reactors along Japan’s northeastern coast, which was ravaged by last week’s magnitude-9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

The conditions at the plant appeared to worsen, with white smoke pouring from the complex and a surge in radiation levels forcing workers to retreat for hours Wednesday from their struggle to cool the overheating reactors.

As international concern mounted, the chief of the U.N. nuclear agency said he would go to Japan to assess what he called a “serious” situation and urged Tokyo to provide better information to his organization.

Japanese officials raised hopes of easing the crisis, saying early Thursday that they were close to completing a new power line that could restore the reactors’ cooling systems.

Naoki Tsunoda, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, said the new power line to the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was almost finished and that officials planned to try it “as soon as possible,” but he could not say exactly when.

The new line could revive electric-powered pumps, allowing the company to maintain a steady water supply to troubled reactors and spent fuel storage ponds, keeping them cool. The company is also trying to repair its existing disabled power line.

Late Wednesday, government officials said they’d asked special police units to bring in water cannons _ normally used to quell rioters _ to spray water onto the spent fuel storage pool at Unit 4.

The cannons are thought to be strong enough to allow emergency workers to remain a safe distance from the complex while still able to get water into the pool, said Minoru Ogoda of Japan’s nuclear safety agency.

TEPCO said it was also considering using military helicopters to douse the reactors with water, after giving up on such a plan because of high radiation levels in the atmosphere.

Wednesday’s pullback by workers who have been pumping seawater into the reactors cost valuable time in the fight to prevent a nuclear meltdown, a nightmare scenario following the horrific earthquake and tsunami. The disasters last Friday pulverized Japan’s northeastern coast and are feared to have killed more than 10,000 people.

The tsunami destroyed the complex’s backup power system and left operators unable to properly cool nuclear fuel. The 180 emergency workers have been working in shifts to manually pump seawater into the reactors.

Japan’s emperor, in an unprecedented made-for-TV speech, called on the country to work together.

“It is important that each of us shares the difficult days that lie ahead,” said Akihito, 77. “I pray that we will all take care of each other and overcome this tragedy.”

He also expressed his worries over the nuclear crisis, saying: “With the help of those involved I hope things will not get worse.”

But officials are also taking increasing criticism for poor communication about efforts at the complex. There has been growing unease at the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35 board member nations, who have complained that information coming from Japan on the rapidly evolving nuclear disaster is too slow and vague.

IAEA head Yukiya Amano spoke of a “very serious” situation and said he would leave for Tokyo within a day.

He said it was “difficult to say” if events were out of control, but added, “I will certainly have contact with those people who are working there who tackled the accident, and I will be able to have firsthand information.”

The nuclear crisis has partly overshadowed the human tragedy caused by Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest recorded in history.

Millions of Japanese have been with little food and water in heavy snow and rain since Friday. In some towns, long lines of cars waited outside the few open gas stations, with others lined up at rice-vending machines.

National broadcaster NHK showed mammoth military helicopters lifting off Friday afternoon to survey radiation levels above the nuclear complex, preparing to dump water onto the most troubled reactors in an effort to cool them down.

The defense ministry later said those flights were a drill _ then later said it had decided against making an airborne drop because of the high radiation levels.

“The anxiety and anger being felt by people in Fukushima have reached a boiling point,” the governor of Fukushima prefecture, Yuhei Sato, fumed in an interview with NHK. He criticized preparations for an evacuation if conditions worsen, and said centers do not have enough hot meals and basic necessities.

More than 4,300 people are officially listed as dead, but officials believe the toll will climb to well over 10,000. Police say more than 452,000 people are staying in temporary shelters such as school gymnasiums.

Wednesday’s radiation spike was believed to have come from the complex’s Unit 3. But officials also acknowledged that they were far from sure what was going on at the four most troubled reactors, including Unit 3, in part because high radiation levels made it difficult to get very close.

While white smoke was seen rising Wednesday above Unit 3, officials could not ascertain the source. They said it could be spewing from the reactor’s spent fuel pool _ cooling tanks for used nuclear rods _ or may have been from damage to the reactor’s containment vessel, the protective shell of thick concrete.

Masahisa Otsuki, an official with TEPCO, said officials are most concerned about the spent fuel pools, which are not encased in protective shells.

“We haven’t been able to get any of the latest data at any spent fuel pools. We don’t have the latest water levels, temperatures, none of the latest information for any of the four reactors,” he said.

In the city of Fukushima, meanwhile, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) inland from the nuclear complex, hundreds of harried government workers, police officers and others struggled to stay on top of the situation in a makeshift command center.

An entire floor of one of the prefecture’s office buildings had been taken over by people tracking evacuations, power needs, death tolls and food supplies.

Elevated levels of radiation were detected well outside the 20-mile (30-kilometer) emergency area around the plants. In Ibaraki prefecture, just south of Fukushima, officials said radiation levels were about 300 times normal levels by late morning. It would take three years of constant exposure to these higher levels to raise a person’s risk of cancer.

A little radiation was also detected in Tokyo, triggering panic buying of food and water.

Given the reported radiation levels, John Price, an Australian-based nuclear safety expert, said he saw few health risks for the general public so far. But he said he was surprised by how little information the Japanese were sharing.

“We don’t know even the fundamentals of what’s happening, what’s wrong, what isn’t working. We’re all guessing,” he said. “I would have thought they would put on a panel of experts every two hours.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government expects to ask the U.S. military for help, though he did not elaborate. He said the government is still considering whether to accept offers of help from other countries.

There are six reactors at the plant. Units 1, 2 and 3, which were operating last week, shut down automatically when the quake hit. Since then, all three have been rocked by explosions. Compounding the problems, on Tuesday a fire broke out in Unit 4’s fuel storage pond, an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool, causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere.

Units 4, 5 and 6 were shut at the time of the quake, but even offline reactors have nuclear fuel _ either inside the reactors or in storage ponds _ that need to be kept cool.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency estimated that 70 percent of the rods have been damaged at the No. 1 reactor.

Japan’s national news agency, Kyodo, said that 33 percent of the fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor were damaged and that the cores of both reactors were believed to have partially melted.

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Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Sunday he is stepping down for having accepted a political donation from a foreigner, which is illegal in Japan.

The resignation is another blow to the embattled administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose public approval rating has fallen below 20 percent amid concerns that the government is failing to tackle serious problems ranging from a lackluster economy and bulging national debt to an aging, shrinking population.

Maehara, 48, was foreign minister for just six months.

The allegation came up during a parliamentary budget committee meeting last week. Maehara initially said he didn’t know about it, but later acknowledged that his office accepted the donation from his longtime supporter, an ethnic South Korean resident in Kyoto, and apologized.

Japan’s political funding law prohibits lawmakers from accepting donations from foreigners, and opposition lawmakers demanded he take responsibility.

“I carefully thought about my political funding issue over the last few days, and I have decided to resign as foreign minister,” he told a televised news conference Sunday night.

“I apologize to the people that I ended up resigning after just six months on the job, and for causing distrust due to a politics-and-money problem despite my pledge to seek clean politics,” he said. “It’s truly regrettable that I caused such a problem because of my own mistake.”

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