In Japan, radiation above normal limits has been detected in meat from near the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant. A nine magnitude earthquake and tsunami on the 11th of last month had severely damaged the nuclear plant triggering an atomic crisis. Health ministry officials said, 510 becquerels of radioactive cesium had been detected in beef from Tenei in Fukushima prefecture, about 70 kilometres from the plant exceeding the 500-becquerel limit. An official from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said, further checks are being carried out on beef from the region, because of a gap in radiation levels between the Tenei sample and others. Japan has already halted shipments of untreated milk and many vegetables from Fukushima and three neighbouring prefectures after radioactive substances were found in samples of the foodstuffs. Radiation monitoring has been stepped up in another six prefectures, covering an area bordering Tokyo. Lettuce contaminated with radiation above the legal limit had been found earlier at a wholesale market in central Japan, shipped from a farm north of Tokyo. Meanwhile, traces of radioactive Iodine-131 were found in milk in California and Washington states in United States. Officials however said, the levels are still 5,000 times below worrisome levels.