the first sign that the Fukushima nuclear disaster may be changing life around it, scientists say they've found mutant butterflies.

Some of the butterflies had abnormalities in their legs, antennae, and abdomens, and dents in their eyes, according to the study published in Scientific Reports, an online journal from the team behind Nature. Researchers also found that some affected butterflies had broken or wrinkled wings, changes in wing size, color pattern changes, and spots disappearing or increasing on the butterflies.

The study began two months after an earthquake and tsunami devastated swaths of northeastern Japan in March 2011, triggering a nuclear disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi plant spewed radiation and displaced tens of thousands of residents from the surrounding area in the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.

In May 2011, researchers collected more than 100 pale grass blue butterflies in and around the Fukushima prefecture and found that 12% of them had abnormalities or mutations. When those butterflies mated, the rate of mutations in the offspring rose to 18%, according to the study, which added that some died before reaching adulthood. When the offspring mated with healthy butterflies that weren't affected by the nuclear crisis, the abnormality rate rose to 34%, indicating that the mutations were being passed on through genes to offspring at high rates even when one of the parent butterflies was healthy.

Mr. Chairman, it has been the American policy from Republican presidents and Democrat presidents that we engage; it has been in the American policy that we engage the Soviet Union, that we engage China, that we, just a few minutes ago, voted to engage Vietnam. We should do the same with Cuba.

The FT has obtained a document showing that Greece is now seeking a two-year extension to its austerity programme; Antonis Samaras is expected to outline the proposal to Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande next week; spending cuts are to be phased in over four years until 2016, with a slower trajectory of cuts in the budget deficit; the additional funding requirement would be €20bn; the Greek government managed to sell over €4bn in T-bills mainly to domestic banks, which obtained the funds through the ELA - in other words through the ECB; the Greek government has effectively imposed a moratorium on all public payments, except salaries and pensions; the Dutch Socialists are emerging as the front-runners in the upcoming elections; the eurozone shrunk by 0.2% in Q2, with Germany doing a little better than expected; southern Europe is mired in a dismal recession; indicators show that Germany and the Netherlands are both headed for a downturn later this year; Olli Rehn underlined Mario  Draghi's message that the ECB will do whatever it takes; Wolfgang Munchau says the scope for intervention is more limited than investors believe; Robert Rubin says there is no alternative to the path of conditional help as outlined by Draghi; Neil Unmack writes the ECB should address the problem of seniority; Spanish banks increase their ECB borrowings to a new record level; the Spanish government is negotiating a deal to exempt retail investors of bank preference shares from a wipe-out; Mariano Rajoy says he is open-minded about a programme, but says the conditions must be reasonable; the German constitutional court reaffirmed its ESM-ruling timetable; the Bundesbank warns the IMF against overstretching its resources; William Cline, meanwhile, finds that Spanish and Italian public debt is likely to be sustainable under reasonable assumptions.