News bites: Report says ‘collusion’ caused Japanese nuke plant disaster

CNN looks at a major report on the Japanese nuclear plant disaster that was commissioned by the country’s parliament.

From its piece:

The nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan was a "man-made disaster" that unfolded as a result of collusion between the facility's operator, regulators and the government, an independent panel said in an unusually frank report Thursday.

The report by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission outlines errors and willful negligence at the plant before the earthquake and tsunami that devastated swathes of northeastern Japan on March 11 last year, and a flawed response in the hours, days and weeks that followed.

The Wall Street Journal reports on a lawmaker's error that will lift a ban on hydraulic fracturing in North Carolina.

Oil prices jumped Thursday as a strike by Norway’s oil workers prompted Statoil to announce that it would start shutting down North Sea production. Reuters has the story.

The New York Times reports that Iran, hit with oil sanctions, is storing crude it can’t sell in tankers offshore, noting that “while it furiously works to build storage capacity on shore, it has turned to mothballing at sea.”