Bali Just Can't be Beaten (Fijis Beaches are Arguably Cleaner Than Balis, but the Indonesian Island Remains More Popular)

Shear English - No matter how hard it tries, Fiji can't overtake Bali as a destination for Australian holidaymakers. Fiji is cheaper than Bali - especially since Jetstar and Virgin's Pacific Blue started flying to Nadi in the past few years - and hours closer to Australia's big east-coast cities than its Indonesian rival but attracts only half the number of Australians to its shores.

Fiji's beaches are arguably cleaner than Bali's and there are more surf breaks in more places but the bustle of the south of Bali island has proved a perennial magnet of greater overall appeal. The terrorist attacks of 2002 and 2005 aimed at foreigners in Bali fade in the memory as a record number of Australians head for the island.

More than 600,000 of the 2.53 million travellers - about a quarter of all visitors - who landed in Bali last year were Australian, the biggest foreign contingent, overtaking the Japanese. But Fiji has been breaking records, too. Its overall number of visitors last year was 631,868 people, eclipsing the 542,186 in 2009. Not surprisingly, Australia supplied 318,185, 50.4 per cent of Fiji's total international arrivals for last year and an increase of 28 per cent in the number of Australians who visited in 2009.

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Holiday in Hell : 300 Garbage Trucks a Day Were Needed to Collect Rubbish in the Kuta Area

Shear English - Australians have a strong affinity with Bali and will keep going, travel agents say, despite it being dubbed "holidays in hell" by Time magazine. The magazine says the island is struggling with waste and some of its famous beaches are strewn with rubbish. Bali tourism agency head Ida Bagus Subhiksu said up to 300 garbage trucks a day were needed to collect rubbish in the Kuta area, a prime tourist spot. "We are not closing our eyes. It's true that we have a waste problem," he said.

But Flight Centre spokesman Haydn Long said it remains one of the top 10 destinations for Australian travellers, because of its affordability, proximity and luxurious resorts. Many are repeat customers and rarely complained about Kuta Beach, he said. Visitor numbers to Bali are growing - 2.3 million foreign tourists came last year and 2.5 million are expected this year.

"With most destinations, there's positives and negatives," Mr Long said.

"Aussies are pretty resilient and nothing really fazes them too much when they're on holidays."

He said Australians felt strongly about supporting Bali in the wake of the 2002 and 2005 bombings.

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More Radiation from Nuclear Plant Could Cause "Bizarre Mutations"

Shear English - In the past week, seawater samples taken near the nuclear power plant, on Japan's eastern coast, have shown elevated levels of radioactive isotopes, including cesium 137 and iodine 131, according to the New York Times. All life on Earth and in the oceans lives with exposure to natural levels of ionizing radiation—high-frequency radiation with enough energy to change DNA. Most such genetic damage heals, but the addition of human-made radiation can make it harder for the body to repair broken genes.

Radiation concentrations in the Japanese seawater samples have fluctuated in past days, but on Wednesday the amount of iodine spiked to 3,355 times the legal limit for seawater, Japanese nuclear safety officials told the Associated Press. That level is the highest so far—and an indication that more radiation is entering the ocean, though how is still unknown, the agency reported. Cesium was also found to be 20 times its safety limit on March 28, according to the Times.

Radiation Can Cause "Bizarre Mutations"

Once in seawater, radiation can hurt ocean animals in several ways—by killing them outright, creating "bizarre mutations" in their offspring, or passing radioactive material up the food chain, according to Joseph Rachlin, director of Lehman College's Laboratory for Marine and Estuarine Research in New York City.

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