SENDAI, Japan — A strong new earthquake rattled Japan's northeast today just hours after people bowed their heads and wept in ceremonies to mark a month since the tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and set off a nuclear crisis.

People in hard-hit towns gathered for ceremonies at 2:46 p.m., the exact moment of the massive quake a month earlier.

In a devastated coastal neighborhood in the city of Natori, three dozen firemen and soldiers removed their hats and helmets and joined hands atop a small hill that has become a memorial for the dead. Earlier, four monks in pointed hats rang a prayer bell there as they chanted for those killed.

The noisy clatter of construction equipment ceased briefly as crane operators stood outside their vehicles and bowed their heads.

IITATE, Japan — After nearly two weeks of uncertainty, the recommendation finally came today: Evacuate. Officials in Iitate had insisted as recently as last week that the village of 6,200 was safe, even as they advised pregnant women and children under 3 to move to hotels farther from Japan's radiation-leaking nuclear power plant.Now the government, citing long-term exposure risks, is urging everyone to leave Iitate and four other communities that lie outside an earlier 12-mile evacuation zone.The constant shifts in direction underscore two hallmarks of Japan's nuclear crisis: The flood of confusing government pronouncements that people both depend on and are increasingly questioning and the fact that even experts can't agree on what's safe when it comes to radiation.

PARIS — France’s new ban on Islamic face veils was met with a burst of defiance today, as several women appeared veiled in front of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral and two were detained for taking part in an unauthorized protest.France today became the world’s first country to ban the veils anywhere in public, from outdoor marketplaces to the boutiques of the Champs-Elysees.French President Nicolas Sarkozy set the wheels in motion for the ban nearly two years ago, saying the veils imprison women and contradict this secular nation’s values of dignity and equality. The ban enjoyed wide public support when it was approved.Though only a very small minority of France’s at least 5 million Muslims wear the veil, many Muslims see the ban as a stigma against the country’s No. 2 religion.