Strong aftershocks rattled western Japan early yesterday after two powerful earthquakes the evening before injured 38 people.
Meanwhile, a powerful typhoon hit Japan's southern islands, injuring 21 people, and the Meteorological Agency warned the storm could bring heavy rains and mudslides to areas hit by the temblors.
PHOTO: AP
The two offshore quakes on Sunday -- the first with a magnitude of 6.9, followed by a 7.3-magnitude temblor five hours later -- were felt most strongly in sparsely populated areas in southwestern Wakayama prefecture, about 450km west of Tokyo.
They also shook the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya, and caused buildings to sway in Tokyo.
The National Police Agency said 38 people were hurt, including three people with broken bones. Most were injured in the second, more powerful quake.
Aftershocks continued to rattle the region early yesterday, including a magnitude-5.7 tremor, according to the Meteorological Agency. No damage or injuries were immediately reported.
"A series of magnitude-5 after-shocks could continue up to the next 10 days. They could cause tsunami waves, and I urge people to evacuate to higher ground," public broadcaster NHK quoted Yoshinobu Tsuji, assistant professor at the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute, as saying yesterday.
Tsunami -- waves triggered by seismic activity -- as high as 90cm were recorded along the Pacific coastline on Sunday, though the Meteorological Agency lifted its tsunami warnings early yesterday.
Kyodo News agency also reported that 600 homes were without electricity, while high-speed train services were temporarily suspended.
Also yesterday, Typhoon Songda was packing winds of up to 144kph as it headed across the East China Sea toward Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, the Meteorological Agency said.
Police said 21 people had been injured by the storm and tens of thousands of homes were without electricity.
Though the typhoon is still far away from quake-hit areas, the Meteorological Agency said the storm could bring heavy rains and warned that landslides were increasingly likely following the temblors.
The two quakes late on Sunday occurred far off Japan's Pacific coast, which may have minimized damage.
The first quake was centered about 110km off the coast of Wakayama on the Kii peninsula and 10km beneath the ocean floor.
The second quake was centered about 130km off the coast of Kochi prefecture, also 10km below the seabed.
Authorities said it was too early to say whether the bigger of the two earthquakes was the major jolt the Japanese government had predicted would strike central Japan.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS