An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale shook northern Japan yesterday, leading authorities to ask thousands of residents to flee their homes as small tsunami waves hit the Pacific coast.
No damage or casualties were reported from the tremor.
Tsunamis measuring up to 50cm brushed the east coast of northern Japan about one hour after the undersea quake hit at 6:39am, local officials said.
The focus of the shallow quake was about 350km off the main island of Honshu, the meteorological agency said.
Some of the highest waves were observed in Ofunato, a city in Iwate prefecture in the northern part of Honshu.
"There has not been any report of damage so far," Ofunato disaster prevention official Haruki Ito said.
He said some local oyster and scallop farms may have sustained damage.
Ofunato asked 3,487 households to flee their homes although only 120 people actually followed the advice, police said.
The coastal village of Tanohata in Iwate also advised some 900 people to evacuate, village official Masatsugu Kikuchi said.
"It was not compulsory but hundreds of residents evacuated their homes as a precaution," he said, adding that people had later returned home.
The quake triggered an automatic suspension of the Tohoku line of the Shinkansen bullet train, but the service resumed normal operations shortly afterwards, a railway spokesman said.
All the tsunami warnings were cancelled two hours after the quake struck, officials said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number