TURKEY
6.2 quake hits off Istanbul
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake yesterday struck in the Marmara Sea near the western outskirts of Istanbul, officials said, with the impact felt across the country’s largest city where people rushed onto the streets. The initial quake at 12:49pm was followed by three others of magnitudes 4.4 to 4.9, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority posted on social media. There were no immediate reports of anyone being hurt or killed nor of buildings collapsing in the sprawling city of 16 million people, city authorities and the regional governor’s office said. The tremors could be felt as far away as Bulgaria, according to reports from the capital, Sofia.
JAPAN
Fukushima operation done
A tricky operation to remove a second sample of radioactive debris from inside Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has been completed, the site operator said yesterday. Dangerously high radiation levels mean that removing melted fuel and other debris from the plant hit by a huge tsunami in 2011 is seen as the most daunting challenge in the decades-long decommissioning project. The debris was “removed from a different location from the previous sampling location” to better understand the material’s “characteristics and distribution,” government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters. US nuclear expert Lake Barrett, a special adviser to Japan on the cleanup, said that removing more debris would be challenging, but not impossible. “They’ve got to develop robots we’ve never done before, but the fundamentals are there for the technology to do it,” he said.
UNITED STATES
NJ fire forces evacuations
A fast-moving wildfire burning in New Jersey on Tuesday forced thousands of people to evacuate and closed a stretch of a major highway. The Garden State Parkway, one of the state’s busiest highways, was closed between Barnegat and Lacey townships, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said. More than 1,300 structures were threatened and about 3,000 residents were evacuated, it said. Shelters were open at two high schools, the Barnegat Police Department said. The fire in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area burned more than 34.2km2 of land, fire officials said, adding it was only about 10 percent contained as of Tuesday night. Debi Schaffer was caught in gridlocked traffic after evacuating with her two dogs while her husband agreed to stay with their 22 chickens, the Press of Atlantic City reported. “I wanted to take them in the car with me; can you imagine 22 chickens in a car?” she told the newspaper.
PERU
Kennedy stages jailbreak
A 22-year-old thief named for the late US president John F. Kennedy caused an uproar by escaping from prison, shouting thanks to God as he dashed to freedom, according to video footage that has gone viral. John Kennedy Javier Sebastian had been one of 10,000 inmates at Lima’s Lurigancho prison — the nation’s most crowded, and built to hold 2,500. On Monday night, he escaped from his cell, and climbed over a perimeter fence and the outer wall — both topped with razor wire and security spikes, the National Penitentiary Institute said. He had been serving a 10-year sentence for theft since mid-2023. “Hallelujah, Christ lives,” the fugitive can be heard shouting as he reaches the main road and darts off, video captured by neighbors showed. Gunshots and dogs could be heard in the background. The head of the prison was dismissed after his escape.
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
RSS