A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 rocked Japan’s southern islands, injuring two and prompting fears of a tsunami.
There were no reports of serious damage from the quake, believed to be the strongest in a century to hit Japan’s southern Okinawa Island. Japan’s Kyodo news agency said two people were hurt, but there were no reports of any deaths.
Typhoon Morakot has killed at least 124 people and left 56 missing in Taiwan as of 10 p.m. Saturday, according to local disaster response authorities.
Another 45 people were injured after the typhoon, the worst on the island in nearly five decades, wreaked havoc across central and southern regions.
Sixty-six people died in Kaohsiung, 25 in Tainan, 16 in Pingdong, six in Chiayi, seven in Nantou, three in Changhua and one in Yunlin.
Taiwan leaders, already under fire over the response to a typhoon that likely killed hundreds, have accepted foreign aid after earlier refusing the offers, officials said on Saturday, as the president apologized.
Trying to repair its image after Typhoon Morakot caused widespread landslides in southern Taiwan, the government on Friday asked major world donors for equipment, a foreign ministry official said. Aid offers were initially refused on Tuesday.
Chinese rescue workers searched for dozens of people believed to be trapped by a massive landslide in the southwest city of Chongqing on Saturday, a state-run news agency reported.
Rescuers said about 80 people were buried in debris from the landslide and have almost no chance of survival, Xinhua reported. But rescuers hope to save 27 miners trapped under a mine in the area, the agency reported.
The death toll from Cyclone Aila reached 40 yesterday after it lashed eastern India and Bangladesh and stranded thousands in their flooded villages.
The storm destroyed nearly 3000 thatched and mud houses and toppled trees in nearly 300 villages across India’s West Bengal state, said state minister Kanti Ganguly.
Twenty-two people were killed and seven others remain missing as typhoon “Emong” (international name: Chan-Hom) is leaving the Philippines after devastating the country’s northeastern coasts, disaster relief authorities said yesterday.
The tyhoon, locally known as Emong, has also displaced nearly 10,000 local residents since it slammed into the Northern Luzon region late Thursday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said in its latest bulletin.
The Eastern Dam collapsed after reservoir overflowed due to heavy rains. Health Officials estimates death toll to reach 100.
Rescue workers are still searching for survivors, the tragedy already claimed 52 victims. Aerial photos shows an enormous hole on the dam.
Emergency crews evacuated hundreds of survivors, including terrified children weeping with fear, from the flood zone. Others paddled out on their own makeshift rafts.
A FedEx cargo plane has crashed on landing at Tokyo’s international airport and burst into a ball of flames. A pilot and co-pilot were aboard but their safety could not immediately be confirmed.
The plane was on a regular flight from Guangzhou, China. It landed under heavy winds early Monday, appeared to bounce and burst into flames as it skidded to a halt. Firetrucks were trying to put out the flames more than 30 minutes after the crash.
A FedEx cargo plane burst into flames after bouncing off a runway in unusually high winds at Tokyo’s main international airport Monday, killing the pilot and copilot and closing a major runway for several hours.
The flight from Guangzhou, China, skipped along the main runway at Narita Airport before skidding to a fiery halt, according to footage from airport security cameras. Firefighters and rescuers immediately swarmed the plane.
The pilot and copilot — the only people onboard the flight — were pulled from the cockpit and taken to a local hospital, where they were later confirmed dead.
A fire swept through Bangladesh’s largest shopping mall Friday in the capital, Dhaka, killing at least one person and injuring several others.
Authorities were still battling the blaze several hours after it began on top floors of the office tower at the Bashundhara City complex. Helicopters were used to douse the flames from the top floor of the 21-story building.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the mall. Authorities are trying to determine if people are still trapped inside.
The cause of the fire is not known.
