A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck Japan's northern coast on Monday, injuring 23 people and triggering a tsunami in Pacific coast communities.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning, with one wave hitting a port in Aomori, about 30 minutes later. Several more waves reached the coast, measuring up to 50 centimetres, the agency said.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 23 people had been injured, including one seriously. Most of the victims were hit by falling objects, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.
Live footage showed shattered glass fragments scattered across roads.
The meteorological agency reported the quake's magnitude as 7.5, down from its earlier estimate of 7.6. It issued an alert for potential tsunami surges of up to 3 metres (10 feet) in some areas and later downgraded to an advisory.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara urged residents to go to higher ground or seek shelter until advisories were lifted. He said about 800 homes were without electricity and that the Shinkansen bullet trains and some local lines were suspended in parts of the region.
'Megaquake'
Mr Kihara said he had “received no reports yet of abnormalities” from two nuclear power plants in northern Japan, adding that investigations are continuing at other nuclear sites.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government had set up an emergency task force to urgently assess the extent of damage. “We are putting people’s lives first and doing everything we can,” she said.
In 2011, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake caused a tsunami that left 18,500 people dead or missing and caused a devastating meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Shortly after Monday's quake, Tohoku Electric Power said in a post on X that the safety equipment at its Higashidori nuclear power plant in Aomori and its Onagawa nuclear plant in the Miyagi region had not shown any abnormalities.
Earthquakes are extremely hard to predict, but in January a government panel marginally increased the probability of a major jolt in the Nankai Trough off Japan over the next 30 years to 75-82 per cent.
The government then released a new estimate in March saying that such a “megaquake” and subsequent tsunami could cause as many as 298,000 deaths and damages of up to $2 trillion.
- With agencies
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Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
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Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
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Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
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