Philippines jolted by 5.3 magnitude
earthquake
Published on Mar 9, 2012
MANILA (AP) - Officials say two moderately strong earthquakes have hit the north-western Philippines
with no damage reported so far.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology says the 5.3-magnitude quake before dawn on
Friday was centred 17km south-west of Looc township on Lubang island in Mindoro Occidental province.
It was felt in Manila, some 130km north-east.
Hours earlier, a 5.1 earthquake struck the same area, causing no damage.
A 5.2 earthquake on Tuesday cracked buildings in the central Philippines, injuring 10 people. Last month,
58 people died in a quake on another Philippine island.
The Philippines is in the so-called Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' where earthquakes and volcanic activity are
common.
Quake hits west China; no injuries reported
Published on Mar 9, 2012
BEIJING (AP) - An earthquake has struck the far west of China but there were no immediate reports of
injuries or damage.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said on Friday that the 5.8 quake struck about 7am (2300
GMT, 7am Singapore time ) in the southern part of Xinjiang region.
An official from the Communist Party Propaganda Department in Luopu county, where the earthquake hit
about 280km north-east of Hotan, said the epicentre was in the desert and no reports of injuries had been
made. The official refused to give his name.
The USGS put the quake's depth at 35.5km.
'Years' for Japan communities to rebuild:
Red Cross
Published on Mar 9, 2012
People walk in an area damaged by the March 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, in Miyako, Iwate prefecture on
April 5, 2011. Communities in Japan destroyed by the tsunami are years away from being righted, the Red Cross warned on
Friday, with many of the displaced stuck in temporary housing for a long time to come. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
ISHINOMAKI, Japan (AFP) - Communities in Japan destroyed by the tsunami are years away from being
righted, the Red Cross warned on Friday, with many of the displaced stuck in temporary housing for a long
time to come.
'What has been achieved in a year is extraordinary,' Patrick Fuller, communications manager for the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told AFP.
But the country remains a long way from where it needs to be if those affected by the disaster are going to
feel that they have their lives back.
'The reconstruction process and revitalising the economy will take years,' he said.
The Red Cross was one of the most active aid organisations in the months after the 9.0 magnitude quake
and resulting tsunami battered the northeast coast of Japan on March 11 last year.
Medical teams funded by the body were stationed in evacuation centres and relief packages were
distributed to those who had lost their homes in the nation's worst post-war tragedy.
In recent months, the Red Cross has been providing a package of electrical items - such as a fridge,
television and rice cooker - for 125,000 families in temporary homes, Mr Fuller said.
'One of the main issues now is the welfare of people living in temporary homes, particularly the elderly,' he
said.
'A lot of (the elderly) are fairly disoriented because they had to move away from the place where they had
lived all their lives, they are living among strangers in many places.'
The disaster, which claimed more than 19,000 lives, has left Japan with a mammoth reconstruction task,
one that involves rebuilding whole communities from scratch, possibly on higher ground, away from the
threat of future tsunamis.
'I think it's realistic to assume that people will be living in these temporary homes for a good couple of
years because the task of reconstruction is so immense,' Mr Fuller said.
The rebuilding task is complicated by what happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Mr Fuller said,
when reactors went into meltdown and sent toxic radiation into the air and sea, infecting food sources.
Tens of thousands were forced to evacuate from a 20km exclusion zone immediately around the plant,
while many families with small children moved away from the prefecture completely.
'A lot of mothers are still very concerned or afraid to let their children play outdoors, particularly the young
ones,' he said.
Suicides in Japan spiked after earthquake:
Survey
Published on Mar 9, 2012
TOKYO (AFP) - The number of people who took their own lives in Japan drastically increased in the
aftermath of last year's huge tsunami and the nuclear disaster it triggered, the government said on Friday.
A more than 20 per cent rise in the amount of suicides in one month was likely attributable at least in part
to the widespread anxiety Japanese society felt in the aftermath of the catastrophe, an official said.
In May last year 3,375 people killed themselves, more than 20 per cent up on the same month a year earlier.
Figures released by the Cabinet Office and the National Police Agency showed 30,651 people committed
suicide in 2011, the 14th consecutive year the figure has exceeded 30,000.
'The whole of Japanese society was anxious after the disaster, and we suspect that to be a contributing
factor,' said an official of the Cabinet Office, adding suicides in May were particularly high among men in
their 30s.
Last March's quake and tsunami, which claimed 19,000 lives and sparked the world's worst nuclear crisis
in a generation, greatly hampered the Japanese economy and led to a surge in corporate bankruptcies.
Japan has one of the world's highest suicide rates, according to the OECD.
Japan slow to improve nuclear regulatory
system
Published on Mar 9, 2012
FUKUSHIMA (AP) - Right after three reactors in north-eastern Japan sank into meltdowns, the
government vowed to crack down on the cozy relations between the nuclear industry and its regulators.
One year later, it has yet to even appoint committee members to scrutinise the 'revolving door' of officials
landing jobs in the very industries they regulate.
There is little to suggest that the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl has brought a substantially
new way of thinking to nuclear regulation in Japan, or brought a much stronger sense of urgency to
improving safety at its 54 reactors.
Regulators are still part of the trade ministry, which promotes nuclear power, rather than the environment
ministry, as the government proposed months ago.
Only two plants have built up seawalls since the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns, and one of them is
Fukushima Daiichi. Only one plant has installed the kind of vents that could have prevented the hydrogen
explosions that escalated the nuclear crisis.
Officials are reviewing the chaotic evacuation of the radioactive zone to improve disaster response, but
few concrete steps have been taken.
One thing Japan has done with its nuclear plants is shut them down after routine inspections. All but two
are offline under a new regime of safety checks, and the remaining plants are expected to shut down by
late April. It's unclear when the reactors will start producing power again, but even when shut down they
require cooling and tsunami protection.
The checks use computer simulations to see if plants can hold up, or at least avoid a major crisis, if a big
earthquake or tsunami hits. Critics say the tests should be more rigorous.
'This is our fate as a nation with so many nuclear plants. All we can do is pray a tsunami won't come,' said
Mr Hideyuki Ban, who heads the anti-nuclear research group Citizens' Nuclear Information Centre and sits
on a government panel on atomic energy policy.
Japanese regulators have responded more slowly than their American counterparts did after the accident at
Three Mile Island in 1979.
Sweeping changes by the United States (US) Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) included
emergency-response planning, worker training and radiation protection. Some critics say the action wasn't
enough, but the NRC got started on most of these measures within a year. And unlike Japanese regulators,
the NRC was never part of a government agency charged with encouraging development of nuclear energy,
the US Department of Energy in its case.
The March 11, 2011, disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant prompted widespread calls to make
Japan's nuclear safety agency more independent by taking it out of the trade ministry. A year later, a law to
make the change still hasn't passed, and when it might pass is uncertain.
The government also has yet to address the issue of officials who move back and forth between regulatory
and industry jobs. The practice of doling out post-retirement jobs to government officials in many sectors
is so common Japanese call it 'amakudari' or 'descent from heaven'.
An Associated Press review last year found that of 95 people at three main nuclear regulatory bodies, 26
had been affiliated with the industry or groups that promote nuclear power, typically with government
funding. The government has found that 68 former trade ministry officials got jobs at utilities in the last 50
years.
Among the regulators who landed such jobs was Mr Susumu Nakamura, a former senior official at the
government Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. He was hired in 2008 at Shikoku Electric Power, and
was promoted to board member a year later - a job he still holds.
'Our company will continue to aggressively hire talented people, including former ministry officials who
offer appropriate character, leadership and abilities,' the company said on Thursday in defence of Mr
Nakamura's appointment.
Kyushu Electric Power's Fukuoka city office chief Makoto Kakebayashi also once worked in the trade
ministry setting policy. Kyushu Electric said his hiring was appropriate.
The government is in no better position now to discourage the revolving door than it was a year ago, when
it simply urged regulatory officials to use 'self-restraint'.
Attempts to reform the bureaucracy date back decades. The latest campaign began in 2006 under the
Liberal Democrats, but they were thrown out of power in 2009, putting change on hold again.
Professor Masashi Nakano at University of Hyogo who studies amakudari, said the cozy relationship
between the government and private sector is so entrenched tough legislation and massive layoffs are
needed for a proper fix.
'One would need to wield a giant axe. Otherwise, amakudari is here to stay,' he said.
Amakudari is just one of the issues critics of Japan's nuclear regulators are pushing the government to
address.
Poor coordination between central and local governments has been identified as a major problem in the
evacuation of areas near the Fukushima plant, but local officials say little has been done to fix the problem
or develop better evacuation plans.
Local officials say they learned of evacuation orders only when they saw them on TV. They received little
or no information on the situation inside the plant. The central government had prediction data from
sophisticated monitors that suggested certain towns were in the path of spewing radiation, but that
information was not shared with residents.
Around Japan, towns near nuclear plants say they are not confident their plans would work any better than
those at Fukushima. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says it is reviewing contingency plans.
The only seawalls built so far since the tsunami have been at disaster-struck Fukushima Daiichi and the
nearby Fukushima Daini plant, according to an AP survey of all Japan's 10 utilities.
Fukushima Daiichi went into meltdowns because it had been prepared for only 6m tsunami despite
warnings from experts that far bigger tsunami could strike - like the 14m waves that hit last March.
Chubu Electric Power is finishing the foundation for a 18m wall at the Hamaoka plant, which had to be
shut down last year over estimates that that it faces about a 90 per cent chance of being hit by a magnitude
8.0 or higher quake within 30 years. That wall won't be completed until next year.
One utility said its tsunami wall won't be completed until 2016. Two utilities had no plans at all to build
seawalls because the reactors were built on enough high ground. One of two safety reports the government
requires to restart reactors was submitted this week for one of those reactors.
Only one plant has added another key safety measure - new kinds of vents to allow hydrogen to escape
from the reactors. At Fukushima Daiichi, hydrogen built up and exploded containment buildings. Utilities
said they were making technical studies or considering the measure.
Another plant has built new doors that will shut tight during a tsunami and keep delicate equipment dry.
The government learns of such improvements only after they are made, and has no overall assessment on
their progress, said Mr Tomohiro Sawada of the government Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
'Their actions are not required by law and so we don't have a way of checking,' he said.
Australia flood bill mounts and more rain
forecast
Published on Mar 9, 2012
In this photo released by New South Wales Premier's Office, flood waters inundate the town of Moree, Northern New South
Wales, Australia on Friday, Feb 3, 2012. The Mehi River near Moree is expected to swell to levels as flooding in
northwestern NSW continues. -- PHOTO: AP
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's flood crisis was set to cost in excess of AUD$500 million (S$666 million) in
New South Wales alone and more rain was on the way, the state government said on Friday.
Eastern Australia has endured torrential rainfall for more than a week, leaving hundreds of homes flooded,
damaging roads and bridges and soaking farmland in Queensland, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria
states.
'We have a damages bill at the moment that my guys are telling me is heading way north of AUD$500
million,' NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay told ABC radio, adding that the state had been 'horrendously
hurt'.
'The weather forecasters are telling me that April will be the worst that we've faced yet,' due to a weather
pattern known as La Nina.
La Nina conditions typically bring higher-than-normal rainfall with Sydney on Thursday feeling the force
of nature with an estimated 119mm falling on the city - the highest daily total since 2007.
As the waters eased in some areas across NSW, communities downstream from the floods were bracing for
the surging torrents yet to pour through the Murrumbidgee, Lachlan and Hawkesbury river systems.
In Sydney, where heavy rain on Thursday swept away cars and flooded railway lines, residents on the
city's northwestern outskirts were being urged to prepare to evacuate their homes.
Further inland, residents of the country towns of Condobolin and Narrandera were bracing for the coming
floods and people in the Victoria town of Nathalia were hoping their levee would hold.
Elsewhere, such as in NSW's biggest inland city of Wagga Wagga, emergency officials began the massive
clean-up as flood waters began to subside. But residents were still faced with waterlogged homes and
farms.
'It's fairly devastating but what else can we do? I don't think we are as bad as some people. I don't know
what our losses would be,' one flood-hit farmer, Mr Lance Gillespie, told the ABC.
Hundreds of fire and emergency workers were hosing out homes, businesses and schools and clearing
roads, Deputy State Emergency Operations Controller Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch said.
'While it's not over yet, some areas are starting the process of recovery and that generally begins with
cleaning up,' he said.
So far two people have died in the floods, after they attempted to cross waterways in cars.
Powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake hits
Vanuatu
Published on Mar 9, 2012
SYDNEY (AFP) - A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit in the South Pacific near Vanuatu and New Caledonia's
Loyalty Islands on Friday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The quake struck at a depth of 36km at 0709 GMT (3.09pm Singapore time), 60km north-east of Isangel in
Vanuatu and 324km north-east of Tadine in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, according to
USGS.
There was no threat of a widespread tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.
'However earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts
located within a hundred kilometres of the earthquake epicentre,' it said.
The area lies on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of frequent seismic activity caused by friction
between shifting tectonic plates.