Quake of 6.4 magnitude rocks eastern India
Reuters - Saturday, February 5
IMPHAL, India - An earthquake measuring 6.4 rocked India's northeastern state of Manipur on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but Indian officials said there were no initial reports of damage.
The epicentre was 30 miles north northwest of Manipur's capital Imphal, near the border with Myanmar. The depth of the quake was 55.2 miles .
"It happened at 7.24 p.m. local time , but we don't have any reports of any damage at the moment," said A.K. Shukla, a scientist at the Indian Meteorological Department.
Witnesses in Imphal told Reuters by phone that people ran out of their homes and there was a blackout in the city. Local disaster management teams were checking for damage to homes, bridges and dams in the remote, mountainous region.
China's Olympic pollution cuts could reduce cancer
Evening rush hour traffic comes to a standstill on a hazy and polluted day in Beijing. If China continued with pollution cutbacks implemented during the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing residents could see their lifetime lung cancer risk cut nearly in half, a study has suggested.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - – If China continued with pollution cutbacks implemented during the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing residents could see their lifetime lung cancer risk cut nearly in half, a study suggested Tuesday.
That could translate to 10,000 fewer cases of lung cancer, said the study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives by researchers from Peking University in Beijing and Oregon State University in the western United States.
The study, among the first to examine how pollution control could impact the health of people in China, focused on pollutants called PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) that arise from coal-burning, wood stoves and cars.
China emits the most PAHs of any country in the world, followed by India and the United States.
"PAH pollution was definitely reduced by the actions China took during the 2008 Olympics, such as restricting vehicle use, decreasing coal combustion and closing some pollution-emitting factories," said Staci Simonich, an associate professor of chemistry and environmental toxicology at Oregon State University.
"That's a positive step, and it shows that if such steps were continued it could lead to a significant reduction in cancer risk from these types of pollutants."
However, there are more than 3.6 million vehicles in Beijing and the number is rising 13 percent per year.
"Controlling vehicle emissions is key to reducing the inhalation cancer risks due to PAH exposure in Chinese megacities," the study said.
The analysis said that Beijing, home to 22 million people, would see about 21,200 lifetime cases of lung cancer at current levels of PAH pollution.
However if pollution controls instituted during the Olympics were maintained, that number would drop to 11,400.
According to some estimates, 300,000 people die annually in China from heart disease and lung cancer associated with air pollution, including PAHs.
"This is definitely a health concern and one that deserves attention in China by both the government and public," said study co-author Yuling Jia, a postdoctoral research associate at Oregon State University.
Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world, has invested $15 billion in improving air quality since 1998, according to the Chinese government. In 2009, Beijing extended some traffic control measures put in place during the Olympics.
Flights delayed as Japan's 'James Bond' volcano erupts
AFP
A volcano in southwestern Japan shot ash and rocks up to 2,000 metres into the air with the blast shattering windows miles away in a huge explosion, officials said. Duration: 00:52
TOKYO (AFP) - – A series of spectacular eruptions from a volcano in southern Japan fired columns of ash and smoke thousands of metres in the air, with the cloud delaying some international flights to Tokyo.
The 1,421-metre (4,689-feet) Shinmoedake volcano in the Kirishima range, featured in the 1967 James Bond film "You Only Live Twice", continued the series of deafening blasts which began with the start of its first major eruption for 52 years last week.
After a huge explosion at 5:25 am (2025 GMT) on Wednesday, the peak spewed fiery crimson debris and flame into a dark pre-dawn sky, before erupting again at 10:47 am, an official at the Fukuoka District Meteorological Observatory said.
Several inbound international flights to Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports, including some operated by Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific, were delayed Wednesday morning, airline officials said.
However, scheduled flights were expected to return to normal throughout the day, operating above the ash cloud.
Domestic flights and train schedules have been subject to cancellations and sport has also been affected, with three J-League football teams forced to cancel spring training camps in the area, officials said.
On Tuesday the force from a huge blast from the erupting volcano shattered windows up to 12 kilometres (seven miles) away.
The Japan Meteorological Agency widened the zone around the Shinmoedake volcano seen to be at risk from flying debris from three to four kilometres from the peak.
Authorities on Wednesday repeated calls for the public to stay away from the volcano and warned of falling debris in the surrounding area.
Until late Tuesday, the government counted four injuries, including one serious case.
More than 600 residents of the town of Takaharu in Miyazaki prefecture have been forced to evacuate and take shelter in school halls and community centres.
A dome of lava inside the crater, growing as pressure increases from below, has been expanding quickly, prompting concerns it could spill over the rim of the volcano and flow down the sides of the mountain.
The Fukuoka observatory has raised its five-scale warning level on the volcano from two to three, restricting access to the entire mountain.
In April last year the eruption of the Eyjafjoell volcano in Iceland dispersed a vast cloud of ash triggering a huge shutdown of airspace that affected more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers.
