Seven dead, hundreds injured in most powerful Taiwan quake in 25 years

Seven dead, hundreds injured in most powerful Taiwan quake in 25 years
This photo taken by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024 shows a damaged building in Hualien, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan's east. (CNA / AFP)
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Updated 03 April 2024
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Seven dead, hundreds injured in most powerful Taiwan quake in 25 years

Seven dead, hundreds injured in most powerful Taiwan quake in 25 years
  • The quake was the strongest since a 7.6-magnitude struck in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people
  • Social media was awash with shared video from around the country of buildings swaying as the quake struck

TAIPEI: At least seven people were killed and more than 700 injured Wednesday by a powerful earthquake in Taiwan that damaged dozens of buildings and prompted tsunami warnings that extended to Japan and the Philippines before being lifted.

Officials said the quake was the strongest to shake the island in decades, and warned of more tremors in the days ahead.

“The earthquake is close to land and it’s shallow. It’s felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands,” said Wu Chien-fu, director of Taipei’s Central Weather Administration’s Seismology Center.




This photo taken by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on April 3, 2024, shows a damaged building in Hualien, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan's east. (CNA / AFP)

Strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe for the earthquake-prone island, which lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.

Wu said the quake was the strongest since a 7.6-magnitude struck in September 1999, killing around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s history.

Wednesday’s magnitude-7.4 quake hit just before 8:00 am local time (0000 GMT), with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) putting the epicenter 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of Taiwan’s Hualien City, at a depth of 34.8 kilometers.




A view of a damaged apartment following an earthquake offshore, in New Taipei City, Taiwan on April 3, 2024. (REUTERS)

Three people among a group of seven on an early-morning hike through the hills that surround the city were crushed to death by boulders loosened by the earthquake, officials said.

Separately, the drivers of a truck and a car died when their vehicles were hit by tumbling boulders, while another man died at a mine.

The National Fire Agency said all the deaths occurred in Hualien county, and that so far 736 people had been injured in the quake, without specifying how seriously.

Social media was awash with shared video and images from around the country of buildings swaying as the quake struck.

“It was shaking violently, the paintings on the wall, my TV and liquor cabinet fell,” one man in Hualien told broadcaster SET TV.

Dramatic images were shown on local TV of multi-story structures in Hualien and elsewhere tilting after the quake ended, while a warehouse in New Taipei City crumbled.

The mayor there said more than 50 survivors had been successfully plucked from the ruins of the structure.

Local TV channels showed bulldozers clearing rocks along the main route to Hualien, a mountain-ringed coastal city of around 100,000 people that has been cut off by landslides.

The main roads leading to the city pass through an extensive series of tunnels – some of them kilometers long – and officials said many people and vehicles could be trapped inside.

“We must carefully check how many people are trapped and we must rescue them quickly,” president-elect and current Vice President Lai Ching-te told reporters in Hualien.




In this photo released by the National Fire Agency, members of a search and rescue team prepare outside a leaning building in the aftermath of an earthquake in Hualien, eastern Taiwan on April 3, 2024. (National Fire Agency via AP)

President Tsai Ing-wen called for local and central government agencies to coordinate with each other, and said the military would also be providing support.

In Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, authorities initially issued tsunami warnings but by around 10 am (0200 GMT), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the threat had “largely passed.”

In the Taiwanese capital, the metro briefly stopped running but resumed within an hour, while residents received warnings from their local borough chiefs to check for any gas leaks.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, while nearby Japan experiences around 1,500 jolts every year.

Across the Taiwan Strait, social media users in China’s eastern Fujian province, which borders Guangdong in the south, and elsewhere said they also felt strong tremors.

Residents of Hong Kong also reported feeling the earthquake.

China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province, was “paying close attention” to the quake and “willing to provide disaster relief assistance,” state news agency Xinhua said.

Fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – the world’s biggest chip maker – was briefly interrupted at some plants, a company official told AFP, while work at construction sites for new plants was halted for the day.

The vast majority of quakes around the area are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to the depth of the epicenter below the Earth’s surface and its location.


Russia says captured two more villages in east Ukraine

Russia says captured two more villages in east Ukraine
Updated 3 sec ago
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Russia says captured two more villages in east Ukraine

Russia says captured two more villages in east Ukraine

MOSCOW: Russian forces have captured two more villages in east Ukraine, including one just a few kilometers from Pokrovsk, a key supply hub for Kyiv’s forces, the defense ministry said Monday.
Army units “liberated” Shevchenko and Novoyegorivka in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk respectively, it said. Shevchenko is around three kilometers (two miles) from Pokrovsk.


Indian police volunteer gets life sentence for rape, murder of Kolkata junior doctor

Indian police volunteer gets life sentence for rape, murder of Kolkata junior doctor
Updated 7 min 46 sec ago
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Indian police volunteer gets life sentence for rape, murder of Kolkata junior doctor

Indian police volunteer gets life sentence for rape, murder of Kolkata junior doctor
  • Sanjay Roy was convicted by judge Anirban Das on Saturday who said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against him
  • The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings on Monday

KOLKATA: An Indian court awarded the life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata.
The woman’s body was found in a classroom at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug. 9. Other doctors stayed off work for weeks to demand justice for her and better security at public hospitals, as the crime sparked national outrage over a lack of safety for women.
Sanjay Roy, the police volunteer, was convicted by judge Anirban Das on Saturday who said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against Roy.
Roy said he was innocent and that he had been framed, and sought clemency.
The federal police, who investigated the case, said the crime belonged to the “rarest-of-rare” category and Roy, therefore, deserved the death penalty.
Judge Das said it was not a “rarest-of-rare” crime, adding that Roy could go in appeal to a higher court.
The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings on Monday. The speedy trial in the court was not open to the public.
The parents of the junior doctor were among those in court on Monday. Security was stepped up with dozens of police personnel deployed at the court complex.


Myanmar military, minority armed group agree ceasefire, China says

Myanmar military, minority armed group agree ceasefire, China says
Updated 44 min 50 sec ago
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Myanmar military, minority armed group agree ceasefire, China says

Myanmar military, minority armed group agree ceasefire, China says
  • The two sides held talks in China’s southwestern city of Kunming
  • Analysts say China is worried about the advance of anti-junta forces

BEIJING: The Myanmar military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) signed a formal agreement for a ceasefire that began on Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said, halting fighting near the border of both countries.
The two sides held talks in China’s southwestern city of Kunming where they thanked Beijing for its efforts to promote peace, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular news briefing on Monday.
“Cooling down the situation in the north of Myanmar is in the common interest of all parties in Myanmar and all countries in the region, and contributes to the security, stability and development of the border areas between China and Myanmar,” she said.
China will continue to actively promote peace and dialogue and provide support and assistance to the peace process in northern Myanmar, Mao said.
The MNDAA is one of several ethnic minority armed groups fighting to repel the military from what they consider their territories.
It is part of the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance, with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, that launched an offensive against the military junta in late October 2023 seizing swathes of territory near the border with China.
The MNDAA, made up of ethnic Chinese, said last July it had taken control of a major military base near the Chinese border.
Analysts say China is worried about the advance of anti-junta forces which have pushed the military out of vital borderlands and started making inroads toward the central city of Mandalay.
The military seized power from Myanmar’s civilian government in February 2021, plunging the country into crisis.
China fears chaos along its more than 2,000 kilometer long border with Myanmar would jeopardize investment and trade.
Beijing previously brokered a ceasefire deal in the northern borderlands in January 2024, but the deal broke down a few months later.


France to keep fighting for release of French-Israeli hostages, says foreign minister

France to keep fighting for release of French-Israeli hostages, says foreign minister
Updated 20 January 2025
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France to keep fighting for release of French-Israeli hostages, says foreign minister

France to keep fighting for release of French-Israeli hostages, says foreign minister

PARIS: France will keep fighting to obtain the release of the two French-Israeli nationals held by Hamas, foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told BFM TV on Monday.
“We will continue to fight until the last hour for their release,” Barrot told BFM TV, adding France had “no news on their health status nor on the terms of their detention.”
Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, on the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.
French-Israeli nationals Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are expected to be on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the draft Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.


South Korea’s Yoon shuns questioning as security tightened after court rampage

South Korea’s Yoon shuns questioning as security tightened after court rampage
Updated 20 January 2025
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South Korea’s Yoon shuns questioning as security tightened after court rampage

South Korea’s Yoon shuns questioning as security tightened after court rampage
  • Security being beefed up at the Seoul Detention Center where Yoon Suk Yeol is being held as a pre-trial inmate
  • Constitutional Court is holding an impeachment trial to decide whether to permanently remove him from office

SEOUL: South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol refused on Monday to be questioned by investigators under a probe into whether he committed insurrection, as dozens of his supporters faced arrest over a violent rampage on a court building.
Authorities said security was being beefed up at the Seoul Detention Center where Yoon is being held as a pre-trial inmate and at the Constitutional Court which is holding an impeachment trial to decide whether to permanently remove him from office.
Yoon became the first incumbent South Korean president to be arrested last week over his short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.
On Sunday, he was formally processed for detention, including having his mugshot taken, after a court approved a warrant, citing concern the suspect could destroy evidence.
Following the midnight ruling, angry Yoon supporters stormed the Seoul Western District Court building early on Sunday destroying property and clashing with police who were at times overpowered by a mob wielding broken barricades to attack them.
Police are planning to arrest 66 people for trespass, obstruction of official duty and assaulting police officers, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Other offenders were still being identified and police will also take legal action against them, acting Justice Minister Kim Seok-woo told a parliament judiciary committee.
Acting President Choi Sang-mok expressed deep regret over the “illegal violence” at the court building and also urged police to enforce the law strictly to prevent a repeat of what happened on Sunday.
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Hundreds of protesters, some blasting fire extinguishers at lines of police, broke through a cordon to enter the court building soon after the 3 a.m. ruling on Sunday to approve the detention of Yoon.
Some of them were seen in video footage roaming halls where the offices of judges were located calling out the name of the judge who approved the warrant.
At least one judge’s chamber was broken into by force, Chun Dae-yup, the head of the National Court Administration, said.
Several of those involved livestreamed the intrusion on YouTube, with footage showing protesters trashing the court and chanting Yoon’s name. Some streamers were caught by police during their broadcasts.
Yoon’s refusal to appear for questioning on Monday at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading the criminal probe, comes after he has repeatedly refused to cooperate with the investigation.
His lawyers have argued that his arrest on Wednesday and the warrant issued for his detention are illegal because they were backed by a court that is in the wrong jurisdiction and the CIO itself has no legal authority to conduct the probe.
Insurrection, the crime that Yoon may be charged with, is one of the few that a South Korean president does not have immunity from and is technically punishable by death. South Korea, however, has not executed anyone in nearly 30 years.
Yoon said through his lawyers that he found Sunday’s rampage at the court “shocking and unfortunate,” calling on people to express their opinions peacefully.
In the statement, Yoon also said he understood many were feeling “rage and unfairness,” asking police to take a tolerant position.