Foreign News
Japan earthquake: Fires hit quake zone as rescuers race to reach survivors
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Rescue efforts continue in Japan after at least 62 people were killed in a powerful earthquake that hit the country on New Year’s Day.
Homes collapsed, buildings caught fire and roads were extensively damaged, hindering the work of rescue services.
The epicentre of the 7.6 quake was the Noto peninsula, in central Japan.
The Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said that emergency services were locked in a “race against time” to rescue survivors. He also said some 3,000 rescuers were trying to reach parts of the Noto peninsula. Helicopter surveys showed many fires and widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure. The city of Wajima, on the northern tip of Noto, has been cut off from land routes.
In the coastal city of Suzu in Ishikawa prefecture, some 90% of homes in the city had been “completely or nearly completely destroyed”, mayor Masushiro Izumiya told news outlet Kyodo.
The Japanese military has been handing out supplies including food, water and blankets for those who have had to vacate their homes. The country’s government has said that 57,360 people had to be evacuated. Tens of thousands of meals are being delivered across the affected region.
Aftershocks continued into Tuesday. The chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, warned people to “be alert” for more earthquakes “of an intensity of up to 7” in the coming week. Ishikawa, 155km (96.3 miles) south of the Noto peninsula, experienced a 4.9 quake on Tuesday afternoon.
The major tsunami warnings put out by the Japanese government on Monday were later downgraded. By Tuesday, all tsunami advisories were lifted along the Sea of Japan, meaning there was no longer a risk of such an event. Residents of the affected area of Japan have been sharing their experiences of the quake, which lasted several minutes.
An 82-year-old resident of Nanao, Toshio Iwahama, told the BBC that his wooden home had partially collapsed. He said that despite living through multiple earthquakes, he had never experienced tremors of this magnitude.
Briton Emma Ward, 41, who was on a skiing holiday in the resort village of Hakuba, said the quake had hit “without warning”, prompting her group to take shelter under a table in a cafe. She told the BBC that the intensity of the tremors had caused people to flee the building entirely. “The worst part during the earthquake was not knowing how intense it was going to become. It’s a very frightening experience,” Ms Ward said.
Many also said the quake had reminded them of the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed 18,000 people and triggered an accident at a nuclear plant in Fukushima.
In an incident unrelated to the earthquake, a Japan Airlines plane caught fireon Tuesday as it collided with a coastguard aircraft on its way to provide earthquake relief at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Five people on board the coastguard plane are known to have died, but the Japan Airlines plane’s 379 passengers and crew managed to escape.
Japan is one of the most seismically active nations on Earth, owing to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where many tectonic plates meet. The constant threat of earthquakes has led Japan to develop one of the world’s most sophisticated tsunami warning systems.
(BBC)
Foreign News
Dead body placed beside Australian couple on flight
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An Australian couple have spoken of the “traumatic” moment the body of a dead passenger was placed next to them on a Qatar Airways flight.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin, who were travelling to Venice for a dream holiday, told Australia’s Channel 9 a woman died in the aisle beside them during the flight from Melbourne to Doha.
The couple say cabin crew sat her corpse, which was covered in blankets, next to Mr Ring for the remaining four hours of the flight and did not offer to move him, despite there being empty seats.
Qatar Airways said it apologised for “any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused”, adding that it was in the process of contacting passengers.
Mr Ring said staff responded “in no time” when the woman collapsed, but that “unfortunately the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heart-breaking to watch,” he told the ‘A Current Affairs programme.
Cabin crew tried and failed to move her body away towards business class, he explained. “They tried to wheel her up towards business class, but she was quite a large lady and they couldn’t get her through the aisle.
“They looked a bit frustrated, then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me – my wife was on the other side, we were in a row of four.
“They said, ‘can you move over please?’ and I just said, ‘yes no problem’.
“Then they placed the lady in the chair I was in.”
Ms Colin said she was shocked when her husband said they were being asked to move up: “I said, ‘are they going to put her there?'”
While Ms Colin was able to move to an empty seat nearby, Mr Ring said he was not given the option to do so by cabin crew – even though there were vacant seats.
When the plane landed four hours later, he said passengers were asked to stay put while medical staff and police came on board.
“Ambulance officers started pulling the blankets off the lady,” Mr Ring said.
“I got to see her face.
“I can’t believe they told us to stay.”
The pair said they had not been contacted nor offered any support by Qatar Airways or Qantas, the airline through which they booked the flight.
“They have a duty of care towards their customers as well as their staff,” Mr Ring said.
“We should be contacted to make sure, do you need some support, do you need some counselling?
“I don’t really know how I feel and would like to speak to somebody to make sure I’m alright.”
Ms Colin called the experience “traumatic” and said: “We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but there has to be a protocol to look after the customers on board.”
In a statement, Qatar Airways said: “First and foremost our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight.
“We apologise for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused, and are in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures.”
A Qantas spokesperson said: “The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways.”
[BBC]
Foreign News
Chile power outage leaves millions without electricity
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Millions of people are thought to be without electricity across Chile after a large nationwide power outage.
According to the national service for disaster prevention and response (SENAPRED), an area spanning most of the country is impacted, including the capital city, Santiago.
The exact scale of the outage, which began earlier on Tuesday, is not yet known but SENAPRED has said it covers the regions of Arica and Parinacota in the north to Los Lagos in the south.
Reuters news agency has also reported that the world’s largest copper mine, Escondida, is without power, citing a source close to the matter.
LATAM Airlines said that some of its flights may also be disrupted while power supplies were down, and urged passengers to check their journey status.
In a post on X, the Santiago Metro operator said its service had been temporarily suspended due to the ongoing power outage, with stations being evacuated and closed.
Footage from the city showed passengers evacuating stations by walking up switched-off escalators, while traffic signals were also shown not working.
There were also long queues for buses which were still running on the city’s roads.
Maria Angelica Roman, 45, told AFP news agency: “They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don’t know how we will get home because all the buses are full.”
Chile’s interior minister, Carolina Toha, also posted on X to say that a meeting would be called to discuss ongoing measures to restore services.
SENAPRED added that electricity companies across the impacted area were investigating the fault and attempting to restart services, and no emergency situations had been reported.
[BBC]
Business
UK and India relaunch trade talks in Delhi
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India and the UK have restarted free trade talks, nearly a year after negotiations were paused ahead of general elections in both countries.
Jonathan Reynolds, the UK’s business and trade secretary, met his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal in Delhi on Monday and kicked off the two-day discussions.
The talks focused on “advancing” the negotiations and ensuring that the deal was “balanced, ambitious and mutually beneficial”, Goyal wrote on X.
The countries have held more than a dozen rounds of negotiations since 2022, but an agreement has remained out of reach.
Sticking points include high tariffs in India on Scotch whisky and relaxing fees and visa rules for Indian students and professionals going to the UK.
Talks are being held for the first time after the Labour Party came to power in the UK and Reynolds says securing a deal is a “top priority” for his government.
“Growth will be the guiding principle in our trade negotiations with India and I’m excited about the opportunities on offer in this vibrant market,” he said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
India is forecast to become the world’s third-largest economy in a few years.
The ministers held a joint press conference after the meeting, but neither side offered a deadline for talks to conclude. Deadlines set by former ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss had passed without an agreement being finalised.
For Delhi, the trade talks have assumed renewed significance on the back of US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose reciprocal or tit-for-tat tariffs on imported goods from countries, including India.
The UK is also a high-priority trading partner for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has an ambitious target to grow exports by $1 trillion by FY30.
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The UK had announced in November last year – soon after Sir Keir Starmer met PM Modi at the G20 summit in Brazil – that talks would restart in the new year.
The two countries share a trade relationship worth £41bn ($52bn) currently, according to a UK government statement, and a trade deal could unlock new opportunities for both countries.
London has identified sectors that could benefit, which include advanced manufacturing, clean energy and professional and trade services. An agreement could also potentially unlock a valuable market for British cars, Scotch whisky and financial services worth billions of dollars.
India is seeking greater mobility for its working professionals and students to the UK, while pushing for faster visa processing times.
It may also seek concessions for its residents working temporarily in the UK on business visas, who are required to pay national insurance but are still ineligible for social benefits.
Speaking at the joint conference, Goyal said that immigration was not a part of the discussions.
“India has never ever discussed immigration in any free trade negotiations,” he said. Reynolds added that business mobility was a “separate issue” from immigration.
During Reynolds’ visit, he and Goyal will also visit the BT office in the northern Indian city of Gurugram.
UK Investment Minister Poppy Gustafsson is also in India and will be participating in events in India’s two big business hubs – Mumbai and Bengaluru.
After years of scepticism over free trade deals, India has been signing agreements or is in talks with several countries or blocs. Last year, it signed a $100bn free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association – a group of four European countries that are not members of the European Union – after almost 16 years of negotiations.
It is also set to resume negotiations with the European Union this year.
[BBC]
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