strong earthquake today struck the Japanese coast devastated by last year's massive quake and tsunami, generated small waves . No immediate reports of heavy damage. Several people along the northeastern coast were reportedly injured and buildings in Tokyo and elsewhere swayed for several minutes.

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 and struck in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Miyagi prefecture at 5:18pm, the Japan meteorological agency said. The epicenter was 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) beneath the seabed and 240 kilometers (150 miles) offshore.

The area was shaken by repeated, smaller aftershocks, the agency said.
Ishinomaki, a city in Miyagi, reported a tsunami of one meter height high . About two hours after the quake struck, the tsunami warning was cancelled. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center earlier said there was no risk of a widespread tsunami.

Two small earthquakes shook Afghanistan's mountainous Hindu Kush region today in the space of half an hour. 

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook Iran- Iraq border today. According to the Iranian Seismological Centre, the quake occured at 2.09 p.m. (local time). The epicenter of the tremor was at a depth of ten kilometres and it was located in the Murmuri region in Iran's Ilam province bordering Iraq.

Local Mehr news agency said the people of Dehloran city, close to the quake area, rushed out of their houses to the streets in panic and a cloud of dust has covered the air of the city. No immediate report has been released about the possible damage or casualties so far.

A strong magnitude-6.5 earthquake shook central Chile, minutes before midnight local time, on Monday. The Chilean Navy's hydrographic and oceanographic service discounted the possibility of a tsunami but authorities order a preventative evacuation of coastline. Though the quake was felt almost a minute in Valparaiso and the capital, Santiago, there were no immediate reports of damage or deaths.

The US Geological Survey says, the quake's epicenter was 48 kilometers northeast of Valparaiso and it had a depth of 25 kilometers. The quake knocked out power and telephone service in various parts of the capital.

A moderate earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter Scale rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi island today. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 10:17 am (local time) at a depth of nearly 10 kilometres, 169 kilometres northwest of Kendari. Indonesia's Geophysics and Meteorology Agency said there are no immediate reports of any damage or casualties. Two strong earthquakes struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island last week, triggering an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami alert and sending terrified people fleeing from the coast.

The Environment Ministry has recommended bamboo-based houses, which have been developed and successfully tested by a government institute, for earthquake-prone areas of the country. In its annual report, the Ministry said Bangalore-based Indian Plywood Industries Research and Training Institute (IPIRTI), an autonomous body of the Ministry, has developed and tested a bamboo-based house suitable for disaster-prone areas.

Observing that some regions in India require quake-proof housing, the Ministry said the bamboo-based house built by the institute based on IPIRTI-TRADA (Timber Research and
Development Association) technology can resist earthquakes. The Ministry in its annual report said, the bamboo house resisted seven repetitions of a typical Zone 5 earthquake, the highest in India and equivalent to over 7 on the Richter Scale.

A low-intensity earthquake measuring 4.1 on Richter scale shook parts of Jammu and Kashmir in the wee hours of Sunday. A disaster management cell official said in Srinagar, the epicentre of the tremor which rocked at 2.20 AM, was India-China border in Ladakh region. It was located 209 km east of Leh town near the border between Ladakh and Xinjiang region of China.The tremor, however, was not felt in the Kashmir Valley.There were no reports of any casualties.

A 6.9-magnitude earthquake today struck off Mexico's Pacific coast, the second to hit the area in the last 24 hours. According to the US Geological Survey, the quake struck in the Gulf of California, 78 miles northeast of the town of Guerrero Negro in Baja California at a depth of 6.2 miles. However, no immediate damage was reported and no tsunami warning has been issued. An earlier quake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck in the mountains of the western state of Michoacan. That tremor, which took place eight hours earlier, caused buildings to sway as far away as Mexico City, some 200 miles away, and no casualty or damage was reported.