Strong earthquake shakes vast area from Mexico to Florida

  • 7.7 magnitude quake struck in the sea south of Cuba
  • No immediate reports of damage or injuries

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake has struck in the sea south of Cuba, shaking a vast area from Mexico to Florida and beyond, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.

Tsunami warnings for Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands were issued but lifted shortly afterward with no reports of major damage.

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Fukushima disaster: first residents return to town next to nuclear plant

Parts of Okuma are open for business once again, but only a few hundred former residents have moved home

A town next to the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant partially reopened on Wednesday, eight years after a triple meltdown forced tens of thousands of people in the area to flee.

About 40% of Okuma, which sits immediately west of the plant, was declared safe for residents to make a permanent return after decontamination efforts significantly reduced radiation levels.

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Tokyo 2020 organisers cut crowds at sailing events over tsunami risk

Olympic authorities reduce crowd size to make evacuations easier

The organisers of next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo have decided to cut the number of spectators for the sailing events by a third so they can be quickly evacuated to higher ground in the event of a tsunami.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics organising committee had initially planned to allow up to 5,000 people to watch the sailing events off Enoshima island, just south of the Japanese capital, according to the public broadcaster NHK.

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