An aftershock in the low 5 range hit yet another part of eastern Japan, tonight (Tuesday morning Japan time). Several rail lines have been shut down for possible damage.
Tohoku, Tokai shinkansen lines, and, Joetsu, Nagano shinkansen lines halted after quakes.
Kyodo News reporting that a 6.3 aftershock has hit Chiba Prefecture. Narita airport has been shut down to check for cracks in the runways.
The epicenter is off the coast of Chiba Prefecture, which is just east of Tokyo, basically the east central coast of Japan, south of where the March 11 quake happened.
Less than an hour prior, Nagano Prefecture got hit with a 5.5 quake.
Initial reports say a 5.5 quake hit Nagano Prefecture.
Also, the Japanese Meteorological Agency warned that more aftershocks of 7.0 or greater could hit Japan. Keiji Doi, earthquake prediction division chief, said the chance of aftershocks of 7.0 could continue for at least a year.
So far, more than 400 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or larger have occurred since the catastrophic March 11 quake.
At least 11 people are dead, and as many as 103 wounded, after an explosion in a Minsk subway, in the country of Belarus. The explosion caused Russian police in Moscow to search their subways.
Witnesses say there is a large crater where the ‘bomb’ went off. Belarus police say it is an act of terrorism, they found the remains of a bomb that ahd been stuffed with scraps of metal. One analyst says this is the first time for such an act of terrorism in Belarus.
Russia suffered a terrorist attack at one of its airports in January. Russia has been asking Western leaders to help them in their fight against terrorism since the 1990s.
“Output reduction in Japan and overseas will most likely continue until September.”-Kohei Takahasi, JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo
Toyota expects to lose 35,000 vehicles from the North American shut down, and that’s spread over five days. The problem is that, because of continued nuclear power issues, it looks like parts supply is not going to improve anytime soon.
Almost 70 percent of the Toyota vehicles sold in the U.S., are put together in North America, but, about 85 percent of the parts and materials come from Japan.
The North American car market is important for Toyota, making up about 60% of their profits.
On April 8, Citigroup downgraded Toyota stock to ‘sell’. Citigroup said the downgrade was because Toyota has not addressed the problems created by the lack of electrical power in Japan. It’s clear the lack of power in Japan will go on for longer than expected.
Before the March 11 disasters, JAL had come out of bankruptcy. Now the huge drop in people coming to Japan (some sources say at least 75% drop) is threatening to do JAL in.
Last week JAL announced they will ask employees to take time off without pay. Now JAL says it needs to cut costs by 10 billion yen.
JAL President Masaru Onishi, said international flight passengers is only 25% of what they need to make money.
They will extend the employee time off without pay plan, as well as halt payments for employee ‘expenses’ and ‘allowances’.
This is the time of the year for grade school graduations in Japan. Because of the March 11 quake and tsunami, graduation ceremonies are painfully emotional for many.
At one kindergarten, they lost six children (three dead, three missing). Today the mother of two missing girls accepted their kindergarten graduation certificates.
Egyptians want the Military leaders out of government. The military took over after weeks of protest forced long time President Hosni Mubarak to leave.
It just so happened that Egyptian military leaders were in Washington D.C. at the time the protests started. They helped convince Mubarak to leave, and quickly took over.
Many protesters say that the military rulers are refusing to prosecute Mubarak, and his supporters. They also think the military is still working with the former government. Strangely the military says these new protesters are those pro-Mubarak thugs that attacked the anti-Mubarak demonstrators back in February.
So far, in this latest protest, two people have been killed, and 11 wounded by the military and police.
A second massive search by 22,000 U.S. military, and Japanese military and police, has turned up 103 bodies.
There are still more than 14,000 people missing. That number will be higher, because several cities have not reported missing people because they have lost most, or all, documentation on their residents.
NATO admits they shot down a Libyan rebel MiG 23. This is causing more problems between rebels and NATO. NATO has bombed rebel ground troops several times now.
NATO says the downing of the rebel aircraft shows that they are enforcing the UN “no-fly zone”. NATO says the no-fly zone applies to any Libyan aircraft.
The reason for NATO suddenly attacking a rebel aircraft, could be that the Libyan government has complained that rebel helicopters are being allowed to fly, despite the UN resolution stating that ALL military aircraft would be shot down by the coalition.