At least 72 people were killed and hundreds of others injured on Saturday, when a powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked southwest China's Sichuan province causing massive destruction.
A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the richter scale rocked the Iran-Pakistan border on Tuesday, tremors of which were experienced in North India, including New Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat.
The suspension of expeditions in Nepal will affect hundreds of foreign climbers now preparing for the spring season, a window or relatively good weather between the end of the bitterly cold winter and the rainy season, which begins in June.
We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.
Shocks were also felt in Pakistan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Turkey, news agencies in those countries reported.
Parliamentary standing committee on labour, led by Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, has said in its report that it is unjustifiable for owners to pay workers' wages during natural calamities.
'There shall be no change in India-Japan ties,' predicts Rajaram Panda.
Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos told reporters a meeting had been held with a Greek health risk management company to be ready 'in case anything happens'.
With flowers pinned to their chests, Xi and other Chinese leaders paid a silent tribute in front of the national flag to the victims of the COVID-19, which is regarded as the worst public health disaster in China's history.
'If you are doing something to our national democratic space which involves serious amounts of land, the public should have been consulted.'
It was meant to be the start of a triumphant march to the Tokyo 2020 Games: the torch relay would begin on Thursday in Fukushima, battered by the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster, as a poignant symbol of the "Recovery Olympics." But instead, it was like any other day for this prefecture in northeast Japan after the relay was scrapped following the Games' postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tokyo 2020 organisers received the Olympic flame in a scaled-down handover ceremony in the Greek capital on Thursday, amid the coronavirus spread that has cast doubt on the global, multi-billion dollar event. In a brief ceremony closed to spectators in Athens' Panathenaic stadium, site of the first modern Games in 1896, the torch was received by Tokyo Games representative Naoko Imoto.
Rediff.com looks at the devastattion caused by the earthquake in Turkey
A 7.3 magnitude earthquake in eastern Turkey today has killed 500 to 1,000 people, the head of a seismological institute in Istanbul said.
'Wastewater containing excreted material can tell us how a community is doing in a particular area pertaining to any epidemic, pandemic, and other bacterial and viral diseases.'
On April 25 2015, a massive earthquake in Ghorka, Nepal, followed by another devastating one on May 12, killed nearly 9,000 people and injured over 21,000. More than 600,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Two years later, the paved alleys are still lined by the skeletons of homes once filled with families. Children carefully side-step piles of broken brick on their way to school. According to data available, barely 5 per cent of the destroyed houses have been rebuilt, according to the National Reconstruction Authority. That 800,000 families still do not have their houses rebuilt is simply a disaster.
The description of his career by Ambassador Nazareth in his elegant language, judicious choice of details, without ego or malice to anyone, shows that it had its ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies and lucky and unlucky accidents. Ambassador T P Sreenivasan reviews A Ringside Seat to History.
Chino and Kat Vaflor were tying the knot at a venue 10 miles from the Taal Volcano when wedding photographer Randolf Evan captured dramatic shots of the couple with the ash plume seemingly overhead.
There was no immediate report of any damage or casualty.
'Wanting to see the bright side of things, we always told ourselves, 'It could have been worse!', when the situation got tough.' Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd), who helped rebuild the IAF's Car Nicobar air base after the 2004 tsunami, recalls the devastation on United Nations World Tsunami Awareness Day.
Tokyo 2020 organisers held an earthquake drill on Thursday at Ariake Gymnastics Centre, a newly built venue for next year's Olympics, to test their readiness
Today's devastating quake has dealt another blow to the ailing Japanese economy, already faced with mounting debts and falling exports.
'Whatever else may or may not happen, China and its people are likely to pay a very heavy price for the lack of transparency of its Communist regime,' predicts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
As with the Spanish flu, the world must be ready for a second and third wave as this start-stop-start-stop response plays out, recommends Rahul Jacob.
Japan is preparing to host the Tokyo Summer Olympics as planned, the government's top spokesman said on Wednesday, amid speculation the Games could be postponed because of the coronavirus threat.
There is a secured system to tackle cyber attacks and there is a segregation of nuclear generation from the administrative segment, There is a secured system to tackle cyber attacks and there is a segregation of nuclear generation from the administrative segment, he said.
The top court said that every month on 3-4 Saturdays, the advocates are on strike on one pretext or the other and had the lawyers worked on those days, it would have achieved the ultimate goal of speedy justice, which is now a fundamental right.
Gandhi alleged that demonetisation is the biggest scam in history of India.
The first event, a 7.8-magnitude quake, struck just after midnight Monday near the coastal community of Kaikoura, some 93 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of the city of Christchurch, the US Geological Survey reported.
The first Test between New Zealand and Pakistan is scheduled to go head this week after engineers checked the safety of the Christchurch cricket venue following a massive earthquake that rattled the centre of the country early on Monday. The powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake pummelled central New Zealand's South Island, killing at least two people, damaging roads and buildings and setting off hundreds of strong aftershocks. It was felt strongly in Christchurch, South Island's largest city, which was hit by a 6.3 quake in 2011 that killed 185 people.
'Why should the state and Centre fight?'
Can Indian buildings be withstand a massive earthquake similar to the one that shook up Japan two weeks ago? Rediff.com's Sahim Salim finds out if our buildings are strong enough to survive such a disaster.
Two powerful earthquakes struck central Italy on Wednesday, two months after a quake in central Italy killed nearly 300 people.
As Japan faces the biggest crisis since World War II, initial estimates peg the country's economic loss at a whopping $170 billion
A strong earthquake struck the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch on Tuesday, bringing down buildings, power and phone lines.
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira brought an energetic jolt of Latina star power to Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show, delivering hip-shaking choreography and a medley of infectious hits to one of the world's glitziest stages. Latin artists Bad Bunny and J Balvin appeared as surprise guests in the extravaganza, which signaled its Latin American influences from the onset, when Shakira greeted the stadium audience in Spanish with "Hola, Miami."
India lacks China's culture of collective discipline, so what will provide the glue for people to cooperate rather than follow their raw survival instincts? asks Ravi Bhoothalingam.
Dr M Madan Kumar, 45, shares some tips to sail through these troubled times.
Thousands were feared killed when a major quake of 7.3-magnitude rocked the Caribbean nation of Haiti and damaged the presidential palace besides other government buildings in the country's capital Port-au-Prince, an incident termed as 'catastrophe of major proportions'.
'I am not minimising either the seriousness or the complex nature of the current situation.' 'Naturally, we have to do what it takes to secure our borders.' 'We are talking to the Chinese, both through military channels and diplomatic ones.'
'In fact, they work in tandem.' 'When it comes to finding a solution, this must be predicated on honouring all agreements and understandings.' 'And not attempting to alter the status quo unilaterally.'
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