Young Boy Pulled from Turkish Quake Ruins

A 13-year-old boy was pulled from a collapsed building without injury on Friday, five days after Turkey's powerful earthquake struck, and state-run TV said he survived by drinking rain water that seeped through cracks in the wreckage around him.

The boy, Ferhat Tokay, also used shoes under his head as a pillow and peered through a tiny gap in the wreckage to see when it was day or night outside, his uncle said.

Tokay was discovered early Friday morning, soon after rescue workers from Azerbaijan had sent the uncle and other relatives away from the site to get some rest, saying there was no chance of finding the missing boy alive.

The 7.2 magnitude quake leveled about 2,000 buildings in eastern Turkey on Sunday, killing at least 575 people and leaving about 2,500 injured and thousands of homeless.
In all, over 5,000 buildings in the area are unfit for people to live or work in.

Death Toll Rises in Turkey Earthquake

An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude on Sunday has killed 217 people and injured 1,090 in eastern Turkey, the interior minister said.

A hundred people died in Van city and 117 in the Ercis district of Van province, said Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin, adding 1,090 were injured.

An earlier toll announced by the Turkish prime minister had given 138 people dead and 350 injured.

The quake that struck Van, a large eastern city populated mainly by Kurds, was Turkey's strongest in years. Fears are running high that the toll might increase further as many people were trapped under collapsed buildings.

The US Geological Survey initially measured the quake at 7.3 magnitude but later downgraded it to 7.2.

Earthquake-prone Turkey lies atop several fault lines.

In 1999, two strong quakes in the heavily populated and industrialised regions of northwest Turkey left some 20,000 dead and many more homeless.

This video gives some indication of how violent the quake was.

No Tsuanmi in South Pacific

A tsunami sparked by a powerful 7.6-magitude quake failed to materialise on New Zealand's shores, but Civil Defence says people should expect high tides within the next 24 hours.

The quake struck at 7.03am (NZT) at a depth of 20km, according to the US Geological Service. It was felt in Wellington and parts of the East Coast of the North Island.

It was originally reported to be magnitude 7.8 at a depth of 48km but USGS has revised it to magnitude 7.6.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu said a tsunami had been generated and could be around a metre high when it arrives at New Zealand.

The USGS said tsunamis had already struck the Kermadec Islands and Raoul Island this morning. The waves were 68cm and 84cm high before adding it had issued a tsunami warning for New Zealand, affecting East Cape, North Cape, Gisborne and Auckland.

However, the Pacific Warning Centre based in Hawaii called off its tsunami warning after the 7.6 earthquake in the Kermadecs before the Civil Defence did.

Workers Rescued from Crippled Japanese Nuclear Plant

Operators evacuated workers from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant Monday after gray smoke rose from one of its reactor units, the latest of persistent troubles in stabilizing the radiation-leaking complex.

The evacuation brought to a standstill some of the work on restoring the plant's electrical lines and restarting the water pumping systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from overheating and releasing even greater amounts of radiation.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Hiroshi Aizawa said the evacuation was prompted by smoke rising from the area of the spent fuel storage pool at the plant's Unit 3 reactor building. However, nuclear safety agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama later told reporters in Tokyo he didn't think the smoke was linked to the fuel pool.

Continuous heavy rain pounded northeastern Japan's earthquake-stricken regions, grounding relief helicopters and prompting increased fears about radiation.

The weather forced Prime Minister Naoto Kan to cancel a planned visit to a staging area for relief supplies just 20 kilometers from the Fukushima plant, where work crews continue to spray seawater to keep spent fuel rods from overheating.

Authorities said the rain was also preventing helicopter crews from flying food, water and other relief goods to remote locations where tens of thousands of people are housed in makeshift shelters with scant food and heat.

The death toll from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami continues to climb as more bodies wash up on the coasts of Iwate and Miyagi prefectures. More than 8,600 people have now been confirmed dead and more than 13,200 are reported missing. Police in Miyagi say they believe about 15,000 people have died in that area alone.

Onagawa Nuclear Plant Now Declares Emergency

A state of emergency has been declared at a Japanese nuclear facility at Onagawa after excessive radiation levels were recorded there following a major earthquake, an UN atomic expert watching the situation said on Sunday. 

A fire broe out at this plant on Friday following the earthquake, but news and information has been slow to come out of this plant over the weekend.  Now the situation appears to be getting worse.