Four dead as new tremor hits Japan
A powerful aftershock rocked Japan's tsunami disaster zone, killing at least four and triggering new concerns over nuclear power plants in a region still grappling with an atomic emergency.
Electricity was cut across a huge area of northern Japan, forcing cooling systems at three nuclear plants to switch to emergency power and plunging more than 3.3 million households into darkness late Thursday night.
Officials and reports said four people had been killed by the 7.1 magnitude tremor, which struck off the coast near Sendai -- one of the most powerful to hit Japan since the country's worst post-war disaster four weeks ago.
In the town of Kitakami, northwest of the epicentre, an AFP reporter witnessed queues forming at convenience stores as people tried to stock up anew on food, water and batteries.
"The midnight quake reminded me of the fear I felt a month ago," he said. "I'm fed up with earthquakes. No more quakes, please."
Operator Tohoku Electric Power said some water overflowed from pools housing spent fuel at the Onagawa plant and spilled onto the floor, but that radiation levels remained normal.
A spokesman for the plant's operator, Tohoku-Electric Power Co, said radiation levels were still "far below the level that would require us to report to authorities".
March's record quake has exacted a heavy cost on the world's number three economy, and rippled across industries worldwide as parts supplied from Japan run short.
Japan's economy is in a "severe condition" with no quick recovery in sight following a triple disaster triggered by the March 11 earthquake that has sent service-sector sentiment plummeting the most on record, the government said.
While Japan confronts the economic impact of the disaster, it also faces increasing alarm from its neighbours with China expressing concern at the pumping of radioactive water into the sea from a crippled nuclear plant.
Japan said it would ease shipping restrictions on milk and vegetables from near the Fukushima plant, while New Delhi overturned a blanket ban on importing Japanese produce.
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