Tsunami alert downgraded in Japan


Tsunami Alert: Scores of villagers on a remote Japanese island chain scrambled for higher ground after a major 7.4-magnitude offshore quake early on Wednesday sparked a Tsunami Alert that was later downgraded.

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Waves of 30cm hit the shores of the Ogasawara islands, an archipelago with a population of about 2,300 some 1000km south of Tokyo, near Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean.

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The tremor, which struck at 2.19am local time (0419 AEDT), jolted people out of bed as loudspeakers blared across the island villages and ...