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Magnitude of Japan quake revised up to 9 from 8.8

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-13 15:58

TOKYO -- The following are major latest news developments related to Japan's devastating 9-magnitude earthquake on March 11. All the reports were based on local media reports and the Japanese authorities:

-- The number of people who have died or remained unaccounted for from Friday's earthquake and the accompanying tsunami exceeds 2,000.

-- Japan's Meteorological Agency revised up Sunday the magnitude of the earthquake from 8.8 to 9, making it one of the largest in history.

-- US carrier Ronald Reagan arrived in waters off northeastern Japan for rescue efforts.

-- China's rescue team arrived in Japan for search mission

-- Prime Minister Naoto Kan planned to double the number of Self-Defense Forces personnel sent to quake-hit areas to 100,000.

-- The Fukushima prefectural government said Sunday that 19 residents, who evacuated from a three-km radius of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, have been exposed to radiation. The number of people exposed to radiation has thus risen to 22 in the prefecture, including the three announced Saturday.

-- In Miyagi, about 200 dead bodies were newly found in the city of Higashimatsushima, the National Police Agency said.

-- In Minamisanriku, about 10,000 people, over half the town's population, remain unaccounted for.

-- In Iwate Prefecture, north of Miyagi, many corpses were found Sunday morning under the rubble in Rikuzentakata. About 5,000 houses in the city had been submerged by the quake-triggered tsunami, and the city office has confirmed that only 5,900 of its population of about 23,000 had taken shelter.

-- The Fukushima prefectural government said it was still unable to contact 1,167 residents, including 918 in the town of Namie.

-- A total of 69 governments from abroad and 5 international institutions had offered assistance to Japan as of 9 a.m., the Foreign Ministry said.

-- The Japanese authorities scrambled Sunday to control an overheating reactor of the problem-prone Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, injecting fresh water into it and reducing pressure inside, top government spokesman Yukio Edano said.

-- Local governments have been unable to contact tens of thousands of people, and at least 20,820 buildings have been fully or partially damaged in quake-hit areas, while more than 300,000 people have been evacuated in six prefectures, according to local and central government tallies.

-- Some 180,000 people newly began to evacuate within a 20-kilometer radius from the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant a day after one of its reactors partially melted Saturday.  

-- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corp. said 475,400 fiber-optic services were disconnected as of 6 a.m., up 76,500 from 8 p.m. Saturday, in addition to 879,500 subscribed phone lines that remained out of service in areas centering on Iwate and Miyagi.

-- The weather agency downgraded its tsunami warning to an advisory the same day for the Pacific side of the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan, meaning the entire country was no longer subject to any higher-level tsunami warnings.

-- Japan's April local elections will be postponed in quake-hit regions.

-- Kan asks the Toshiba head to help address nuke plant disorder.

-- The Japanese government called on big companies to save on energy use.