Powerful quake hits n-e Japan again

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TOKYO, April 11 (Agencies): A powerful earthquake has hit north-east Japan, exactly one month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The 7.1-magnitude tremor triggered a brief tsunami warning, and forced workers to evacuate the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The epicentre of the quake was in Fukushima prefecture, and struck at a depth of just 10km (six miles). It came as Japan said it was extending the evacuation zone around the nuclear plant because of radiation concerns. Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant ran for safety after the latest of hundreds of powerful tremors to hit Japan since the 9.0 magnitude quake on March 11 and the towering tsunami that followed. Japan's meteorological agency warned that a wave up to one metre (three feet) high could hit the coast near the power station after Monday's shock, before cancelling the alert less than an hour later. One man in Ibaraki prefecture died in Monday's aftershock, Jiji press said, as thousands marked a month since the massive quake created a debris-laden wave that crushed towns, killed at least 13,000 and left about 14,000 missing. Much of Japan fell silent at 2:46 pm as people across the country remembered the victims of Japan's worst catastrophe since World War II. In the broken city of Kesennuma, soldiers looking for corpses among the piles of rubble paused to pay their respects. Cold rain fell and the stench of rotting matter hung in the air as the men bowed their heads briefly before resuming their gruesome search. Tokyo said it was augmenting the evacuation area around Fukushima Daiichi because of long-term health worries, even as the government said the danger of a large leak of radioactive materials was fading.