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booksellers suspect AI firms behind bulk ordersEtna alert lowered as Catania airport reopensFuneral held for Indigenous girl whose death sparked outback riotsIran rejects US claim to Hormuz as ship attacks mount600 drones head for Moscow as Russia strikes Kyiv and Kryvyi RihDeath toll passes 50 after magnitude 7.7 quake off FloresIsraeli strikes kill 11 in south Lebanon, deadliest since June truceColombia asks Trump to suspend tariffs as quake toll climbsRhine hits record low at Kaub as Hungary sinks barges to cool reactorUS readies unprecedented economic measures against IranUS boat strikes pass 200 dead as Ecuadorean fishermen describe attacksBond traders struggle to price $70bn of credit backstops behind AI buildoutAlibaba says its open AI models passed three billion downloadsDeath toll rises to 68 after Lake Kariba ferry sinkingTaliban mark five years in power as UN warns of rights crisisEU aircraft join fight against Belgium's record wildfireUS presses Netanyahu over settlers as Qusra homes are occupiedMokha port halts operations as Houthi missiles hit MaribSeoul proposes talks to end the Korean war as North rejects drillsChina-led perovskite solar plant outperforms silicon in three-month field testOpenAI revenue run rate passes $40bn as revenue chief departsHamas leader in Cairo as Kushner trip nearsWHO says Congo's Ebola outbreak is outpacing the responseTurkish parliament passes amnesty law for PKK membersMorocco detains scores near Ceuta as feared mass crossing fails to materialiseChina publishes ecology reports to bolster South China Sea claimsMyanmar says more than 300,000 Rohingya verified for repatriationPetrobras detects signs of oil off the mouth of the AmazonChina condemns Japanese politicians' moves at Yasukuni ShrineUS inflation cools as wages again lag behind pricesModi offers free exam coaching after youth protests in IndiaOil from grounded Russian tanker reaches Oman's coastPanama Canal cuts draught again as Mexico pitches rival corridorUkraine's idle ports cost $1.75bn as farm exports fallFormer Chinese premier Zhu Rongji diesAt least 20 killed in communal clashes in central NigeriaIran accuses Qatar of holding three of its pilotsXi calls for shift to prevention as floods batter ChinaVenezuela frees 131 more political prisonersMore Syrians in Germany lose refugee protectionAudit finds gaps in Taiwan's counter-drone defencesIndia drafts rules to open nuclear power to private firmsHichilema takes early lead as Zambian count resumesParis prosecutors open investigation into tax portal hackReport details leverage behind Situational Awareness lossesArgentina has lost 30,633 companies under MileiAt least five dead in Indiana floodingIran detains two French diplomats over alleged infiltrationCanadian petition to expel US ambassador passes 170,000 signaturesIndia raises $50bn from its diaspora and ends swap facility earlyOpaque start-ups build erotic AI industry from Cyprus and MaltaBritain's biggest EV battery plant shelves expansion as Jaguar Land Rover talks stallThird drone debris find in a day on Turkish coastsForecasters put 95 percent odds on a very strong El NiñoSecondhand booksellers suspect AI firms behind bulk ordersEtna alert lowered as Catania airport reopensFuneral held for Indigenous girl whose death sparked outback riots
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Symbolic image: Kumamoto quake death toll rises to 35 as search of collapsed mall goes onSymbolic image

Kumamoto quake death toll rises to 35 as search of collapsed mall goes on

4 sources

Three days after a strong earthquake hit Kumamoto prefecture in south-western Japan on Tuesday, the confirmed death toll has risen to 35. Rescuers are still working through a partly collapsed shopping centre and a paper mill in temperatures of up to 35C. About 15,000 people are in shelters and around 23,000 homes remain without electricity, with 75,000 without running water.

What happened

The quake struck Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu on Tuesday, 28 July, and registered the maximum level 7 on Japan's seven-level shindo scale; FAZ gives the magnitude as 7.1, the Guardian as 6.8. The prefectural government counted at least 62 injured. At the Aeon shopping centre in Kashima, the company says about 3,000 customers were evacuated to a car park before a gas explosion tore through another part of the building; of 12 people pulled from the rubble, six died, and all those caught in the blast were shop workers who had gone back inside. At the Nippon Paper mill in Yatsushiro a chimney collapsed, killing eight of the 11 workers trapped there, with one still missing. The Vietnamese government reported the first death of a foreign national, a technical intern killed when a crane fell on him at his workplace. Almost 5,000 Self-Defence Forces personnel are deployed, working through heat of up to 35C and an overnight aftershock of magnitude 5.8.

The view from outside

Chinese state media carried the rise to 35 dead on Friday as a straight news item, without political framing. Vietnam's government confirmed the death of its citizen, the only foreign fatality reported so far.

What could happen next

The toll has climbed steadily: 30 on Thursday by the Guardian's count, 34 the same day according to the New York Times, 35 on Friday. Officials put about 15,000 people in 400 shelters, with nearly 23,000 homes without electricity and 75,000 without running water; the defence ministry is airlifting coolers and shipping in water and food. Aeon's president bowed in apology on Wednesday and said the company had not anticipated the explosion, whose cause is still being investigated. Toyota has paused three plants and Honda a motorcycle plant, and the Geospatial Information Authority says parts of the ground shifted by 87cm, damage that includes the base-isolation system of Yatsushiro town hall, rebuilt after the 2016 quake.

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