- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
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- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
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- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
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- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
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- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
Japan lifts 'megaquake' warning, tells people to 'go back to normal'
Japan lifted on Thursday a warning that a "megaquake" potentially causing colossal damage and loss of life could strike, with the government telling people to "go back to normal".
The week-old alert that such a catastrophe might hit the archipelago of 125 million people prompted thousands to cancel holidays and stock up on essentials, emptying shelves in some stores.
"The people of Japan are free to go back to normal lifestyles," disaster management minister Yoshifumi Matsumura said as he announced the lifting of the advisory at 5:00 pm (0800 GMT).
However, he said people should not forget measures such as securing furniture, ensuring family members know the location of evacuation shelters, and stockpiling emergency foods.
"The special call for attention ended but it doesn't mean the risk of a major earthquake has been eliminated," Matsumura told reporters.
"We ask (people) to continue to be mindful of these daily precautions and remain vigilant for a megaquake that can happen anytime, anywhere," he said.
Japan's weather agency said last Thursday the likelihood of a megaquake was "higher than normal" following a magnitude 7.1 jolt that day that injured 15 people.
That was a particular kind of tremor known as a subduction megathrust quake, which has occurred in pairs in the past and can unleash massive tsunamis.
The advisory concerned the Nankai Trough between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean.
The 800-kilometre (500-mile) undersea gully runs parallel to Japan's Pacific coast, including off the Tokyo region, the world's biggest urban area and home to around 40 million people.
All segments of the Nankai Trough ruptured at once in 1707, unleashing an earthquake that remains the nation's second-most powerful on record.
That quake, which also triggered the last eruption of Mount Fuji, was followed by two powerful Nankai megathrusts in 1854, and one each in 1944 and 1946.
- Slower trains -
Japan's government has said the next magnitude 8-9 megaquake along the Nankai Trough has a roughly 70 percent probability of striking within the next 30 years.
In the worst-case scenario, 300,000 lives could be lost, experts estimate, while some engineers say the damage could reach $13 trillion, with infrastructure wiped out.
However, experts said the risk was still low and the agriculture and fisheries ministry urged people on Saturday "to refrain from excessively hoarding goods".
The statement came after supermarkets put limits on purchases including bottled water and as demand soared online for emergency items such as portable toilets and preserved food.
The megaquake warning even prompted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to cancel a four-day trip to Central Asia last weekend.
Some bullet trains reduced their speed as a precaution and nuclear plants were instructed by authorities to double-check their disaster preparations.
- 'Convincingly scary' -
Japan sits on top of four major tectonic plates and experiences around 1,500 quakes every year, most of them minor.
The impact is generally contained even with larger tremors thanks to advanced building techniques and well-practised emergency procedures.
The Japan Meteorological Association warning was the first under new rules drawn up after a 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.
The 2011 tsunami sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan's worst post-war catastrophe and the world's most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
"The history of great earthquakes at Nankai is convincingly scary," geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A. Hubbard wrote in their Earthquake Insights newsletter last week.
However, there was only a "small probability" that last week's magnitude 7.1 earthquake was a foreshock.
"One of the challenges is that even when the risk of a second earthquake is elevated, it is still always low," they said.
H.E.Young--AMWN