Two people died and at least 114 were injured after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of eastern Taiwan.
A hotel and at least three other buildings collapsed in the city of Hualien as a result of the quake that struck early Wednesday, the National Fire Agency said.
in our prayers.
LINK small quake south of Manila preceded that quake
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related item: China continues to start grabbing more of our areas in the nearby sea, this one east of the Philippines.
They are only investigating currents, of course (/s)
update: discussed on StrategyPage.
The rise is a rich fishing area but also may have underwater oil and gas deposits. China has never made a claim on the Benham Rise but that could change if the payoff were large enough. China had asked permission to send a research ship to study the area and at first the Philippines agreed. But the public reaction was hostile to that, given the Chinese aggression off the west coast in the South China Sea. So the government withdrew that permission and banned any foreign research vessels from studying the Philippines Rise unless they received specific permission. Foreign fishing vessels are banned from the Philippines Rise as well.
At the same time the Philippines repeated that war was not an option in the South China Sea where the Chinese have declared the area an integral part of China and is trying to force foreign ships, especially warships, to ask permission before passing through what had always been considered international waters. Meanwhile China continues to dredge up sand at reefs and created artificial islands which are turned into military bases. China says the new artificial islands will have commercial uses (tourism, recreation).
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another related item: US is again willing to sell Taiwan weapons.
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unrelated item: Iran tells Turkey to stop killing Kurds in Syria.
that puts them on the same side as the US...
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