Breaking: 5.3 earthquake hits Japan, near Fukushima!

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 struck Fukushima Prefecture in Japan early Friday morning, Kyodo reported, quoting the Japan Meteorological Agency.


Japan's prime minister told Fukushima's operator to fix radioactive water leaks as he toured the crippled nuclear plant Thursday, less than two weeks after assuring the world the situation was under control.

No tsunami warning has been issued, the news agency said.

The focus of the quake was around 20 km (12.4 miles) underground in the prefecture, which hosts Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Kyodo said.

There was no damage to the nuclear plant, Japanese media quoted Tokyo Electric as saying.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed Tokyo Electric on Thursday to decommission the remaining two reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where four other reactors were devastated by a massive earthquake in 2011.


[link to www.csmonitor.com]