Shallow 6.1-magnitude quake hits Thai-Lao border
Bangkok: A shallow 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwestern Laos near the Thai border early Thursday, the United States Geological Survey reported.
There were no immediate reports of damage after the quake hit at 6:50 am local time.
But shaking could be felt more than 700 kilometres (435 miles) away in the Thai capital Bangkok, where Pope Francis is currently on a four-day visit.
"The shaking...was the main shock from a quake in Laos at 6:50 am and was felt in northern and northeastern Thailand and Bangkok and suburbs," said Sophon Chaila, an official at the Thai Meteorological Department.
"As of now there is no report of damage," Chaila added. Residents in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi also felt buildings sway.
"The ceiling lights were shaking quite strongly. I felt dizzy and scared," said Hanoi resident Tran Hoa Phuong, who felt the earthquake in her 27-storey apartment building.
It hit about three hours after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck the same region of Laos, near the site of the large Xayaburi dam project.
Information is slow to trickle out of the closed communist state, and there were no reports of damage or injuries after the twin quakes early Thursday.
Pope Francis arrived in Bangkok on Wednesday and has a busy agenda Thursday meeting officials and the Thai king before he leads a mass in the evening.
There was no word from his team on whether he felt the quake.
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SIR in Bengal: Bhabanipur records nearly 4 times more voter deletions than Nandigram, EC data shows
Kolkata (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhabanipur constituency has recorded nearly four times more deletions from electoral rolls as against opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari’s Nandigram, according to constituency-wise data released by the Election Commission on Friday that highlighted significant variations across West Bengal.
According to a poll panel official, Bhabanipur (Kolkata), which had 1,61,509 voters in the rolls published in January 2025, saw 44,787 names removed in the latest revision, while Nandigram (Purba Medinipur district), with 2,78,212 voters, reported 10,599 deletions.
The commission has classified the deletions under standard categories such as deaths, relocation, and duplication of entries.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, Banerjee lost Nandigram to her one-time party colleague and protege Adhikari, who moved to the BJP just weeks before the election, by a margin of 1,956 votes.
Bhabanipur is not the constituency with the highest number of deletions, the official said.
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Kolkata Port, represented by senior minister and Mayor Firhad Hakim, has recorded 63,730 deletions, the highest in the state.
Tollygunge, held by minister Aroop Biswas, has seen 35,309 deletions, he added.
In constituencies held by key BJP legislators, the deletion numbers are higher than Nandigram but lower than Kolkata Port, he said.
"Asansol South, represented by Agnimitra Paul, has seen 39,202 deletions, while Shankar Ghosh's Siliguri constituency has reported 31,181 deletions," the official said.
According to district-wise data, South 24 Parganas has recorded the highest volume of deletions at 8,16,047.
Incidentally, the district is considered a stronghold of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, who secured a victory margin of over seven lakh votes in the last Lok Sabha election.
Among the state's 294 Assembly segments, the highest constituency-level deletions occurred in Chowringhee in North Kolkata, represented by Trinamool MLA Nayana Bandyopadhyay.
The constituency has seen 74,553 names removed. The lowest deletions were reported from Kotulpur in Bankura district, where 5,678 names have been removed.
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Overall, more than 58 lakh names have been deleted in the first phase of the SIR process. The Election Commission is scheduled to publish the draft electoral rolls on Tuesday.
