Small earthquake shakes South Korea agricultural region
Seoul (AP): A 4.1-magnitude earthquake shook a small agricultural county in South Korea's central region on Saturday, but officials said there were no immediate reports of damage.
South Korea's weather agency said the small earthquake in the town of Goesan was still the strongest of the 61 quakes that have occurred in the country this year and would have been powerful enough to topple objects or break windows.
Emergency officials have received more than 140 calls from residents saying they felt the ground shaking. The calls were mostly from the central North Chungcheong province but also from Gyeonggi province surrounding the capital, Seoul, and the southern North and South Gyeongsang provinces, according to the weather agency and government officials.
Central government and North Chungcheong provincial officials said they weren't aware of any damage.
Kim Dong-wook, a resident in the central city of Chungju, told news channel YTN that he heard rumblings in the ground and that windows rattled like during a typhoon. He said he saw plates and bowls scattered across the floor of a restaurant in the building where he lives but he didn't know of anyone being hurt.
The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he instructed officials to also review the safety of electricity and telecommunication systems, although there were no immediate reports of problems.
South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said the earthquake didn't pose a threat to the safety of nuclear power reactors in the country's southeastern regions. It also said the earthquake didn't affect a research reactor in the central city of Daejeon, which is about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from where the quake occurred.
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AFSPA reimposed in Manipur's 6 police station areas, including strife-torn Jiribam
MHA says 'continuous volatile' situation'
New Delhi/Imphal, Nov 14: The Centre on Thursday reimposed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur's six police station areas, including the violence-hit Jiribam, with the Union home ministry asserting that the decision was taken given the "continuous volatile situation" there due to the ongoing ethnic violence.
The Central government notification on the reimposition of AFSPA came the same day the Manipur police announced the seizure of a cache of arms and ammunition from Manipur's Jiribam and Churachandpur districts.
During cordon and search operations in Champanagar, Narayanpur and Thangboipunjre areas of Jiribam district on Wednesday, one 2-inch mortar, thirty-six live barrel cartridges and five empty barrel cartridges were seized, a police statement said.
The police statement also said that one .303 rifle, one 9mm pistol, two short-range locally made cannon, two long-range locally made cannon, five AK 47 live rounds, two 9mm live rounds, four 12-bore cart cases, and eighteen .303 rifle modified live rounds were also seized from H Kotlian village in Churachandpur district.
An area or district is notified as "disturbed" under AFSPA to facilitate operations by the armed forces. AFSPA gives armed forces operating in disturbed areas sweeping powers to search, arrest and open fire if they deem it necessary for the "maintenance of public order".
The decision to reimpose AFSPA was taken given the continuous volatile situation there due to the ongoing ethnic violence, the Union Home Ministry said in the notification.
The police station areas where AFSPA has been reimposed are Sekmai and Lamsang in Imphal West district, Lamlai in Imphal East district, Jiribam in Jiribam district, Leimakhong in Kangpokpi and Moirang in Bishnupur.
On October 1, the Manipur government imposed AFSPA in the entire state, barring 19 police station areas that included these six.
The police stations excluded from the Manipur government's order were Imphal, Lamphal, City, Singjamei, Sekmai, Lamsang, Patsoi, Wangoi, Porompat, Heingang, Lamlai, Irilbung, Leimakhong, Thoubal, Bishnupur, Nambol, Moirang, Kakching, Jiribam.
The Manipur police on Monday said 10 suspected militants were killed in a fierce gunfight with security forces after insurgents in camouflage uniforms and armed with sophisticated weapons fired indiscriminately at a police station and an adjacent CRPF camp in Manipur's Jiribam district.
The suspected militants allegedly abducted six civilians, including women and children from the same district.
Also on Thursday, school and college students across the Imphal valley formed multiple human chains outside their respective educational institutions to protest against the alleged abduction.
Holding black flags and wearing black badges, the students raised slogans demanding immediate safe release of the six and called for action by the Central and State governments. The event was organised by COCOMI Students Front, a Meitei community outfit.
More than 200 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.
The ethnically diverse Jiribam, which was largely untouched by the clashes in Imphal Valley and the adjoining hills, witnessed violence after the mutilated body of a farmer was found in a field in June this year.
The disturbed area declaration was in force in Manipur (except the Imphal municipality area) from 2004 till early 2022.
In April 2022, the Manipur government issued a notification where it said the disturbed area tag would no longer be applicable in seven police station areas of Imphal West district, four police station areas under the Imphal East district and one police station area each in the districts of Thoubal, Bishnupur, Kakching and Jiribam.
There are 16 districts in Manipur.
There have been protests and demands for the complete withdrawal of AFSPA from the northeast as well as Jammu and Kashmir for its alleged "draconian" provisions.
Manipuri activist Irom Chanu Sharmila fought against the law by being on hunger strike for 16 years, before ending it on August 9, 2016.
