Earthquake and tsunami strike Japan and Pacific region

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Earthquake and tsunami strike Japan and Pacific region. The major earthquake off the coast of Japan and subsequent tsunami today have already caused massive damage across large swathes of Japan, and have put coastal areas on alert around the Pacific. The tsunami threat has been cautiously downgraded; small waves have already hit Indonesia and the Philippines, the BBC live blog reports, so far with minimal damage, though larger waves are a possibility. Hawaii and low-lying islands in Micronesia and Indonesia appear to be the biggest concerns in the Pacific.

In Japan itself a death toll of 40 has been discussed, but images of piled up cars, burning buildings, farmland and whole towns being hit by a wave meters high, suggests that this is only the most preliminary of estimates. A state of emergency has been declared and a warning issued after failures reported at the Fukushima nuclear plant.