The 6.0-magnitude quake struck at 3:43 am (23:13 GMT Sunday), around 275 kilometres (170 miles) northeast of the Afghan capital Kabul and near the border with Pakistan, the US Geological Survey said.

"We don't think the amount of magma exists that would create one of these large eruptions of the past," he said. "It is still possible to have a volcanic eruption comparable to other volcanoes. But we would expect to see more and larger quakes, deformation and precursory explosions out of the lake. We don't believe that anything strange is happening right now."

Last summer, YVO installed new instrumentation in boreholes 500 to 600 feet deep to better detect ground deformation.  Says Lowenstern: "We have a lot more ability to look at all the data now.3) Here is a passage on the Yellowstone supervolcano from "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. He interviews a Yellowstone geologist, Paul Doss. I don't find it reassuring.

The newly established National Seismic Monitoring Center of the Pakistan Meteorological Department recorded an intensity of 2.2 on the Richter scale. The quake occurred at 8:33 pm and lasted for 42 seconds.

The epicenter of the earthquake was 100 kilometers in the southeast of the city centre, the Arabian Sea near the coastal belt of Thatta district. The quake, centered at 24.31 degrees North Latitude and 67.18 degrees East Longitude, had a depth of 10 kilometers and spread over a radius of 100 square kilometers.

The national Antara News Agency quoted Indonesian meteorology and geophysics agency (BMG) as saying.

The first quake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck at 2:49 a.m. local time (1949 GMT on Tuesday) with its epicenter at 156km southwest of Lais region at a depth of 10 km below the sea bed, or between 4.42 degrees southern latitude and 100.96 degrees eastern longitude.

BEIJING - Government officials have acknowledged in the most definitive report since the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province in May that many school buildings across the country are poorly constructed, and that 20 percent of primary schools in one southwestern province may be unsafe, according to a description of the report published by the state media yesterday.

The Ministry of Education report is a rare government admission about substandard school construction. The issue has been a sensitive one since May, when an earthquake in Sichuan Province killed 88,000 people, many of them children crushed in the rubble of shoddily built schools.

The report called on the central government to fund the reconstruction of vulnerable schools quickly, especially those in rural areas and western parts of the country that are seismically unstable. Speaking about the report, Lu Yongxiang, vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said in an interview with the China News Service that Beijing would increase construction subsidies by 25 percent to 150 percent, depending on the region.

The earthquake was intensity 5 in General Santos City. Based on the Phivolcs Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS), intensity 5 means it is "generally felt by most people indoors and outdoors." There is "strong shaking and rocking felt throughout a building" and "hanging objects swing violently."

Under the PEIS, intensity 10 is completely devastating and intensity 1 is scarcely perceptible. Solidum said he does not expect “significant damage” due to the earthquake but said there will likely be aftershocks. 
He said the earthquake was 85 kilometers off General Santos City and 184 kilometers below the surface.

Tres Pinos, about 97 miles south of San Francisco.The quake struck shortly after 9:30 a.m. and was about 4 miles deep.A dispatcher with the San Benito County sheriff's office said the quake was felt, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.

A cyclone watch has been declared for a developing tropical low for coastal and island communities from Cockatoo Island in Western Australia to the Territory border.

A flood threat advice has been issued for the western Top End.And a coastal waters' wind warning was released.

For the next two days with seas predicted to rise to 2.5m and winds to 60kmh.The risk that a low in the Timor Sea may form into a cyclone tomorrow remains more than 50 per cent.

The closure of a Pakistan charity listed as a terrorist group has brought relief operations in some of the areas worst hit by October's devastating earthquake to a halt, local people say.The government this week moved to shut down Jamaat-ud-Dawa, freezing its assets and placing its leader under house arrest, after the United Nations said it was a front for the group accused of orchestrating the Mumbai attacks.

Police padlocked the charity's offices across the country and arrested dozens of its workers, a move hailed by the international community which had pressed Pakistan to act against militants on its soil.But it has also halted the charity's relief operations in this remote area of southwest Pakistan devastated by a massive earthquake in October.

"People are suffering because of the ban on Jamaat-ud-Dawa," Abdul Basir, mayor of the quake-hit town of Rod Mullazai in southwestern Baluchistan province, told AFP."They were engaged in relief work, they were helping the affected families by providing shelter, warm clothing and food to the homeless people."

The repercussions of being caught unawares will no doubt be devastating.It was with this in mind that, after the destructive Indian Ocean tsunami struck in 2004.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) with the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University embarked on a study to evaluate the probability and impact of a tsunami on Singapore.