TOKYO - Japan conducted a national earthquake drill yesterday after the government unveiled a worst-case disaster scenario which warned that a monster jolt in the Pacific Ocean could kill over 320,000 people. Police suspended traffic at some 120 points in central Tokyo to spare lanes for emergency and military vehicles while passengers were guided to safe zones from train stations in a simulation of a post-quake scenario. Throughout Japan, about 387,000 people were scheduled to take part in the drills. Disaster Prevention Day is an annual exercise to train for a potentially deadly magnitude-7.3 quake scenario in Tokyo. It commemorates the anniversary of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed more than 100,000. AFP
QUETTA - Gunmen shot dead seven Shiite Muslims in two separate incidents in Pakistan's troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said. The incidents took place near Quetta, the capital of the province. "Four gunmen riding two motorbikes intercepted a bus near the Hazarganji area, pulled five Shiite vegetable sellers off the vehicle and shot them dead," said senior local police official Wazir Khan Nasir. He said in a second incident, two motorbike riders sprayed bullets at two Shiites, also in the Hazarganji district, killing both of them. AFP