Quake jolts southern Japanese islands

TOKYO - An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale jolted Okinawa and other southern Japanese islands early Thursday but there were no reports of injuries or damage, the meteorological agency and police said.
The quake rocked Okinawa and Kagoshima provinces at 12:19 am (1519 GMT Wednesday), with its centre located off the coast of Okinawa at 50 kilometres (30 miles) below sea level, the meteorological agency said.
"We have no reports of damage so far," an Okinawa police official said. Kagoshima police also said they had no reports of damage.
Japan endures about 20 percent of the world's strong earthquakes. Last month a powerful earthquake northwest of Tokyo killed 11 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and caused a small leak from the world's largest nuclear power plant.

08/09/2007 00:48 GMT