Kumamoto quake causes widespread infrastructure damage

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture on Tuesday has left at least 13 people dead and caused severe, widespread damage to local infrastructure.

Yatsushiro City is among the hardest-hit areas in the region. The powerful tremors have caused widespread disruptions, with ongoing water and power outages hitting the affected communities hard.

Structural damage is evident across the city, ranging from the collapse of industrial factory chimneys to failures in the local transportation network.

"I am currently standing in Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture. The bridge behind me is the Ueyanagi Bridge, which serves as a crucial crossing point over the river for the local community. If you look in the direction I am pointing, you can see that part of this bridge has already collapsed into the river. The bridge consists of two sections: one for vehicular traffic and the other for pedestrians. The part that has collapsed into the river is one side of the original pedestrian walkways," said China Media Group (CMG) reporter He Xinlei while on the ground in Yatsushiro City.

Despite the partial collapse of the pedestrian section, the vehicular lane of the Ueyanagi Bridge remains open, with cars observed navigating the structure at a reduced speed. The strong earthquake has caused multiple bridges and road sections throughout the area to collapse or suffer severe surface damage.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Wednesday that the government has confirmed 13 people died after the earthquake struck Kumamoto at 16:27 local time Tuesday.

Takaichi also said Wednesday that three people have been confirmed dead after an explosion rocked the AEON Mall Kumamoto, a major shopping complex in Kashima Town, while many others remained trapped inside.

She added that multiple people were still missing after the collapse of a smokestack at a Nippon Paper factory in Yatsushiro City, with intensive rescue operations continuing at both locations.

Kumamoto quake causes widespread infrastructure damage

Kumamoto quake causes widespread infrastructure damage

China has accumulated more than 1.7 million valid invention patents in strategic emerging industries by the end of June this year, said the spokesman for the China National Intellectual Property Administration on Wednesday.

Spokesman Rui Wenbiao, also the deputy director of the administration, said at a press conference in Beijing that China will continue to improve its intellectual property rights protection system for industry.

The intellectual property protection system in emerging fields is constantly innovating. We have released the Guidelines for Patent Applications Related to Artificial Intelligence and revised the Patent Examination Guidelines, adding a chapter on 'AI and Big Data'. By the end of June, China, excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, had 1.746 million valid invention patents in strategic emerging industries, an increase of 4.3 percent from the end of last year. The 65 approved intellectual property operation centers include 48 ones involved in emerging and future industries such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, aerospace, and 6G, accounting for more than 70 percent of the total," said Rui.

"Next, we will focus on the development and practices of different industries in emerging fields, provide better authorization and rights confirmation models for their development, and define clearer rights ownership, protection scope and protection forms to promote the high-quality development of emerging and future industries," he said.

China's invention patents exceed 1.7 mln in strategic emerging industries