A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck central Japan on Monday afternoon, collapsing buildings, causing fires and triggering tsunami alerts as far away as eastern Russia, prompting orders for residents to evacuate affected coastal areas of Japan.

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the sparsely populated southeastern part of Taiwan on Sunday, the island's weather bureau said, derailing train carriages, causing a convenience store to collapse and trapping hundreds on mountain roads.

A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in northern Japan on Wednesday night, smashing furniture, knocking out power and killing four people. A small tsunami reached shore, but the low-risk advisory was lifted by Thursday morning.

The earthquake that struck Saturday night off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, shaking northern and eastern Japan, has tripped up operations for many companies in a faint echo of the disruption brought by the much larger quake that hit the same area in 2011.

A powerful earthquake that hit Japan on Saturday was an aftershock of the devastating 9.0 magnitude quake that struck the same area almost 10 years ago, according to the national Meteorological Agency.

At least nine people are dead and 31 unaccounted for in Hokkaido after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake - reaching the maximum 7 on Japan's seismic intensity scale in some areas - caused landslides that engulfed houses early on Thursday.

It used to be that any burp, hiccup, earthquake, typhoon or tsunami in Asia drove Micron's stock price wild. Seemingly no longer true with bellicose moves on the Korean Peninsula.

A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Iwaki City, in Japan's Fukushima prefecture, early Tuesday morning.

Sony is revising its business continuity plan to speed the recovery of factories after a disaster, applying lessons from the company's experience following an earthquake in southern Japan.

A more powerful earthquake has rocked the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto in the middle of the night, a day after an earlier tremor killed nine people.

One person has been killed in Taiwan's capital Taipei in a house fire following a 6.6 magnitude earthquake.

Japan's industrial output tumbled more than forecast to the lowest level since the aftermath of the record 2011 earthquake. In contrast, South Korea's industrial output exceeded estimates in November and the nation's current-account surplus rose to a record.

A large earthquake shook the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, causing widespread panic and fear of a repeat of the 2004 earthquake and series of tsunamis that killed 230,000 people.

One reason for the delay in both Q1 and Q2 could have been uncertainty on how to record the loss of manufacturing capacity, and capacity utilization, at Japanese companies affected by the aftermath of the great earthquake and tsunami that struck northern Japan on March 11. This will have had a small but significant effect in the first quarter but is likely to have had a much bigger effect in the second quarter.

It took just three months to put the microcontroller manufacturer's hard-hit Naka facility back in operation.

No major injuries or extensive damage were reported after the 5.8-magnitude earthquake.

The latest beta of iOS 5 features an earthquake warning system for Japanese iPhone users. The feature constantly checks in with Japan's early warning system, which consists of over 1000 seismographs scattered throughout the country.

Toshiba has said that operating profits for the fiscal quarter fell 88% as the earthquake hit its power operations and a strong yen bit into earnings, and it kept its annual forecast in line with expectations.

Sony Ericsson has blamed the the Japanese earthquake for a EUR50 million (US$71 million) loss during the three months to June.

Four months ago Japan's huge earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc with Japanese equities, causing such frenzied selling that the Tokyo Stock Exchange came under pressure to shut the bourse temporarily. The Nikkei 225 index is now rebounding and homing in on its March 11 close of 10,254.43, when traders had just 14 minutes to react to the quake before trading ended.

"It is a bit surprising that we have not seen a more significant impact on our global IT spending forecast as a results of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, but despite widespread concerns about disruptions to the supply of critical components in the initial aftermath of the natural disaster, there has not been a dramatic impact on overall IT spending," said Richard Gordon, research VP at Gartner.

TI's Miho and Aizu sites and its Tokyo offices were affected by the initial magnitude 8.9 earthquake. Initial production lines at Miho resumed in mid-April, and full production will resume in third quarter. TI's fab in Aizu has returned to full production.

Japan's industrial production rose for a second straight month in May, after falling sharply in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but the increase in factory output was lower than the government had forecast.

Thousands of people have spent the night outdoors in the southern Spanish town of Lorca after an earthquake which killed at least eight people.

Japan's parliament has passed a JPY4 trillion (US$49 billion) emergency budget for reconstruction following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

"Nintendo 3DS has not been selling as expected since the second week [of availability], and this is not just in the Japanese market but also in the US and Europe, where no direct impact from the great earthquake has occurred," said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.

Qualcomm reported record quarterly revenues and raised its guidance for 2011 as global demand for smartphones and tablets grew. Supply-chain concerns stemming from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan had not affected Qualcomm's ability to make chips, and it had seen very little impact on demand for its products, the company said.

The event was postponed due to the ongoing recovery efforts in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and at the request of Japanese government agencies to help conserve energy resources during the summer months. SEMICON Japan 2011 is now scheduled for December 7-9 in the same venue as PVJapan.

"2011 started strong, with customer demand in January and February tracking our expectations for a first quarter of above-seasonal growth," said Rich Templeton, TI CEO. "But the Japan earthquake that's taken such a heartbreaking human toll in the country also disrupted local demand starting in mid-March and impaired operations at two of our factories there."

South Korea's LG Electronics has diversified chip suppliers for home appliance products to Hynix Semiconductor and Panasonic away from Toshiba after Japan's devastating earthquake last month.

Toyota has now resumed car production at all of its plants in Japan for the first time since last month's earthquake and tsunami. However, the car manufacturer said that production would be half of its normal level because of parts shortages.

Japanese voters are critical of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handling of the crisis at a crippled nuclear plant and support raising taxes to finance rebuilding plans after last month's earthquake and tsunami, surveys show.

Ford is to cut its workforce in Victoria by 240 after a slump in demand for larger cars, and competitor Toyota will reduce hours for manufacturing staff in the wake of the Japanese earthquake disaster.

ASML has said first-quarter orders fell 27% as clients took more time to place orders because of disruptions by the Japanese earthquake. The quake is hurting the business of some ASML clients.

Last fall, industry analysts predicted there would be an oversupply of manufacturing capacity due to a market correction following the strong revenue posted in 2010, but following the earthquake, tsunami, and now nuclear crisis in Japan, the landscape looks different.

An aftershock that shook Japan's northeast region temporarily shut down power supply and makeshift cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant Monday, highlighting the vulnerability of the crippled facility a month after a massive earthquake triggered the nation's worst nuclear-power crisis.

Japan has announced that it is to extend the evacuation zone around a crippled nuclear plant, as the country held a silence to mark one month since the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The zone will encompass areas where there is a radiation risk beyond the existing 20-km (12-mile) radius.

A powerful aftershock has struck northeast Japan, a month after a violent quake led to a devastating tsunami.

Production was suspended at the plant in Iwate Prefecture after suffering damage in the March 11 earthquake. The plant makes microcontrollers and large scale integration chips.

Japanese manufacturing activity sank to a two-year low in March 2011, underlining the impact of the earthquake and tsunami on economic activity in the country.