World Scene

TAIWAN

Agreement with China allows direct flights

MACAO — China and Taiwan agreed yesterday to allow the first direct flights between the rivals in five decades — a major breakthrough that could help reduce tensions in one of Asia’s most dangerous potential flashpoints.

The agreement allows a total of 48 round-trip charter flights to carry Taiwanese working in China home and back during the Chinese New Year holiday next month, Chinese negotiator Pu Zhaozhou said.

Taiwan had banned direct flights since the communists won a bloody civil war in 1949 and took over the mainland. The self-ruled, democratic island had prohibited the flights because of security concerns with China, which has repeatedly threatened to use force to unify the two sides.

JAPAN

Earthquake simulator to promote safety

TOKYO — Japanese researchers yesterday introduced the world’s largest earthquake simulator, designed to help save lives in future temblors, just days before the 10th anniversary of the devastating Kobe earthquake.

The machine will educate people on how to build homes and offices more capable of withstanding the destructive power generated by the movement of the earth’s crust, said Takahito Inoue of the Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center.

The 7.3-magnitude Kobe earthquake flattened houses, tore through office towers and ripped up roads. The vital port area was wrecked, and parts of it sank into liquefied landfill. More than 6,400 people were killed in the Jan. 17, 1995, quake.

SAUDI ARABIA

Muslim pilgrims pray for tsunami victims

MECCA — Pilgrims streaming into Islam’s holy city for the annual hajj prayed for 157,000 people killed in last month’s tsunami that devastated southern Asia, asking God to give survivors the courage to cope.

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