Jijo Jacob

The tsunami waves unleashed by a powerful 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan have reached Hawaii shores, reports have said, even as local authorities heightened efforts to protect lives and assets from the catastrophic waves. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the first island hit by the waves was Kauai.

Japan will invariably have to turn to a massive stimulus program to reconstruct the quake and tsunami-hit regions and this will inflate the country's fiscal deficit at a time when Tokyo is struggling to put a lid on deficit, Nouriel Roubini said on Friday.

How vulnerable is the US West Coast to tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural disasters? Actually the region is quite vulnerable to high magnitude quakes and even tsunamis. The region has been hit by large, single-event earthquakes and tsunamis before, and our evidence indicates that multiple and more extensive ruptures can happen, a scientist has said.

The Internet has been abuzz with rumors, prophecies and popular consternation over natural catastrophes and extreme weather that the 'Supermoon' phenomenon on March 19 could bring about.

Tsunami warnings have been issued in most of the 'Pacific Ring of Fire' countries on Friday after a powerful earthquake jolted Japan's Fukushima prefecture.

A tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake has caused widespread damage in Japan's Fukushima prefecture, according to reports.

Highly rated smartphones iPhone 4 and BlackBerry Torch 9800 bit dust at the Pwn2Own hacking competition while Samsung Nexus S, which runs on Android, and the Dell Venue, which runs on Windows Phone 7, came away unscathed.

Goods and services trade deficit in the U.S. edged up to $46.3 billion in January from the revised figure of $40.3 billion in December.

Microsoft's Kinect sensor systems sold ten million units since their launch in November to grab the Guinness world record for the fastest selling consumer electronics device.

Official data showed on Thursday that China recorded a surprise trade deficit in February, causing Asian markets to drop on fears that monetary tightening in the country is taking a toll on economic growth.

The Libyan stalemate appeared to intensify on Thursday as Muammar Gaddfi's forces made further gains in rebel-held cities while the regime faced more international opposition to its plans to cling on to power.

Will there be chaos, a flurry of natural disasters and extreme weather on March 19 when the moon will come close to Earth? The full moon at lunar perigee, the closest approach during its orbit, can wreak havoc on Earth, according to astrologers. But the scientific community doesn't see reason for hiding under the table and stocking up supplies though it doesn’t rubbish the impact of the phenomenon altogether.

Cash-strapped Los Angeles voted on Tuesday to impose a five percent tax on medical marijuana dispensaries, a measure that will raise $10 million a year.

Chinese Deputy Housing Minister said on Wednesday the government will shell out $200 billion this year to build 10 million low-cost houses.

Federal agents arrested on Tuesday a Chinese-born permanent resident of the U.S. for allegedly passing on sensitive defense-related data to China.

A limited number of Apple iPhone 4 prototypes with 64GB storage capacity are being sold clandestinely in China, according to reports by tech websites.

Even as calls for the intervention of the U.S. and the western forces in the Libyan crisis gained momentum, besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said there is a foreign plot to colonize his country.

The spreading unrest in the Middle East's oil exporting countries could push crude prices higher, resulting in a huge blow to the U.S. economy which is otherwise looking good, according to an analyst.

The recent increases in oil and food prices have raised questions about the sustainability of the U.S. recovery, while threatening to absorb as much as two-thirds of the $110-billion payroll tax cut, an analyst has said.

Despite the robust gold boom and fears that oil prices would rise owing to the Middle East crisis, these two commodities will only make an actual gain of about 4 percent by the end of 2011, according to a CNNMoney survey.

Japan's monthly Economy Watchers Survey (EWS) showed the service sector sentiment improved considerably in the last month.

President Barack Obama went back on his campaign promise to close down Guantanamo Bay detention center for suspected terrorists and signed an executive order to create a system for indefinitely holding suspects at the military prison.

It remains unclear whether Beijing's lofty rhetoric will achieve the desired results given political realities, the analyst says. Since reform and opening up of the 1970s, power has become increasingly decentralized in China meaning that the implementation of nationwide policy now necessitates a more prolonged process of consultation.

Saudi Arabia will witness greater popular pressures and potential unrest in the long run, unless the Kingdom deals with socio-economic and political challenges, a Middle East analyst has said.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Greek credit rating on Monday, further roiling European credit markets and signaling the possibility of the debt-hit nation opting for a debt restructuring.

Fears of a civil war and a looming humanitarian crisis grew in Libya as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi escalated attacks on rebel-held cities in a bid to recapture control, causing dozens of deaths and mass exodus of people.

The dramatic rise in China's interest in silver is evident from the fact that the country imported an unprecedented 14 percent of global silver in 2010, whereas it was net exporter of silver till recently.

A hacker found a way to exploit Sony PlayStation 3's supposedly 'unhackable' firmware version 3.56.

The U.S. Air Force's second mysterious robotic mini space vehicle, X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, blasted off from Cape Canaveral, carrying classified payload. Soon after the launch a media blackout shrouded the mission, fuelling speculation about its possible military purposes.