TOKYO (Reuters) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 jolted northeastern Japan on Wednesday but no tsunami warning was issued, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The epicentre of the earthquake was off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, more than 300 km (190 miles) northeast of Tokyo, where buildings also shook from the quake. The northeast was hit two years ago by a magnitude 9 earthquake that triggered a devastating tsunami.

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook Papua New Guinea's north Wednesday in a region where a huge tsunami killed more than 2,000 people in 1998, with reports suggesting the area escaped serious damage. The quake, at a depth of just 13 kilometres (eight miles), hit 23 km east of the small town of Aitape, with a population of around 8,000 on the Pacific nation's north coast, the US Geological Survey said. "We are aware of the earthquake off Aitape in Papua New Guinea. There have been no reports of serious damage or injury," a spokeswoman from Australia's foreign office told AFP.

A strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, with seismologists warning there could be considerable damage. The quake, just eight kilometres (five miles) deep, hit 19 kilometres east of the small town of Aitape on the Pacific nation's north coast, which has a population of around 8,000, at 08:55 am (2255 GMT Tuesday), the USGS said.

A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea on Sunday, the US Geological Survey reported, but a tsunami warning was not issued and no major damage was expected. The quake hit 105 kilometres (65 miles) west of Panguna, a town on Bougainville Island, at a depth of 64 kilometres, and some 677 kilometres west of the Solomon Islands' capital Honiara, it said. "A destructive tsunami was not generated based on earthquake and historical tsunami data," said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.