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QUAKE HITS MINDANAO IN FIRST HOURS OF NEW MILLENNIUM

Quezon City, Jan. 3, 2000- An earthquake struck Mindanao before dawn Saturday after the country welcomed the new millennium. It was the first tremor of the year to hit the Philippines.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which occurred at 4:26 a.m. (2026 GMT, Friday) and had a magnitude of 4.7 on the open-ended Richter scale, the Philippine Insitute of Vulcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.

The tremor was recorded by instruments in several places in Mindanao, but was not felt in Manila, where parties marking the arrival of the year 2000 lasted until the small hours of morning.