Japan quake injures 160, triggers small tsunamis
TOKYO – A strong earthquake jolted northwestern Japan this morning, flattening dozens of wooden houses and causing buildings in Tokyo to sway. At least 160 people were injured.
The Meteorological Agency said tsunamis as high as 20 inches were believed to have hit coasts in the Niigata area.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude of the quake was 6.7. Several smaller aftershocks also jolted the region.
Three nuclear reactors in the region automatically stopped, and an electrical fire was reported at one, NHK said. Black smoke was seen billowing from the reactor as the fire burned.
Israel: Peres steps in as president
Elder statesman Shimon Peres took office as Israel’s ninth president Sunday, pledging to devote his seven-year term to his lifelong dream of Middle East peace. The swearing-in capped a six-decade political career that has included international acclaim and a Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to create peace in the region – and criticism as being an unrealistic dreamer. Political power is concentrated in the hands of the prime minister under Israel’s parliamentary system.
Australia: Bomb suspect still held
The doctor accused of supporting the foiled car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, Scotland, in June was kept in custody Mtoday after the government invoked immigration laws to keep him behind bars despite a magistrate’s ruling granting him bail. The magistrate said earlier today that prosecutors had not provided evidence Indian national Mohamed Haneef had a direct link to the terror plot. Haneef will not be extradited to Britain while he faces charges in Australia, the attorney general had said Sunday.
Spain: Millions of child porn images
Spanish police investigating a child pornography ring have arrested 66 people and seized computer hard drives containing 48 million photographs and video images, officials said Sunday.
Germany: Buchenwald’s founding
Holocaust survivors on Sunday marked the 70th anniversary of the Buchenwald concentration camp’s founding by honoring more than 38,000 victims whose identities had previously been unknown. Buchenwald researchers spent the past decade scouring archives in an attempt to identify thousands of the estimated 56,000 prisoners who lost their lives at Buchenwald but had been known only by their camp-assigned numbers.
From Herald news services
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