World Briefs

Strong quake hits Japan, no tsunami risk
TOKYO – A strong earthquake shook northern Japan on Tuesday, but no damage was reported and there was no risk of a tsunami.

The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a 6.4 preliminary magnitude. The agency said there may be a small change in sea levels but did not issue tsunami warnings.The epicentre was off the coast of Iwate and was about 10km below the sea surface. Iwate is in the region heavily damaged by last year’s earthquake and tsunami. The massive magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 2011, left around 19 000 people dead or missing, wreaked widespread damage along the northeastern coast and triggered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.France urges TV not to air shooting videosPARIS – President Nicolas Sarkozy and families of the victims urged television networks yesterday not to broadcast graphic videos shot by an Islamist extremist killer during his shooting spree in southern France.Qatar-based Al-Jazeera said it was considering broadcasting the videos – which include footage shot by Mohamed Merah during his attacks that left seven people dead – after they were sent to its Paris bureau on a USB memory key.French officials also reacted with fury to threats from Merah’s father to sue over his killing in a gun battle with police last Thursday at the end of a 32-hour siege of his apartment in Toulouse.Pope to honour icon, meet Pres Castro in CubaSANTIAGO – Benedict XVI spent the night in a brand-new home built just for him near the sanctuary of Cuba’s Virgin of Charity icon, before heading to the capital yesterday for political meetings.The pope’s brief homage to the diminutive statue that many consider the symbolic mother of all Cubans – Catholics and non-Catholics alike – will take place in the morning in the small mining town of El Cobre.Benedict planned to fly to Havana later to meet with President Raul Castro and possibly Fidel Castro, though that had not been confirmed. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is in Havana undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, did not ask for an audience but would be welcome to attend Mass in the capital’s Revolution Square today, a Vatican spokesman said.