Earthquake rocks Japan

Earthquake rocks Japan

TOKYO — A powerful earthquake hit Tokyo and nearby areas shortly after dawn today, halting trains and forcing two nuclear reactors to shut down for safety checks. More than 30 people suffered minor injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said another, unrelated quake with a 7.6 magnitude hit the Indian Ocean about 160 miles north of Port Blair in India’s Andaman Islands. A tsunami watch was called for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh. The caution was later lifted without any tsunami’s being recorded.

In Japan’s magnitude-6.5 temblor, at least seven people were slightly hurt, the National Police Agency said. Public broadcaster NHK reported 43 were injured.

Inspector: Projects don’t qualify for stimulus funds

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration used economic stimulus money to pay for 50 airport projects that didn’t meet the grant criteria and approved projects at four airports with a history of mismanaging federal grants, a government watchdog said Monday.

Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel said he plans to examine the Federal Aviation Administration’s process for selecting programs for the $1.1 billion in grant money.

Among the projects that Scovel said didn’t meet the FAA’s minimum score was $14 million that went to Akiachak, Alaska, a town of 659 residents, to replace its airfield. The town has a seaplane and is only 14 nautical miles from the state’s fourth-busiest airport.

Other projects Scovel said didn’t meet FAA’s threshold were $4.8 billion for a new taxiway in Findlay, Ohio, and $2.2 million for a runway extension at Wilbur Airport in Washington.

He said those airports don’t provide commercial passenger service and have limited flight operations.

More bombings in Iraq

BAGHDAD — A double truck bombing Monday in Mosul and blasts in Baghdad brought the Iraqi death toll to more than 100 in four days, the worst spasm of violence the country has suffered since U.S. forces left the cities.

The bloodshed threatened to chip away at public confidence in the U.S.-backed government as it seeks to project a sense of normalcy ahead of next year’s national elections, including an announcement last week that all concrete blast walls will be gone from Baghdad’s main roads by mid-September.

Panel: Banks still at risk

WASHINGTON — Despite signs that the financial system has stabilized, banks remain threatened by billions of dollars of bad loans on their balance sheets, and more could fail if the economy worsens, a congressional watchdog reports.

In its latest assessment of the $700 billion financial-system bailout, the Congressional Oversight Panel warns that banks still hold many risky loans of uncertain value. If unemployment rises sharply or the commercial real estate market collapses — as many economists fear — the banking system could again lose its footing, the panel says in a report to be released today.

U.S. refineries bought oil stolen from Mexican lines

MEXICO CITY — U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars’ worth of oil stolen from Mexican government pipelines and smuggled across the border, the U.S. Justice Department told The Associated Press — illegal operations now led by Mexican drug cartels expanding their reach.

Criminals — mostly drug gangs — tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of oil each year, the Mexican oil monopoly said. At least one U.S. oil executive has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in such a deal.

The U.S. Homeland Security department is scheduled to return $2.4 million to Mexico’s tax administration today, the first batch of money seized during a binational investigation into smuggled oil that authorities expect to lead to more arrests and seizures.

More reason to breast-feed

RALEIGH, N.C. — Women who have a family history of breast cancer could reduce their risk of developing early onset of the disease by 59 percent if they breast-feed their babies, scientists at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and other centers reported Monday.

The current research offers the strongest evidence yet that breast-feeding is a powerful cancer prevention among high-risk women, specifically younger women who have not gone through menopause.

The benefit, which is more effective than taking a preventive regimen of the anti-cancer drug tamoxifen, appears to occur even when women breast-feed for a short period.

The study was published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Combined dispatches