Earthquakes shake Japan, Indonesia

Two strong earthquakes rattled Asia today, triggering alerts for a tsunami that harmlessly lapped Japan’s northern coast and another in Indonesia that didn’t materialize but briefly sent residents fleeing to high ground.

The more powerful of the quakes, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0, hit off Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido at a depth of about 12 miles, the country’s meteorological agency said.

A 4-inch tsunami rippled to shore 35 minutes later, but there were no signs of damage.

An hour earlier, northeastern Indonesia was hit by a 6.6-magnitude quake that struck 55 miles beneath the Molucca Sea.

Toronto

Leader offers timeline for troops

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised for the first time Wednesday that Canada’s troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn in 2011, as his minority government looks to win support in national elections next month.

Harper, who has been a steadfast ally of President Bush in the post-Sept. 11 fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, said Canadians do not have the appetite to keep their soldiers in Afghanistan beyond 10 years.

His vow to leave comes as the Canadian death toll in the conflict approaches 100. Canada has lost 97 soldiers and one diplomat in Afghanistan, and the mission – largely unpopular domestically – was expected to be an issue in the campaign.

Beirut, Lebanon

Reconciler killed by car bomb

A bomb tore through a car in the hills east of Lebanon’s capital on Wednesday, killing a Druse politician who recently helped reconcile rival factions within that minority community, police said.

The bomb that killed Sheik Saleh Aridi, a senior member of the Lebanese Democratic Party, was planted under his car in the village of Baissour, police said.

It was the first political assassination in about a year in Lebanon and came less than a week before planned reconciliation talks among rival Lebanese factions. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora contacted Druse leaders and joined them in calling for calm.

Six other people were injured in the blast, which went off as Aridi got into his Mercedes sedan in front of his house.