6.9 quake kills 1, triggers tsunami

A powerful earthquake struck Japan early today, killing at least one person and injuring 110 others as it violently shook buildings and triggered a small tsunami that hit the coast, officials and media reports said.

The magnitude-6.9 quake struck at 9:42 a.m. local time off the north coast of Ishikawa prefecture, about 225 miles northwest of Tokyo.

A small tsunami measuring 6 inches hit shore about 40 minutes after the quake, the agency said. The warning was lifted about an hour later.

The quake toppled buildings, triggered landslides, cut power, interfered with phone service, broke water mains and snarled public transportation. At least one person was killed and 110 others were hurt along the country’s Sea of Japan coast, media reports said.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Power-sharing deal rejected

Northern Ireland’s main Protestant party on Saturday rejected a British deadline to share power with Catholics, officials said, launching a showdown that could end in the collapse of the territory’s legislature.

More than 100 officials from Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party voted overwhelmingly to reject Britain’s long-held demand for a 12-member administration to be formed and receive powers by Monday, according to officials in both the party and the British government.

Britain insists the Northern Ireland Assembly will be shut down immediately in favor of intensified Irish government involvement in the British territory if the Monday deadline is missed.

Taipei, Taiwan

Migration will close highway

Taiwan will cordon off part of a highway to create a safe passage for a massive seasonal butterfly migration in the coming days, an official said Saturday.

The milkweed butterflies – which are indigenous to the island off China and have distinct white dots on purple brown wings – migrate in late March from southern Taiwan to the north, where they lay eggs and die. The young butterflies then fly south every November to a warm mountain valley near the southern city of Kaohsiung to escape the winter cold in the north.

Conservationists say Taiwan has about 2 million milkweed butterflies.

To protect the migrating butterflies, a 600-yard stretch of highway in southern Taiwan’s Yunlin County will be sealed off in the coming days as the migration peaks.