Evening Edition

Power was cut to parts of the northeast of the country, much of which is still struggling with the effects of the monster tsunami that roared ashore four weeks ago.

The new quake caused a handful of injuries, national broadcaster NHK said, but there were no reported deaths. The tsunami alert was later cancelled after no deadly wave materialised.

For an archipelago that has lived off the ocean since prehistoric times, radioactive fish is a worst-case scenario with possibly economy-wide implications.

“If the situation worsens we don’t know what the outlook will be,” a manager at a popular sushi chain told AFP, saying the number of customers was down by about a third compared with normal times. “It’s very scary to think about.”

The panicked flight came as a top American general said it was unlikely the rebel forces could launch an assault on Tripoli and oust Moamer Kadhafi — while France confidently predicted the strongman’s downfall.

Four journalists were reported missing in east Libya, while 26 foreign reporters were expelled from Tripoli and Microsoft said it was seeking the release by the Libyan authorities of its country manager.

Bodies lay in the streets of Abidjan days into a military offensive to force Gbagbo to give up the presidency, with food stocks running low, water and power supplies erratic and security plummeting, witnesses said.

Residents hid in their homes in the Cocody suburb where the strongman was still hunkered down in the presidential residence after forces from internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara failed to remove him Wednesday.

Madrid received a solid vote of confidence from the head of the OECD, Angel Gurria, who said it is “inaccurate” and “unfair” to compare the debt problems of the two countries.

After insisting for weeks it did not need to go cap-in-hand to Brussels, Portugal threw in the towel late on Wednesday, bowing to intense market pressure and paving the way for a third bailout of a eurozone country after Ireland and Greece last year.

Analysts have said that Portugal could require a package worth 70 billion euros (100 billion dollars), compared with 85 billion for Ireland and 110 billion for Greece.

The pressures on Portugal had raised doubts about weaker eurozone members including neighbour Spain.

A stern-faced Republican House of Representatives speaker John Boehner said there was “no agreement on a number, no agreement on the policy issues,” after 90 minutes in the Oval Office with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

“We are not there yet,” Boehner said, though adding that he believed an agreement was possible before a midnight Friday deadline at which government funding runs out and vast swathes of the bureaucracy will go dark.

Ahead of the White House negotiations, Obama warned he would veto a stopgap measure set to clear the Republican-led House of Representatives ahead of a midnight Friday (0400 GMT Saturday) deadline to reach an agreement.

“This bill is a distraction from the real work that would bring us closer to a reasonable compromise,” his budget office said in a statement that warned a shutdown “would put the nation’s economic recovery in jeopardy.”

The 21-year-old Ulsterman had purposely favoured a low-key approach to his third campaign at Augusta National after missing the cut last year and it paid immediate dividends as he bagged three birdies in a row from the second.

He went out in 32 and picked up more shots at 11, 14 and 15 where his eagle putt came agonisingly close to dropping in before signing for a pace-setting 65, his best round to date at Augusta by five shots.

The science world was abuzz with excitement Wednesday over the findings, which could offer clues to the persistent riddle of mass and how objects obtain it — one of the most sought-after answers in all of physics.

But experts cautioned that more analysis was needed over the next several months to uncover the true nature of the observation, which comes as part of an ongoing experiment with proton and antiproton collisions to understand the workings of the universe.

The warning was later lifted and no tsunami was reported after the quake, which struck shortly before midnight. No damage from the quake, measured at magnitude 7.4 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, was detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said.

Workers struggling to bring the plant under control were evacuated but returned once the tsunami warning was lifted, a TEPCO official said.

Wounded rebels being brought to a hospital in Ajdabiyah in rebel-held east Libya said they were hit by a NATO strike on their trucks and tanks outside the contested port of Brega.

NATO said it was investigating an attack by its aircraft on a tank column in the area along the Mediterranean coast on Thursday, saying the situation was “unclear and fluid.”

A rebel commander said it appeared to be case of “friendly fire” and said it did not cause tension with NATO although the rebels wanted an explanation.

“We are not questioning the intention of NATO, because they should be here to help us and the civilians, but we would like to receive some answers regarding what happened today,” Abdel Fattah Younes, head of the rebel forces, said in Benghazi.

Forces loyal to rival presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara have been waging an offensive in Abidjan to topple Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power after losing last November’s election to Ouattara, according to results certified by the United Nations.

“At this moment the military situation is as follows; the UNOCI (United Nations mission in Ivory Coast) troops have surrounded in a limited area the last defenders of the previous president Gbagbo,” French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told the French Senate on Thursday.

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet used phrasing at a news conference traditionally seen as associated with further swift hikes, saying the bank’s monetary policy “remains accommodative” and that it will “monitor very closely” price risks.

But he stressed the ECB had not decided that Thursday’s move — a 25 basis point rise in its main refinancing rate to 1.25 percent — was the first in a series of moves, reassuring markets it was not about to embark on an aggressive tightening policy that could choke the euro zone’s struggling periphery.

After a renewed battering from financial markets sparked by a political crisis, Lisbon’s caretaker government decided on Wednesday to seek foreign aid, becoming the third euro zone country to do so after Greece and Ireland.

“Portugal will today formalize its request with the European Commission,” Cabinet Minister Pedro Silva Pereira told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The forecast, for growth in trade of goods as measured by export volume, is above the 6 percent average for 1990 to 2008.

The driver will in large part be strong developing economies, especially China.

The mood swung between optimism and pessimism as Democratic and Republican leaders held a series of private meetings and public news conferences to plead their case for a budget deal to keep the government operating beyond a midnight Friday deadline.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, met for more than an hour at the White House with President Barack Obama and promised to return for another meeting at 7 p.m. EDT

Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Thursday raced against a midnight Friday deadline to craft a budget deal that would cut billions of dollars in spending and keep the government open.

A shutdown is not without risks. But unless it drags on for many weeks — an unlikely worst-case scenario — home buyers would probably see little more than a brief delay in processing mortgages.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking ahead of meetings with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders during a visit to Baghdad, said the United States would be willing to consider extending the U.S. military presence in Iraq beyond the end of this year.

A bilateral security pact requires Washington to withdraw its remaining force of around 47,000 troops by year’s end.

U.S. astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyayev and Andrey Borisenko floated through the hatch to the warm welcome of three crew already aboard the orbital station after the docking, which NASA said took place at 3:09 a.m. Moscow time (2309 GMT Wednesday).

Space Station Commander, cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, called it an honor for all on board to be “on the front lines” for the anniversary fanfare.

Dish, the second-largest U.S. satellite TV company after DirecTV, trumped at least three other bidders, including activist investor Carl Icahn, for the one-time leader in video rentals.

Dish said the deal, which includes more than 1,700 Blockbuster stores, gives it new ways to market its services.

Prosecutors accused Matthew H. Kluger and Garrett D. Bauer of reaping more than $32.2 million from trades on tips about upcoming mergers and acquisitions that Kluger learned as a lawyer at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC, the pre-eminent firm representing Silicon Valley technology companies.

The complaint details a conspiracy that had its origins in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and ended with attempts by the defendants to cover their tracks, including a discussion about cleaning money in a washing machine to rid it of fingerprints.

The quake was initially measured at magnitude-7.4, though the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., later downgraded it to 7.1. Either way, it was the strongest aftershock since several were recorded on March 11 – the day of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami that killed as many as 25,000 people and touched off a nuclear crisis last month.

There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or major damage, and the operator of the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant said there was no sign the aftershock had caused new problems there. Workers retreated to a quake-resistant shelter in the complex, with no injuries.

Many homes and businesses in the area escaped serious damage from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but their owners have not been allowed back because of concerns about radiation from the nearby nuclear plant crippled by the massive wave.

Some have returned anyway, saying they need to get on with their lives.

If countries scrap nuclear plants, which emit no greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, they may turn to the fossil fuels that experts call the main culprit behind climate change. Environmental activists say the tragedy could provide an opportunity to strike a decisive blow against both.

“It’s a false choice to give the public an alternative between a climate change disaster or a nuclear disaster. We need renewable energy,” said Tove Maria Ryding of the environmental group Greenpeace. “Now, we can either have a kick back or a leap forward.”

The attack – outside the strategic oil port of Brega – brought fresh questions about coordination between NATO and the patchwork of rebel militias in a conflict described by a senior U.S. commander as a stalemate that could eventually require the Pentagon to reassert more power, and possibly even send in ground forces.

Tensions between the rebels and NATO were flaring even before the latest accident, with the fighters criticizing the alliance for doing too little to help them.

Obama met with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., at the White House at mid-day, and the three agreed to reconvene after dinner. In the interim, they dispatched aides to pursue a deal in negotiations in the Capitol.

Meanwhile, Republicans passed legislation through the House to fund the Pentagon for six months, cut $12 billion in domestic spending and keep the federal bureaucracy humming for an additional week.

The government is working to provide the statements online by the end of the year, if it can resolve security issues, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said. If that fails, the agency will resume the paper statements, which cost $70 million a year to mail, he said.

“We’ll provide it, we expect, one way or another, before the end of the calendar year,” Astrue told The Associated Press. “We’re just right now trying to figure out the most cost-effective and convenient way to provide that to the American public.”

Christie laid out his proposal in a speech in New York sponsored by the Brookings Institute, a Washington think tank. A teachers union spokesman called the governor’s plan an “educational disaster.”

Since taking office last year, the Republican Christie has emerged as a popular figure among conservatives nationally for his willingness to confront public employee unions, including teachers, over their salaries and pensions. Several other governors have since followed suit, saying such benefits for public employees are unsustainable over time.

Some terror warnings could be withheld from the public if announcing a threat would risk exposing an intelligence operation or an ongoing investigation, according to the government’s confidential plan.

Like a gallon of milk, the new terror warnings will each come with a stamped expiration date.

Gates is demographer-in-residence at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, a think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles. For the institute’s 10th anniversary this week, he took a scholarly stab at answering the question that has been debated, avoided, parsed and proven both insoluble and political since pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey said in the 1940s that 10 percent of the men he surveyed were “predominantly homosexual.”

Gates’ best estimate, derived from five studies that have asked subjects about their sexual orientation, is that the nation has about 4 million adults who identify as being gay or lesbian, representing 1.7 percent of the 18-and-over population.

His comments give weight to an idea that is politically sensitive in both nations and which Iraq officially rejects.

During what he said would probably be his final visit to Iraq as Pentagon chief, Gates urged the fractious Iraqi government to decide “pretty quickly” whether it wants to extend the U.S. presence beyond Dec. 31 to enable continued training of its security forces. Gates shares the view of many in the U.S. military that a longer U.S. stay would be useful in ensuring that Iraq’s security and political gains do not unravel, but publicly he has insisted that the decision is Iraq’s.

In her brief stint as chancellor, Cathie Black had faced heckling by parents, the departure of several deputy chancellors and scorn over her joke that school overcrowding could be fixed with birth control.

Bloomberg announced the resignation only days after a poll showed her approval rating had dropped to 17 percent. He named Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott to replace her.

Anna Hazare’s fast, which entered its third day Thursday, has drawn breathless, round-the-clock TV coverage, attracted the support of an array of opposition – and even some ruling party – politicians and has sent the government scrambling in search of a compromise.

Hazare has said he will continue to consume nothing but water until India’s parliament agrees to create a powerful, independent watchdog committee to investigate corruption allegations.

Experts say it’s the latest proof that the new drug-resistance gene, known as NDM-1, named for New Delhi, is widely circulating in the environment – and could potentially spread to the rest of the world.

Bacteria armed with this gene can only be treated with a couple of highly toxic and expensive antibiotics. Since it was first identified in 2008, it has popped up in a number of countries, including the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and Sweden.

The state’s new pro-business governor ordered it removed from the Maine Department of Labor’s lobby in late March, saying it didn’t mesh with his policy goals. Since then, the maelstrom of reaction has only escalated, resonating all the way to Washington.

“I think there’s a widespread feeling among people that they’re being made scapegoats for state budget problems not of their making,” said Jonathan Beal, who filed a lawsuit in federal court in Maine challenging the mural’s removal.

The state Department of Environmental Protection’s acting secretary, Michael Krancer, wrote Wednesday to the Environmental Protection Agency to say that he has requested additional testing of treated water from some drinking water suppliers and wastewater treatment facilities.

Those steps, he said, were in the works before the EPA’s regional administrator, Shawn Garvin, sent a March 7 letter asking Pennsylvania to begin more water testing to make sure drinking water isn’t being contaminated by drilling wastewater. The state’s requests for additional testing, however, were issued later in March.

But Army Gen. Carter Ham also told lawmakers that American participation in a ground force would not be ideal, since it could erode the international coalition attacking Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and make it more difficult to get Arab support for operations in Libya.

He said NATO has done an effective job in an increasingly complex combat situation. But he noted that, in a new tactic, Gadhafi’s forces are making airstrikes more difficult by staging their fighters and vehicles near civilian areas such as schools and mosques.

But his war stories may be pure fiction.

There is no record Northrop ever served in the military, let alone Vietnam.