Rescuers with shovels and sniffer dogs combed through collapsed hillsides as the death toll rose to 89 from a strong earthquake in a farming region of northwest China.

"We have made efforts not to cause any leak to the outside, but we might have failed to do so," TEPCO admits a problem with Fukushima's Dai-ichi plant.

A strong earthquake in a dry, hilly farming area in western China knocked down power lines and damaged scores of homes, killing at least 75 and injuring nearly 300, the local government said.

A strong earthquake in western China knocked down power lines and damaged scores of homes, killing at least 47 people and injuring nearly 300, the local government said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition won a solid majority in the upper house of parliament in elections, gaining control of both chambers and a mandate to press ahead with difficult economic reforms.

Two U.S. fighter jets have dropped four unarmed bombs in Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park when a training exercise went wrong.

125 asylum seekers are in police custody on Nauru after a riot ended with fire destroying most of an Australian-run detention centre