A magnitude-5.1 earthquake shook eastern Japan today, on Sunday, swaying tall buildings in Tokyo, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.

National broadcaster NHK said there was no risk of tsunamis and there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake was centered northeast of the capital, NHK said.

Rice, Putin meet on Iran nuke issue

Condoleezza Rice could not win new support from Russia for hauling Iran before the U.N. Security Council, but the U.S. secretary of state said yesterday that option remains open "at a time of our choosing."

Washington and its European allies are waiting to see whether a defiant Iran will return to diplomatic talks over its disputed nuclear program. If not, they say they will invoke the threat of economic penalties or other punishment from the Security Council.

After hastily arranged and unexpectedly lengthy meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Rice said Moscow is trying to push its ally Iran back to the bargaining table.

But there was no sign that Russia was prepared to back an effort to have the International Atomic Energy Agency refer Iran's case to the Security Council.

"Dr. Death" Nazi tracked to Spain

A Nazi war criminal notorious for sadistic experiments that killed hundreds of prisoners during World War II has been tracked to Spain, according to media reports yesterday. Spanish police said they had not yet found the man.

The German weekly Der Spiegel said Spanish investigators believe the suspect, Aribert Heim, 91, has been in Spain recently.

During the war, Heim earned the nickname "Dr. Death" for experimenting on inmates at the Buchenwald and Mauthausen camps.

Heim has been a fugitive since he was charged by German authorities in 1962 with killing hundreds of concentration inmates in Germany and Austria with lethal injections. He is thought to have evaded capture in Germany, Argentina, Denmark, Brazil and Spain.

Leader of banned Islamic group freed

Egyptian authorities have ordered the release of a leading Muslim Brotherhood figure, Essam el-Erian, and three other members of the banned Islamic group, a party official said yesterday.

El-Erian, 52, a former lawmaker, spent more than five months in custody without charge. He and fellow Brotherhood leader Helmi el-Gazar were detained May 6, hours before nationwide anti-government protests that police alleged they organized.

Few details were available on the other two men ordered freed. They were among hundreds of rank-and-file Muslim Brotherhood members arrested, but later released, in a crackdown on political activists opposing the government of President Hosni Mubarak.

African food crisis prompts call for aid

A worsening food crisis threatening millions of people prompted Malawi's president yesterday to declare the impoverished African nation a "disaster area" and call for more international aid.

Drought has slashed the production of maize, a staple for the poor southern African nation. Malawi faces persistent food insecurity, but this year threatens to be the worst in a decade, partly because high HIV infection rates have left farmers too sick with AIDS to plant or tend their crops.

President Bingu wa Mutharika said the crisis was threatening 5 million of the country's 11 million people.

Bird flu linked to virus in Asia

Tests have confirmed a link between the bird flu found in Romania and the deadly virus that has devastated flocks in Asia and turned up in Turkey, the European Commission said yesterday.

The announcement came after Romania's agriculture ministry said the flu detected in wild birds found dead in the Danube delta was the H5N1 strain.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters