There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The Japanese agency said the tsunami was expected to be about 1.6 feet high. The quake hit 69 miles off the southern coast of Miyakojima island, in southern Japan, at a depth of six miles, it said.

The small island is about 1,120 miles southwest of Tokyo. Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. In 1995, a magnitude 7.2 quake in the western port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people.

The host city enjoyed highs of 11 degrees again on Saturday while meteorological officials said that the warm weather, which has led to 300 dumper trucks and even helicopters being used to transport snow from higher elevations, will continue right up to the opening ceremony on February 12. The imported snow has been piled high on wood and hay which have been laid to form the bumps which test the freestyle skiiers at Cypress Mountain.

Olympics organisers have agreed to set up designated zones where protesters can have their say with a dizzying array of grievances being voiced - from supporting the homeless and poor to claims by pro-Native Canadian groups that the Games are being staged on 'stolen land'. Vancouver Police expect to see around 1,500 demonstrators when the opening ceremony takes place.

"The International Olympic Committee is like the World Trade Organization," claimed Harjap Grewal, a spokesman for Olympic Resistance Network (ORN). "Seven billion dollars have been spent on these Games while people are losing their homes in the Downtown Eastside (a Vancouver neighbourhood, often described as Canada's poorest district)."

Barack Obama has banned the Bush-era term "war on terror" and dithered about sending extra troops to Afghanistan, but across the border in Pakistan, the US president has dramatically stepped up the covert war against Islamic extremists.

US airstrikes in Pakistan, launched from unmanned drones, are now averaging three a week, triple the number last year. "We're quietly seeing a geographical shift," an intelligence officer said. For the past month drones have pounded the tribal region of North Waziristan in apparent retaliation for the murder of seven CIA officers in Afghanistan by a Jordanian suicide bomber working with the Pakistani Taliban.

Last week America launched its first multiple drone attack, according to Pakistani security officials. Eighteen missiles were fired from eight unmanned aircraft in Dattakhel village, killing 16 people. The discovery of the dead US soldiers revealed that America's shadowy war in Pakistan not only involves drones but also small cadres of special operations soldiers.

With Greece already expected to need a bail-out of up to 16 billion pounds from the European Central Bank, there are real concerns that the Eurozone may become unviable in its present form. In London, the FTSE 100 share index fell 78.39 points to close at 5060.92, a 1.5 per cent drop and a two-day decline of 191 points.

The pound rose sharply against the euro because of the turmoil. It now stands at 1.144euros, a climb of almost 15 per cent since October. But it fell to $1.56 against the dollar, seen as a safer haven by investors. Earlier in the day, Asian stock markets also fell, with Japan's Nikkei index down by three per cent. In New York, Wall Street dropped by more than 100 points.

Some economists say the turbulence in Europe could be enough to tilt the UK back into recession.

The economy grew by a disappointing 0.1 per cent in the final quarter of last year, and the fragile revival could easily be derailed.

Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank in London, warned: 'These problems could be a dress rehearsal for what the US and UK may face further down the road.' Around half the UK's trade is with Europe, so if countries there are forced to curtail their spending and raise taxes, it is likely to depress demand for our exports.

It comes just days after Benedict XVI made an unprecedented attack on Labour's "unjust" equality laws, claiming that they restricted religious freedom. The pope went on: "The Church offers the world a positive and inspiring vision of human life, the beauty of marriage and the joy of parenthood."

"All too often the Church's doctrine is perceived as a series of prohibitions and retrograde positions, whereas the reality, as we know, is that it is creative and life-giving, and it is directed towards the fullest possible realization of the great potential for good and for happiness that God has implanted within every one of us."

Homosexuality rights campaigners and secular groups have announced that they will stage protests when Benedict XVI arrives in Britain - likely to be in September - after he spoke out so strongly against equality law. He had in mind the order that Catholic adoption agencies must consider same-sex couples as potential parents, and the clause in the Equality Bill currently before Parliament that could have left churches unable to require that employees are Christians, and forced to admit homosexuals to the priesthood.

Labour later disclosed that it would not seek to reintroduce the contentious clause of the bill, saying: "The Pope's intervention has been noted."

The move is a significant snub to both the IPCC and Dr Pachauri as he battles to defend his reputation following the revelation that his most recent climate change report included false claims that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035. Scientists believe it could take more than 300 years for the glaciers to disappear.

The body and its chairman have faced growing criticism ever since as questions have been raised on the credibility of their work and the rigour with which climate change claims are assessed. In India the false claims have heightened tensions between Dr Pachauri and the government, which had earlier questioned his glacial melting claims. In Autumn, its environment minister Mr Jairam Ramesh said while glacial melting in the Himalayas was a real concern, there was evidence that some were actually advancing despite global warming.

Dr Pachauri had dismissed challenges like these as based on "voodoo science", but last night Mr Ramesh effectively marginalized the IPC chairman even further. He announced the Indian government will establish a separate National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology to monitor the effects of climate change on the world's 'third ice cap', and an 'Indian IPCC' to use 'climate science' to assess the impact of global warming throughout the country.

"There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am for climate science. I think people misused [the] IPCC report, [the] IPCC doesn't do the original research which is one of the weaknesses... they just take published literature and then they derive assessments, so we had goof-ups on Amazon forest, glaciers, snow peaks."

Nearly 2ft (60cm) of snow had fallen by noon on Saturday in cities across the region, the Associated Press reports. The governors of Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland have declared states of emergency. West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are also affected.

The National Weather Service declared a 24-hour blizzard warning for the Washington-Baltimore region until 2200 on Saturday (0300 GMT on Sunday). Most flights from the Washington-Baltimore area's three main airports and Philadelphia International Airport have been cancelled.

US national rail service Amtrak cancelled a number of trains between New York and Washington, and also between Washington and some southern destinations. Local weather forecasters said the Washington area could see its heaviest snowfall in 90 years. It comes less than two months after a December storm dumped more than 16in (41cm) of snow in Washington. The usually traffic-heavy roads of the capital were deserted, while the city's famous sites and monuments were covered with snow.

As the storm approached on Friday, residents poured into supermarkets, stocking up on food and other supplies. One Washington resident described the scene at her local supermarket. "I got there at 0700 [on Friday] and there were really long queues," Jane Bate, 41, told the AFP news agency. "The place looked like it had been ransacked."

Pottering was president of the European Parliament from 2007 till last July. "If we want to preserve freedom and if we want to increase justice, then we have to place the value of fraternity or solidarity at the center of our political thinking," Pottering said in presenting the message.

He said taking further responsibility is a "moral obligation. It is exactly here that politics has to adopt the Lenten Message of the Holy Father," Pottering declared. "We need again a European spirit of solidarity. And, more than ever, we need a European spirit of solidarity with all peoples and cultures of this one world. Those are the two most important social-ethical tasks that the European Union faces."

The former Parliament leader went on suggest that Europe needs to bring about a "spiritual renewal. This is," he said, "about approaching the tasks that we face in the spirit of solidarity and that we seize the possibilities that we possess in a comparatively rich and privileged Europe so that justice becomes a reality for as many people as possible. Where justice is experienced, the value of freedom is equally strengthened."

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, archbishop of St Andrew's and Edinburgh, stated this in an address today upon being received in audience by Benedict XVI. The meeting was attended by 11 bishops from Scotland who are in Rome for their five-yearly visit, which will end Wednesday.

He noted that "many people of other Christian denominations and representatives of other faith traditions in our country actually look to our Church for leadership in the great religious, moral and ethical issues of the time. They too welcome the prospect of a visit to our land from Your Holiness in the hope that they may gain a deeper appreciation of Jesus Christ and of the way in which faith and reason come together to shed God's light on the questions which both fascinate and trouble the human spirit," Cardinal O'Brien stated.

Such legal ambiguity could lead potentially to "systemic failure and widespread market disruption", the committee said. Its comments are the latest broadside for the draft Directive which critics say will hit London where much of Europe's private equity and hedge fund industry is based. Opponents will be buoyed by the comments of the committee whose role is to identify legal uncertainty in wholesale markets which might cause material risks.

Its report highlights uncertainty as to the meaning of the terms Alternative Investment Fund and Alternative Investment Fund Manager and finds potential for legal ambiguity owing to "inconsistencies and inherent conflicts" between the draft and existing financial services directives. It also raises concerns over the definition of "leverage" and sees legal problems verifying whether assets are owned by the manager or the fund.

The committee warning came as Spain, which took over the EU presidency at the start of 2010, published its first update of the draft directive.

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said an Air Force Academy staffer spotted the cross - erected with railroad ties - lying against a rock at a worship area for pagan groups at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on January 17. Weinstein, whose New Mexico-based group represents more than 16,000 active duty and retired servicemembers, said the incident was "clearly" a hate crime and characterized any denial of that assertion to be preposterous."We don't think, we know it was a hate crime," said Weinstein, who compared the incident to spray-painting a swastika on a synagogue.

David Cannon, director of communications at the Air Force Academy, said the incident remains under investigation. He declined to indicate whether it could be classified as a hate crime pending completion of the probe. Regardless of who left the cross, some critics say Gould's characterization of its placement as "destructive behavior" is inaccurate.

"What I think people are saying here is, 'We reject the idea of paganism and we are expressing another religious symbol,'" said Herb London, president of the Hudson Institute, a Manhattan-based think tank. "I'm not sure I would characterize that as a destructive act. A symbol put next to another symbol does not represent destructive behavior. It's somewhat exaggerated - you have your symbol, we have our symbol.'"

The tax on milk, meat, vegetables and other food purchased by shoppers will generate an estimated $12.5 million for the fiscal year that ends June 30. It will raise another $50 million for fiscal 2011. Food purchased with food stamps will not be taxed. The extra tax revenue means Phoenix will have more money in its coffers to help close a $241 million general-fund budget deficit through June 2011.

Last week, budget officials proposed cutting $140 million in services. Other special funds for things like transit also could get money. City Manager David Cavazos proposed eliminating 1,379 citywide positions, including nearly 500 police officers and firefighters. Among the dozens of targeted cuts, libraries and senior centers would be closed, an after-school program would be dismantled, and bus and light-rail service would be significantly reduced.

New technology allows asphalt to be recycled into a durable gravel-like surface that is cheaper to maintain and adequately prevents potholes and mud, said David Creamer, a field operations specialist at the Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Thirty-eight counties in Michigan replaced a total of 100 miles of asphalt roads with gravel because of decreasing funds in 2008-09, said Monica Ware, a spokeswoman for the County Road Association of Michigan. In Montcalm County, Michigan, 10 miles were converted to cut patching costs in 2009, said Randy Stearns, managing director of the county's road commission. He cited one road that cost a combined $39,244 in 2008 and early 2009 for patching, but only $7,300 to crush into gravel. More roads may be converted this summer, he said.

A 2006 study by the University of Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies found gravel is cost-effective when daily traffic averages 200 vehicles or less.

"We have already made sacrifices and will accept no more cuts," the chairman of the customs officers' union Argyris Sakellaropoulos told Flash Radio. The unions are on the warpath over a government austerity programme that they say has progressively become harsher under pressure from the European Union and market speculation that has hurt Greek finances and rattled the euro.

"I deeply regret that the government has bowed to the wishes of the markets," the head of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), Yiannis Panagopoulos, said on Wednesday. Greece's largest union with around 600,000 members, GSEE is expected to approve Panagopoulos' call for a February 24 general strike later Thursday.

GSEE has also walked out of the official debate on how to reform the country's cash-strapped pensions system that is a key part of the government's economy rescue agenda. The country's recession-hit economy has already been disrupted by a protest by farmers, who have blocked key highways and shut down border crossings on a near-daily basis for three straight weeks. Greece's debt stands at more than 294 billion euros ($412 billion), its 12.7-percent deficit is well beyond EU limits of three percent of output for eurozone members and it suffered a triple downgrade of its sovereign debt in December.

In a televised address, Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said opposition proposals to allow the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores to increase their debt would have "grave consequences for Portugal's public accounts" and send "the worst possible message" to financial markets.

His warning came as Portuguese bonds and shares came under fire for the second day running as concerns over sovereign debt spread from Greece to other high-deficit countries in the eurozone. The Lisbon stock market fell almost 5 per cent on Thursday, the biggest daily fall since November 2008, and bond yields rose to new highs amid doubts over the ability of Portugal to consolidate its public accounts. The cost of insuring Portuguese debt against default also rose to a record high.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Teixeira dos Santos said "strong and credible" measures to be presented the European Commission this month would be "no less ambitious" than the Greek plan to consolidate public finances endorsed by Brussels on Tuesday. He said Portugal had taken over from Greece as the main victim of the "animal spirits" of financial markets that were often "irrational". The concern in the case of Portugal, he said, was not justified.