Tokyo

Earthquake shakes city; no tsunami alert issued

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 shook eastern Japan late Saturday afternoon, injuring more than a dozen people, rattling buildings in the capital and temporarily suspending flights and train services.

There was no danger of tsunami waves, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.

The earthquake, which struck at 4:35 p.m., was centered about 55 miles underground in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo, the agency said. The quake injured about 16 people throughout the region, including five people who were injured by a falling signboard at a supermarket, Kyodo News agency reported.

Japan sits at the juncture of four tectonic plates, or moving slabs of the earth’s outer crust, and is one of the world’s most quake-prone regions.

Havana

Dissidents released; about 15 still held

Cuban authorities released opposition leader Martha Beatriz Roque and about 10 other dissidents early Saturday morning, but continued to detain at least 15 others who had attempted to attend a demonstration for the freedom of political prisoners, according to a human rights monitor in Havana.

A 59-year-old economist and former political prisoner who leads one of Cuba’s largest opposition coalitions, Roque was on her way to a demonstration at the French Embassy when her car was stopped by Cuban police and she was taken into custody, she said. Two other dissident leaders, Rene Gomez and Felix Bonne, also were detained and remain in custody Saturday, said human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez.

During her 20-hour detention, Roque was taken to two police stations and questioned about her role in planning the demonstration.

On Saturday there was no information on Gomez and Bonne, who both spent time in prison in the late 1990s after writing and publicizing a pamphlet criticizing President Fidel Castro’s government.

Iran

Nobel laureate condemns hanging of teenage boys

Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Saturday condemned the hanging of two teenagers accused of raping younger boys in northeastern Iran, a punishment that also prompted protests by the international community and rights groups.

Last week’s hangings of an 18-year-old and 16-year-old on charges of involvement in homosexual acts violated Iran’s obligations under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans such executions, Ebadi said.

Ebadi said her Center for the Protection of Human Rights will intensify its fight against Iran’s executions of minors.

Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were hanged publicly July 19 in the city of Mashhad on charges of raping younger boys.

Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy. His attorney, Rohollah Razaz Zadeh, said courts are supposed to commute death sentences handed to children to five years in jail.

But the attorney said Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the verdict and allowed the execution despite his objections.