Briefs from around the world

Japan - A tsunami warning was put out after the magnitude 8.1 quake struck northeast of Japan, causing a series of small waves to hit the coast. Initially residents were warned to flee to higher ground amid predictions that up to two metre-high tsunami waves could hit the Pacific coast of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island.

However, the first wave of the tsunami, which hit the northern coast of Japan at about 8 a.m., turned out to be just 40 centimetres.

North Korea - Scarlet fever has been spreading in North Korea and threatens to become a full-blown epidemic despite efforts by authorities to contain the disease.

The disease, which broke out in the North's northern Ryanggang Province last month, is rapidly spreading to other parts of the communist state, including the capital, Pyongyang.

Iran - New traces of plutonium and enriched uranium -- potential material for atomic warheads -- have been found in a nuclear waste facility in Iran, a revelation that came Tuesday as the Iranian president said his country's nuclear fuel program will soon be completed. The International Atomic Energy Agency report, detailing the discovery, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the U.N. watchdog's attempts to investigate other suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program.

New Delhi - India and Pakistan agreed on a plan to combat terrorism and prevent an accidental nuclear conflict in South Asia at the first peace talks since a terrorist attack on Mumbai's train network in July. Blaming the attack -- which killed more than 200 people -- on militants based in Pakistan, and on Islamabad's intelligence service, India put the talks on hold. The key to resumption was a deal to create what was described as an “anti-terrorism mechanism” that could help the historic rivals work together to stop such mentioned attacks.

Jerusalem - A Palestinian rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded near the Israeli defense minister's home on Wednesday, November 15 critically wounding a guard and killing a passer-by. Militants affiliated with Islamic Jihad and the Palestinians' ruling Hamas group both claimed responsibility for the first Israeli death from a Palestinian rocket attack since July 2005. They said the rocket was to avenge the deaths of 18 civilians last week in an Israeli shelling of an apartment compound in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.