Thousands of survivors of a powerful earthquake in southwestern Japan have spent Friday in crowded shelters or sleeping in cars as they face shortages of water and fuel and punishing summer temperatures that have stoked fears of heat-related illness.

By Anton Bridge, Yuka Obayashi and Joseph Campbell KUMAMOTO, Japan, July 29 (Reuters) - Workers in a mall in southern Japan described being thrown to the floor or enveloped in a disorienting cloud of dust by a massive 7.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 has shaken Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu, killing at least three people and leaving dozens of others missing or injured

N. Korea said an expanded U.S. military command in Japan made a regional clash increasingly likely and justified its nuclear weapons development.

A large earthquake struck Japan’s southern Kumamoto Prefecture on Tuesday, sparking tsunami warnings in the region.

A powerful earthquake hit southern Japan, seriously damaging a shopping mall where there are reportedly many people trapped and some dead.

Japan launched intelligence coordination bureau, but it still lacks independent overseas human intelligence and covert-operation capabilities.

By Fabiola Arámburo and David Lawder Aug 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury bought yen on Friday to support the battered Japanese currency, the Financial Times reported, marking Washington's first yen-buying intervention with Tokyo in more than a decade as it languishes near 40-year lows.