Quake shakes NW Japan, causes 21 injuries and minor damage

TOKYO (AP) — A powerful earthquake jolted northwestern Japan late Tuesday, causing minor injuries to 21 people and a brief evacuation of coastal homes until the risk of a tsunami passed. Store floors were littered with goods that fell off shelves, and roofs of homes showed bare spots where tiles had shaken...

PG&E to pay $1 billion to governments for wildfire damage

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California utility agreed Tuesday to pay $1 billion to 14 local governments to cover damages from a series of deadly wildfires caused by its downed power lines. The settlement is a sliver of the more than $30 billion in potential damages Pacific Gas & Electric is facing in...

The Latest: Helicopter saves 6 climbers in Pakistan's north

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Latest on a climbing expedition's rescue in Pakistan after being hit by an avalanche (all times local): 3:30 p.m. A Pakistani mountaineering official says an army helicopter has rescued four Italian and two Pakistani climbers stranded after an avalanche in the country's north. Mohammad...

Pakistani official says army helicopter has rescued 4 Italian and 2 Pakistani climbers stranded after avalanche.

Rescue efforts underway after China quake kills at least 12

BEIJING (AP) — Rescue efforts were underway Tuesday after an earthquake in southwestern China left 12 people dead and 135 others injured, authorities said. Hundreds of firefighters arrived early Tuesday and rescued at least eight trapped people, the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management said. State...

Texas housing program aims to rebuild faster after disaster

HOUSTON (AP) — For Houston resident Scenacia Jones, the experience of getting her new home through an innovative way of building post-disaster housing was like an experiment. Jones and her two children had been living in a shelter for single parents when Hurricane Harvey's devasting flooding hit the...

Mississippi River dropping below flood stage in Iowa

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Mississippi River is dropping below flood stage along many of Iowa's riverfront cities after nearly three months of record highs caused by melting snow and torrential rain. The river dropped below flood stage at Guttenberg, Iowa, early Tuesday, and was more than half a foot (15...

Texas governor signs $1.6B storm plan 2 years after Harvey

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a $1.6 billion storm and flood resilience plan nearly two years after Hurricane Harvey battered parts of the state. Abbott signed the bill Thursday in Houston, where the Category 4 hurricane dumped more than 50 inches (130 centimeters) of rain. Harvey caused...

New network for first responders raises concern among media

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The police chief of Alaska's largest city hurried out of the department's glass building after the ground began to shake. Phone lines jammed and even police radios were spotty after a major earthquake, but his cellphone was recently equipped with a national wireless network...

The Latest: 3 Canadian Radarsat satellites placed in orbit

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Latest on the launch of three Canadian satellites from California (all times local): 8:30 a.m. Three satellites for the Canadian Space Agency's Earth-monitoring Radarsat program have been deployed into orbit after they were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The...