The earthquake struck at 4:30 pm (0830 GMT) Monday in a sparsely populated area about 84 kilometres (50 miles) west of the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, the US Geological Survey said.

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BEIJING  —  A pair of strong earthquakes jolted the capital of Tibet and surrounding areas Monday, killing more than 30 people and causing hundreds of houses to collapse, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Rescuers rushed to the scene to try to save an unknown number of people buried under rubble.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake measured magnitude 6.6 and struck at 4:30 p.m. 50 miles west of Lhasa, more than 1,600 miles away from Beijing.

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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan —  A powerful earthquake struck the mountains of Central Asia, destroying a village in Kyrgyzstan and killing at least 72 people, emergency officials said Monday.

The 6.6-magnitude quake near the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan hit the remote village of Nura hard, bringing down dozens of buildings and injuring more than 100 people in addition to the confirmed deaths, Emergency Situations Minister Kamchybek Tashiyev said.

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BEIJING  —  A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck a remote northwestern Chinese region early Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake struck just after midnight in the Xinjiang region near China's border with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The center said the quake was at a depth of 21 miles.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said the epicenter was located in Wuqia, southwestern Xinjiang, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.

The report said the quake was also felt by residents in the city of Kashgar, about 112 miles from Wuqia.

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YUCAIPA, Calif. —  A magnitude-4.1 earthquake has shaken San Bernardino County, but there are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The temblor struck at 2:41 a.m. Thursday. It was centered 6 miles northeast of Yucaipa and occurred at a depth of about 6 miles, according to a preliminary report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

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A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck near New Zealand's remote Kermadec Islands early Tuesday, New Zealand's GNS Science geological agency said.

New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defense issued no tsunami warning following the quake, while the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin on its Web site that "no destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data" for the Kermadec area.

The Hong Kong Observatory said the quake was centered about 630 miles south-southwest of Nuku'alofa, Tonga and was recorded in Hong Kong at 1532 GMT Monday, or 4:19 a.m. Tuesday New Zealand time.

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MEXICO CITY —  A strong earthquake has hit off Mexico's Pacific coast.

The U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado says the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 and was centered off the coast of Jalisco state.

The quake happened Tuesday night at 7:33 p.m. (0233 GMT Wednesday). There are no reports of damages or injuries.

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan  —  A year after surviving Pakistan's devastating earthquake, Dubri Bandi's villagers still live in fear.

The might of the 7.6-magnitude quake of Oct. 8, 2005, is evident across the Himalayan terrain in Pakistan's part of Kashmir. Towering over this isolated settlement, Dina mountain was cleaved in two.

Most homes in Dubri Bandi collapsed in the tremor. But it was spared from the worst of the disaster: an enormous rockslide that swept rice paddies and houses away in nearby villages, entombing as many as 1,800 people.

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"We have no information of this kind," a spokesman for the state-owned firm, Rosoboronexport, said when asked about potential sales of the sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons to Tehran or Damascus.

The denial came as outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was due to arrive in Russia for a two-day visit in which concerns over Iran are expected to top the Israeli agenda.

His defence minister, Ehud Barak, on Sunday urged Russia not to upset the strategic balance in the Middle East with arms sales to Muslim countries.

Israeli media say the Jewish state is concerned by the possible sale of S-300s to Tehran, which could use them to foil Israeli or US airstrikes against sites linked to Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme.

The S-300 missile, called the SA-10 in the West, has a range of 150 kilometres (90 miles) and is capable of striking a plane up to 30 kilometres (18 miles) high.

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"We have no support at all from the northern Iraqi administration (against the rebels). Let aside any support, they are providing (the rebels with) infrastructural capabilites such as hospitals and roads," General Hasan Igsiz, the army's deputy chief, told a press conference.

He was speaking after 15 Turkish soldiers were killed Friday when a group of militants from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- sneaking in from their long-time bases in northern Iraq -- attacked a border outpost under cover of heavy weapons fire from northern Iraq.

The general also accused Iraqi Kurds of failing to prevent PKK militants from mixing with the local population, thus making it difficult for the Turkish army to target the rebels in a series of bombing raids it has carried out in northern Iraq since last October.

"Members of the organisation are based very close to the local population in large parts of northern Iraq and they are exploiting this," he said. "The northern Iraqi administration makes no effort to prevent this."

"Our expectation is that (the PKK) be ackowledged as a terrorist organisation there and that support for the rebels be eliminated," Igsiz said.

Ankara has long accused the Iraqi Kurds of tolerating the PKK on their territory, where it says the militants easily obtain weapons and explosives for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.

The Iraqi authorities have repeatedly pledged efforts to curb the PKK, but say that the group's hideouts are in mountainous regions to which access is difficult.

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