A strong earthquake centred off the coast of northeastern Japan shook buildings as far as Tokyo and led to a tsunami warning for coastal areas of the northeast, public broadcaster NHK said on Friday.

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, the U.S. Geological Survey said, adding that there was no risk of a widespread tsunami. That was revised from an earlier estimate of 7.4.

A warning for a one-metre tsunami was issued for the coast of Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan, which was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

That quake triggered fuel-rod meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing radiation leakage, contamination of food and water and mass evacuations in the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

The government declared in December that the disaster was under control, but much of the area is still free of population.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T), the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, reported no irregularities at its nuclear plants after the latest quake.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara and Tomasz Janowski; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Ken Wills)

Millions of people will "drop, cover and hold on" during a statewide earthquake simulation Thursday.  The Great California ShakeOut, an annual event that aims to raise awareness about how to prepare for a major quake, begins at 10:18 a.m. and participants across the state will practice what to do when an earthquake hits.  More than 9 million people have registered to join the exercise so far, including 296,980 people in Santa Clara County. 

Find out who's participating here.  There will be a lot of participation in Mountain View. Both the Mountain View Whisman School District and the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District will ensure the students, teachers and staff know what to do during an earthquake.  The Mountain View Fire Department has also signed up to participate.

With his team struggling in the playoffs, the New York Yankees' highest-paid benchwarmer Alex Rodriguez was certainly not feeling the pressure as he flirted with two women in the stands. One of them clearly caught A-Rod's attention at at time when Yankee fans would have preferred he be more focused on baseball. 

The New York Post identified the object of A-Rod's affection as Kyna Treacy, a 33-year-old Australian model sitting right behind the Yankees dugout with friend and fellow Aussie Kate Quinn.

Rodriguez reportedly got her phone number before the Yankees fell to the Detroit Tigers in the first game of the American League Championship Series. The third baseman, who has been called out numerous times over the years for failing to hit when it matters the most, traded his terrible batting average for another set of digits on Saturday night.

Hollywood star and former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger died in a tragic accident at the Zermatt ski resort in Switzerland. The star was on a snowboard when it crashed leading to his instant death.

Arnie was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. This is a huge loss to the film fraternity and all Arnie fans worldwide.

Arnold has said that he is keen on starring in Terminator 5 but with this 65-year-old’s sudden death the project may never take off.

Rest in peace Arnie – this time we know you’ll never be back.

The Tide began the first BCS poll this season one spot higher than where it finished in the final poll of 2011. Florida, which lost six games in 2011, jumped past Oregon (No. 2 in the coaches and Harris Poll) on the strength of its No. 1 computer ranking.

That ranking has a lot to do with Florida’s schedule the first half of the season. No one has better wins this fall than the Gators, who have won on the road at No.18 Texas A&M,Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Florida also has a home victory 

over No. 6 LSU.

Linemakers: Important college football news

The Gators, who play host to No. 7 South Carolina this weekend, still have games remaining against No. 11 Georgia, No. 14 Florida State and a potential matchup with Alabama (or LSU) in the SEC Championship Game.

A breakdown of the first poll:

No.6 LSU. The Tigers have dealt with significant injuries on the offensive line (the foundation of their offense), and have still found a way to stay in striking distance. LSU has a brutal road ahead at No. 18 Texas A&M, No.1 Alabama, No. 12 Mississippi State and a possible SEC Championship Game but can still win out and be the highest ranked one-loss team. If the Tigers get more production from QB Zach Mettenberger, they can beat anyone.

No. 4 Notre Dame. That Michigan State win looks worse every week. And the Michigan and Purdue victories? Well, the Big Ten doesn’t have a team ranked in the top 25 for the first time in BCS poll history. In other words, if the Irish are going to make a statement, it’s going to be in big road games against Oklahoma and USC.

No. 14 Florida State. If you’re in the SEC, you’re allowed a mulligan. If you’re in the ACC, your season is essentially finished unless chaos takes over. This is purely an eye-test statement: FSU is much better than half the teams in front of it. The problem is, coach Jimbo Fisher got conservative and the ‘Noles blew a game at N.C. State. Now it’s going to take a huge run of blowouts (such as Saturday’s rout of Boston College) and a big win over (preferably unbeaten) Florida to make it all work out.

No. 1 Alabama.  That’s right, I’m saying it. It’s not all the Tide’s fault; the first half of the schedule has been cake, and two teams that were expected to be top-10 material aren’t even close (Michigan and Arkansas). Fortunately, things begin to get tougher in two weeks with back-to-back games against unbeaten No. 12 Mississippi State and No. 6 LSU. Win those two and remove all doubt.

No. 2 Florida. Look, the Gators have one of the best wins of the season against LSU, and they’re 3-0 on the road in the toughest league in the nation. But at some point the lack of a downfield passing game is going to become an issue. It may be this week against South Carolina in Gainesville, or in two weeks against Georgia, or late November at Florida State, or maybe against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. But it’s coming. The best thing that could have happened to the Gators this week: they’re No. 2, and there’s plenty of complaining about an unworthy Florida team. Translation: motivation.

No. 3. Oregon.  See a trend here? The first three all have serious questionsand that means we’re in for a whole lot of funky over the next six weeks. The Ducks’ schedule has been awful, and they were hammered by the computer polls (highest rank third; lowest rank 10th). The Ducks still must play No. 10 USC (maybe twice) and No. 20 Stanford. Those two games and how they win (if they winwill be critical. Because they could be fighting with Notre Dame for one of the two spots, and USC and Stanford will be common games.

Danielle Hamilton: This poor little girl people are so mean. Well u are a beautiful little girl R.I.P. angel. I can't believe kids now a days. I hope you kids are proud of what you did, now u have to answer to god and everyone else. Some day u guys will be the outcast and I hope u feel what she felt. But death is not the answer.

Amanda Todd was 12 years old when she made a mistake that would haunt her until her death three years later.
She killed herself this week, one month shy of her 16th birthday and one month after telling the world through a YouTube video of bullying that left her depressed and despairing.
Her mother, Carol Todd, doesn't want other children to suffer as Amanda did - stalked and harassed by bullies in cyberspace and in the schoolyard, by people she knew and by stalkers many miles away.
Amanda told her story in the heart-wrenching video that chronicled her nightmare: the taunts, the beating, the cyber-stalker who tracked her down whenever she tried to start afresh at a new school - firing off images that captured her showing off her young body, flattered by online attention from someone she thought was a kid just like her.
The video and the photos went to teachers, to parents, to Facebook friends, which lead to repeated taunts: "Oh, there's the star."
Now Carol wants to tell her story. It is a story no mother wants to tell.
"Amanda was a very caring individual. She would help others who needed help," Carol told The Vancouver Sun during an exclusive interview Friday at her home, where she was surrounded by friends and family. "One of Amanda's goals was to get her message out there and have it used as a learning tool for others."


As a teacher in the Coquitlam school district and a specialist in assistive technologies, Carol is comfortable around computers and knows well the dangers the online world can hold. Still, she wasn't able to protect her child.
"I have lost one child, but know she wanted her story to save 1,000 more."
In putting together her video, which Amanda did on her own, Carol said her daughter wanted to help other young people who are being bullied and to bring attention and education to the problem in the hope of seeing it eradicated.
"Amanda wanted to tell her story to help other kids. I want to tell my story to help parents, so they can be aware, so they can teach their kids what is right and wrong and how to be safe online," she said. "Kids have iPads, they have smart-phones, technology is much more accessible than it was even five years ago - that is the dangerous factor." Carol has launched a trust fund in Amanda's memory to raise money for anti-bullying awareness education and for support programs for youth with mental health issues.
Amanda was the victim of unrelenting blackmail. And the cyberspace stalker was aided by people in Amanda's real-world life - kids who would share the photos on their cellphones, kids who would gang up to hurl first verbal abuse and then fists at Todd.
"Everything she said in the video happened over the past two years," said Carol. "It was horrendous. I think about it now and I think, 'Oh my God. How did she survive this long with the pain?'" The end, when it came, was a shock. Despite Amanda's earlier suicide attempts, Carol said in recent days and weeks she was getting much better. She spent time in hospital in September, getting treatment and counselling.

Her life was starting to go back to normal, which it hadn't been since grade 8.
"She felt like a normal teenager, she was so proud of herself," said Carol. "She went out with friends, she went to the mall, she said to me, 'Mom, this is the first time that I feel normal again. I have had the best day ever.'"
Carol doesn't know what caused her daughter's setback, but Amanda may have given Carol an answer in a private video.
"She left me a video message on her phone. I'm not ready to look at it yet," said Carol.
"The coroner has told me it will provide closure for me but I can't look at it yet."
Carol doesn't know what happened, but sometime earlier this week - before Amanda killed herself late Wednesday afternoon - something happened to shatter that fragile recovery.
Her ordeal started when Amanda was fooling around online with friends. She probably didn't think it was risky behaviour when she lifted her top to flash the person who was flattering her at the other end of the webcam.
Amanda's moment of indiscretion was not unusual for someone her age: Sexting and using webcams to share sexual photos is a growing trend among children, some so young they are still in grade school.
"The Internet stalker she flashed kept stalking her," said Carol. "Every time she moved schools he would go undercover and become a Facebook friend. What the guy did was he went to online to the kids who went to (the new school) and said that he was going to be a new student - that he was starting school the following week and that he wanted some friends and could they friend him on Facebook."
"He eventually gathered people's names and sent Amanda's video to her new school."
The police couldn't track him down. "The police investigated and investigated, it got traced to somebody in the United States," said Carol. "But they never found him. Those people are very good at hiding their tracks." The suspected pedophile threatened that if she didn't do a show for him, he would send her pictures off again. Amanda wouldn't bow to the pressure and he would carry out his threat.
"Then students and teachers would get them, people would start bullying Amanda and calling her star' and other names. It increased her anxiety and she couldn't go to class," said Carol.
Finger-pointing at schools for not stopping bullying only angers Carol. She said Amanda, who had learning problems, had excellent support in the Coquitlam school district, where Amanda spent most of her school time.
Since March, she was a student at CABE, Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education secondary school, which is a haven for youth who, for whatever reason, need the alternate learning situation.
It was there that Amanda made friends, among both the students and staff.
"She had a good support network there," said Carol. Among the teachers Amanda especially liked was former Olympic track and field star Leah Pells, who teaches physical education at the school. "She and Amanda clicked and Amanda trusted her," said Carol.
Carol is much more tech savvy than the average parent.
But Amanda's victimization at the hands of the stalker led Carol to learn more about the horrifying world of child pornography, where some victims don't even know their images are being shown on sites.
"You'll see pornography and the girls are so young," she said.
"I don't know if the girls are doing this for kicks, if their parents are monitoring it or if they even know about it.
When Amanda's story and video went viral this week, the outpouring of grief from local teens left Carol unable to distinguish Amanda's true friends from those who may have helped drive her to suicide.
The Amanda Todd trust fund is being held at the Royal Bank of Canada, which will be accepting donations in Amanda's name at all its branches.

Hulk’s sex tape was originally shopped around in March and resurfaced again on Gawker this week. Now,TMZ says he wants it removed, and lawyers for the 59-year-old fighter are drafting a cease-and-desist letter and threatening to sue.