The immediate economic crunch across East Asia is expected to ease. It may then give way to a boom in exports of materials that Japan needs for reconstruction, a boost to Asian producers.

Housing starts fall to second-lowest level in more than half a century.

The recall Tuesday of Carlos Alvarez, the Miami-Dade mayor who raised pay and unfroze benefits for public-sector employees, offers a first hint of voter mood amid a massive recall campaign building in Wisconsin.

AP - Emergency workers forced to retreat from a tsunami-stricken Japanese nuclear power plant when radiation levels soared prepared to return Wednesday night after emissions dropped to safer levels.

AP - Australia advised its citizens in Japan on Wednesday to consider leaving Tokyo and earthquake-affected areas, joining a growing number of governments and businesses telling their people it may be safer elsewhere.

AP - Police fired tear gas against protesters burning tires outside a U.S. consulate in Pakistan after the release of a CIA contractor who killed two Pakistani men.