MASHIKI — At least nine people have been killed and more than 800 injured by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake that toppled houses and buckled roads in southern Japan.

With daybreak, the extent of the damage became apparent: collapsed buildings, streets warped by manholes pushed higher by the earth's movement, an expressway crunched and buckled.

The damage was severe in the hardest-hit town of Mashiki, about 15 kilometers from Kumamoto city. Entire buildings fallen to the ground, roofs that slid off, and windows and walls that crumbled, scattering glass and debris.

Huge boulder-like rocks tumbled from the walls of historic Kumamoto castle, which was closed to the public Friday.

Five women and four men were killed, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. One man in his 20s died; the rest of the victims ranged from their 50s to one woman in her 90s. Eight of the nine victims were from Mashiki.

The government's chief spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said at least 860 people had been injured, 53 seriously. He said 1,600 soldiers had joined the relief and rescue efforts.

About 44,000 people sought refuge, though some returned home in the morning. TV reports showed troops delivering blankets and adult diapers to those who took shelter.

The quake struck at 9:26 p.m. Thursday at a depth of 11 kilometers near Kumamoto city on the island of Kyushu, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There was no tsunami risk.

"The shaking was so violent I couldn't stand still," said Hironobu Kosaki, a Kumamoto Prefectural Police night-duty official.

The area is 1,300 kilometers southwest of Tokyo.

Rescue efforts continued through the night. Japanese television showed a baby wrapped in a blanket being carried out of the rubble of a home.

Rescue operations were repeatedly disrupted by aftershocks. By early Friday there had been 116 such jolts strong enough to be felt.

"There was a ka-boom and the whole house shook violently sideways," Takahiko Morita, a Mashiki resident said in a telephone interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK. "Furniture and bookshelves fell down, and books were all over the floor."

Morita said some houses and walls collapsed in his neighborhood, and water supply had been cut off. On Friday, residents were hauling water from local offices to their homes to flush toilets.

Local broadcasters were urging residents to check on elderly people living alone who might not have been able to escape their homes unaided.

Suga said there no abnormalities at nearby nuclear facilities. The epicenter was 120 kilometers northeast of Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Sendai nuclear plant, the only one operating in the country.

Most of Japan's nuclear reactors remain offline following the meltdowns at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima plant in 2011 after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered a huge tsunami.

Television footage showed fires breaking out after the earthquake, with firefighters battling an orange blaze.

Keisuke Urata, an official in nearby Uki city, told NHK that parts of the ceiling at Uki City Hall collapsed, windows broke and cabinets fell to the ground.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Mashiki sits near two faults on Kyushu. The area is also near Mount Aso, a huge, active volcano. JMA officials said the quake was unusually strong for Kyushu.

Story: Emily Wang / Associated Press

JAKARTA — A lawyer for the spiritual leader of the militants who carried out the 2002 Bali bombings is urging Indonesian authorities to end his "inhumane" treatment in prison.

The radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been confined to a tiny isolation cell on the Nusa Kambangan prison island as part of a broad tightening of security in the wake of the Jan. 14 suicide bombings in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Authorities say isolation measures, which are also being applied to other top convicted militants, are needed to stop the ailing 77-year-old Bashir from radicalizing prisoners and to cut him off from extremist networks.

Lawyer Mohammad Mahendradatta said Thursday that Bashir is kept in his 2 square meter cell for 23 hours a day and sleeps on thin mats over a cement floor without blankets.

He is denied reading materials and personal items, regularly awakened from his sleep because of mosquitos, and consultations with medical staff take place behind barriers.

"The condition of his cell is simply shocking and inhumane treatment against him is causing his health to deteriorate," Mahendradatta said.

The claim of mistreatment comes amid heightened concerns among the public and rights groups about possible extrajudicial killings following the recent death in custody of an alleged militant.

Police said the militant, known as Siyono, had concealed a handgun and attacked officers. But an autopsy conducted last week at the request of Siyono's wife and backed by Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-largest Muslim group, revealed that the 34-year-old died from trauma to the chest and had no defensive wounds on his body.

The findings prompted Indonesia's parliament to summon the national police chief and the anti-terrorism agency chief to a hearing next week.

Bashir, known as the spiritual leader of al-Qaida-linked militants behind the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2011.

Prosecutors said he was a key player in supporting a militant training camp in Aceh that brought together men from almost every known extremist group in predominantly Muslim Indonesia. A higher court later cut the sentence to nine years.

Akbar Hadi Prabowo, spokesman for the directorate general overseeing prisons, said Bashir has appropriate facilities for an isolation prisoner.

"The information we have is that Bashir is in a state of good health," he said. "There is no mistreatment against Bashir, he gets proper facilities for the inmate who is placed in isolation."

Mahendradatta said his assessment of Bashir's prison conditions was based on recent access by his team of lawyers.

Story: Iniek Karmini / Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines — The United States on Thursday revealed for the first time that American ships have started conducting joint patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea, a somewhat rare move not done with many other partners in the region.

At the same time, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced at a joint news conference with Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmi that the United States will be keeping nearly 300 troops, including Air Force commandos armed with combat aircraft and helicopters, in the Philippines through the end of the month. It's part of a military build-up sure to inflame tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea.

The U.S. will also begin sending forces on increased rotations into the Philippines, it was disclosed, to beef up training and to support increased military operations in the region.

Increase

The increase in military support comes just days after a Philippine diplomat asked that the U.S. help convince China not to build in the nearby Scarborough Shoal, which is viewed as important to Filipino fishermen. Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Cuisia Jr. said the Philippines is not capable of stopping China from constructing there. China has built man-made islands in other contested spots in the South China Sea.

According to the Pentagon, the U.S. forces that will remain here are already in the Philippines participating in the Balikatan or shoulder-to-shoulder combat exercises which will end Friday. About 200 airmen, including special operations forces will remain at Clark Air Base, along with three of their Pave Hawk attack helicopters, an MC-130H Combat Talon II special mission aircraft and five A-10 combat aircraft.

This initial contingent will provide training to increase the two militaries' ability to work together, laying the groundwork for forces to do joint air patrols as well as the ship movements.

Also, up to 75 Marines will stay at Camp Aguinaldo to support increased U.S. and Philippine combined military operations in the region.

The troops and aircraft are expected to leave at the end of the month, but other U.S. forces and aircraft would do similar rotations into the Philippines in the future. A defense official would not say how frequently those rotations would happen, but said the size schedule and makeup would fluctuate. The official was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The increased troop presence is part of a broader U.S. campaign to expand its assistance to the Philippines, as America shores up its allies in the Asia Pacific. And it comes as territorial disputes with China, including Beijing's increasing effort to build manmade islands in the South China Sea, roils nations across the region.

The U.S. and others have consistently said the military exercises and assistance packages are not aimed at China but represent America's continued support for its allies in the region. But China views any increased U.S. military presence and activities in the region as a threat.

Last week the Pentagon announced that the U.S. will send about USD$40 million in military assistance to the Philippines to beef up intelligence sharing, surveillance and naval patrols. Carter said the aid will include an enhanced information network for classified communications, sensors for patrol vessels and an unmanned aerostat reconnaissance airship.

The patrol sensors and surveillance equipment will help the Philippines keep a watch over its territory, including areas where there are overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

Officials also recently announced that the U.S. will get access to five Philippine military bases to house American forces that will rotate in and out of the country for training and other missions.

Scarborough Shoal is at the center of a case that Manila filed with the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international panel, in January 2013 after Chinese coast guard ships took effective control of the disputed land following a tense standoff with Filipino ships.

The shoal sits about 230 kilometers west of the Philippines, and 1,000 kilometers from the Chinese coast.

The court has agreed to take the case and is expected to rule in the coming months. Beijing has objected, saying the panel has no jurisdiction in the matter.

Cuisia said that a senior U.S. Navy official reported spotting a suspected Chinese survey ship in the Scarborough Shoal a few weeks ago The Philippine military checked but found nothing, possibly because the Chinese ship later left the shoal, he said. Philippine officials worry that China is eyeing the vast atoll as its next target for island building.

China has said it has completed construction work to turn seven reefs into islands in the disputed Spratlys archipelago in the South China Sea, a move condemned by the U.S. and other partners in the region. Officials have also seen runways, fighter jets and other weapons on some of the islands.

Beijing says it owns the Spratlys, which it calls the Nansha Islands, and has a right to build there.

Story: Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press

To reach us about this article or another matter, please contact us by e-mail at: [email protected].

Follow @KhaosodEnglish

MADRID — Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar all failed to deliver as holder Barcelona was dumped out of the Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday in a stunning 2-0 defeat by Spanish rival Atletico Madrid.

Barcelona's star trio was kept in check by some tough defending from the home side, and France striker Antoine Griezmann scored a goal in each half as Atletico overturned a 2-1 loss at Camp Nou in last week's first leg to win 3-2 on aggregate.

The result sent Diego Simeone's team, which had played most of the first leg match with 10 men, to the semifinals for the second time in the last three seasons.

And it shattered the hopes of favorite Barcelona, which had reached the semifinals seven times in the last eight years.

"It wasn't our best day," Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said. "We weren't lucid and we struggled to create chances. After they scored, they did what they do best – which is defend. They did that very well and delivered a complete performance."

The defeat ended Barcelona's hopes of repeating the treble of Champions League, Copa del Rey and Spanish league titles.

Its performance was summed up by another disappointing display from Messi, who again failed to score his elusive 500th career goal.

The playmaker is enduring his worst scoring slump with Barcelona in five years and hasn't scored since a win over Arsenal in the round of 16 of the Champions League on March 16.

Only twice Barcelona had failed to advance after winning the first leg in its previous 40 attempts in UEFA competitions.

"The players wanted to retain the trophy, the fans too, but today it was not to be," Luis Enrique said.

It was Atletico's first win over Barcelona since Luis Enrique took over the Catalan club after the 2013-14 season. Luis Enrique's team had won the previous seven games against Simeone.

"We never stopped believing," Simeone said. "We worked, knowing the situation, knowing what we can do. They had individuals who could break the game open, but we stayed together and stayed strong."

Simeone succeeded by keeping in check Barcelona's offensive trio, who didn't threaten until late in the game, and even then couldn't create many clear chances.

Barcelona's Luis Suarez, right, passes the ball as Athletico's Diego Godin blocks the shot during the Champions League 2nd leg quarterfinal match between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona. Photo: Francisco Seco/ Associated Press

Atletico Madrid left the Camp Nou infuriated with the refereeing last week after its striker Fernando Torres was sent off in the 35th minute. On Wednesday, it was Barcelona that had reason to complain after a hand ball by Gabi Fernandez that appeared to be inside the area — but was judged by the referee outside the box in second-half injury time.

Messi's ensuing free kick sailed over the crossbar in his team's last chance.

Needing a victory, Atletico pushed forward early on and had a few decent scoring chances before Griezmann finally broke through with his header from near the penalty spot. After a ball recovered near the sideline, youngster Saul Niguez used the outside of his left foot to make a well-placed cross to the France striker, who headed past Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

His second came after a dangerous counterattack started by Filipe Luis, whose cross into the area was blocked by Andres Iniesta with his arm — giving Atletico a penalty that was calmly converted by Griezmann in the 88th.

"We've worked really hard defensively. We deserve it," Griezmann said. "The team has made a great effort to be among the best four teams in Europe."

Griezmann has scored six goals in this season's Champions League, and 10 in the last 10 Atletico games in all competitions.

Barcelona had also been eliminated by Atletico in the quarterfinals of the 2013-14 season, when the rival eventually reached the final and lost to Real Madrid. Last season, Atletico fell to Madrid in the quarterfinals.

Barcelona and Atletico remain in a close fight for the Spanish league, where Barcelona's lead has been cut to only three points with six rounds to go. The Catalan club is winless in three consecutive league games, while Atletico won six of its last seven.

In Wednesday's other game, Bayern Munich advanced 3-2 on aggregate after a 2-2 draw at Benfica.

Real Madrid and Manchester City, which reached the last four on Tuesday, will also be in Friday's draw for the semifinals.

Story: Tales Azzoni / Associated Press

To reach us about this article or another matter, please contact us by e-mail at: [email protected].

Follow @KhaosodEnglish