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Chile earthquake was 'megathrust,' most powerful type of quake

Scientists say the major earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile was a "megathrust" ― similar to the 2004 Indian Ocean temblor that riggered a catastrophic tsunami.

Megathrust earthquakes occur in subduction zones where plates of the arth's crust grind and dive. Saturday's magnitude 8.8 jolt occurred hen the Nazca plate dived beneath the South American plate, releasing remendous energy.

The U.S. Geological Survey says 13 temblors of magnitude 7 or more ave hit coastal Chile since 1973.

The latest quake occurred about 140 miles north of the largest arthquake ever recorded, a magnitude 9.5 temblor that struck southern hile in 1960, killing about 1,600 people and generating a tsunami that killed another 200 people in Japan, Hawaii and the Philippines.

Asada aims to break Kim's record score toward Sochi

Olympic figure skating silver medalist Mao Asada has set a goal of breaking gold medal winner Kim Yu Na's record score as she looks ahead o the 2014 Sochi Games.

Asked if she would prefer that the South Korean champion does not turn pro before a possible Olympic rematch, Asada said Tuesday, "I don't now what she's going to do. But even if she retires from amateur competition, her score will remain in place. I'd like to break it as oon as possible."

The 19-year-old was making the comments at a news conference, also attended by the other Japanese medalists, upon their arrival from ancouver.

"I have things to regret about my Olympic performance, so I have mixed feelings of happiness and frustration," Asada said. "I'd like to use he silver medal as a stepping stone toward the Sochi Olympics."

In their much-anticipated Olympic duel, Kim scored a record 228.56 points for the gold and Asada finished a distant second with 205.50,till her personal best.

"(To win gold in Sochi, Russia) I know I need to be consistent throughout a season," said Asada, who endured the worst slump of her enior career before regaining her form just in time for the Vancouver Games.

"The triple axel is my biggest weapon right now, but I believe I can add other kinds of jumps to my program, even a triple-triple. I'm hinking about spending a lot of time working on other jumps in the off-season," she said. 

Asada is scheduled to challenge Kim once again at the world championships in Turin in late March.

Toyota Recalls More Cars Over Safety Fears

Toyota is recalling 436,000 of its hybrid Prius cars because of safety fears. The latest problem to hit the world's largest auto maker is faulty brakes. This is the second major recall of the past six months for the car giant. In September 2009, it recalled 3.8 million Lexus model cars because of accelerator problems. The Prius is the world's most popular hybrid model. It is extremely popular with celebrities who want to show how green they are. Peter De Lorenzo, an expert on Toyota, told the BBC how painful the recall would be: "The Prius is their shining example of their vision of what we should all be driving. It is everything the new Toyota represents, so for them to have to recall hundreds of thousands of them is a tremendous blow to their image."

Toyota president Akio Toyoda acknowledged the recall was bad news for his company. He said Toyota would do everything in its power to regain the confidence of its customers. He wrote in the Washington Post that he was "deeply disappointed" his cars had not met the high standards expected by customers. "We have decided to recall as we regard safety for our customers as our foremost priority," he said. Mr. Toyoda took his full share of the blame for his company's troubles, stating: "As the president of Toyota, I take personal responsibility. That is why I am personally leading the effort to restore trust in our word and in our products." The recalls will cost Toyota billions of dollars in repair costs and lost sales.