World and Nation

Shorts (right)

Wall Street falls amid concerns in Japan earthquake aftermath

How far will the financial shockwaves from Japan’s earthquake reach? Investors wrestled with that question on Monday as stock markets dipped across the globe and fears mounted about the impact of a partial shutdown of the world’s third-largest economy.

Despite the damage in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami and their threat to global supply chains, economists said that unless the crisis at Japan’s nuclear reactors worsened, the effect would probably be limited. Still, it comes at a precarious time for the world economy, with the United States and parts of Europe only recently showing signs of job growth and a broader economic recovery.

“This is a major catastrophe for Japan, and it is yet another negative shock for the rest of the world,” said David G. Blanchflower, an economics professor at Dartmouth College and a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee. “The question is: How much does it set back world growth, and the answer is a bit.”

—Graham Bowley, The New York Times

Eleven killed when car bomb detonated at Iraq base

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives outside a military headquarters on Monday in the city of Kanan, about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing 11 Iraqi soldiers, according to local security officials.

The attack demonstrated the tenuous security situation in the Sunni-dominated cities north of Baghdad where members of al-Qaida’s Iraq chapter have struck at pilgrims and military and police officials.

“There are some sleeper cells that are waking up and trying to attack innocent people,” said Hassan Dellir, the head of the security committee for Diyala province, where Kanan is located.

Security officials said 16 Iraqi soldiers and 14 civilians were injured in the attack.

—Michael S. Schmidt and Duraid Adnan, The New York Times