Suspected militants armed with assault rifles and a homemade bomb attacked the offices of a U.S.-based Christian aid group helping earthquake survivors in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six Pakistani employees, police and the organization said.

AP - The House has passed a bill that would allow taxpayers to write off charitable donations to Chile earthquake relief efforts when they file their 2009 taxes this spring.

Turkish officials on Wednesday lowered the death toll in this week's magnitude 6 earthquake from 51 to 41.

The Christian Science Monitor - As President Obama hosts Haitian President René Préval at the Oval Office today, the two will discuss how the US can best help rebuild the impoverished Caribbean country after the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake – which the Inter-American Development Bank called “the most destructive natural disaster in modern times” – killed more than 220,000 Haitians and left more than 1 million homeless.

The Christian Science Monitor - Haiti’s President René Préval visits the White House Wednesday to thank the United States for the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid provided since his country’s ruinous earthquake Jan.12. But he’s also coming to ask that continuing assistance not make matters worse.

AP - Swiss Reinsurance Co. said Wednesday that the strong earthquake in Chile last month will cost the insurance industry $4-7 billion, an estimate shared by its Germany-based rival Munich Re AG.

Reinsurance giant Swiss Re on Wednesday estimated that insurers will have to pay up to 7.0 billion dollars (5.16 billion euros) for damages arising from the deadly earthquake in Chile.

Reuters - Last month's huge earthquake in Chile might cost the insurance industry up to $7 billion in damage claims, the world's top two reinsurers said, but it looks unlikely to raise reinsurance prices.

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"The injection into the wells began in September 2008 and the earthquakes began in October 2008," said Brian Stump, a SMU seismologist.