Three powerful quakes hit Pacific*

    * Story Highlights
    * Remote regions of the South Pacific hit by three powerful
earthquakes Sunday
    * Two quakes, magnitudes 7.3 and 6.6, near New Zealand's Auckland
Islands
    * Another quake, magnitude 6.8 - 7.1, southeast of the island of Guam
    * Agencies: No tsunami expected, too far from populated areas to
cause damage

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Three strong earthquakes struck Sunday
near New Zealand and the U.S. territory of Guam in remote parts of the
South Pacific, monitoring agencies said.

None of the quakes was expected to cause a tsunami, according to the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center or PTWC in Honolulu, Hawaii. There were
also no reports of damages, as the quakes were centered far from land.

A magnitude 7.3 earthquake was registered near New Zealand's uninhabited
Auckland Islands, about 300 miles southwest of its southernmost city of
Invercargill, the United States Geological Survey said on its Web site.

Another quake struck four hours later in the same region with a
magnitude 6.6, the USGS said.

Earlier, a magnitude 7.1 quake shook the Pacific Ocean about 215 miles
southeast of the island of Guam, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The USGS put the magnitude at 6.8.

Stuart Weinstein, the assistant director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center, said the quake was in an isolated part of the Pacific Ocean
where they seldom occur, and that it was probably felt on Guam as well
as Saipan, part of the U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

"It was probably too far away from populated areas to cause much
damage," Weinstein said.

Invercargill police senior sergeant Brock Davis said while one of his
staff "thought they felt something (when the quake occurred) I didn't
feel anything myself." He said he had no reports of a tsunami striking
southern New Zealand.