Briefly world

Russian officials said a car bomb has exploded near a military base in the republic of Dagestan,killing two people.

Car bomb explodes near Russian base,two killed

MAKHACHKALA: Russian officials said a car bomb has exploded near a military base in the republic of Dagestan,killing two people. A soldier was killed in a separate blast in the same city. Sundays explosion took place in the city of Kaspiisk on the eighth anniversary of the bombing of a military parade that killed 43 people. Sunday was Victory Day in Russia,the countrys most solemn secular holiday,commemorating the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany.

7.4 magnitude earthquake rattles Indonesia

JAKARTA: An earthquake with preliminary magnitude of 7.4 rattled Indonesias North Sumatra province Sunday,prompting a local tsunami watch,knocking out power and damaging some homes,officials said. The US Geological Survey said the afternoon quake hit 135 miles southeast of Banda Aceh at a depth at 38 miles. Indonesia and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu issued a tsunami watch for the area.

Man stabs 8 to death in China,arrested

BEIJING: A man in China went on a killing spree stabbing eight people to death,including three of his family members,the state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday. The suspect Zhou Yezhong allegedly killed his mother,wife,daughter,four neighbours and a migrant worker with a knife on Saturday evening in Jishui County,Jiangxi Province in southeast China. Yezhong was arrested within two hours.

Volcanic ash closes airports in Spain,Portugal,Italy

BRUSSELS: A plume of volcanic ash snaked its way through southern France,Switzerland and northern Italy Sunday,shutting disrupting flights across Europe. Weather forecasts said the ash cloud will gradually weaken as it spreads to southern parts of Germany,the Czech Republic and Austria by Sunday night. The ash has forced the closure of airports throughout much of northern Italy. A finger of the main ash cloud in the mid-Atlantic was still touching parts of Portugal and Spain,affecting airports at Porto,La Coruna,Vigo,and Santiago.

12 killed in Russian coal mine blasts

MOSCOW: At least 12 workers were killed and 58 injured when two methane gas blasts ripped through Russias largest coal mine in western Siberia,officials said on Sunday. The explosions,one of which occurred on Saturday and the other on Sunday morning,took place in Raspadskaya coal mine in the Siberian region of Kemerovo,about 3,500 km east of Moscow. The fate of 83 people,including 20 rescuers,was unknown.