At least 43 killed in nightclub fire

September 21, 2008

BEIJING - A fire that swept through a nightclub in southern China has killed at least 43 people, a government safety official said today. The fire, which broke out late yesterday, also injured at least 88 people, said the official with the Shenzhen Work Safety Bureau. An initial police investigation showed that the blaze was triggered by fireworks ignited during a show, the official Xinhua News Agency said.It said senior government officials had ordered an investigation. (AP)

GAUHATI - At least 16 people were killed, apparently by toxic fumes, while trying to steal fuel yesterday from a cargo train in India's remote northeast, police and railway officials said. A train carrying large amounts of diesel fuel and gasoline was held up by a group of people near Rangapahar station in southern Assam state, 215 miles from Gauhati, the state capital, said Samir Goswami, railway spokesman. Police later recovered 16 bodies near the site, officers said. (AP)

BHUBNESHWAR - Monsoon flooding has killed at least 16 people and left more than 220,000 marooned in villages in eastern India as incessant rains caused a river to breach its banks in several places, an official said yesterday. The government of Orissa state used boats to rescue people. So far, 180,000 people have been evacuated to relief camps since heavy monsoon rains caused the Mahanadi river to overflow its banks, leaving 220,000 still marooned. (AP)

VIENNA - Austrian authorities say what initially appeared to be a small earthquake that rattled Vienna turned out to be the explosion of a large World War II-era bomb, weighing up to half a ton. It lay buried for decades in a garden, and no one knew it was there. The bomb left a crater Friday evening, but no one was injured. Unexploded ordnance from World War II remains strewn across Austria. (AP)

NOUAKCHOTT - Mauritania's army yesterday found the bodies of 12 soldiers who were attacked earlier this week in an ambush purportedly claimed by a branch of Al Qaeda, a government spokesman said. The men were found with their throats cut in the open desert about 20 miles north of the town of Tourine, the site of Monday's ambush. The government originally said the soldiers were shot dead in the attack, but then reclassified them as missing when it didn't find the bodies. Several websites close to extremist Islamic movements published a statement attributed to Al Qaeda's North Africa branch Wednesday that claimed responsibility for the attack. (AP)

KABUL - NATO's top general in Afghanistan has ordered all international troops to halt offensive operations today in honor of a UN-backed day of peace. Even the Taliban are pledging to lay down their weapons for a day. The order follows an announcement by President Hamid Karzai that Afghan troops would observe Peace Day by not taking part in operations. He also called on militant groups to observe the day and "stop destroying their country." NATO said its 48,000 troops will not engage in offensive operations until midnight. (AP)