The world in brief

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 26, 2000

Fire kills 309 at office in China

BEIJING -- More than 300 people died when a fire swept through an office building on Christmas night in central China, the government's Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

The report said 309 people died after they became trapped in the building in the city of Luoyang.

In a brief dispatch, Xinhua said a few dozen people had been hospitalized.

38 die when bus driven off cliff

COTABATO, Philippines -- A bus crammed with holiday travelers plunged off a cliff Monday after it was rear-ended by another bus, killing at least 38 people, police said.

The bus was traveling along a hillside curve when the other bus tried to overtake it, hit it and drove it off the 40-foot embankment on the island of Mindanao, police said.

The crash killed 23 people instantly, and nine died within a few hours while hospitalized, police said. At least six more of the seriously injured died early today, police said.

The victims included a 6-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.

Others, including a 6-month-old baby girl and the bus driver, were in critical condition in hospitals in the area some 600 miles southeast of Manila.

Police said the bus had a capacity of 60 but was overcrowded, with some passengers standing in the aisle. Many of the passengers were traveling to spend Christmas Day with relatives.

Witnesses told local radio station DXND that the driver apparently sped up to avoid being overtaken on the curve and lost control of the steering wheel when the other bus hit him from behind. Most of the dead were crushed during the fall.

Volcano spews ash again in Mexico

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano stirred from a quiet slumber Monday, spewing tall plumes of ash and causing several small earthquakes.

The volcano had quieted down after erupting last week, its strongest in 1,200 years. Scientists have warned that more strong eruptions are possible.

On Monday, Social Development Secretary Josefina Vazquez joined evacuated residents for breakfast in a shelter and said the government has set aside 900 tons of food -- enough for a month.

Popocatepetl (pronounced poh-poh-kah-TEH-peh-til) belched ash and vapor on Monday, with one plume reaching nearly 2 miles high. The recent eruptions have dusted nearby villages with ash but had little impact on Mexico City, 40 miles to the northwest.

Bombings kill 8, wound many in Kashmir, Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Bombs went off in four Pakistani cities Monday, including a powerful blast that ripped through a crowded market in this eastern border city, police said. Some 45 people were injured.

Meanwhile, in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir -- the Himalayan territory disputed between India and Pakistan -- a car bomb went off outside army headquarters Monday, killing eight people and wounding 23 others. India blamed Islamic militants for the attack.

Three die in mudslides caused by deluge in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Mudslides caused by heavy rains in southern Brazil killed three people and blocked roads on Christmas Day, authorities said Monday.

Two toddlers and an unidentified third person were buried in collapsed homes Sunday night in the city of Alto Feliz, said Ricardo Andre Lanius, a highway patrol officer in Rio Grande do Sul state.

He said heavy seasonal rains caused flooding in the northern part of the state and washed out parts of a major state highway near Porto Alegre, some 700 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro.

Elsewhere

SUBMARINE SINKS: A Brazilian navy submarine sank at its mooring in Rio de Janeiro's harbor, local media reported Monday. Officials said there were no injuries or environmental damage. The S-21 Toneleiros was undergoing repairs at a navy maintenance dock in the harbor when a malfunction in the vessel's hydraulic system caused it to fill with water late Sunday night, Globonews television reported.

CEASE-FIRE IN SRI LANKA: Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday promised to abide by their monthlong cease-fire despite its rejection by the government, and urged international support in persuading Sri Lanka to negotiate peace.

MAN DIES IN FALL FROM JET: A man plunged to his death from a jumbo jet Monday on the main runway of London's Gatwick Airport, police said. It happened a day after police recovered another body they believe may have fallen from a plane.

An airport worker saw the man, who has not been identified, fall about 9:15 a.m. from a British Airways Boeing 777 headed for Cancun, Mexico.

The body of the other man was found Sunday lying in a farm field under the flight paths of both Gatwick and London's other main airport, Heathrow.

Police said his injuries were consistent with having fallen from an aircraft.

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