Russia: Flood toll hits 55

The death toll from flooding that swept through holiday resorts and scenic villages in Russia’s Black Sea Coast rose to 55 on Sunday, according to the Krasnodar region’s Emergency Situations Ministry.

Most of those killed were local residents and died of drowning, emergency officials said on Russian television.

The flooding left picturesque beaches in the south of Russia littered with debris, fallen trees and the ruined hulks of swept-away cars. Homes and shops were washed away, and roads and bridges were destroyed.

Both residents and tourists, who descend on the region during their summer vacations, were left stranded.

Ten other people have died in floods throughout Europe in the past week.

New Zealand: Altitude record out of tycoon’s reach

American adventurer Steve Fossett’s hopes of breaking the world gliding altitude record looked good for a while Sunday, but in the end he couldn’t find the elusive winds that would have pushed him into the stratosphere.

Fossett and retired NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson spent five hours soaring to 30,000 feet as they searched an 85-mile stretch of sky for the lift needed to reach thermal waves about 6,000 feet above them. They launched their glider from Omarama.

As with their first attempt at the record Saturday, Fossett said they “failed to find the elevator” to lift them through the gap and break the world-record height of 49,009 feet set over California’s Sierra Nevada range in 1986.

Fossett hasn’t given up on breaking the 16-year-old gliding world record. He said he would try again in June 2003.

Last month Fossett, 58, became the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.

Yugoslavia: Kosovo rebel leader arrested by U.N. police

A former senior commander of Kosovo rebels was arrested by U.N. police and NATO peacekeepers Sunday for allegedly torturing and murdering at least five captives, officials said.

Rrustem Mustafa, an ethnic Albanian, was arrested in the provincial capital, Pristina, in an operation led by U.N. police, said Wing Cmdr. Drew Andersen, spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

Authorities did not disclose the ethnicities of the alleged victims nor the period when the alleged events took place.

A United Nations statement only said a suspect was arrested at the request of an international prosecutor.

Mustafa, also known by his nom de guerre, “Remi,” was a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the rebel force that fought Serb police and the army for independence in 1998-1999. He controlled Kosovo’s northern region bordering Serbia.

Thailand: Tourists witness suicide by crocodile

A woman was killed after jumping into a pool of crocodiles in front of scores of horrified tourists Sunday at a wildlife park near Bangkok.

The woman, identified in media reports as Somjai Setabul, was seized by one crocodile and then swarmed by more than 100 others, witnesses said. Workers at the park retrieved her body about 20 minutes after she jumped in.

Park guide Thanes Wiriyaporn told The Associated Press the incident took place around feeding time, when tourists were purchasing buckets of chicken parts to toss to the crocodiles.

He saw a woman in her 30s standing alone by the pool put down her purse and a bottle of water and suddenly jump in.

Park officials said the last suicide at the farm was about 10 years ago.

Media reports said the woman who died Sunday left two letters in her purse that could be interpreted as suicide notes.