Indonesia

Country keeping eye on two volcanoes

Rescue teams searched on Wednesday for hikers feared trapped on an Indonesian volcano that erupted, killing two people, while villagers made offerings of vegetables and meat at the crater’s edge in an attempt to prevent further explosions.

Officials at Mount Bromo on the country’s main island of Java said it was possible that several hikers may still be on its slopes — either alive or dead — after Tuesday’s explosion. The blast sent a smoke cloud nearly 10,000 feet into the sky.

The 7,641-foot peak was still rumbling and spewing smoke Wednesday, but in much less volume than on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in the far northwest of the country, a second volcano, Mount Awu, was rocked by a series of small blasts, adding to the fears of 12,000 villagers already evacuated from its slopes to a nearby town.

Authorities have said a major eruption was possible in the coming days.

Germany

Suspected nail bomb sprays shopping area

A bomb packed with nails exploded in a shopping street Wednesday, injuring 22 people, police said. Authorities said they had no immediate evidence of a terrorist attack.

The blast shortly before 4 p.m. spewed broken glass and debris along the street in the Muelheim neighborhood, a Turkish area of family shops and three-story residential buildings.

Twisted carpenter’s nails littered the street, leading police to conclude that they were part of an explosive device. A wrecked bicycle lay in front of the two most heavily damaged shops, prompting speculation that the bomb might have been on it.

Police said in the hours after the blast that they had no suspects or motive.

Latvia’s

Dome Cathedral closed for fear of collapse

Officials closed Riga’s Dome Cathedral, which dates to the 13th century, after authorities discovered the tourist attraction was in danger of collapsing, the Culture Ministry said Wednesday.

Long a Riga landmark, the red brick cathedral is the largest place of worship in the Baltics. It has one of Europe’s biggest organs, with 6,768 pipes, and concerts at the cathedral draw thousands each year.

But preservationists say the 86,112-square-foot cathedral is unsafe and Latvian Culture Minister Helena Demakova ordered it closed until several structural problems can be repaired.

Two of the eight columns supporting the cathedral’s roof have 30- to 36-foot cracks, and there is evidence that the ground beneath one of them is unstable. The cathedral’s roof also is supported by rotten wooden beams.

Fixing the problems could exceed $16 million and take as long as eight years.

Pakistan

More than 20 killed in Afghan border fight

Pakistani forces clashed with heavily armed foreign militants Wednesday, killing more than 20 people in a mountainous tribal region near the Afghan border where hundreds of al-Qaida fighters are believed to be hiding, officials and a tribal elder said.

The bloodshed follows weeks of failed efforts to get the militants in South Waziristan to surrender to authorities by peaceful means after an army counterterrorism offensive in March that left 120 people dead.

Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security for Pakistan’s tribal regions, said foreigners and local tribesmen had been holed up in four fortress-like houses, about 25 miles from the Afghan frontier. He said they traded fire with paramilitary and army soldiers who had surrounded the area.

He said about 20 foreign militants and one paramilitary soldier had been killed, and three civilians had died in the crossfire.