Russia

Bomb kills 11 troops

A radio-controlled bomb ripped through a Russian military truck at a bath house in the capital of Dagestan, killing at least 11 troops in the deadliest attack in the southern province in months, officials said.

More than 20 people were wounded, including civilians.

Bloodstained bodies lay in the street on the outskirts of Makhachkala, and ambulances whisked away the wounded. The explosion riddled the truck with shrapnel and shattered windows in nearby houses.

Rashid Isayev, head of the province’s criminal police, said the explosion occurred as three trucks packed with Interior Ministry troops arrived at the bath house.

Dagestan, which borders the warring republic of Chechnya, has been plagued by rising violence believed to be connected with insurgents and criminal gangs.

The local branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry said 11 troops were killed and more than 10 wounded. The blast was equivalent to about 22 pounds of TNT, it said.

New Delhi

Monsoon floods kill more than 100

Nearly 300 passengers were stranded in a train on flooded rail tracks Friday after heavy monsoon rains killed at least 102 people this week, a state government minister said.

Air Force helicopters dropped food and drinking water to the passengers, stranded since Thursday by flooding that led to evacuation of nearly 200,000 people in western Gujarat state, said Narottam Patel, state water resources minister.

The passengers reported up to five feet of water on the tracks and said “the water level was rising, and it has entered their coaches,” railway spokesman K. K. Dubey told Press Trust of India news agency.

Helicopters earlier rescued a trekking team from an army medical college in northern Himachal Pradesh state, a Defense Ministry statement said.

India’s monsoon season begins in June and continues until the end of September, and downpours have lashed the state since Sunday, submerging vast areas.

Berlin

Chancellor sets up loss in no-confidence vote

Facing high unemployment and an inability to reform the welfare state, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder deliberately lost a confidence vote in Parliament on Friday, opening the way for early elections that are expected to push his liberal coalition from power.

Schroeder called for the vote after a series of political defeats and widening divisions within his Social Democratic Party over how to reform one of Europe’s most generous welfare states. President Horst Koehler is expected to dissolve Parliament in the coming weeks and new elections are likely by mid-September, a year before Schroeder’s term was to expire.

With an 18 percent approval rating, Schroeder’s party has been viewed by most Germans as unable to stem high unemployment and enact social and economic programs to improve the nation’s global competitiveness.

Schroeder acknowledged his party’s failures when he addressed the lower house of Parliament moments before the vote.