15 killed in Russian apartment fire

September 13th, 2009 Deadly Russian base fire also burns secret papersMOSCOW — Five soldiers died Sunday in a fire at a military base in Russia and a state news agency said the blaze may have destroyed sensitive security documents. The RIA-Novosti agency said the fire at the base in Tambov, about 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of Moscow, damaged a large section of a building of the GRU, the military's foreign intelligence unit.

September 9th, 2009 Russian reporter critical of dam accident attackedMOSCOW — A fire broke out Wednesday at the Siberian hydroelectric plant that was wrecked in a deadly industrial accident last month, prompting an evacuation of workers but no injuries, the dam operator said. The blaze was the latest woe to hit the Sayano-Shushenskaya complex that sits astride the Yenesei River and is the country's largest hydroelectric plant.

August 13th, 2009 MAKHACHKALA - Six people, including four police personnel and two civilians, were killed in an attack on a police post in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan Thursday, an interior ministry official said. "Unidentified gunmen with automatic weapons opened fire at a police post killing four officers.

July 17th, 2009 Police: Slain Jesuit in Moscow made sex advanceMOSCOW — Russian investigators says two Jesuit priests found dead last year were killed by a drunk man who was solicited for sex by one of them. The bodies of Russian Otto Messmer and Victor Betancourt of Ecuador were found on Oct.

July 15th, 2009 Russian activist abducted in Chechnya found deadMOSCOW — A prominent Russian activist who investigated abductions, killings and other rights abuses in Chechnya was found killed Wednesday, hours after being kidnapped in the Chechen capital, police officials and her organization said. Natalya Estemirova's body was found in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya to the west, Oleg Orlov, the chairman of Memorial, her rights group, told The Associated Press.

June 14th, 2009 Ohio boy left alone with body for days, police sayCOLUMBUS, Ohio — Police have found a young boy who was left alone in an apartment with a man's body for as many as five days. The boy, who is about 3 or 4 years old, and the body were discovered in an apartment in Columbus on Saturday.

May 10th, 2009 Report: gas pipeline explosion in MoscowMOSCOW — Russian news agencies are reporting a giant explosion and fire at a gas pipeline near a gasoline filling station in southeast Moscow. Interfax cited Russia's Interior Ministry as saying that at least three people are being treated for burns.

May 3rd, 2009 Gas explosion in Siberian apartment block kills 8MOSCOW — A gas explosion tore through a Siberian apartment block early Sunday and sparked a fire that engulfed the building, killing eight people, including two children, Russian media reported. Separately on Sunday, a gas canister blast killed one person in St.

April 27th, 2009 Moscow policeman opens fire in public, kills 3MOSCOW — A Moscow district police chief opened fire on the street and in a supermarket early Monday, killing three people and wounding seven others — four of them critically, Russian investigators said. Police Maj. Denis Yevsyukov, who heads a southern Moscow police department, opened fire just after midnight and was detained after killing a driver, a supermarket cashier and customer, federal investigators said in a statement.

April 25th, 2009 BERLIN - A lost Russian bomb from the Second World War was discovered Friday just outside the Berlin apartment of Chancellor Angela Merkel, triggering a city-centre lockdown as bomb-disposal experts set about defusing it. The 100-kg bomb was discovered just 10 cm below the sandy surface of a museum forecourt.

April 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - A 50-year-old man was burnt to death and at least 150 shanties were gutted when a fire broke out in a slum area of southwest Delhi Tuesday afternoon, officials said. According to Delhi Fire Service officials, the fire was reported from the slums in Shahbad Dairy area around 3.10 p.m.

April 8th, 2009 MOSCOW - A 22-year-old Russian man suffered minor injuries after leaping out of a fifth-storey window twice following a drinking binge, Russia's Life.ru news website reported Wednesday. Together with two friends, the jumper, identified only as Alexei, drank three bottles of vodka.

January 31st, 2009 MOSCOW - At least 25 people were killed in a fire at a retirement home in northwest Russia Saturday. Authorities said the exact number of people injured and rescued from the fire in the region of Komi was unclear as rescue operations were still ongoing.

January 16th, 2009 DUBAI - A fire at an apartment building in Sharjah claimed the life of an Indian woman while five members of her family had to be hospitalised. The 27-year-old Indian woman died due to asphyxiation after the fire caused by a short circuit broke out in the family's apartment in the Al Badawi building in the Al Nahda area of Sharjah late Friday afternoon.

December 24th, 2008 SIMFEROPOL - Nine people have been killed in an explosion in a building in southern Ukraine, UNIAN news agency reported Thursday. The powerful explosion, which is believed to have been caused by cooking gas, ripped through the five-storey apartment block Wednesday in a quiet suburb in the town of Yevpatoriya late Wednesday.