World Scene

RUSSIA

7 militants killed as troops raid house

ROSTOV-ON-DON — Hundreds of security officers stormed an apartment building yesterday in southern Russia, killing seven suspected Islamic extremists linked to Chechen rebels and ending a two-day standoff.

Black smoke billowed from the building in Nalchik, the regional capital of the province of Kabardino-Balkariya, near Chechnya, as police and Interior Ministry troops fired automatic weapons and hurled grenades. The gunmen returned fire, wounding two police officers, the Interior Ministry said.

After a five-hour shootout, authorities found seven bodies, Interior Ministry spokesman Alexei Polyansky said, including the wife of one of the militants and their 8-month-old child.

SOUTH KOREA

North suspected of buying nuke weapon

SEOUL — North Korea appears to have bought a complete nuclear weapon from either Pakistan or a former Soviet Union state, a South Korean newspaper said yesterday, quoting a source in Washington.

Seoul Shinmun quoted the source as saying the United States was checking the intelligence.

The purchase was apparently intended to avoid nuclear weapons testing that could be detected from the outside, the source was quoted as saying.

North Korea is believed to have one or two nuclear weapons and possibly more than eight.

INDONESIA

Aceh rebels agree to peace talks

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