WORLD IN BRIEF: Collapsed bridge kills workers

Earthquake evacuates thousands

A powerful earthquake struck waters off eastern Indonesia early today, briefly generating tsunami warnings for coastlines within 600 miles of the epicenter. Thousands of people in nearby coastal towns fled homes, hotels and hospitals in panic, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.

Envoy: Rebel leader vows to keep peace

A U.N. envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, said Sunday that Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda had promised to maintain a fragile cease-fire. Obasanjo’s announcement raised hopes that the warring sides would open peace talks in Kenya, but he gave no date and said face-to-face talks between Nkunda and Congolese President Joseph Kabila were unlikely.

More attacks from, on Gaza Strip

An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinian militants as they fired mortars from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, just hours after another group of militants struck Israel in a separate rocket attack. The violence was the latest in a surge of clashes that have rocked a 5-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers. Both sides say they would like to preserve the Egyptian-mediated truce, which is due to expire next month, but events over the past two weeks signal the opposite is happening.

New party seen as friendly to Kremlin

A new Kremlin-friendly party emerged Sunday in Russia, creating itself from the ashes of a once-leading opposition party and two smaller groups. The ostensibly pro-business Right Cause party is widely seen as a government effort to create a loyal group that could lure opposition-minded voters and to kill off the Union of Right Forces, which in recent years had adopted a tough anti-Kremlin line. Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion and vocal Kremlin critic, called the new party part of “the Kremlin’s puppet theater.”

Dalai Lama-called exiles hold meeting

Several hundred Tibetan exile leaders gathered in Dharmsala, India, on Sunday for a landmark meeting widely expected to determine the direction of the movement that has struggled for decades to win autonomy from China. The weeklong meeting that begins today was called by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, who said new ideas were needed after the repeated failure of talks with China.

New freighter taken by pirates

In the latest in a series of bold hijackings, pirates seized the Japanese-owned freighter Chemstar Venus with a cargo of unidentified chemicals and 23 crew members —- five South Koreans and 18 Filipinos —- off the coast of Somalia over the weekend. Separately, other Somali pirates released an earlier-seized cargo vessel —- the Japanese-owned Stolt Valor —- and 18 Indian crew members after being paid a ransom. And Russia’s navy said its guided-missile frigate Neustrashimy, or Intrepid, repelled a pirate attack on a Saudi ship, the Rabih.

Islamic group beats traditional dancers

A spokesman for a Somali Islamic group said 32 traditional dancers were publicly whipped because it is “un-Islamic” for men and women to dance together. Abdirahim Isse Addow said officials of the Council of Islamic Courts on Saturday flogged the dancers in the southern town of Balad. Witness Abdalla Hussein Yahya said 24 of the dancers were women. Islamic insurgents now control much of southern Somalia, and Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf over the weekend said his government was “on the verge of collapse.”

Minority gets first Cabinet seats

A party representing New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people will get its first Cabinet posts under a multiparty deal Prime Minister-elect John Key signed Sunday to form a center-right minority government. The new government will be sworn in Wednesday.