● INDONESIA. Floods, landslide kill 15 in town. At least 15 people were killed yesterday when a landslide and floods triggered by weeks of torrential rain swept through a town on Indonesia?s Java island, a government official said. At least 13 died when a torrent of mud buried homes in the East Java town of Trenggalek, nearly 600 km east of Jakarta, the town?s regent, Soeharto, told Reuters. Another two people were swept away by floodwaters. ?The flood happened after two weeks of successively heavy rain. Water levels reached 5 metres high,? Soeharto said. Residents have been asked to evacuate because of fears of more flooding.

● MOSCOW. Fire kills at least 11 at Russian building site. At least 11 workers were killed in a fire while sleeping at a temporary cabin on a building site near Moscow, Interfax news agency reported yesterday. Four others were hospitalised after the fire, which broke out in the early hours at a construction site near the town of Krasnogorsk, just north of Moscow.

The workers were from other regions of Russia, Interfax said, citing the Emergency Ministry. Migrant workers, attracted by Moscow?s building boom, often face grim conditions and employers frequently breach safety rules, officials and labour organisations have said.

● SINGAPORE. Parliament dissolves, election imminent. Singapore?s government dissolved parliament yesterday, paving the way for elections which will be the first real test of Prime Minister Loong?s leadership. The eldest son of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, was appointed to the post in August 2004.

The ruling People?s Action Party, which has dominated parliament since independence in 1965, had been widely expected to go to the polls before the June 2007 deadline to take advantage of the strength of the economy.