WORLD briefs

INDONESIA. A powerful underwater earthquake struck western Indonesia yesterday, injuring four people as they tried to flee, officials said. Indonesia's meteorological and geophysics agency said no tsunami warning was issued. The US Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 6.7, after initially measuring it at 7.0. It struck at 2:38 p.m. and was centered at a depth of 28 miles under the Indian Ocean seabed, about 70 miles west-southwest of the city of Padang on Sumatra island.

LONDON. The local government in the Caribbean territory of Turks and Caicos was ordered to be suspended following a long-running wrangle over alleged corruption, the British Foreign Office said. The move came five months after the premier of the eight-island tax haven resigned to make way for a unified government following a probe which found systemic corruption among the ruling elite.

MOSCOW. Two Russian air force jets rehearsing aerobatic maneuvers collided Sunday near Moscow, killing one stunt pilot and sending one fighter crashing into nearby vacation homes, a military official said. The jets collided near Zhukovsky airfield, east of Moscow, where the air show opens Tuesday.

TAIPEI. The first shipments of foreign aid arrived Sunday as Taiwan struggled to reach more than 1,000 people still stranded a week after its deadliest typhoon in half a century. Mao Chi-kuo, head of Taiwan's relief operation said 3,000 villagers had been airlifted over the weekend, leaving about 1,000 still stranded in the ruins of flooded and mudslide-hit villages. All together, 35,000 villagers have been rescued from 44 hard-hit villages in the south.

CALIFORNIA. California residents are being urged to follow orders to leave their homes as crews struggled to control nearly a dozen wildfires burning in areas with inaccessible terrain. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi declared a state of emergency for Santa Cruz County. The fire has blackened more than 10 square miles of remote wilderness since Wednesday and prompted mandatory evacuations of the mountain communities of Swanton and Bonny Doon, which have about 2,400 residents and several wineries. Twenty five firefighters have been injured.