WORLD NEWS BRIEFS

KASHMIR / 7 civilians killed at protest

Government troops fired live ammunition and tear gas into crowds of anti-India protesters Monday as tens of thousands demonstrated across Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. Seven civilians were reported killed. More than 60 protesters and almost 70 government forces were hurt on one of the worst days in nearly two months of violent clashes between troops and residents who strongly oppose India's rule over the predominantly Muslim region. Kashmir's top elected official, Omar Abdullah, met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Monday to discuss defusing the crisis that has caused 40 deaths over seven weeks.

PERU / Plague outbreak kills boy

Peru's health minister says an outbreak of plague has killed a 14-year-old boy and infected at least 31 people in a northern coastal province. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte says authorities are screening sugar and fish meal exports from Ascope province, south of the city of Trujillo. He says the boy, who had Down syndrome, died of bubonic plague July 26. Ugarte said Monday most of the infections are bubonic plague, with four cases of pneumonic plague.

RUSSIA / 15 killed in plane crash

Russia's Emergencies Ministry said a passenger plane crashed Monday near a city in northern Siberia, killing 15 people onboard. Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andryanova said the Antonov-24 twin turboprop went down while approaching an airport in Igarka, about 1500 miles east of Moscow. She said the plane arrived from the regional capital, Krasnoyarsk.

RUSSIA / Wildfire deaths rise to 40

The death toll from wildfires raging across central and western Russia rose to 40 on Monday, as Muscovites coughed through a haze of smoke from burning peat bogs and firefighters tried to douse hundreds of new blazes. The fires come after weeks of heat and severe drought, which has destroyed one-fifth of the nation's wheat crop.