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220 charred as vandals trigger fire

CAIRO, Oct 19 (PTI) — More than 220 persons were killed and hundreds hospitalised when vandals looting a transnational oil pipeline triggered a fire which ripped through several villages in southern Nigeria, reports reaching here said.

Most of the dead included farmers who were sleeping at the time of the incident yesterday.

A mass burial has been ordered for the victims whose bodies were charred beyond recognition, reports from Lagos said.

The death toll could be higher as many of the injured had received severe burns, the reports said.

The fire which began near the town of Jesse in south-eastern Delta states 900 km northeast of Lagos, has not yet been brought under control, the reports said.

The pipeline, which is above ground, links an oil refinery in the southeastern coastal city of Warri with the northern city of Kaduna, 600 km away. It was not yet known how the vandals could have started the fire.

Georgian soldiers rebel, block road

MOSCOW, Oct 19 (DPA) — Around 200 soldiers from an army unit in western Georgia rebelled today and blocked a road with armoured vehicles, Russian media reported.

It was not immediately clear what the soldiers were demanding. President Eduaro Shevardnadze ordered the rebels to surrender, threatening to use force if they did not.

The rebels, led by former commander Akaki Eliawa, a close friend of former president Sviad Gamsakhurdia, were reportedly using about 13 tanks and armoured vehicles for the blockade,

Defence Minister David Tevasadze and state security minister Jemal Gakhokidze have flown to the region.

Oil pipeline bombing kills 45

BOGOTA, Oct 19 (Reuters) — At least 45 persons were charred to death and 70 injured when Leftist rebels bombed Colombia's largest oil pipeline and blazing crude engulfed two entire villages, authorities said.

Most of the victims were women and children, who were sleeping when the explosion ripped apart a section of the 800-km-long Ocensa pipeline near the Gold-Mining villages of Machuca and Fraguas in northwest Antioquia province yesterday.