The world in brief

LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “The cruelty of the

ballet world has become surprisingly pathological.” Anastasia Volochkova, a former Bolshoi Ballet ballerina, after a masked man threw acid in the face of Sergei Filin, the ballet’s artistic director Article, 2AAustralia wildfires kill 1, raze homes

SYDNEY - Wildfires raged across southern Australia on Friday, killing one man and destroying several homes, as firefighters battled dozens of blazes, a relentless heat wave adding misery to their tasks.

The man’s body was discovered in a burned-out car near the small town of Seaton, about 120 miles east of Melbourne in Victoria state, police said.

The man, who has not been identified, was the first person killed in the hundreds of wildfires that have been raging across the continent since the Australian summer began. A 61-year-old firefighter was found dead Sunday a few miles from a back-burning operation in the island state of Tasmania. Officials have not yet determined how he died.

Wildfires are common throughout Australia in the summer although recordhigh temperatures and dry conditions in many areas have added to the ferocity of some blazes.

Some relief was in sight, with cooler temperatures and rain predicted across much of the country’s southeast for the weekend. Still, many of the fires were expected to continue burning for weeks.

IRA ultras blamed

for letter bomb

DUBLIN - Postal workers intercepted a letter bomb addressed to a high-ranking Northern Ireland policeman Friday in a thwarted attack blamed on Irish Republican Army die-hards.

Chief Inspector Andy Lemon thanked the postal workers for spotting the suspicious letter before it reached him, and described it as an attempt to hurt or kill multiple officers in his station. He said it wasn’t clear which specific IRA splinter group was behind the bomb.

British Army experts dismantled the device during a security operation that snarled traffic for several hours in Strabane, a predominantly Irish Catholic town that is a power base for several IRA factions in the British territory. Lemon is the most senior officer to be targeted with a bomb in two decades.

The major IRA faction, the Provisionals, renounced violence and disarmed in 2005. But several breakaway factions, including at least two with members in Strabane, still mount occasional attacks.

As Jakarta drains, more rain on way

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Authorities were working Friday to repair a dike that collapsed amid floods that swamped the Indonesian capital as the waters gradually receded from the main streets of the teeming city.

But more monsoon rains were expected over Jakarta later Friday into today, raising the prospect of fresh flooding, said Fadli, an official at the country’s meteorology agency who goes by a single name.

Jakarta, a low-lying city on the sea, has long been prone to floods, but their scale has become worse over the last 10 years as infrastructure development has not kept pace with the city’s growth. Other Southeast Asian cities, Bangkok and Manila especially, have also proved vulnerable to widespread floods in recent years.

Authorities said the death toll had risen to 11, most electrocuted or drowned. Police were searching for at least three other people reported missing in the flooded basement of a building in central Jakarta.