Around the World: Russia

Female mayor killed

An unknown attacker stabbed and killed the mayor of a town in northwest Russia, news agencies said yesterday.

Motives for the attack on Tuesday evening on the mayor of Kandalaksha, Nina Varlamova, are unclear, the source said. "An unknown person ran towards the mayor, who was leaving a house, stabbed her in the neck and fled," the source said. Kandalaksha is a town of about 50,000 people in the Arctic circle.

(China Daily 12/18/2008 page12)