Russian officials today said the death toll from a nightclub fire in the city of Perm had now risen to 121.

FLAGS flew at half mast and entertainment programmes were cancelled across Russia yesterday as the country mourned 113 victims of a weekend nightclub inferno and dozens more fought for their lives in hospitals.

FOUR people were ordered to remain in jail yesterday pending an investigation into a nightclub fire that killed at least 112 people in Russia’s worst blaze in decades, investigators said.

Four people were held in jail tonight pending an investigation into a nightclub fire that killed at least 112 people in Russia’s worst blaze in decades, investigators said.

President Dmitry Medvedev demanded that Russia tighten its notoriously lax fire codes after the deadliest blaze since the Soviet era killed at least 107 people celebrating in a nightclub with a decorative twig ceiling and single exit.

Russia’s top investigative body said the number of people who died in a nightclub fire in the Urals city of Perm has risen to 109.

An explosion and fire apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm early today, killing 101 people, according to news reports.

An explosion apparently caused by pyrotechnics tore through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm, killing more than 100 people, according to emergency officials quoted by state television.

AN explosion has torn through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm, killing at least 100 people, media reports say.

At least 15 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a nightclub explosion in the Russian city of Perm tonight.

A RUSSIAN-BORN German man was sentenced to life behind bars yesterday for the brutal murder of a pregnant headscarved Egyptian woman, a crime that sparked outrage in the Muslim world.

The pilot of the Aeroflot jet that crashed, killing all 88 people on board, ignored commands from air traffic controllers, probably contributing to Russia’s worst air disaster in two years, according to reports.

RUSSIAN investigators yesterday sifted through the wreckage of an Aeroflot jet that crashed in the Ural mountains killing all 88 people on board, as the region marked a day of mourning.

An engine fire appeared today to be the cause of a Russian jet crash that killed all 88 people on board.

A passenger jet travelling from Moscow to the Ural Mountains city of Perm crashed while preparing to land early today, killing all 88 people aboard, officials said.

A passenger jet travelling from Moscow to the Ural Mountains city of Perm crashed as it was preparing to land early today, killing all 88 people aboard, officials said.

A concrete roof over a swimming pool in the Ural Mountains region collapsed today, killing at least three people – including two children – and injuring 11 others, an emergency official said.

Residents of three sparsely populated Siberian regions have voted to reunite in a resource-rich territory that will be larger than Western Europe, Russian media reported today, extending the trend to increased Kremlin control over the country’s far-flung provinces.

Nineteen-year-old Limerick southpaw Andy Lee has earned a medal at the European Championships in Pula, Croatia this evening.

Two Russian airliners today radioed hijacking alarms, but the signals were transmitted in error and the planes landed safely at their destination, a spokesman for the airline said.