WORLD IN BRIEF

Spanish Police Uncover New Explosives Cache

MADRID -- Police found more than 300 pounds of explosives Saturday in the Basque and Navarra regions in northern Spain, the second such haul in four days, officials said.

Basque police are on maximum alert following the arrest of eight suspected members of the armed separatist group ETA and the discovery of explosives and other bombmaking equipment Wednesday.

ETA has waged a campaign for independence for the Basque region over four decades, killing about 800 people. In December the group broke a nine-month cease-fire by blowing up a Madrid airport parking garage, killing two people.

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THE MIDDLE EAST

· JERUSALEM -- Israel's prime minister said he's not ready to order a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, despite the military's warnings of a Hamas arms buildup in the coastal territory.

Hamas has exploited a period of relative calm to smuggle large numbers of antitank missiles and 30 tons of weapons-grade explosives into Gaza, using tunnels under the border with Egypt, Israeli security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.

Hamas dismissed the claims as Israeli propaganda.

ASIA

· BEIJING -- Chinese police have detained 10 people in connection with the collapse of a Beijing subway tunnel being built for the 2008 Olympics that killed six workers, the New China News Agency reported Sunday.

The accident happened on Wednesday, but the construction firm failed to report it for nearly eight hours and tried to rescue the trapped workers on its own.

Project managers also ordered workers not to talk to media or police and confiscated their mobile phones, the report said, adding that the project supervisor and tunnel designers were among those detained.

· HANOI -- Vietnam's prime minister has ordered a global investigation into mysterious oil spills that have blackened some of the country's most popular beaches after ruling out the country's oil rigs.