3 blasts at cricket match kill 8 Afghans
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Several bombs exploded nearly simultaneously at a cricket match in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, killing at least eight people, a provincial official said Saturday.
Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said about 45 others were wounded at the sports stadium late Friday in the provincial capital, Jalalabad.
The attack happened as hundreds of spectators gathered for a nighttime tournament during the holy month of Ramadan. Khogyani said the deputy provincial mayor of neighboring Laghman province and the main organizer of the tournament were among those killed.
In a statement, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the attack, saying that carrying out such an attack during the holy month proved once again that terrorists are not true believers of any religion or faith and "are enemies of humanity."
The three bombs exploded nearly at the same time, Khogyani said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both Taliban insurgents and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially in Nangarhar province.
Chinese bombers train at disputed sea
BEIJING -- The Chinese air force has landed long-range bombers for the first time at an airport in the South China Sea, a state newspaper said Saturday.
The China Daily newspaper reported that the air force conducted takeoff and landing training with the H-6K bomber in the South China Sea.
China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes in the South China Sea over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters that are crucial for global commerce. The area is also rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves. The landings were likely to further fuel concerns about China's expansive claims over the region.
A statement from the Defense Ministry late Friday said the exercise was conducted on an island reef, but it did not specify when or where, saying only that it took place recently at a "southern sea area." It involved several H-6Ks taking off from an air base and making a simulated strike against sea targets before landing, the ministry said.
The U.S. criticized the move.
"The United States remains committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific," a Pentagon spokesman, Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, said in an email. "We have seen these same reports, and China's continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serves to raise tensions and destabilize the region."
N. Korea insists South return 12 women
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea on Saturday reiterated its demands for South Korea to send back 12 North Korean restaurant workers who went to the South in 2016, saying such a move would demonstrate Seoul's willingness to improve relations.
The statement by North Korea's Red Cross came a week after Seoul said it would look more closely into the circumstances surrounding the women's arrival after a media report that suggested some of them might have been taken to the South against their will.
Last week, North Korea canceled a high-level meeting with the South over U.S.-South Korean military exercises and threatened to call off a planned summit between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and President Donald Trump.
The cancellation cooled what had been an unusual flurry of diplomatic moves from North Korea after a provocative year of nuclear and missile tests.
The North's Red Cross accused South Korean officials of evading responsibility and said Seoul should "severely punish those involved in the case, send our women citizens to their families without delay and thus show the will to improve the North-South ties."
Seoul had previously said it sufficiently confirmed the women's free will in escaping from the North and resettling in the South. North Korea had been accusing South Korea of abducting the women, who were working in China.
Two Gaza protesters die from wounds
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Gaza's Health Ministry said two Palestinians have died days after they were shot and wounded by Israeli gunfire during border protests.
The ministry said Saturday that the two, aged 20 and 58, had been in critical condition.
The two were shot on Monday, when Israeli troops killed 59 Palestinians in what turned out to be the deadliest day of cross-border violence in recent years. It marked the climax of weeks of mass protests at the border with Israel.
Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, says it aims to relax an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the territory through the protests.
In the weeks after the demonstrations began March 30, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,500 wounded by live fire, according to the Health Ministry.
A Section on 05/20/2018