Suicide bomber kills 4 in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy moving through Afghanistan's capital Sunday, killing at least four civilians and wounding more than 35 in an assault claimed by the Taliban, authorities said.
The blast struck two Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles in western Kabul, damaging a civilian car and leaving debris scattered across a highway lined by shops. NATO troops and Afghan soldiers cordoned off the scene after the blast.
Hashmat Stanikzai, a spokesman for Kabul's police chief, said the blast killed four civilians and wounded more than 35 people. NATO later said the blast wounded none of its troops, although it was investigating the attack.
"We sincerely regret the loss of the lives and injury to innocent Afghan civilians caused by the insurgents in this tragic incident," NATO said in a statement.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the bombing in a message to journalists.
18 surrender in deadly Chinese attacks
BEIJING -- Eighteen people who took part in violence that killed almost 100 people near China's border with Pakistan last month have turned themselves in to authorities, Chinese state media said Sunday.
Authorities say a terrorist gang attacked a police station and government buildings in Shache County near Kashgar on July 28, killing 37 people before police shot dead 59 of the attackers.
Xinjiang has experienced rising unrest in recent months blamed on militants from the region's native Uighur, a Muslim ethnic group that is seeking to overthrow Chinese rule. Of the 37 civilians who were killed, 35 were Han Chinese and two were Uighur, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It has not released any details about the attackers.
The Xinjiang Daily, the region's official newspaper, reported Sunday that 18 people had since surrendered because of a publicity campaign urging people to provide tips about who was involved in the violence. It said that most of the 18 were "ordinary people," some of whom had been incited or coerced into taking part in the violence without knowing the reasons for it, and that because they had surrendered would be dealt with "leniently."
Tropical storm exits Japan; 1 found dead
TOKYO -- A tropical storm moved out of Japan on Sunday after lashing the country with rain and wind, leaving one person dead and prompting evacuation orders for more than 1 million residents near swollen rivers.
Tropical Storm Halong also disrupted land and air traffic and injured dozens of people as Japan began its annual "Obon" Buddhist holiday week.
Originally a typhoon, Halong was downgraded to a tropical storm as it approached the southwest coast and made two landfalls -- over Shikoku Island and Hyogo prefecture in western Japan. It exited over the Sea of Japan from the northern coast near Kyoto on Sunday evening, and it was expected to lose more strength over the next 12 hours.
The storm was off the northern coast of Wajima City, about 250 miles northwest of Tokyo, on Sunday night.
Japan's Meteorological Agency lifted a heavy rain alert for Mie prefecture in central Japan, and evacuation orders for most residents in the region and other areas were withdrawn. About 200,000 people were still subject to evacuation in some areas, down from about 1.2 million earlier Sunday.
In Iwate prefecture in northern Japan, a 78-year-old man was found dead late Saturday in an irrigation canal at his farm, local police said.
Public broadcaster NHK said 78 people were injured in the storm.
Saudi man's death said not from Ebola
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A Saudi man who died last week after returning from Sierra Leone did not have the Ebola virus, according to initial international laboratory results, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said.
The ministry said late Saturday that samples submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came back negative for the Ebola virus, adding that samples were also sent for testing to a laboratory in Germany. The ministry said the CDC is conducting additional tests.
The 40-year-old Saudi national died Wednesday in a hospital isolation ward in the Saudi coastal city of Jiddah after showing symptoms of the viral hemorrhagic fever. He was the only suspected Ebola case in the kingdom and had just returned from a trip to affected Sierra Leone.
Ebola has killed more than 900 people this year in four countries in West Africa.
Saudi Arabia is not issuing visas this year to Muslim pilgrims from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea as a precaution to avoid the virus' spread during the hajj pilgrimage, which sees people from around the world gather in Mecca.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/11/2014