QUOTE OF THE DAY
“That will be their cemetery. It is not possible to bring out any bodies.”
Afghan Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili, who on Saturday visited the scene of a landslide that buried a village in Badakhshan province and killed hundreds Article, 9A
Grenade blast kills 3 in Kenya attack
NAIROBI, Kenya - At least three people were killed in a grenade blast in one of two explosions Saturday along the coast of Kenya, an east African country working to crack down on a recent wave of terrorist attacks.
Authorities said the grenade blast at a bus stop in Mwembe Tayari, in the coastal city of Mombasa, also injured seven people. Separately, a bag with an improvised explosive device was spotted near the coastal Reef Hotel in Nyali, and passers-by noticed in time to take cover before it detonated, the Interior Ministry said. No fatalities were immediately reported there.
Ranjit Sondhi, a director at the hotel, said the building was not damaged and that the blast occurred on a nearby public beach - with much of the impact absorbed by a wall.
Kenya has been hit by a wave of gun and explosives attacks since it sent troops to neighboring Somalia to fight al-Shabab militants in 2011. The al-Qaida-linked militants have vowed to carry out terrorist attacks on Kenyan soil to avenge the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia. Since last month, Kenya has been conducting a security operation in response to the attacks.
Train told ‘go’ before S. Korea crash
SEOUL, South Korea - A subway train got a faulty “go” signal before it plowed into another train in the South Korean capital, injuring more than 240 people, the subway operator said Saturday.
Although the case is still under investigation, the malfunction in the automatic distance control system is presumed to have caused the crash Friday afternoon, said Chang Jung-woo, chief executive officer of Seoul Metro.
“Normally, the signal should be given in the order of ‘stop’ and then ‘caution.’ But at the time of the accident the signal was given in the order of ‘stop,’ and then ‘go ahead,’” Chang said.
The driver of the moving train applied its emergency brakes after noticing the stopped train ahead but wasn’t able to halt it in time, Chang said.
Hospitals treated 249 people, mostly for bruises and minor injuries, though three had surgeries for broken bones, according to Seoul Metro.
S. Sudan leader agrees to peace talks
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir agreed to have talks with rebel leader Riek Machar, as the U.N. Security Council is seeking to end a four-month conflict mired in ethnic violence.
Kiir, who met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the president’s office in Juba on Friday, said he’s committed to “take forceful steps in order to move to end the violence and implement the cessation-of-hostilities agreement and to begin to engage on a discussion with respect to a transition government,” Kerry said after the 90-minute meeting.
Machar said he sees no reason to meet with Kiir. “What are we going to discuss, the genocide? Or the root cause of the problems?” he said. “If he’s serious, then the delegation would have resolved it,” Machar said, referring to negotiations in Ethiopia between the government and rebels.
South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, has been wracked by targeted ethnic violence since December when Kiir, a member of the Dinka ethnic group, accused Machar, an ethnic Nuer and former vice president, of plotting a coup that failed. Machar and his allies deny the accusation.
Bomb leaves 5 dead in Somali capital
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Five people died and six others were wounded when a bomb exploded in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, an official said Saturday.
A top police officer, who was the apparent target of the attack, was among the five killed, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior police official.
Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebel group, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack that killed officer Abdikafi Hilowle.
The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants are waging an insurgency against Somalia’s government.
Al-Shabab has resorted to terrorist attacks in Mogadishu since African Union troops backing the Somali government pushed the militants from the city in 2011. Somalia is struggling to rebuild from two decades of conflict after the ouster of dictator Siad Barre in 1991.
Saturday’s blast came hours after Somali police foiled an assassination attempt on a Somali legislator in which suspected militants planted a bomb in his car. Security forces removed the bomb and detonated it after they were tipped off, Hussein said.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 05/04/2014