KABUL, Afghanistan -- Three foreign workers were abducted and killed Thursday in Kabul, their bodies later found in one of the city's more dangerous neighborhoods, officials said. Meanwhile, a Taliban attack in northern Afghanistan left three policemen dead.
It was not known who was behind the Kabul abductions and killing and no militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.
The Kabul police chief's spokesman, Hashmat Stanekzia, said the bodies were left in Mussahi, a volatile area of the Afghan capital. The police were investigating.
According to police officer Jan Aga, the three worked as cooks at the Kabul airport and were of Indian, Malaysian and Macedonian nationality.
And in northern Balkh province, the Taliban attacked a police outpost on Wednesday night, killing three policemen and wounding four others in Chamtal district, said Sher Jan Durani, the province's police spokesman.
At least 10 Taliban fighters were killed in the gunbattle that broke out, he said.
Elsewhere in Kabul province, an Afghan army helicopter crash landed because of a technical malfunction Thursday, killing the pilot and injuring five officers on board, according to Mohammad Radmanish, the Defense Ministry's spokesman.
Medical-school sex bias cited in Japan
TOKYO -- A Japanese medical university has systematically discriminated against female applicants because women tend to quit as doctors after starting families, causing hospital staffing shortages, media reports said Thursday.
The Yomiuri newspaper said Tokyo Medical University has manipulated the entrance exam results of women since about 2011 to keep the female student population low. Quoting unidentified sources, it said the manipulation started after the share of successful female applicants reached 38 percent of the total in 2010.
Other Japanese media outlets, including NHK public television and Kyodo News, also reported the exam manipulation. Quoting unnamed sources, NHK said female applicants' scores were slashed by about 10 percent in some years.
The allegation surfaced during the school's probe of a separate scandal in which its former director was accused of granting admission to the son of a top education bureaucrat in exchange for a favor.
The school's public affairs department said officials were surprised by the Yomiuri report and had no knowledge of the reported manipulation.
Colombia lets 440,000 Venezuelans stay
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has granted 440,000 refugees from crisis-stricken Venezuela two years of help.
Santos said Thursday that the Venezuelans can study, work and get medical care. He granted them temporary residency permits.
Venezuela is in the grips of a five-year crisis under the rule of socialist President Nicolas Maduro, marked by a shortage of food and medicine that's driving masses across borders.
Santos condemns Maduro for the crisis, saying it burdens neighboring countries like Colombia.
Santos has urged Maduro to allow international humanitarian relief to ease suffering in Venezuela and slow the flow of migrants.
Maduro has refused international help, either denying a crisis exists or saying it would allow in imperialist invaders.
28 deaths reported in Yemen port strike
SANAA, Yemen -- Yemeni medical officials said the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Shiite rebels conducted airstrikes in the rebel-held port city of Hodeida on Thursday, killing at least 28 people and wounding 70. But the coalition denied carrying out any attacks in the city.
The airstrikes took place close to the city's main public hospital, al-Thawra, situated near a popular fish market, the officials said. The wounded, mostly civilians, were hospitalized. The medical officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
The rebel-run Al Masirah TV reported that airstrikes killed 52 people and left more than 100 wounded.
The coalition's spokesman, Col. Turki al-Malki, told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite news channel that it didn't carry out any attacks on Hodeida and blamed the attacks on the rebels, known as Houthis. He said the coalition "follows a strict and transparent approach based on the rules international law."
U.N. special envoy Martin Griffiths has held talks with both sides in recent weeks in the hopes of preventing a full-scale coalition assault on Hodeida.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/03/2018