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Afghan security personnel examine the site of Tuesday’s deadly explosion in Kandahar.
Afghan security personnel examine the site of Tuesday’s deadly explosion in Kandahar.

Explosion kills 16 Afghans, injures 38

KABUL, Afghanistan -- At least 16 people were killed Tuesday when Afghan security forces tried to dispose of a container full of explosives found in the southern city of Kandahar, officials said.

Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor, said four security forces were among those killed. He said another 38 people, including at least five small children, were wounded in the explosion.

Dozens of shops and nearby homes were destroyed or damaged, and the death toll could rise, he said.

The explosives were found in a cluster of car mechanic shops. It was unclear who placed them there.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban carried out attacks late Monday in eastern Ghazni province, killing at least 14 police officers, including a district police chief and a reserve unit's commander, according to provincial council member Hassan Reza Yusoufi.

The attacks continued Tuesday in four districts, according to Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, who said 12 other security forces were wounded.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks across the country since announcing the annual spring offensive last month. An Islamic State affiliate also has carried out a number of large bombings in recent months, mainly targeting the country's Shiite minority.

Sub's ICBM test a success, Russia says

MOSCOW -- A Russian nuclear-powered submarine successfully test-fired four intercontinental ballistic missiles on Tuesday, the navy said.

The navy said the submarine, named Yuri Dolgoruky after the medieval prince who founded Moscow, launched the Bulava missiles in a single salvo from a submerged position in the White Sea. The navy said the mock warheads the missiles carried reached their practice targets on the opposite side of Russia -- the Kura shooting range on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

The exercise marked the first simultaneous launch of four Bulava missiles, which can carry multiple nuclear warheads and have a range of up to about 5,770 miles.

The Bulava has been commissioned by the Russian navy after a long cycle of development. Russian officials said the missile has quicker start than its predecessors, helping it dodge missile defenses.

The Yuri Dolgoruky is one of the three new Borei-class submarines the Russian navy has built. Another five such submarines are under construction to gradually replace some of the older Soviet-built ones.

Saudi rights activists reportedly jailed

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Saudi Arabia is holding and interrogating at least 10 women's-rights activists -- seven women and three men -- without any access to lawyers, according to people familiar with the arrests.

The detentions are seen as a culmination of a steady crackdown on perceived critics of the government.

People familiar with the arrests say the activists were allowed just one phone call to worried relatives a week ago, and that one of the women has been entirely barred from communicating. They spoke late Monday on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions.

The sweep began May 15, when police detained the 10, some of them in the capital, Riyadh, and transferred them to the city of Jiddah. Their exact whereabouts now are unknown. Saudi media reports say the arrests were carried out by forces from the Presidency of State Security, a body that reports directly to the king and crown prince.

The arrests cast a pall over recent social openings being pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, including a historic decision to lift on June 24 the world's only ban on women driving.

Amnesty International said Mohammed's promises of change "fall flat amid the intensifying crackdown on dissenting voices in the kingdom."

Assassination try fails in Mexican city

MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen for an organized crime gang tried to kill a state official, wounding him, three police officers and four civilians, authorities in Mexico's second-largest city said.

Jalisco state Gov. Aristoteles Sandoval said Monday that the attack in the center of Guadalajara was aimed at Luis Carlos Najera, the state labor secretary who previously served three decades as a police officer and state prosecutor. He said Najera suffered a hand wound.

Sandoval said police captured six suspects and recovered "a large arsenal" of weapons. He said those detained claimed to belong to an elite group working for a crime organization operating in Jalisco.

The governor did not identify the gang, but Jalisco state is home ground for the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel.

A Section on 05/23/2018

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