An explosion targeting Afghanistan’s energy minister outside a girls school killed four civilians in the country’s far west, police said. A Taliban official claimed responsibility for the blast yesterday morning.
Taliban assassination attempts against officials have intensified this year, with more than 100 officials and pro-government tribal elders attacked — half of them fatally.
The convoy carrying Afghan Energy Minister Ismail Khan, a power broker in the western region of Herat, was headed to the airport when the bomb exploded outside the high school, said Raouf Ahmadi, a police spokesman. Ahmadi said four civilians died and 17 people were wounded, including four of Khan’s bodyguards.
PHOTO: EPA
He said Khan escaped unharmed and arrived safely at the airport.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for what he said was a car bomb targeting Khan, who was once governor of Herat, a western province bordering Iran. He said Khan was among the dead, though Mujahid’s claims often turn out to be false.
The Taliban assassination campaign is a strong sign of deteriorating security in the country, where a record number of US and NATO troops have also died this year. The Obama administration is now debating whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan as its government faces allegations of widespread fraud from the disputed Aug. 20 presidential election.
Afghanistan’s election organizers on Saturday released preliminary results for 30 of the country’s 34 provinces, more than a month after nationwide voting.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said turnout was 37.8 percent, slightly higher than the 37.7 percent who took part in the presidential poll.
A total of 3,339 candidates contested 420 seats. Results announced Saturday show that 251 men and 106 women were elected.
A quarter of the provincial council seats were reserved for women.
At least four candidates were killed during the campaign.
“These results are preliminary and may change based on ECC [Electoral Complaints Commission] decisions,” an IEC statement said.
“The IEC will announce the final results as soon as they have received and implemented the final decisions of the ECC,” it said.
The statement added that results from the remaining four provinces would be announced “soon.”
The polls have been mired in controversy, with complaints of irregularities.
The ECC is investigating thousands of fraud claims in the presidential election, only the second in Afghanistan’s turbulent history.
Preliminary results from the presidential poll show incumbent Hamid Karzai leading with 54.6 percent of the vote, against 27.8 percent for his main rival, former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS