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Police officers examine the debris after an explosion Friday in Quetta, Pakistan.
Police officers examine the debris after an explosion Friday in Quetta, Pakistan.

Four attacks in Pakistan claim 40 lives

photo

AP/Yonhap

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (second from right) watches Friday’s launch of a Hyunmoo-2 missile.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least 40 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded Friday in four separate bomb and gun attacks in three major Pakistani cities, officials said.

A suicide bomber was involved in the first attack near the office of the provincial police chief in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 12 people and wounded 20. There were conflicting claims of responsibility for the carbomb attack from different extremist groups.

Hours later twin bombings, minutes apart, hit a crowded market in Shiite-dominated Parachinar, the main city in the Kurram tribal region, and killed 24 people, mostly minority Shiite Muslims, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain.

Mohammad Amir, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said more than 20 of the wounded in the bombings were listed in critical condition.

Friday evening, gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant and killed four of them before fleeing, according to senior police officer Asif Ahmed.

The bomb and gun attacks come a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan.

Norway warns Brazil over deforestation

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s prime minister warned Brazil’s president Friday to curb deforestation in the Amazon or Norway will reduce its financial contribution to the project this year.

The announcement comes as the Amazon and Atlantic rain forests are being cut down at the fastest rate in nearly a decade, according to official Brazilian figures.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Norway’s more than $1 billion contribution to the so-called Amazon fund is “based on results,” Norway’s NTB news agency said. Since 2001, Norway has donated billions to encourage the conservation of forests.

“If preliminary figures about deforestation in 2016 are confirmed, it will lead to a reduced payout in 2017,” Solberg said after meeting with Brazilian President Michel Temer in Oslo.

Temer praised Norway’s contribution to the fund but declined to take questions from the media.

Last year, deforestation in the Amazon jumped 29 percent over the previous year, according to the Brazilian government’s satellite monitoring. That was the highest rate since 2008.

Deal in Syria cure for exodus, China says

BEIRUT — China’s foreign minister called Friday for a political solution to end Syria’s six-year crisis, saying that once the country’s security conditions begin to improve, refugees will start returning to their country.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi made his comments in Beirut during a news conference with his Lebanese counterpart, Gibran Bassil.

Some 1.5 million Syrian refugees who fled their country’s conflict are believed to be living in Lebanon, equal to about a third of the Mediterranean country’s population of 4.5 million people.

Bassil described the presence of refugees as an “existential threat” to Lebanon, calling for a swift return of refugees to their country.

Wang said China has given Beirut aid in the past “and we will continue to give such assistance to Lebanon in accordance with Lebanon’s needs.”

“There should be a road map for a solution in Syria and that all parties should put the interest of the Syrian state and people first,” Wang said. “As the situation improves in Syria, it is natural that the refugees begin to return to their country.”

S. Korea test-fires midrange missile

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday observed the test-firing of a new midrange missile being developed to counter North Korean threats, saying Seoul must be able to militarily “dominate” the North for future engagement to work.

It’s a twist on the typical pattern on the Korean Peninsula, where North Korean state media frequently issue reports about leader Kim Jong Un observing missile tests that it says are needed to combat South Korean and U.S. hostility.

Moon, a liberal who took office in May after a decade of conservative rule in South Korea, supports engagement with North Korea but was quoted after the launch as saying that “dialogue is only possible when we have a strong military, and engagement policies are only possible when we have the security capability to dominate North Korea.”

“Our people will feel proud and safe after seeing that our missile capability doesn’t trail North Korea’s,” Moon said, according to his spokesman, Park Soo-hyun.

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