Roadside bomb kills 11 Afghans
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A roadside bomb in Afghanistan killed at least 11 people riding in a truck in the southern Kandahar province, provincial officials said Monday.
Ahmad Sadeq Essa, a deputy army spokesman in Kandahar, said that about 35 other civilians were wounded in the explosion in Khakrez district.
Yousof Younosi, a provincial council member in Kandahar, said that women and children were among those killed, but couldn't provide an exact breakdown. He said some of the wounded were in critical condition. All the victims were members of the same family and their close relatives who were on their way to a shrine, he said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Younosi blamed the Taliban, who often use roadside bombs to target Afghan security forces in the province.
Essa, the army spokesman, said, "The army only has a mobile clinic in Khakrez, and right now they are trying to transfer the wounded people to the regional hospital in Kandahar city for further treatment."
The violence comes despite stepped-up efforts by the United States to find a negotiated end to the country's current 18-year war.
Greek man held in Crete slaying
ATHENS, Greece -- A Greek man has been detained for questioning in the slaying of an American scientist on the island of Crete, police said Monday.
Authorities said the 27-year-old man detained Monday was one of 10 people interviewed over the weekend for the investigation of Suzanne Eaton's slaying. He was not named in accordance with Greek law.
Eaton, a 59-year-old molecular biologist, was attending a conference on Crete when she disappeared July 2. Her body was found six days later in a tunnel used as a storage site during World War II.
A coroner has said her death resulted from a criminal act. The coroner did not elaborate.
The detained man, police said, was being questioned in the port city of Chania in connection with the killing.
Homicide detectives traveled from Athens to the island to head the investigation. Police and Fire Service officials had taken part in an extensive search for Eaton, who is believed to have gone for a run before her disappearance.
Eaton was from New York state but had been living and working in Germany at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden.
2 Indonesians die in 7.3 earthquake
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A strong earthquake in eastern Indonesia killed two people and damaged at least dozens of homes, a disaster official said Monday, as the government declared a seven-day emergency response period.
The magnitude-7.3 quake on Sunday was centered 103 miles southeast of Ternate, the capital of North Maluku province, at a depth of just 6 miles. Shallow quakes can cause more damage.
National disaster agency spokesman Agus Wibowo said two women were killed by collapsing houses, and more than 2,000 people have fled to temporary shelters. The quake was followed by at least 65 smaller aftershocks.
The agency is still assessing the level of destruction but said two bridges and about 58 homes in one village alone, Saketa, were damaged.
Authorities said there was no tsunami risk from the quake, but many people ran to higher ground anyway. TV footage showed people screaming while running out of a shopping mall in Ternate.
The hardest-hit areas, Sofifi and Labuha, only can be accessed by a 10-hour boat trip from Ternate or by small plane, Wibowo said.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 07/16/2019