Kabul car bomb leaves 7 dead, 41 hurt
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A car bomb went off Friday as worshippers were leaving a Kabul mosque, killing at least seven people and wounding 41, including several children, a Taliban official said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.
A Taliban-appointed Interior Ministry spokesman, Abdul Nafi Takor, said the vehicle with explosives was parked by the roadside near the mosque and detonated as worshippers were coming out after Friday prayers. He added that an investigation was underway, with police at the site.
The Italian Emergency Hospital, one of Kabul's clinics that treated the victims, said it received 14 casualties from the site, with four dead on arrival.
"Targeting mosques and worshippers is an unforgivable crime. The nation should cooperate with the regime in eliminating criminals," said Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
Crew abandons migrant boat as it sinks
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Two Cambodian crew members abandoned their boat with 41 Chinese nationals on board as it sank in the Gulf of Thailand, leaving at least one person dead and 19 missing, authorities said Friday.
The small wooden fishing vessel foundered Thursday morning near Cambodia's Koh Tang island.
Eighteen people were rescued at the time but another 23 were reported missing. Three men were found alive Friday and a woman was found dead, according to provincial government spokesperson Kheang Phearom.
Provincial police chief Gen. Chuon Narin told local media that the group of passengers had set off Sept. 11 from the Chinese port of Guangzhou on a speedboat and had been transferred Sept. 17 to the Cambodian fishing boat in international waters.
The boat had been close to its destination of the Cambodian province of Sihanoukville when its engine stopped and it began to sink, he said.
Another Cambodian boat arrived and rescued the two Cambodian crew, leaving the Chinese passengers to fend for themselves, Chuon Narin said. The two Cambodians were arrested and were being questioned by police.
It was not immediately clear why the Chinese were being brought to Cambodia, but Cambodian National Police deputy chief Gen. Chhay Sinarith said last month that authorities in recent years have uncovered numerous illegal online schemes luring workers to the country.
Pakistanis fight illness after flooding
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan deployed thousands more doctors and medics to battle the outbreak of disease as the death toll from the unprecedented floods that have gripped the country this summer surpassed 1,600 Friday, officials said.
The disaster management agency said 10 more people had died from the floods in the past 24 hours -- four in Sindh, the worst-hit province in the deluge, and six in Baluchistan province -- bringing the overall number of fatalities to 1,606 across Pakistan.
Some of the doctors who refused to work in Sindh province have been fired by the government, according to the provincial health department. Floods have killed 728 people, including 313 children and 134 women in the province since July.
Over the past two months, Pakistan sent nearly 10,000 medical staff to tend to survivors in across Sindh. About 18,000 doctors and nearly 38,000 paramedics are treating survivors in the province, according to the latest data from the health department.
Waterborne and other diseases in the past two months have killed 334 flood victims, authorities said.
Also Friday in Sindh, teams of fumigators fanned out across flood-hit areas, spraying in an effort to keep mosquitoes at bay and prevent further outbreaks of dengue fever and malaria. Over 134,000 cases of diarrhea and 44,000 cases of malaria were reported in the hardest-hit areas of Sindh this past week.
Dengue fever is also on the rise, especially in Karachi, the provincial capital, where health teams were spraying insecticide onto puddles of water in the streets.
Cancel Abe's funeral, protesters insist
TOKYO -- Several hundred protesters demanded the cancellation of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's state funeral as they shouted slogans and waved banners Friday in a Tokyo park.
Abe, who was assassinated in July, was Japan's longest-serving leader and one of its most divisive in the postwar period because of what critics call an autocratic approach and cronyism.
Opposition to the state funeral has also grown because of politicians' close ties to the Unification Church.
Social media posts attributed to the suspect in Abe's assassination show he blamed the church for ruining his life. Police say he targeted Abe over his links to the organization.
The government's plans for his state funeral to be held Tuesday have galvanized public opposition against the governing Liberal Democratic party, which has ruled Japan for nearly the entire postwar period.
Protests and marches opposing the state funeral have been popping up nationwide.