Briefs

Kabul bomb kills 35

A Taliban suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in the western part of Kabul yesterday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 40, and the death toll could rise, an Interior Ministry spokesman in the Afghan capital said. Police cordoned off the area, located near the house of the deputy government Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq in a part of the city where many of the mainly Shi’ite Hazara community live. The Taliban, which is battling the Western-backed government and a Nato-led coalition for control of Afghanistan, has launched a wave of attacks around the country in recent days, sparking fighting in more than half a dozen provinces.

Beijing scissor attack

Beijing police are hunting for a man suspected of stabbing five people and then ploughing into a group of nine others with a van, killing one and injuring eight, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The attack took place mid-afternoon on Sunday, local time. The suspect attacked the group of five people with scissors and then fled in a van, police said. Xinhua said the injured were being treated in hospital. The police did not give a possible motive for the incident but authorities and residents in the country’s political centre are sensitive to potential attacks.

Faulty airbags refitted

Car makers Toyota and Lexus have admitted to refitting cars in Australia with the same brand of potentially faulty airbags at the centre of a massive global safety recall. The competition watchdog has launched an investigation after consumer group Choice warned Australian drivers they could be sitting behind the wheel of ‘‘ticking time bombs’’ because several car makers had refitted vehicles with Takata airbags, despite links to 18 deaths worldwide. Toyota and Lexus yesterday confirmed they used Takata airbags as temporary replacements in some cases and would have to again refit those vehicles. ‘‘This action provided safety for a number of years, however, due to exposure to the environment over time, these airbags will need to be replaced again,’’ they said. Choice said Mazda, Lexus, BMW and Subaru had also refitted recalled vehicles with Takata airbags as a temporary measure following a global recall of the devices that began in 2009.