Deadly attack targets U.S. troop convoy
KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. military convoy in eastern Afghanistan came under attack Friday when a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives near the troops, killing four Afghan civilians and wounding 10 others, the latest sign that the Taliban insurgency is ramping up its assaults after a brief winter lull.
No American soldiers were killed or wounded, said Nangarhar Province police.
In a second attack Friday, a roadside bomb in eastern Ghazni province killed 12 passengers travelling in a minivan. All the victims — six women and six men — were from a single family, said Mohammad Ali, the deputy provincial governor. “It is the work of the Taliban,” he added.
Friday’s attack was the second assault against U.S. forces in Jalalabad this week. On Wednesday, an Afghan in military uniform, in a suspected “insider attack,” opened fire on a group of American soldiers protecting a U.S. Embassy diplomatic mission, killing one American soldier and wounding several others. U.S. troops subsequently killed the assailant in return fire.
Soldiers kill Palestinian
HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli troops killed a Palestinian stone-thrower and wounded several others in the occupied West Bank on Friday after a militant’s funeral turned violent, hospital officials and witnesses said.
An army spokeswoman confirmed soldiers opened fire during the incident at Beit Omar, near the Palestinian city of Hebron, saying protesters threw rocks and petrol bombs and rolled burning car tires at them.
The slain 27-year-old Palestinian was a relative of the Islamic Jihad militant who was being buried. Their family said the militant had died of health problems that were neglected during his incarceration in an Israeli prison.
Kenya boosts security
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s Interior Ministry said Friday that it’s boosting security measures in the capital of Nairobi and Mombasa, home to East Africa’s biggest port, after last week’s Islamist militant attack on a northeastern university that left at least 147 people dead.
The deadliest attack on the East African nation since al- Qaida bombed the U.S. Embassy almost 17 years ago has shaken a city still recovering from al-Shabab’s 2013 assault on Westgate, an upscale shopping mall. That attack left at least 67 people dead.
Brazilian ex-pols arrested
CURITIBA, Brazil — Brazilian police arrested three former congressmen on Friday, broadening their corruption investigation beyond state-run oil firm Petrobras to state lender Caixa Economica Federal and the federal health ministry.
The investigation has shaken President Dilma Rousseff’s government and threatens to further slow a stagnant economy, excluding the country’s top engineering firms from contracts with Petrobras.
Also in the world …
A Tanzanian business federation plans to test unmanned aerial vehicles in the Selous Game Reserve to assess their effectiveness in combating elephant poaching. … China wants to recruit 10 million young people, mostly university students belonging to the Communist Party’s youth wing, to “spread positive energy” on the Internet — in other words, to use social media to praise and defend the government.