NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
Afghan bombing: At least eight Afghan civilians were killed and three U.S. soldiers wounded Wednesday when a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy during the morning rush hour in Kabul, officials said. The explosion happened near one of the entrances of the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy at the center of the Afghan capital, as a convoy of U.S. soldiers passed through. An affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes amid fears of escalating violence as the resurgent Taliban have begun another spring offensive.
Mining accident: A large explosion struck a coal mine in northern Iran on Wednesday, killing at least 21 miners and trapping several others as rescue teams worked frantically through the day and into the night to reach them, officials said. Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Sadegh Ali Moghadam, the provincial director of disaster management, as saying that 21 bodies have been found following the explosion in Golestan province. Moghadam warned of the “possibility of the death toll rising” as authorities estimate that a total of 35 miners were inside the mine at the time of the explosion.
Possible sanctions: The Trump administration is warning that it might impose more sanctions on Venezuelan officials over President Nicolas Maduro’s push to rewrite the Constitution amid an escalating political crisis with near-daily demonstrations calling for his ouster. The warning comes as pressure is building on the Trump administration from the U.S. Congress to act more forcefully to rein in Maduro. On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators said it will introduce legislation providing humanitarian assistance to Venezuela while toughening sanctions against corrupt officials, according to Senate aides.
American detained: North Korea confirmed on Wednesday that it was holding an American citizen, saying the man was being held for committing “hostile criminal acts with an aim to subvert the country.” The dispatch by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency was its first official confirmation of the arrest of Kim Sangduk, who also goes by his American name, Tony Kim. Kim was detained at the airport in the capital, Pyongyang, on April 22 while trying to leave the country. His arrest raised the number of Americans thought to be held by the secretive nation to three. Kim had taught accounting at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China before traveling to Pyongyang, where he taught for about a month at a sister school, the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, according the university’s chancellor.
Vaccine debate: The vaccine debate in Italy has heated up across multiple fronts, as the country deals with an outbreak of measles, an invigorated antivaccination campaign and a scandal involving a nurse who claimed for years to vaccinate children but didn’t. Italian health authorities said Wednesday that they would recall up to 7,000 children in northern Italy to be revaccinated after determining that some children didn’t receive the necessary doses. As the real medical emergency played out, Italian politicians traded barbs over accusations that the populist 5-Star Movement had emboldened antivaccination campaigners at a time when Italy is dealing with a major measles outbreak that has drawn alarm from the European Union and U.S.