China school blast kills two, hurts 34.

China school blast kills two, hurts 34.

The Australian News | 09 Sep 2013 :: AN explosion outside a primary school in China killed two people and injured at least 34 others on Monday, 26 of them schoolchildren, state-run media and a local official said.

The blast in Guilin, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south, occurred as a man riding a motorcycle passed the school gate while children were arriving for classes, China's official Xinhua news agency said.

"First, the motorcycle caught fire and then exploded with a tremendous noise that could be heard from far, far away," a witness told Xinhua.

The cause of the explosion was not clear.

A man and a woman were killed immediately and 34 of the injured, including 26 pupils and two infants, were taken to a military hospital in Guilin, Xinhua said. Five of them were in critical condition, it added.

It was not known if the motorcyclist was among the casualties.Other victims were taken to other hospitals, it said, and exact casualties were still to be determined.

Pictures posted online showed the mangled remains of a tricycle on the ground and a motorcycle in flames outside the school, while several people sat on the ground bleeding.

A local official in Lingchaun County, where the explosion occurred, confirmed the death toll to AFP without offering further details.

Police in Guilin have begun a search for illegal explosives in the city, Xinhua said.

Posters on China's popular weibo microblog sites were outraged.

"Keep asking why the harmonious society is not harmonious, and address the fundamental problems," said one.

Another added: "Why is it always aimed at children? Can't we do something to stop violence?"

China has been hit by a number of attacks on schoolchildren in recent years, including a spate of five incidents in 2010 that killed 15 children and two adults and wounded more than 80.(Courtesy: The Australian News)

Somalia blasts hits Mogadishu's Village restaurant.

Somalia blasts hits Mogadishu's Village restaurant.

BBC News | 07 Sep 2013 :: Explosions at a popular restaurant near the parliament building in Somalia's capital Mogadishu have killed 15 people, police say.

The blasts hit The Village around lunchtime. The restaurant is popular with government workers and journalists and has been targeted before.

It was not clear who carried out the attacks, which appeared to tear much of the roof off the restaurant.

Somalia is battling an Islamist-led insurgency and high levels of crime.

The restaurant - near the presidential palace - was busy at the time of the attacks.

Local reports suggest a car bomb was detonated outside the restaurant, and that a suicide bomber then blew himself up among the crowd that gathered at the scene.

Earlier reports wrongly suggested a nearby hotel was also targeted.

The Village, about 1km (0.6 miles) from the presidential palace, is not within the city's security zone but is popular with journalists and those in political circles.

Run by Somali businessman Ahmed Jama, who returned to the country from the UK in 2008, it was targeted by two suicide bombers last September in attacks that killed 14 people(Courtesy:BBC News )

Three BSF men killed in Naxal attack in Odisha.

Three BSF men killed in Naxal attack in Odisha.

KORAPUT | ODISHA | 27 Aug 2013 ::  At least three Border Security Force personnel were killed and two injured when Naxals blew up their vehicle in an IED blast in Odisha's Koraput district. 

A convoy of three BSF vehicles carrying 18 personnel was ambushed when it was travelling from Patangi to Sunki in the district at around 0930 AM during an official movement, sources said. 

The Improvised Explosive Device (IED), embedded in the road, exploded as the first vehicle in the convoy crossed the area, resulting in the death of three troopers. 

Two injured personnel have been rushed to the nearby hospital in Sunki while a gunfight was on at the blast site when the reports last came in. 

Additional reinforcements from state police and paramilitary force have ben rushed, the sources said. 

Koraput is about 363 kms from state capital Bhubaneshwar.(Courtesy:The Economic Times)

Twin blasts kill 29 in Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Twin blasts kill 29 in Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Hezbollah condemns attacks outside two mosques in the northern city; health minister says over 350 wounded

TRIPOLI | Lebanon  | 23 Aug 2013 ::  Twin car bombs exploded outside mosques in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli Friday, killing at least 29 people, wounding over 350 and wreaking major destruction in the country’s second largest city, Lebanese Health Ministry officials said.

Footage aired on local TV showed thick, black smoke billowing over the city and bodies scattered beside burning cars in scenes reminiscent of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war

The blasts hit amid soaring tensions in Lebanon as a result of Syria’s civil war, which has sharply polarized the country along sectarian lines and between supporters and opponents of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. It was the second such bombing in just over a week, showing the degree to which the tiny country is being consumed by the raging war next door.

Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, has seen frequent clashes between Sunnis and Alawites, a Shiite offshoot sect to which Assad belongs. But the city itself has rarely seen such explosions in recent years.

Friday’s blasts mark the first time in years that such explosions have targeted Sunni strongholds and were bound to raise sectarian tensions in the country to new levels. It was also the most powerful and deadliest in Tripoli since the end of the civil war.(Courtesy:Times of Israel)

Ex-Cyprus Defense Minister Gets Five Years for Blast Which Killed 13.

Ex-Cyprus Defense Minister Gets Five Years for Blast Which Killed 13.

NICOSIA | Cyprus | 08 Aug 2013 :: A Cypriot criminal court has sentenced the country’s former defense minister to five years in prison over the 2011 explosion of seized Iranian gunpowder that killed 13 people and knocked out Cyprus’ main power station.

The three-judge bench sentenced 74-year-old Costas Papacostas on Friday after finding him guilty last month of negligent manslaughter for not taking precautions that would have prevented 80 containers of gunpowder from blowing up.

The containers were left piled up in a field inside a naval base for more than two years. Authorities said the spontaneous combustion of one container triggered the disaster.

Three senior fire service officials were each sentenced to two years in prison on the lesser charge of causing death through a reckless act.(Courtesy:Epoch Time )

Blast outside policeman’s residence in Dera Murad Jamali; no casualties.

DERA MURAD JAMALI  |13 Jul 2013  ::  A bomb blast occurred outside the house of a retired policeman in Dera Murad Jamali’s Bohar Mahala area on Saturday.

However, no loss of life was reported in the incident.

Police said unknown men planted an explosive device outside the house of Kazi Khan Bugti, a retired employee of the police department that went off. However, the attack did not result in any casualties.

Police launched a probe into the incident.

Dera Murad Jamali is a small town located in the Nasirabad district in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan.

Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, suffers from a local separatist insurgency. Apart from a long-running nationalist movement, there has also been an alarming rise in sectarian terrorism in the province recently, with ethnic and religious minorities often targeted by militants.(Courtesy:Dawn)