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Tuesday, August 25, 2009 KANDAHAR: A massive bomb ripped through the downtown area of the troubled Afghan city of Kandahar Tuesday, killing up to 40 people and wounding dozens near hotels and government offices, officials said. The truck bomb ripped through 10 residential buildings, trapping casualties under the rubble as rescue workers frantically tried to dig them out of the debris under the cover of darkness, officials said. "So far we have 36 killed and 64 wounded and they are all civilians," said General Ghulam Ali Wahdad, police commander for southern Afghanistan, adding that it was impossible to give a breakdown on the identity of the victims. "Police are still busy trying to find bodies from under the rubble," Wahdad said by telephone. The deaths of 36 people would make it the deadliest explosion in Afghanistan since a suicide car bomber killed more than 60 people, including two senior diplomats, in an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008. ...

Monday, August 24, 2009 DAR ES SALAAM: A fire that started when a student at a central Tanzanian girls' school tried to study in candlelight has killed 12 students, police said on Sunday. The Saturday night incident at Idodi Secondary School in Iringa region, about 460 km (285 miles) southwest of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, razed a dormitory to the ground. "It burnt one dormitory completely and 12 students were killed. Another 20 have been injured," Iringa Regional Police Commander Evarist Mangala told the British news aency by phone. "We're still investigating (the cause), but it looks like it's from a candle lit by a student who was trying to study at night." Mangala said the school had 461 students.