First assassination, then funeral attack

In a further assault on the embattled Afghan government, a suicide bomber killed six people Monday at the funeral of a provincial governor who was assassinated by the Taliban. Four senior Cabinet ministers escaped injury.

The attack occurred near a tent where more than 1,000 people had congregated in the Tani district of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. The bombing caused carnage and chaos, and police fired in the air to control panicked mourners who feared there might be a second blast.

The funeral was for Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal, who was killed Sunday with two other people in a suicide attack outside his office in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province.

The U.S. military blamed “a Taliban extremist” for the funeral bombing, but the Taliban denied it.

Islamabad, Pakistan

Deal reached on rape law change

Pakistan’s government agreed to a compromise deal with hardline Islamic lawmakers Monday over proposed changes to a law that has long made punishing rapists almost impossible in the country.

The widely criticized Hudood Ordinance law, based on Islamic tenets, requires a woman who claims she’s been raped to produce four witnesses. Religious political parties had fiercely criticized an amendment bill that would have dropped the requirement as un-Islamic.

Senator S.M. Zafar, a prominent ruling-party lawmaker, said Monday the government had agreed to compromise by letting rape victims choose between prosecuting suspects under the four-witness rule or under Pakistan’s civil penal code.

Rape would remain punishable by death. A woman who claims she was raped but fails to prove her case can be convicted of adultery, punishable by death.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua

Bootleg liquor blamed in deaths

At least 35 people have died from drinking methanol-laced sugar cane liquor in the past week and nearly 600 have fallen ill, overwhelming hospitals in Nicaragua, officials said Monday.

Health officials warned the death toll would likely rise. Police have arrested six people who allegedly helped distribute the illegal liquor laced with methanol, a toxic industrial alcohol used in antifreeze that can cause blindness and death in small doses. Bootleggers sometimes add it to their batches of liquor to make them stronger.

Compiled from wire reports