In brief: Car bomb blast leaves eight dead

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan police say a car bomber has killed eight, including two policemen, in the eastern Afghan city of Khost.

Abdul-Hakim Isaqzai, the police chief in Khost province, says the powerful explosion occured Friday morning at a checkpoint inside the city.

Amir Pacha, director of hospitals in the province, says 30 other people, mostly civilians, were wounded in the blast.

The police chief says officers were suspicious of the bomber, who then detonated his car full of explosives.

Houses and shops in the area were damaged in the explosion.

12 vacationers die when boat sinks

HA LONG BAY, Vietnam – Divers worked to winch a sunken tour boat out of Vietnam’s picturesque Ha Long Bay today, a day after 12 sleeping travelers drowned when the vessel suddenly filled with water while anchored for the night.

The Bien Mo, or Dream of the Ocean, went down before dawn Thursday, killing vacationers from the U.S., Britain, Australia, Japan, Russia, France, Sweden and Switzerland along with their Vietnamese tour guide.

Nine foreigners and six locals survived only by flinging themselves overboard and swimming to other tour boats nearby.

Candidates start runoff campaign

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The two candidates in Haiti’s presidential runoff election launched their official campaigns Thursday, providing voters with a sharp contrast in tone and style.

Mirlande Manigat, a 70-year-old law professor and former first lady, sedately spoke to journalists on the grounds of an upscale hotel that was leveled in the capital’s 2010 earthquake. She discussed her plans to improve education, contain cholera, and move hundreds of thousands of Haitians out of encampments where they have been living since the disaster.

Meanwhile, popular singer Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, the longtime “president of kompa” music and a pro-military populist, attracted thousands of supporters to the streets of Haiti’s second largest city with a carnival-like atmosphere.