Gunmen shot and wounded a senior policewoman on Sunday morning in southern Afghanistan, just months after her predecessor was killed, AP reported. The shooting occurred in Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, and marks the latest in a series of brazen attacks against high-ranking female Afghan officials. Provincial government spokesman Omar Zawak said the gunmen were riding on a motorbike when they shot a 35-year-old police officer, who he identified only as Negar, in the right shoulder outside her home. Negar, who had replaced the late Islam Bibi as a senior investigator, is expected to survive her injuries. Bibi was the highest-ranking female police officer in Helmand until her assassination in July. Several Afghan women in top positions have been attacked or kidnapped in recent months.

A roadside bomb killed a Pakistani Army major-general and a lieutenant-colonel in the country’s Upper Dir district on Sunday. The officers were returning after visiting an outpost near the border with Afghanistan. While Pakistani Taliban militants often attack military personnel in the area, they rarely manage to assassinate such high-ranking officers.

A wave of car bombings has swept across Iraq in predominantly Shiite regions, sparking fears of renewed sectarian violence. The deadliest attack struck Hilla, the predominantly Shiite capital of Babil province south of Baghdad, where four car bombs killed 16 people, AFP reported citing police. According to AP, one of the bombs detonated in an industrial area of the city of Karbala, killing four and wounding 25. Another blast occurred in Kut in the proximity of construction workers and food stalls, killing two and wounding 14. One more blast hit near Baghdad’s provincial council in the capital’s northern Azamiyah neighborhood, which resulted in three deaths and eight wounded, police say. The attack nearly killed the head of Baghdad’s provincial council. Iraq is experiencing the worst wave of violence in five years, as Shiite, Sunni, and ethnic Kurdish factions continue to divide the country.

India has conducted a second test firing of its nuclear-capable ‘Agni-V’ long-range ballistic missile, which boasts a strike range of over 5,000 kilometers – capable of reaching Beijing and much of Europe, The Indian Express reported. The three-stage solid propellant missile was test-fired from Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha on Sunday. The ‘Agni-V’ can carry a nuclear warhead of over 1 ton. India has been struggling to keep up with China’s growing military might, and is eager to have a viable deterrent against its larger, nuclear-armed neighbor.

A week before Germany’s federal elections on September 22, voters going to the polls Sunday in the country’s southern state of Bavaria are tipped to deliver a victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s right-wing partners, the Christian Social Union. Polls suggest the CSU could get at least 47 percent, giving it an absolute majority in the state legislature it lost five years ago. The combined CDU/CSU bloc has about 40 percent support nationwide. Should they win next week’s federal parliamentary vote, they would probably still need a partner to form a government. “Dear Angela, we’ll put the ball on the penalty spot, you just have to kick it in,” CSU leader Horst Seehofer said.

A coalmine disaster in northern Afghanistan has killed at least 27 people on Saturday, officials reported. Rescuers at the mine, in the Samangan province, have freed 22 injured miners. Afghanistan is estimated to have large untapped mineral resources, but mining there is suffering from lax safety standards and overall lack of security in the country. Some operators are known to employ children as young as 10, despite regulations forbidding child labor.

Al-Qaeda in Yemen has confirmed the death of one of its senior members on Saturday over the Internet. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said Aqaeed al-Dhahab died in a drone strike late last month, AFP reports. A statement intercepted by US-based SITE intelligence group on online jihadist forums says al-Dhahab died in the US “war on Islamic sharia.” This is the latest in a series of attacks targeting the Yemeni branch of the terrorist group, considered to be the most dangerous by Washington. AFP learned from a tribal informant about the 30 August strike, which killed al-Dhahab and two others. The prominent Al-Qaeda member fought with the group in Iraq. He was the brother-in-law of radical Islamic cleric and US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaqi, a key member of AQAP who was also killed in a drone strike in his native Yemen in September 2011.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is to make a brief stop in Jerusalem on Sunday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the US-Russia deal to secure Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles. He will then travel to Paris for further discussion on Syria with his French and British counterparts Laurent Fabius and William Hague, respectively. Kerry is also scheduled to meet with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Saud Al Faisal, while in Paris. Hours before the meeting with Kerry, Israel welcomed the new deal between Russia and the US to remove Syria’s chemical stockpile. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said - “like any deal it will be judged on its results. We hope it will succeed… the deal has advantages and disadvantages,” he told Army Radio, adding that “On the one hand, it lacks the necessary speed (in removing chemical arms from Syria). On the other hand, it is much more comprehensive, as it includes a Syrian commitment to dismantle the manufacturing facilities and to never again produce [chemical weapons].”

Media agencies 

Four people have died in Mexico after category 1 hurricane Ingrid descended on Gulf Coast on Saturday, local authorities reported. Three people were killed in the state of Hidalgo while another fell victim to floods in the state of Puebla as rain from the storm caused river levels to rise. Ingrid, with winds of 75 miles per hour, could grow even stronger over the next two days and emergency services are preparing for evacuations. Ingrid is expected to produce up to 25 inches of rain over a large part of eastern Mexico.

 

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