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Two bombs minutes apart tore through a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 20 people and wounding 111 others during a Sunday Mass, officials said. Witnesses said the first blast inside the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital sent churchgoers, some of them wounded, to stampede out of the main door. Army troops and police posted outside were rushing in when the second bomb went off about one minute later near the main entrance, causing more deaths and injuries. The military was checking a report that the second explosive device...

Mrs. Ford was mentioned on the thread re that PA congressman who quit. I haven't heard anything on her since Kav was confirmed. Is she back in the woodwork?ff

TOKYO - The chief of a Japanese real estate firm apologised on Tuesday (Dec 18), admitting that his employees had caused an explosion that injured 42 and collapsed a building in Sapporo on the northernmost island of Hokkaido. The two-storey wooden building, which housed an izakaya - a bar-cum-eatery - called Umi Sakura, a clinic and a real estate firm, collapsed in the blast that occurred at about 8.30pm (7.30pm in Singapore) on Sunday. The fire took six hours to put out, reports said. The force of the explosion shattered glass windows in at least 20 buildings, some as far...

SMOKE is blanketing Beijing after a huge blast hit the US embassy in China’s capital. Witnesses have reported a large explosion as dozens of officials swoop on the area.

Police in Indonesian city are targeted a day after a string of suicide bombings on churches in area kill 13A bomb attack on a police headquarters in Surabaya has killed at least seven people, an Indonesian police official has said, a day after 13 people were killed in the city during coordinated suicide bombings targeting three churches. The blast occurred at 8.50am, said East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera, killing at least seven people. “There has been an explosion, we don’t know exactly what happened,” he said. CCTV footage from the scene appears to show a motorcycle driving up...

An explosion has reportedly gone off at New York's main bus station - with terrified tourists seen "stampeding" from the scene. A bomb squad has been dispatched to Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal following the reported blast, witnesses claim. Taking to Twitter this morning, one woman wrote: "Just was stuck in a running stampede at port authority bus terminal due to bomb scare." She added: "Cops EVERYWHERE." The reports are currently unconfirmed. We'll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story.

The accident happened at around 9 a.m. in the plant in Jiangbei District of Ningbo City, causing some buildings to collapse, the city's fire department said.

[]Full tite: FBI: 'Improvised explosive device' caused blast at Bloomington Islamic center **SNIP** A blast caused by what the FBI called “an improvised explosive device” rocked a Bloomington Islamic center before dawn Saturday...The blast was reported at 5:05 a.m.Even before the FBI update, congregants said the blast appeared to be a hate crime. Mohamed Omar, the center’s executive director, who was in the building when the explosion erupted...The building was once the site of Northgate Elementary School and Concordia High School. It also served as a worship space for Maranatha Community Church. The Dar Al Farooq Center bought it in...

Government security forces said a small bus owned by the Ministry of Mines had been destroyed in the blast. Three civilian vehicles and 15 shops were destroyed or damaged in the blast, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The Taliban, which is battling the Western-backed government and a NATO-led coalition for control of Afghanistan, has launched a wave of attacks around the country in recent days including the suicide attack that killed prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Ramazan Hussainzada last month. Hussainzada was also a senior leader of Afghanistan's Hazara community.

The incident took place in Lahore, at a vegetable market at the entrance of the Arfa Software Technology Park, a city landmark. At least 49 others were injured, according to Punjabi province health minister Salman Rafique. Lahore is the capital of Punjab. ... The Pakistan Taliban, also called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the bombing, calling it a suicide attack.

Toronto police have closed off a section of the city's downtown financial district after reports of a loud blast, a spokeswoman said on Monday, and heavy smoke was seen in the area. Heavy smoke was pouring out of sewer grates at the corner of King and Bay Street, in the heart of the city's financial core, according to a Reuters witness.

An explosion on Sunday morning at the Mar Girgis Coptic church in the central Delta city of Tanta has left at least 21 dead and over 40 people injured, according to officials. Worshippers were celebrating Palm Sunday.

(CNN)Nine members of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's security team have been injured after their convoy was hit by an explosive device. One person is in a critical condition after the blast in Marawi, in the southern island of Mindanao. President Duterte was not with the convoy. "We assure our brave men and women who put their lives on the line for duty and country that their Commander-in-Chief will never abandon them in their time of need," Duterte's spokesman Martin Andanar told CNN.

JAKARTA (REUTERS, AFP) - An explosion on a ferry between the Indonesian resort islands of Bali and Lombok on Thursday (Sept 15) killed two people, an Indonesian and a Dutch national, and injured 13, police said. The boat was carrying 35 passengers, all of whom were foreigners, and four crew, and had just left Padang Bai port in eastern Bali on Thursday morning when the blast occurred. "Two of them died, 13 were injured," Bali police spokesman Made Sudana said, adding the explosion happened off the coast of Lombok. "It seems there was some sort of explosion on the boat,...

Reports on social media indicated that the electricity in parts of Kabul had cut off shortly before the explosion.

An explosion at a bar in the southern German city of Ansbach, near Nuremberg, has killed one person and injured several others, reports say. The cause is unclear although the city's mayor is quoted as saying it was an "explosive device". Police have sealed off the area around Eugene's Wine Bar, the Nuernberger Nachrichten newspaper reported. The incident comes amid tension following other bloody events in Germany over the past week.

Also http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2jk6wl

26 people have been killed and scores injured in a Bucharest nightclub fire • Bucharest nightclub fire kills dozens • 150 wounded in blast • Fireworks reportedly caused the fire • Foreigners thought to be among the victims

An explosion shook a chemical plant in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, state media said on Monday, though there were no immediate reports of casualties in a country on edge after blasts killed more than 160 people last month. The blast caused a fire and thick smoke to bellow from the plant in Lishui city shortly before midnight, state radio said on its official Weibo microblog. Firefighters were on the scene and there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Photographers walk near the charred remains of a warehouse and new cars after an explosion at a warehouse in northeastern China's Tianjin municipality, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. Huge, fiery blasts at a warehouse for hazardous chemicals killed many people and turned nearby buildings into skeletal shells in the Chinese port of Tianjin, raising questions Thursday about whether the materials had been properly stored. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Explosions that sent huge fireballs through China's Tianjin port have disrupted the flow of cars, oil, iron ore and other items through the world's 10th largest port. The blast sent shipping containers tumbling...