Four Children and an Adult Injured in Pakistan Blast

An Afghan security personnel stands guard at a fenced corridor of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak district, Kandahar province on December 3, 2023. (Photo by Sanaullah SEIAM / AFP)
An Afghan security personnel stands guard at a fenced corridor of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak district, Kandahar province on December 3, 2023. (Photo by Sanaullah SEIAM / AFP)
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Four Children and an Adult Injured in Pakistan Blast

An Afghan security personnel stands guard at a fenced corridor of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak district, Kandahar province on December 3, 2023. (Photo by Sanaullah SEIAM / AFP)
An Afghan security personnel stands guard at a fenced corridor of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak district, Kandahar province on December 3, 2023. (Photo by Sanaullah SEIAM / AFP)

Four children, aged 7 to 10, and an adult were injured in an explosion in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar early on Tuesday, hospital and rescue officials said.
Bilal Ahmad Faizi, the spokesman for emergency rescue services, said an improvised explosive device (IED) went off on a busy road in Peshawar at 9:10 a.m. (0410 GMT). He said five people, including four children, were injured, reported Reuters.
Two of the children were in critical condition, Mohammad Asim, a spokesman for the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Peshawar's police chief, Mohammad Ashfaq Anwar, told Reuters that there was no indication school children were the target of the attack.
Peshawar, which straddles the edge of Pakistan's tribal districts bordering Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, is frequently targeted by Islamist militant groups including ISIS and the Pakistani Taliban.
In 2014, six Taliban militants attacked an army-run academy and killed 153 people, most of whom were students.



China’s Foreign Minister Warns Philippines over US Missile Deployment

 China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 14th EAST Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting in the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the National Convention Center, in Vientiane, Laos July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 14th EAST Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting in the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the National Convention Center, in Vientiane, Laos July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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China’s Foreign Minister Warns Philippines over US Missile Deployment

 China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 14th EAST Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting in the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the National Convention Center, in Vientiane, Laos July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 14th EAST Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting in the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at the National Convention Center, in Vientiane, Laos July 27, 2024. (Reuters)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned the Philippines over the US intermediate-range missile deployment, saying such a move could fuel regional tensions and spark an arms race.

The United States deployed its Typhon missile system to the Philippines as part of joint military drills earlier this year. It was not fired during the exercises, a Philippine military official later said, without giving details on how long it would stay in the country.

China-Philippines relations are now at a crossroads and dialogue and consultation are the right way, Wang told the Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo on Friday during a meeting in Vientiane, the capital of Laos where top diplomats of world powers have gathered ahead of two summits.

Wang said relations between the countries are facing challenges because the Philippines has "repeatedly violated the consensus of both sides and its own commitments", according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

"If the Philippines introduces the US intermediate-range missile system, it will create tension and confrontation in the region and trigger an arms race, which is completely not in line with the interests and wishes of the Filipino people," Wang said.

The Philippines' military and its foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wang's remarks.

China and the Philippines are locked in a confrontation in the South China Sea and their encounters have grown more tense as Beijing presses its claims to disputed shoals in waters within Manila's its exclusive economic zone.

Wang said China has recently reached a temporary arrangement with the Philippines on the transportation and replenishment of humanitarian supplies to Ren'ai Jiao in order to maintain the stability of the maritime situation, referring to the Second Thomas Shoal.

Philippine vessels on Saturday successfully completed their latest mission to the shoal unimpeded, its foreign ministry said in a statement.