In brief: Taliban attack on foreign convoy injures 13

KABUL, Afghanistan – A Taliban suicide car bomber attacked a foreign motorcade just a couple hundred yards from the U.S. Embassy, unleashing a blast that injured at least 13 people and rattled nearby neighborhoods, police officials said.

Faird Afzalai, the chief of criminal investigations for Kabul’s police, said the bomber targeted a foreign convoy, but he did not immediately have further information about nationalities involved.

The blast happened just off a busy road that runs from the U.S. Embassy to the airport, near the country’s Supreme Court.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement to journalists. The attack comes as the country’s two presidential contenders continue negotiations to form some sort of national unity government.

Typhoon kills eight when ferry sinks

MANILA, Philippines – Typhoon Kalmaegi killed eight people and displaced nearly 18,000 people as it battered the northern Philippines last weekend, the national disaster relief agency said Monday.

More than a dozen ferry trips and nearly 50 domestic flights were canceled as the storm hit Sunday, cutting off electricity in eight northern provinces.

Schools were closed in Manila and northern provinces, where 17,633 people were forced to flee their homes, the national disaster relief agency said.

At least eight people died when a ferry sank Saturday evening in rough seas off the eastern province of Leyte, the navy said.

Rescuers saved 113 people from the boat that was en route to the southern city of Surigao.

Lava oozes onto vacant home lots

PAHOA, Hawaii – Lava has begun moving over a vacant lot in a rural subdivision on Hawaii’s Big Island.

The lots in the Kaohe Homesteads subdivision that are closest to the lava are vacant, and officials say no homes are in imminent danger.

Hawaii County spokesman Kevin Dayton said lava from Kilauea has slowed and there are no evacuations ordered.

Meanwhile, work continues to prepare unpaved, defunct roads to be used as alternate routes if lava reaches a major highway. Officials say that could happen within weeks.

Hawaii Volcano Observatory scientists flew over the flow Monday and said lava is about 3 miles from the highway.