Blackhawks blast Canucks tighten series

Sorry, I couldn't read the periods contained in this page.Sorry, I couldn't read the periods contained in this page.

View the original article here

Minsk metro blast kills 11, injures 126

An explosion tore a key Metro station in the Belarusian capital of Minsk during the evening rush hour Monday, killing 11 people and injuring 126. An official said that the explosion was an act of terrorism.

President Alexander Lukashenko did not say what caused the explosion at the Oktyabrska?a Metro station, but the suggested external forces might be behind it.

The authoritarian leader, under strong pressure from the West on the Suppression of the opposition, has frequently alleged external forces seeking to destabilize his regime.

Deputy Attorney-General Andrei Leninskiy said the explosion was an act of terrorism, but gave no further details.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene has given heavily injured transported out of the station of Metro Oktyabrska?a, including a person with missing legs.

Several witnesses said Associated Press that the explosion struck just as passengers were stepping a train at 6 p.m., local time. The Oktyabrska?a station, crossing the two lines of Minsk metro, was packed with passengers at the end of the day's work.

The station is 100 metres from the residence of the President and the Palace of the Republic, a concert hall, often used for ceremonies of the Government.

Lukashenko has visited the site about two hours after the explosion and left without comment. Later, he ordered that the country feared police "call in all the forces and turn everything inside-out" to investigate the explosion.

About five hours after the explosion, Health Minister Vasily Zharko said 11 people were killed and 126 people were injured, including 22 of them severely.

A witness, Alexei Kiklevich, said at least a part of the ceiling of the station collapsed after the explosion.

Igor Tumash, 52, said that he was getting off a train when "there was a big flash, an explosion and thick smoke." I fell on my knees and crawled... bodies were piled on each other.

He said he saw a man with a cut leg and rushed to help him.

"But then I saw that he was dead," said Tumash.

Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, centre, is seen during a visit in February to the military unit of the army of Belarus in Minsk. Nikolai Petrov/Associated Press

Political tensions have increased in Belarus since December, when a massive demonstration against a presidential election contested caused severe repression by the police in which more than 700 people were arrested, including seven presidential candidates.

Lukashenko, who was declared winner crushing election December 19 disputed, has run Belarus, a former Soviet Republic, with a strong hand since 1994. It controls crushing on policy, industry and media in this nation of 10 million, bordering the Russia, the Ukraine, the Poland and the Baltic countries.

Opposition to the Bay of Belarus is largely peaceful years, with only a few clashes with the police.

In July 2008, the explosion of a bomb at a concert attended by Lukashenka injured about 50 people in Minsk. No arrests in the case have been reported.

But Lukashenko said Monday that the explosion of Metro were connected to this attack.

Accessibility links

View the original article here

Nigerians begin voting; Blast hits polling station in the town of North - CNN International

People holding a poster with portraits of candidate presidential retired Major-General Mohammadu Buhari and listier Pastor Tunde Bakare during a rally in Lagos on April 6.New: No deaths have been reported in the explosionThere have been riots, bombings and assassinations before the electionsNigerians attacks are voting Saturday for the House and the seatsThe elections put the legitimacy of Nigeria on the line

ibadan, Nigeria (cnn) , an explosion shook polling in a town in northeastern Nigeria as Africa's most populous nation began Saturday to vote in elections marred by violence and delays.

The explosion occurred at Maiduguri, the spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency Yushau Shuaib said. No deaths have been reported. the number of injuries was yet unknown.

Also Shuaib in Maiduguri, armed youths has defined a bright Government building, said.

A new head of election promised "free and fair" elections this year, but the election has already been ruined by attacks in bombings, murders and the logistical problems that have delayed the vote. Concerns are that continued violence could derail the vote total.

Nigerians began to vote Saturday for 360 seats in house of representatives and 109 seats in the Senate. Voting structure offset will make their return to the polls Saturday next to vote for a President and the following Saturday for a vote of Governors.

Despite domestic and international pressure, Electoral Commission of Nigeria was forced to delay the elections by a week after a logistical disaster of the country - of many materials to vote was not yet in the country until the day of the election and party logos were missing from ballots.

This is a huge setback, reminiscent of the problems of Nigeria's 2007 election, described by the European Union as the worst he had seen anywhere in the world with rampant vote-rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation.

The legitimacy of the country now stands on the three towers of polling stations.

On the eve of the vote, a bomb exploded in the Office of the independent National Electoral Commission in Abuja, in central Nigeria, officials said.

An official of the Government, which was not authorized to speak on the record, said on CNN eight people died in the attack.

Shuaib said that more than seven people were seriously injured.

"We condemn this cowardly and despicable, action which seems designed to instill fear in the Nigerians and paralyze their aspirations for a peaceful and credible election," the President of the electoral commission, Attahiru Jega, said in a statement. "Continue our deep sympathy to the families of all these young Nigerians who lost their lives or were injured."

Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 85 people have been killed in political violence so far.

As the country's most populous of Africa and its largest oil producer, Nigeria is important. Yet, despite its huge oil wealth, 80% of the population lives on less than $ 2 a day, according to the United Nations.

"Make no mistake: the test of honour is inevitably collective for all Nigerians,"the independent National Electoral Commission, said in a recent statement. "It is our national honour in the game and our relevance in the Affairs of the modern world, renamed. ?

Separately Friday, one man was killed and another seriously injured in an explosion in the city of Kaduna North, state news reported.

Police rushed to the scene and found not unexploded dynamite, according to the Commissioner of Police John Haruna Kaduna State, voice of Nigeria reported. They found more dynamite in a house belonging to he injured man, said the point of sale.

View the original article here