Suicide Bomber Kills 8 in Kabul's Diplomatic Quarter

At least eight people were killed and dozens more injured when a suicide car bomber struck an elite Kabul neighborhood today. The blast, the deadliest in the city since Hamid Karzai was sworn in for his second term last month, happened at a checkpoint near a hotel favored by foreigners and blew out doors and windows at the nearby Norwegian embassy, Bloomberg reports.

Several buildings belonging to a former vice president, Ahmed Massoud, were damaged in the blast and two of his bodyguards were killed. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a foreigner and four Afghans died when a huge explosion hit an American aid institute in Paktiya province, Reuters reports.
(More Kabul stories.)