Bombs kill 23 in northwestern Pakistan city

Developments

Afghanistan plot: Security forces arrested nine members of a terrorist cell and seized nearly a quarter-ton of explosives, foiling a plot to stage suicide bombings and other attacks in Kabul, the country's intelligence service said Monday. In the southern province of Kandahar, a remote-controlled bomb planted on a donkey exploded near a police checkpoint, killing three children, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the governor.

U.S. soldier killed: One American soldier was killed and several wounded in an explosion at an Afghan army facility just outside Kabul, said a spokesman for international forces, Col. Wayne Shanks. The blast originally was reported to have killed an Afghan soldier.

Officials suspended: Pakistan suspended a raft of officials after a damning United Nations report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the government said Monday. One of the officials removed was Saud Aziz, a senior police officer who ordered the scene of Bhutto's December 2007 murder to be hosed down immediately, destroying valuable evidence. Another was Javed Cheema, an interior ministry official who claimed Bhutto had been killed in a plot hatched by the then-leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud. However, no action was taken against any officers from army or military intelligence agencies, although the U.N. report had implicated the military.

Seattle Times news services