Afghan war: Mayor of Kandahar killed in suicide attack

The attacker detonated explosives in his turban as the mayor made an address at the city hall, police said.

Two weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai's influential half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in the same city.

The violence comes as Nato forces begin the handover of security to local troops in parts of the country.

Correspondents say Mr Hameedi had been speaking to local people who had come to discuss a land dispute when the explosion occurred.

Mr Hameedi had ordered for about 200 houses to be destroyed in the Loy Wala area as they had been built illegally, and two children had been killed as they were knocked down on Tuesday, security sources told the BBC.

Stability fears

The assassination is the latest in a string of attacks on influential officials in the country.

Earlier this month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan, was killed in Kandahar city.

His death prompted renewed fears over stability in Kandahar, seen as a critical area in the fight against the Taliban.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary says Mr Hameedi was one of the most competent and trusted politicians in the region.

He had been mentioned as a possible figure to replace Ahmad Wali Karzai, according to AP news agency.

Ryan Crocker, a top US diplomat in Afghanistan, said the US "condemned in the strongest possible terms the death of another top government official", and expressed his condolences.

He said that the death showed the "extraordinary resilience" of the government and Afghan people in the face of the challenges.

Less than a week after Ahmad Wali Karzai's killing, a senior aide to Mr Karzai, Jan Mohammad Khan, died in an attack on his home in Kabul.

Kandhar was the country's designated capital during Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 and has been the centre of the group's insurgency since they were overthrown in the US-led invasio
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Huge Japan quake causes tsunami, fires, landslide

There were several strong aftershocks and a warning of a 10-meter tsunami following the quake, which also caused buildings to shake violently in the capital Tokyo.

TV pictures showed a vast wall of water carrying buildings and debris across a large swathe of coastal farmland.

Public broadcaster NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from a building in Odaiba, a Tokyo suburb, and bullet trains to the north of the country were halted.

Black smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area. TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks floating in water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed into the water.

Kyodo news agency said there were reports of fires in the city of Sendai in the northeast.

"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under

their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo.

"It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."

Passengers on a subway line in Tokyo screamed and grabbed other passengers' hands. The shaking was so bad it was hard to stand, said Reuters reporter Mariko Katsumura.

Hundreds of office workers and shoppers spilled into Hitotsugi street, a shopping street in Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.

Household goods ranging from toilet paper to clingfilm were flung into the street from outdoor shelves in front of a drugstore.

Crowds gathered in front of televisions in a shop next to the drugstore for details. After the shaking from the first quake subsided, crowds were watching and pointing to construction cranes on an office building up the street with voices saying, "They're still shaking!," "Are they going to fall?"

Asagi Machida, 27, a web designer in Tokyo, sprinted from a coffee shop when the quake hit.

"The images from the New Zealand earthquake are still fresh in my mind so I was really scared. I couldn't believe such a big earthquake was happening in Tokyo."
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