A suicide car bomb exploded near the Indian Embassy in central Kabul early Monday, killing 40 people and wounding 141, officials said.
The massive bomb rattled much of Kabul and exploded near a row of metal turnstiles outside the embassy, where dozens of Afghan men line up every morning to apply for visas, AP reported. The embassy sits on a busy, tree-lined street in central Kabul near Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry.
Several nearby shops were damaged or destroyed in the blast, and smoldering ruins covered the street.
“Several shopkeepers have died. I have seen shopkeepers under the rubble,“ said Ghulam Dastagir, a shopkeeper who was wounded in the blast. Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said the explosion killed at least 40 people and wounded 141. The ministry collected information from the scene and several Kabul hospitals.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta visited the embassy shortly after the attack, Ministry Spokesman Sultan Ahmed Baheen said.
“India and Afghanistan have a deep relationship between each other. Such attacks of the enemy will not harm our relations,“ Spanta told the embassy staff, according to Baheen.
The Indian ambassador and his deputy were not inside the embassy at the time of the blast, Baheen said. Militants have frequently attacked Indian offices and projects around Afghanistan since launching an insurgency following the ouster of the Taliban at the end of the 2001.

Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported on Sunday that the first stage of the prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah would begin on Thursday, citing “informed Palestinian sources.“
This, according to the news agency, would include the release of Samir Kuntar and three other detainees.
IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser would also presumably be released during this stage.
The news agency further reported that one of the Palestinian bodies returned during the second phase of the deal would be that of Dalal Mughrabi, a female who took part in the killing of 36 Israelis and one US citizen in 1978.
Mughrabi’s remains would be received “in a large official ceremony“ organized by Fatah which would “showcase the pride that people feel for Mughrabi and her fellows for their heroic resistance against the Israeli occupation.“

The United Arab Emirates canceled billions of dollars of Iraqi debt Sunday and moved to restore a full diplomatic mission in Baghdad, evidence of Iraq’s improved security and growing acceptance of its Shiite-led government.
According to AP, the Abu Dhabi government announced the debt relief and the naming of a new ambassador to Baghdad shortly after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki began a visit to the wealthy Persian Gulf nation.
The news was sure to bolster Maliki’s government, which has been urging Iraq’s Arab neighbors to forgive loans made during Saddam Hussein’s regime and restore diplomatic relations.
The Emirates’ official news agency, WAM, said the debt was $4 billion excluding interest. A UAE official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said the total debt was $7 billion with interest.
In a step toward easing Baghdad’s diplomatic isolation, the UAE appointed its new ambassador to Iraq on Sunday.

Investigators on Monday examined the site of a suicide blast that targeted police in the nation’s capital as officials sorted out clues about the alleged attacker.
No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion that left at least 15 people dead and dozens wounded. It appeared to be the capital’s deadliest suicide attack in about a year, AP reported.
The blast, which occurred at an intersection near a police station, unnerved the usually tranquil city. It took place the same day that thousands of Islamists marked the one-year anniversary of a military siege on the nearby radical Red Mosque.
Politicians, including President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani decried the attack, one of many in Pakistan that have victimized security forces.
Hours after the blast, Interior Ministry Chief, Rehman Malik told Geo TV that a teenage boy was the suspected attacker, though earlier he said it was a man apparently in his 30s.
There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties.
Police spokesman Naeem Iqbal on Sunday placed the death toll at 15, most apparently police.
The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan listed 17 people as dying, including two civilians. It also reported 54 people wounded.

Israelis are to step up operations against civilian infrastructure belonging to Hamas in West Bank in breach of a truce already agreed on.
According to “Haaretz“, Israeli forces will soon shut down a large number of Hamas-affiliated charities, confiscate their property, and search computers and documents that detail their activity.
The forces have been carrying out similar raids in the Al-Khalil, Qalqilyah and Ramallah areas since the beginning of the year, but the operations will now be expanded to additional parts of the West Bank.
Israeli authorities including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have approved the plan to target Hamas civilian infrastructure.
Hamas-affiliated institutions that were targeted so far include schools, health centers, charities, and even soup kitchens and orphanages. Dozens of associations were shut down and the food confiscated.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers extended a curfew for a fourth straight day on Monday in the Palestinian town of Ni’lin in the occupied West Bank, a military official and a resident said.
The restrictions forcing residents to remain indoors around the clock were in response to several violent demonstrations since Friday in protest against Israel’s construction of a barrier that would isolate the village, Reuters reported.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has held talks in Syria to try to improve ties between rival Palestinian groups.
Syria’s President Bashar Al-Asad urged “every effort“ towards achieving Palestinian unity which he said was the only way to recover their rights, BBC reported.
Last month, Abbas called for talks between Fatah and Hamas, which seized control of Gaza last year, effectively splitting Gaza from the West Bank.
Assad received Abbas at a time when Syria and Israel are holding indirect peace talks through a Turkish mediation.