A bomb attack against police in western Afghanistan on Monday morning killed at least 12 people and wounded 20, security officials said. A roadside bomb exploded in Herat as a vehicle carrying Khwaja Issa, a district security chief, passed by. Issa was not injured in the attack. Two police officers were among the dead. Herat is about 640 kilometers (400 miles) west of the capital, Kabul.

A car bomb exploded early Wednesday outside the Civil Guard barracks in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, injuring at least 40 people and causing substantial damage, an Interior Ministry official said.

A passenger plane skidded off an airport runway and burst into flames in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad on Friday, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 20, according to government-backed Press TV.

Bombings in Iraq on Wednesday killed at least 19 people and wounded 58, mainly around Nineveh province, where political tensions have recently flared between Arabs and Kurds.

Forget Disneyland! Costa Rica is the happiest place in the world, according to an independent research group in Britain with the goal of building a new economy, "centered on people and the environment."

Two passenger trains collided in southern China early Monday morning, killing at least three people and injuring 60 others, state-run media reported, citing the rail company.

A factory explosion in eastern China early Sunday killed at least 16 people and injured 43, state-run media reported.

A suicide truck bombing near a Shiite mosque killed 30 people and wounded at least 150 Saturday in a city close to Kirkuk, Iraq, police said.

A blast in a market in northwest Pakistan killed eight people and wounded 20 others Sunday, officials said.

A suicide bomber blew himself up near a gas station in southern Afghanistan, killing 17 people and injuring 20 more, an official said Saturday.