Around the World: Pakistan

Blast in house kills eight

A blast apparently caused by a suicide vest stored in a house in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi killed eight suspected militants Friday, underscoring the city's use by insurgents bent on destabilizing the nuclear-armed, US-allied country.

The explosion occurred in Baldia, a mostly ethnic Pashtun neighborhood where many militants are suspected to be hiding, said police Chief Wasim Ahmad. TV footage showed police seizing guns, suicide vests and grenades from the site. Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said some people from the northwestern Swat Valley, a region where the army has waged an offensive against the Taliban, were believed to have been staying at the house along with some guests.