Suicide blast kills 8 in Pak

A suicide bomber attacked a hospital emergency room where Shia Muslims were mourning a slain bank manager on Friday, killing eight people including a journalist and two policemen in Pakistan’s main southwestern city, police said.

The explosion in Quetta underscored the poor security conditions in Pakistan, where sectarian violence remains a problem even as Al Qaeda and Taliban militants pose a growing — and linked — threat.

Gunshots rang out after the explosion at the Civil Hospital, and rescuers carried away the dead and wounded, TV footage showed. A suspected US missile strike, meanwhile, killed four alleged militants in the country’s northwestern tribal belt, officials said.