Officials say the civilian death toll in a roadside bomb blast in southern Afghanistan has reached 30. Kandahar provincial police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazai says nine women and seven children are among the 30 killed. A packed bus traveling from the western city of Herat to Kandahar hit a land mine in Maiwand district Tuesday. Thirty-nine people were wounded. A U.N. report issued Saturday said August was the deadliest month of the year for civilians because of violence from the insurgency. A total of 1,500 civilians died in Afghanistan from January through August, up from 1,145 for the same period of 2008, according to a report of The Associated Press.
