KABUL, Afghanistan — At least three people were killed after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest, paving the way for another attacker to charge into a training center for midwives in the capital of Nangarhar province, a provincial official said Saturday.

Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the three victims — two security guards and a driver — were killed in the first attack near the center’s gate.

He added that three members of security forces — two civilians and two government employees— were wounded in the attack in Jalalabad city, the capital of the eastern Nangarhar province.

The second attacker was not able to detonate his explosives vest and was shot by security forces.

“More than 60 students, teachers and other employees were rescued form the building by the Afghan security forces,” Khogyani said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taliban insurgents and fighters from the affiliate of the Islamic State are active in eastern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Taliban held their first direct contact with a U.S. official in a preliminary discussion about future peace talks on Afghanistan, a senior official with the insurgent group said Saturday. It marked one of the most significant developments amid efforts to find a negotiated end to the country’s protracted war.

The official described as “useful” a meeting with Alice Wells, the top U.S. diplomat for South Asia, earlier this week.

U.S. officials neither confirmed nor denied a meeting took place in Qatar.

Man accuses Spicer of hurling racial slur at him as a teenager

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — A black man yelled at former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in a bookstore and accused Spicer of calling him a racial slur when they were students at a prep school decades ago.

Spicer was “taken aback” by the man’s “outrageous claim” and had no recollection of him or of being at school with him, his publicist said Saturday.

Spicer, 46, was at a book signing Friday in Middletown to promote his new book reflecting on his time working in President Donald Trump’s administration. The man, Alex Lombard, called out Spicer’s name and said they went to Portsmouth Abbey School together. He then made his accusation against Spicer.

A security guard led Lombard away as he kept talking: “I was 14 then. I was a scared kid then, Sean. I’m not scared to fight you now.”

Mom, 5 kids die in Mich. motel fire that ‘tears at your heart’

SODUS TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A fire that swept through a southwestern Michigan motel early Saturday killed five children and their mother, authorities said.

The Cosmo Extended Stay Motel in Sodus Township was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived shortly after receiving a 1:45 a.m. 911 call, the Berrien County sheriff’s office said.

Kiarre Samuel, 26, and five children ranging in age from 2 to 10 years old likely succumbed to smoke inhalation, Chief Deputy Robert Boyce said. Samuel’s husband and another child survived. “It’s tragic. It tears at your heart,” Boyce said. “Any time you have children, it’s worse. When it’s multiple children, it’s even worse.”

The motel is off Interstate 94 in the southwestern corner of Michigan, 100 miles from Chicago.

Dad deported despite pleas to stay with disabled daughter

A Chicago-area man who made a last-minute plea to Immigration and Customs Enforcement so he could remain in the U.S. to care for a young daughter with severe spina bifida has left the country, his lawyer said Saturday.

Alejandro Medina Franco, 49, a native of Mexico who had been living in suburban Naperville, asked ICE for a stay of removal for humanitarian reasons so he could remain with daughter Joyce Medina, a U.S. citizen who’s almost 3.

Medina Franco was made to board a flight to Mexico after his final pleas with ICE and an immigration judge were exhausted Friday, said his lawyer. Medina Franco, who has a criminal record, had a previous request to ICE granted under the Obama administration, but its renewal in October was rejected.

Polar bear attacks cruise ship’s polar bear guard

BERLIN — Norwegian authorities said a polar bear on Saturday attacked and injured a polar bear guard who was leading tourists off a cruise ship on an Arctic archipelago. The polar bear was shot dead by a second guard, the cruise company said.

The Joint Rescue Coordination for Northern Norway tweeted that the attack occurred when the tourists landed on the most northern island of the Svalbard archipelago, a region between Norway and the North Pole that is known for its glaciers, reindeer and polar bears. Cruise ships in the region are obliged to have polar bear guards on board.

The German Hapag Lloyd Cruises company, which operates the MS Bremen, said the bear was shot in “self-defense.”

The man’s injuries are not life-threatening. He was taken by helicopter to the town of Longyearbyen.

Spain rescues 980 migrants from 62 boats in last 2 days

MADRID — Spain’s maritime rescue service says it has saved nearly 1,000 migrants attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe from North Africa over the last two days.

The service says it pulled 206 people from 10 different boats Saturday, after rescuing 774 migrants traveling in 52 boats Friday.

As a crackdown by Libyan authorities has made it more difficult for migrants to reach Italy, many are attempting the trip from Algeria and Morocco into Spain, where over 20,000 have arrived by sea in 2018. Human traffickers pack the migrants into small craft unfit for open waters. Over 1,500 people have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

Migration into Europe is down from previous years, but the topic has become political.

In Egypt: A court sentenced 75 people to death Saturday, including top figures of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, for their involvement in a 2013 sit-in, state media reported. The sentences are subject to appeal. The Cairo sit-in supported former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted.

In India: 58 people have died in the past two days as monsoon rains triggered house collapses and flooded wide swaths of land in northern India, officials said. Officials expect more rain in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. Meanwhile, in western India, 33 people were feared dead after a bus fell into a gorge.