Pakistan Taliban claim deadly blast at luxury hotel

The Pakistani Taliban yesterday claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide blast at a luxury hotel hosting the Chinese ambassador in the southwest of the country, as officials raised the death toll to five.  Beijing said it strongly condemned the attack, although the Taliban said Pakistan security officials were the target of the blast.  The bomber detonated the explosives late Wednesday while inside a vehicle in the car park of the Serena hotel -- part of a five-star chain popular with diplomats and aid agencies -- in the city of Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, police and the interior ministry said. Describing the blast as a "terrorist attack", China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in Beijing that the Chinese delegation was not present when the bomb detonated.