Suicide bombing in Afghan city of Kandahar kills three, wounds 12

An Afghan security personnel checks a motorbike rider near the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kandahar on March 21, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 21 March 2024
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Suicide bombing in Afghan city of Kandahar kills three, wounds 12

  • Explosion at around 8:00 am targeted a group of people waiting outside the New Kabul Bank branch 
  • Firefighters and security personnel cleared area, where blood, scraps of clothes and shoes littered the ground

Kandahar: A suicide bombing killed three people and wounded 12 others on Thursday in the Afghan city of Kandahar, a provincial official said, in an attack Taliban authorities said was carried out by the Daesh group.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the interior ministry said a “preliminary report shows that this crime has been carried out by Daesh,” using another name for the jihadist group.

“The investigations are ongoing,” interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP. “As soon as possible the criminals will be identified... and punished for their actions.”

Afghanistan’s capital is Kabul but Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada lives in Kandahar city, in the southern province of the same name that is the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

The explosion at around 8:00 am (0330 GMT) targeted a group of people waiting outside the New Kabul Bank branch in central Kandahar city, said Inamullah Samangani, director of information and culture of Kandahar province.

“A suicide attack occurred in which three compatriots were killed and 12 others were wounded,” he told AFP.

“Commonly our compatriots gather there to collect their salaries,” he said, adding that the “victims were civilians.”

One of the victims, Khalil Ahmad, a father of eight in his forties, had gone to the bank to get his salary, his nephew said at his funeral later Thursday.

“He was just an ordinary, simple guy, he used to work as a painter,” Mohammad Shafiq Saraaj said, as Ahmad’s relatives gathered around his body wrapped in a white cloth for burial.

“Such incidents used to happen under the previous government... and now it is happening as well,” Saraaj said.

“We beg for security to be properly maintained in the country and especially in crowded places, and that our nation be saved from this kind of tragedy.”

In the aftermath of the explosion, Taliban authorities surrounded the area outside the bank and did not let journalists close to the site.

However, an AFP correspondent saw what appeared to be unconscious people or dead bodies being loaded into ambulances in the wake of the blast.

Firefighters and security personnel cleared the area, where blood, scraps of clothes and shoes had littered the ground.

Hospitals did not respond to requests for information, saying they had been told not to speak to the media.

Samangani said “the situation is under control” at one of the city’s hospitals where the wounded were transported, denying there was an urgent need for blood donations as had circulated on social media.

“There is no such issue, and the wounded people are not in serious condition, they have superficial injuries,” he said in a message to journalists

The number of bomb blasts and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has markedly declined since the Taliban ended their insurgency after seizing power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government.

However, a number of armed groups — including the regional chapter of IS — remain a threat.

Multiple explosions have been reported around Afghanistan since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 11, but few have been confirmed by Taliban officials.

The regional chapter of IS has a history of targeting Shiites they consider heretics but is also a rival of the Taliban, with whom the group shares an austere Sunni ideology.


Four children killed in school bus attack in southwestern Pakistan: govt officials

Updated 3 sec ago
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Four children killed in school bus attack in southwestern Pakistan: govt officials

  • At least four children were killed on Wednesday and over 30 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing that targeted a bus carrying students from a military run school in southwestern Pakistan, officials
QUETTA: At least four children were killed on Wednesday and over 30 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing that targeted a bus carrying students from a military run school in southwestern Pakistan, officials said.
“A bus carrying children of the APS (Army Public School) was targeted with a bomb, the nature of which is still being determined,” Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a senior local government official in Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, told AFP.
“The initial probe suggests it was a suicide bombing,” he added.
A senior police official confirmed the death toll to AFP on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media, adding that it could rise.
The school caters to the children of army personnel and civilians living in the area.
In 2014, the Army Public School in Peshawar in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was attacked by gunmen who killed more than 150 people — mostly students.
The horrific attack sparked a massive crackdown against militancy that had thrived for years in the border regions.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi offered his “heartfelt sympathy” to the families of the victims, adding that “beasts who target innocent children deserve no mercy.”

Flood victims stranded on roofs as downpours lash eastern Australia

Updated 14 min 34 sec ago
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Flood victims stranded on roofs as downpours lash eastern Australia

  • Storms have already dumped more than four months of rain in just two days in parts of New South Wales
  • Authorities say that water levels of a river in Taree surged past a previous record in 1929

SYDNEY: Fast-moving floodwaters rose Wednesday in eastern Australia, inundating homes and leaving residents stranded on their roofs overnight, as authorities warned more rain was expected in coming days.
Storms have already dumped more than four months of rain in just two days in parts of New South Wales, engulfing homes, businesses and roads in muddy waters, authorities said.
“We have a situation where the rain has been falling quite heavily and hard and it has not been moving away. Part of that is because the ground is saturated and the rivers are swollen,” the state’s emergency minister Jihad Dib told reporters.
Taree, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Sydney, is a key area of concern for emergency services after 415 millimeters (16.34 inches) of rain lashed the town since Monday – more than four times the mean monthly rainfall for May.
Authorities said that water levels of a river in Taree surged past a previous record in 1929, reaching 6.3 meters (20.6 feet) on Wednesday.
The rising floodwaters left locals stuck on roofs overnight, with rescuers unable to reach them due to the bad weather.
Taree resident Holly Pillotto, who was among those stranded on an upper level of her home, said she was desperate for assistance as floodwaters continued to rise.
“Our neighbors on the back verandah here are also stranded,” she told Australia’s Channel Nine. “It’s a really dangerous spot to be.”
Dib said that emergency services were “throwing everything we have into” reaching those affected.
State Emergency Service Chief Superintendent Dallas Byrnes said the situation was “incredibly dynamic and escalating,” with more than 150 flood rescues conducted overnight.
“We’ve got a lot of people getting rescued from rooftops and from upper levels of houses,” Byrnes told the national broadcaster ABC.
However, he warned that “conditions are quite treacherous and it may be that those aviation assets are unable to fly throughout the day.”
The agency said that about 16,000 people, or 7,400 dwellings, would remain isolated until at least Thursday.
More heavy rain is expected in the coming 48 hours – with some locations to receive 200 millimeters (7.87 inches) – before conditions begin to ease, authorities said Wednesday.
Scientists have warned that heatwaves and other extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense as global temperatures rise because of climate change.


WHO says vaccine-derived poliovirus detected in Papua New Guinea

Updated 21 May 2025
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WHO says vaccine-derived poliovirus detected in Papua New Guinea

  • Wild polio is only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan but vaccine-derived polio continues to cause outbreaks in wider range of countries
  • This is first polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea since 2018 when an outbreak was reported in the same area as the new detections, Lae city

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) had been detected in stool specimens of two healthy children in Papua New Guinea on May 9.

The detection of wild poliovirus or vaccine-derived poliovirus, including from samples taken from healthy children, is considered a serious public health event, WHO said in a statement.

It added that the detection of circulating type 2 poliovirus was classified as a “polio outbreak.”

Wild polio is only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but vaccine-derived polio continues to cause outbreaks in a wider range of countries. For example, this year, countries including Nigeria and Ethiopia, among others, have reported tens of cases of paralysis caused by polio.

This is the first polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea since 2018, when an outbreak was reported in the same area as the new detections, Lae city in Morobe province.

Vaccination protects against all forms of polio, but coverage rates in Papua New Guinea are only around 44 percent for the third dose needed for protection, the WHO said. Efforts are now underway to detect further transmission and boost vaccination coverage in the affected area.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the faecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis and death in young children, with those under 2 years old most at risk. In nearly all cases it has no symptoms, making it hard to detect. 


US expects Russia offer soon as Zelensky sounds warning

Updated 21 May 2025
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US expects Russia offer soon as Zelensky sounds warning

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday he expected Russia to present a Ukraine ceasefire outline within days that will show if it is serious, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of buying time.
President Donald Trump spoke separately by telephone on Monday to Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul on Friday for their first direct talks on the conflict in three years.
Putin has consistently rejected proposals for a 30-day truce put forward by Kyiv and its Western allies.
But Rubio said that Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated they would present their own terms “maybe in a number of days, maybe this week hopefully.”
The Russians will offer “just broad terms that would allow us to move toward a ceasefire, and that ceasefire would then allow us to enter into detailed negotiations to bring about an end of the conflict,” Rubio said.
He said that the presentation will “tell us a lot about their true intentions.”
“If it’s a term sheet that’s realistic and you can work off of it, that’s one thing. If it makes demands that we know are unrealistic, I think that will be indicative.”
Putin after Trump’s call said he was ready to work with Ukraine on a “memorandum” outlining a possible roadmap and different positions on ending the war.
And Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday said that Pope Leo XIV was willing “to host upcoming discussions between the parties at the Vatican,” according to her office.
Rubio insisted to critical lawmakers that Putin “hasn’t gotten a single concession” from Trump. But Russia has also not indicated any new flexibility since Trump took office in January with vows to end the war through dialogue.
“It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time in order to continue its war and occupation,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Rubio that Putin’s refusal to go to Istanbul despite the stated willingness of both Zelensky and Trump to meet showed “he believes it’s in Russia’s interest to carry out this war as long as possible.”
The European Union formally on Tuesday adopted its 17th round of sanctions on Moscow, targeting 200 vessels of Russia’s so-called shadow maritime fleet.
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and lead economic negotiator with Washington, attacked the move, saying: “Western politicians and the media are making titanic efforts to disrupt the constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States.”
Rubio said that Trump for now opposed new sanctions for fear that Russia would no longer come to the table.
Moscow appears confident, with its troops advancing on the battlefield and Trump ending Western isolation of the Kremlin.
The memorandum mentioned by Putin “buys time for Russia,” Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev said.
“The cessation of hostilities is not a condition for it, which means that Russia can continue its offensive,” he added.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has since destroyed swathes of the country’s east, killed tens of thousands and now controls around one-fifth of its territory.
People who spoke to AFP both in Kyiv and Moscow were skeptical about peace prospects and thought the Putin-Trump call had not brought them closer.
“I never had any faith in him and now I have none at all,” retired teacher Victoria Kyseliova said in Kyiv, when asked if she was losing confidence in Trump.
Vitaliy, a 53-year-old engineer from Kyiv, said Trump was no “messiah” and that his flurry of diplomacy has changed little.
Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said Trump’s latest calls had only added to the uncertainty.
“This conversation not only failed to clarify the future of the negotiations but further confused the situation,” he said.
He said Trump had fallen for Putin’s tactics of trying to use talks “as a cover to continue and intensify the war.”
In Moscow, there was defiance and confidence.
“I believe that we don’t need these negotiations. We will win anyway,” said Marina, a 70-year-old former engineer.
 


Nvidia says US export controls on AI to China were ‘a failure’

Updated 21 May 2025
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Nvidia says US export controls on AI to China were ‘a failure’

TAIPEI: US export controls on artificial intelligence to China were a failure, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the annual Computex event in Taipei, Huang said Nvidia’s market share in China dropped to 50 percent, from 95 percent at the start of former US President Joe Biden’s administration.