Pakistani officials say a suicide bomber targeted a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad during Friday prayers, killing 31 people and wounding at least 169 others. It was a rare attack in the capital of Pakistan as its Western-allied government struggles to rein in a surge in militant attacks across the country. Some of the wounded in the attack on the sprawling mosque of Khadija Al-Kubra were reported to be in critical condition. Television footage and social media images showed police and residents transporting the wounded to nearby hospitals. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Militant groups across Pakistan often target security forces and civilians.
On Nov. 13, 2015, Islamic State militants carried out a set of coordinated attacks in Paris at the national stadium, in a crowded concert hall, in restaurants and on streets, killing 130 people in the worst attack on French soil since World War II.
By ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN and SIDDIQULLAH ALIZAI Associated Press
A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake has shaken northern Afghanistan, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 640 others. The quake struck before dawn on Monday, damaging the historic Blue Mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif. In the town of Khulm, near the epicenter, residents have been digging through the rubble of collapsed homes. The impoverished country often struggles to respond to natural disasters, especially in remote regions. The Ministry of Defense announced that rescue and emergency teams have reached the affected areas. The United Nations in Afghanistan said its teams are on the ground assessing needs and delivering urgent aid.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have announced a ceasefire following days of the deadliest clashes in years that killed dozens of people on both sides of the border. The pause came after appeals from major regional powers, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The violence has threatened to further destabilize a region where groups including the Islamic State and al-Qaida are trying to resurface. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring armed groups. The country's Taliban rulers deny it. Pakistan has seen a growing number of militant attacks since 2021, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. Key border crossings remain closed.
The Taliban have released a British couple held in Afghanistan for over seven months on undisclosed charges. Analysts say this move on Friday is part of a broader effort to gain international recognition. Peter and Barbie Reynolds, aged 80 and 76, lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and ran an education organization. They chose to stay after the Taliban took power in 2021. Qatar helped mediate their release. The Taliban have not explained why they detained the couple. In July, United Nations experts warned about their deteriorating health. Earlier this month, the Taliban reached a prisoner exchange agreement with U.S. envoys.
A Taliban government spokesman says the death toll from a major earthquake in Afghanistan has risen to 2,205. The shallow, magnitude-6.0 quake struck the mountainous and remote eastern part of the country late Sunday, leveling villages and trapping people under rubble. Most of the casualties have been in Kunar province, where people typically live in wood and mud-brick houses along steep river valleys separated by high mountains.. Rescue efforts are ongoing, but rough terrain and funding cuts are hindering relief. Afghanistan has already been facing drought, a weak economy, and the recent return of some 2 million refugees.
On Aug. 30, 1916, on his fourth attempt, explorer Ernest Shackelton successfully returned to Elephant Island in Antarctica to rescue 22 of his stranded crew members, who had survived on the barren island for four and a half months after the sinking of their ship, the Endurance.
On July 25, 1972, the notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiment came to light as The Associated Press reported that for the previous four decades, the U.S. Public Health Service, in conjunction with the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, had been allowing poor, rural Black male patients with syphilis to go without treatment, even allowing more than 100 of them to die, as a way of studying the disease.
