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Death toll from blast at Kabul mosque reaches 21

KABUL — A blast that tore through a Kabul mosque during evening prayers on Wednesday killed 21 people, Kabul police said on Thursday.

Police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said that another 33 people had been injured in the blast.

Witnesses had told Reuters the powerful explosion was heard in a northern Kabul neighborhood, shattering windows in nearby buildings.

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There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast and authorities did not publicly assign blame.

The Taliban say they are restoring security to the war-torn country, which has seen an overall drop in violence since the group took over and defeated a US-backed government a year ago. However, several large attacks, some claimed by Islamic State, have taken place in urban centers in recent months.

Emergency Hospital, a facility run by an Italian NGO that specializes in treating victims of war, said in a statement it had admitted 27 people, including five children, who had been wounded in the blasts. Two people had arrived dead and one patient died in the emergency room, Emergency’s Afghanistan country director Stefano Sozza said.

In August the hospital had treated 80 patients from six different mass casualty events, which includes major incidents such as blasts and mass shootings.

“The country is suffering the consequences of a very long conflict that has undermined its future,” Sozza said. — Reuters

Flooding caused by heavy rain kills 16 in western China

BEIJING — Flooding caused by heavy rainfall in the western Chinese province of Qinghai has killed 16 people, state media reported on Thursday, with an additional 36 missing.

Heavy and sudden downpours in Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County, population 403,368, of Qinghai province started late Wednesday, causing flooding on the mountains and triggered landslides, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV.

Rivers changed courses and flooded villages and towns. More than 6,200 people were affected by the flood.

Local government has sent a rescue team of 2,000 people and more than 160 vehicles for disaster relief.

Since June, China has been grappling with extreme weather from heatwaves to historic floods. The government has blamed climate change, which it says will increasingly affect the economy and society. — Reuters

Hong Kong court lifts reporting ban
on nat’l security case for 47 democrats

HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court lifted restrictions on Thursday on reporting pre-trial proceedings of a landmark national security case involving 47 pro-democracy campaigners that has dragged on for more than a year.

The decision comes one day after the lifting of a reporting restriction for another national security case involving a civil society group behind Hong Kong’s annual candlelight vigils commemorating victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

The lifting of the reporting restrictions was seen as a breakthrough by some activists. It is the first time reporting will be allowed for pre-trial hearings for a national security case in Hong Kong.

Magistrate Peter Law, who had rejected previous applications to lift the reporting ban, did so on Thursday after being ordered to by a High Court judge in the interests of “open justice.”

“It is a fundamental principle of criminal justice … the public has the right to scrutinize whatever the court is doing,” one of the defendants, Gwyneth Ho, told the court in a July hearing.

Since the 47 democracy campaigners were arrested in a city-wide dawn raid in February 2021, the case has been repeatedly delayed as prosecutors requested more time to prepare, with only 13 of the defendants granted bail.

The campaigners have been accused of a conspiracy to commit subversion, after participating in an unofficial, non-binding primary election in 2020. — Reuters

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US reports spike in weapons smuggling
to Haiti and the Caribbean

MIAMI — US authorities have seen a spike in weapons smuggling to Haiti and the Caribbean in recent months, officials said on Wednesday, promising to boost efforts to combat the trade that is fueling rampant gang violence in Haiti and rising crime in the region.

The announcement follows several bloody outbreaks of gang violence in Haiti that included gun battles in downtown Port-au-Prince, and comes as countries such as The Bahamas and Jamaica are reporting rising incidence of gun-linked homicides.

“Not only have we seen a marked uptick in the number of weapons, but a serious increase in the caliber and type of firearms being illegally trafficked,” said Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Miami.

“We have been ramping up our efforts to stem the flow of illicit weapons into Haiti and the Caribbean,” he said, flanked by officials from other agencies including the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.

A display of seized arms that were destined for Haiti included hand guns and an array of semi-automatic weapons, one of which officials identified as a sniper rifle.

Legal export of weapons from the United States typically requires licenses from US authorities. Haiti is still subject to a 1990s arms embargo, which has been amended to allow some exceptions for exports of weapons to Haitian security forces.

Guns are frequently acquired in the United States via straw buyers, some of whom identify themselves as the ultimate end users of the guns but later illegally export them. — Reuters

US traffic deaths hit 20-year-high in early 2022

WASHINGTON — US traffic deaths jumped about 7% in the first three months of 2022 to 9,560, the largest first-quarter number since 2002, regulators said on Wednesday in a preliminary estimate.

Traffic deaths have been surging since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said. In 2021, US traffic deaths jumped 10.5% to 42,915, the most people killed on American roads in a year since 2005.

The Biden administration has called the spike a “crisis.”

Traffic deaths have jumped after pandemic lockdowns ended as more drivers engaged in unsafe behavior. Traffic deaths in the first three months of 2022 are up 21% over the 7,893 in the same period in 2020.

“The overall numbers are still moving in the wrong direction,” Outgoing NHTSA Administrator Steve Cliff said in a statement. “Now is the time for all states to double down on traffic safety.”

The rise in traffic deaths outpaced the 5.6% increase in US road-miles traveled in the first quarter, according to the Office of Highway Policy Administration.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) lamented the lack of a government plan to address “this immediate crisis.” — Reuters

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