World News
Drama in Afghanistan: at least 19 dead in an explosion in a Koranic school
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Steph Deschamps / December 1, 2022
At least 19 people were killed and 24 wounded, mostly young people, on Wednesday in an attack on a Koranic school in the northern Afghan town of Aybak.
Dozens of explosions and attacks targeting civilians have occurred since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, most of which have been claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State group (EI-K).
A provincial official confirmed that Wednesday’s blast occurred in Al Jihad Madrassa, but could not provide the number of casualties.
“They are all children and ordinary people,” a doctor at a hospital in Aybak, capital of Samangan province, about 300 km north of Kabul, told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A provincial official confirmed the blast, but could not provide the number of casualties or information on the circumstances.
“Our investigators and security forces are working quickly to identify the perpetrators of this unforgivable crime and punish them for their actions,” Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafay Takor tweeted.
Photos and videos posted on social media, which could not be immediately authenticated, show Taliban fighters near bodies strewn on the floor of a building covered in blood. Prayer rugs, broken glass and other debris also litter the room.
The return of the Taliban to power in August 2021 ended two decades of war in Afghanistan and led to a significant reduction in violence.
However, dozens of attacks targeting civilians have taken place, most of them claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State group (EI-K).
Taliban officials maintain control of security in the country, often denying or downplaying incidents reported on social networks.
Analysts, however, consider the iE jihadists, a sunni group like the taliban but with which it has deep enmity and ideological differences, to be the main threat to their regime.
On October 5, at least four people were killed in Kabul in an explosion at a Ministry of the Interior mosque.
A few days earlier, on September 30, a suicide bombing at a Kabul training center preparing for university exams killed 54 people, including at least 51 girls, according to the UN. The attack was carried out in a neighborhood populated by the Shiite Hazara minority.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Afghan government accused the EI-K of carrying it out.
In mid-October, Afghan security forces announced that they had killed six members of the EI-K, who were accused of involvement in the attack as well as the attack on a mosque in Kabul.
On September 23, at least seven people were killed in a car bombing near a mosque in the capital, frequented by senior Taliban officials and fighters.
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Eva Deschamps / October 31, 2023
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 63 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have already lost their lives in the Gaza Strip. Ten aid workers have been killed in the last 72 hours, according to this new toll released by the agency on its website on Monday.
At least 22 UNRWA staff were also injured. Since October 7, 44 UNRWA facilities have also been destroyed. Of its 22 health centers, only nine are still operational, the UN agency said, warning that the provision of health care is made even more difficult by the very low fuel supply.
The UN agency had previously reported that several of its warehouses had been looted. “Due to the very limited aid available and overcrowded shelters, growing tensions are being reported within the displaced communities,” it stressed. Some 672,000 refugees are living in 149 UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip, “in increasingly difficult conditions”. “The ability to provide vital assistance was further hampered by the 36-hour communications blackout between October 27 and 29”, UNRWA added.
In all, an estimated 1.4 million people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip. Over 120,000 of them have taken refuge in public buildings such as hospitals and schools.
“The aid currently available is insufficient to meet the most basic needs of displaced people and the communities hosting them”, warns the UN agency.
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Sylvie Claire / October 31, 2023
This research into mammal reproduction in space could prove crucial for future solar system exploration missions.
Mouse embryos were grown on board the International Space Station (ISS) and developed normally, according to a Japanese study published in the scientific journal “iScience” on Saturday, October 28.
This is “the very first study to show that mammals might be able to thrive in space”, claim Yamanashi University and the Riken National Research Institute.
The researchers, including Teruhiko Wakayama, a professor at Yamanashi University’s Center for Advanced Biotechnology, and a team from the Japanese space agency Jaxa, sent frozen mouse embryos aboard a rocket to the ISS in August 2021. The astronauts thawed the embryos at an early stage, using a specially designed device, and cultured them on board the station for four days.
The experiment “clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect”, noted the researchers. After analyzing the blastocysts (cells that develop into fetuses and placentas) that were returned to their laboratories on Earth, they observed no particular changes in the state of DNA and genes.
“In the future, it will be necessary to transplant blastocysts grown in microgravity on the ISS into mice to see if the mice can give birth,” in order to confirm that the blastocysts are normal, say Yamanashi University and the Riken Institute.
This research could prove crucial for future space exploration and colonization missions. As part of its Artemis program, NASA plans to send humans back to the Moon to learn how to live there in the long term, and to prepare for a trip to Mars in the late 2030s.
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Steph Deschamps / October 25, 2023
The world’s oldest dog died last weekend in Portugal. Bobi, a purebred Rafeiro de l’Alentejo, was 31 years and 165 days old, reports the British public broadcaster BBC on Monday.
Last February, Bobi entered the Guinness Book of Records as not only the oldest living dog, but also the oldest dog of all time.
The old record had been held for almost 100 years by Bluey from Australia. He died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.
Bobi has spent his entire life with the Costa family in the village of Conqueiros, near the west coast of Portugal.
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