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Suicide Blast Near Kabul Government Offices Kills Attacker, One Other

An Afghan boy sells boiled eggs along a path near Qargha lake on the outskirts of Kabul on February 10, 2025. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
An Afghan boy sells boiled eggs along a path near Qargha lake on the outskirts of Kabul on February 10, 2025. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
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Suicide Blast Near Kabul Government Offices Kills Attacker, One Other

An Afghan boy sells boiled eggs along a path near Qargha lake on the outskirts of Kabul on February 10, 2025. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
An Afghan boy sells boiled eggs along a path near Qargha lake on the outskirts of Kabul on February 10, 2025. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

A suicide bomber killed one person and wounded three in an attack near government offices in Kabul on Thursday, an official spokesman said, the second explosion in Afghanistan this week.
The attacker was also killed.
Security guards had identified him and shot him as he approached the intended target, the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, detonating the explosives, Reuters quoted the Interior Ministry as saying.
No group has taken responsibility for the attack, which took place in a busy part of the capital housing administrative and government offices, and foreign embassies including the US Embassy. That site has been vacant since American and other foreign forces withdrew from the country in 2021.
The Taliban took over the country in 2021 and said it would restore security to the war-torn nation. But attacks have continued, many of them claimed by the local arm of the militant ISIS group.
This attack is the second this week after a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body outside a bank in northeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least five people.
Militants from the Afghan branches of ISIS have waged an insurgency against the Taliban since they returned to power.

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World

Ukraine Says Russian Oil Refinery Near Moscow Attacked

This photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, and provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, shows ruins of what was the town of Kostyantynivka, the site of heavy battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)
This photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, and provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, shows ruins of what was the town of Kostyantynivka, the site of heavy battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)
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Ukraine Says Russian Oil Refinery Near Moscow Attacked

This photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, and provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, shows ruins of what was the town of Kostyantynivka, the site of heavy battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)
This photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, and provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, shows ruins of what was the town of Kostyantynivka, the site of heavy battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)

Ukraine said Saturday it had attacked a Russian oil refinery in a region near Moscow, a day after deadly Russian attacks on its capital Kyiv.

The Ukrainian army said on social media it had hit a refinery in the Ryazan region near Moscow as "part of efforts to reduce the enemy's ability to launch missile and bomb strikes".

Ukraine has regularly staged missile and drone attacks inside Russia throughout the Kremlin's invasion since 2022.

Ryazan governor Pavel Malkov said Russian air defenses shot down 25 Ukrainian drones over the region during the night.

"Falling debris caused a fire on the premises of one enterprise," Malkov said on Telegram but there had been no casualties.

The attack came a day after Russia struck apartment blocks across Ukraine's capital Kyiv that left seven dead, according to the latest toll.

"It has been reported that an elderly woman who was wounded during the shelling on November 14 died in hospital this morning," Tymur Tkachenko of Kyiv's city administration, said on social media.

Other victims included a couple in their 70s and a 62-year-old.

Officials in the central Dnipropetrovsk region said a Russian drone on Saturday wounded five people, one seriously, in the city of Nikopol.

Nikopol lies on the Dnipro River that forms the frontline with Russian forces.

On the opposite occupied bank of the river, Moscow-installed official Yevgeny Balitsky said a Ukrainian drone had hit power lines, causing outages for some 44,000 subscribers.

World

Congo and Rwanda-backed M23 Rebels Sign Framework for Peace Deal, but Tensions Remain

Qatar's chief negotiator Mohammed al-Khulaifi (C) observes as Sumbu Sita Mambu (L), a high representative of the head of state in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and and Rwanda-backed armed group M23 executive secretary Benjamin Mbonimpa (R) as they shake hands during the signing ceremony of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the DRC Government and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha, on November 15, 2025. (AFP)
Qatar's chief negotiator Mohammed al-Khulaifi (C) observes as Sumbu Sita Mambu (L), a high representative of the head of state in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and and Rwanda-backed armed group M23 executive secretary Benjamin Mbonimpa (R) as they shake hands during the signing ceremony of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the DRC Government and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha, on November 15, 2025. (AFP)
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Congo and Rwanda-backed M23 Rebels Sign Framework for Peace Deal, but Tensions Remain

Qatar's chief negotiator Mohammed al-Khulaifi (C) observes as Sumbu Sita Mambu (L), a high representative of the head of state in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and and Rwanda-backed armed group M23 executive secretary Benjamin Mbonimpa (R) as they shake hands during the signing ceremony of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the DRC Government and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha, on November 15, 2025. (AFP)
Qatar's chief negotiator Mohammed al-Khulaifi (C) observes as Sumbu Sita Mambu (L), a high representative of the head of state in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and and Rwanda-backed armed group M23 executive secretary Benjamin Mbonimpa (R) as they shake hands during the signing ceremony of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the DRC Government and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha, on November 15, 2025. (AFP)

Congo and Rwanda -backed rebel group M23 on Saturday signed a framework agreement for a peace deal to end decades-long fighting in eastern Congo, but tensions between the two sides remain.

The agreement, which was signed in Doha after mediation by Qatar, is not yet a final peace deal, but rather a framework outlining the protocols and timeline for future discussions, the head of the M23 delegation, Benjamin Mbonimpa, said in a video posted on X.

Mbonimpa said the framework agreement includes eight protocols that address the “root causes” of the conflict. He did not give further details.

“There will be neither any change in the situation on the ground nor any activity whatsoever until the protocols are debated, negotiated and discussed one by one and a final peace agreement is reached,” the head of M23’s delegation said.

A key objective of the framework agreement is the joint management of the rebel-held areas by the Congolese government and M23, a spokesperson for the rebels, Lawrence Kanyuka, told The Associated Press.

Backed by neighboring Rwanda, M23 is the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups fighting for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east. With 7 million people displaced in Congo, the UN has called the conflict “one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth.”

In a major escalation of the decade-long conflict, earlier this year the rebels seized Goma and Bukavu, two key cities in eastern Congo.

Qatar has hosted multiple rounds of talks since April between the Congolese government and the rebels, mainly to set preconditions for a peace deal and agree on confidence-building steps, but both sides still accuse each other of dragging out the conflict.

In July, Congo and M23 signed a declaration of principles in Qatar to end the conflict and commit to a comprehensive peace agreement that would include the restoration of state authorities in key eastern cities controlled by the insurgents and the exchange of prisoners.

The two sides agreed to finalize a peace deal no later than Aug. 18 but missed that deadline, accusing each other of violating peace terms.

In October, the two sides agreed to establish an oversight body for a potential permanent ceasefire.

Massad Boulos, senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, attended the ceremony in Doha on Saturday and called the framework agreement a “starting point.”

“It is only the beginning, but we know the final outcome will be very fruitful,” he said, calling it a “historic” opportunity.

The Trump administration has led mediation efforts between Rwanda, which is accused of backing M23, and Congo, leading to the signing of a peace deal between the two countries in June.

World

Storm Claudia Kills Three in Portugal, Causes Flooding in Britain

A catamaran (C) makes it way down the Thames towards high-rise buildings partly obscured by clouds in London on November 14, 2025, as inclement weather affects much of the country due to Storm Claudia. (AFP)
A catamaran (C) makes it way down the Thames towards high-rise buildings partly obscured by clouds in London on November 14, 2025, as inclement weather affects much of the country due to Storm Claudia. (AFP)
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Storm Claudia Kills Three in Portugal, Causes Flooding in Britain

A catamaran (C) makes it way down the Thames towards high-rise buildings partly obscured by clouds in London on November 14, 2025, as inclement weather affects much of the country due to Storm Claudia. (AFP)
A catamaran (C) makes it way down the Thames towards high-rise buildings partly obscured by clouds in London on November 14, 2025, as inclement weather affects much of the country due to Storm Claudia. (AFP)

Violent weather brought on by Storm Claudia killed three people and injured dozens in Portugal, authorities there said on Saturday, while in Britain rescue workers were organizing evacuations due to heavy flooding in Wales and England.

Portugal and parts of neighboring Spain have faced days of extreme conditions brought on by Storm Claudia, which had reached parts of Britain and Ireland by Saturday.

Rescue workers found the bodies of an elderly couple inside their flooded home in Fernao Ferro, across the River Tagus from Lisbon, on Thursday. They had apparently been sleeping and were unable to flee as the water rose during the night.

On Saturday, a tornado struck Albufeira in southern Portugal, emergency services said.

Footage shot from a distance that was posted online showed the tornado damaging and destroying caravans at a camping area, where regional civil protection commander Vitor Vaz Pinto said an 85-year-old British woman was killed.

Twenty-eight people were injured at a nearby hotel, he said, adding that two of them were in hospital with serious injuries.

In a statement on Saturday, Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed "his solidarity with the family of the victim who died" in Albufeira and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

Portuguese weather service IPMA placed the entire Algarve and districts of Beja and Setubal on amber alert, its second-highest alert level.

STORM CLAUDIA CAUSES FLOODING IN WALES, ENGLAND

In Britain, severe flooding hit the town of Monmouth and surrounding areas in southeastern Wales on Saturday.

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it was conducting rescues, evacuations, and welfare checks.

"Storm Claudia has caused significant flooding in parts of Wales overnight, which continues to affect homes, businesses, transport and energy infrastructure," a spokesperson for the Welsh government said.

Aerial footage showed widespread flooding in Monmouth, with water inundating the town center and residential areas after a nearby river burst its banks overnight.

Natural Resources Wales has issued 11 flood warnings, four of which are severe, as well as 17 flood alerts.

In England, according to the Environment Agency's latest update, there were 49 active flood warnings and 134 flood alerts.