
· A large explosion tore through a Shi’ite mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during Friday prayers, killing at least 33 people and wounding 73, but the final total could be higher. A local reporter in Kandahar said that eyewitnesses had described three suicide attackers, one of whom blew himself up at the entrance to the mosque with the two others detonating their devices inside the building. The blast took place just days after an attack claimed by Islamic State militants, which killed scores of Shi’ite worshippers at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz. The blast, coming so soon after the Kunduz attack, has underlined the increasingly uncertain security in Afghanistan as the Taliban grapple with an escalating economic and humanitarian crisis that threatens millions with hunger.

· Sydney is set to allow quarantine-free travel for fu