A bomb blast has killed at least five people and wounded seven in northeastern Afghanistan, local police report.

The blast took place at 8:35am (04:05 GMT) on Tuesday near a Kabul Bank branch in Kunduz province. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast yet.

The bank’s security guard and four others, including civilians and members of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban group, were among those killed, police said.

“A suicide bomber, who had improvised explosive devices, detonated himself,” Jumadin Khaksar, spokesman for Kunduz province police, noted.  “The Kunduz province police command is working with relevant organisations to find the perpetrators of the incident and bring them to justice,” he added.

The number of bomb blasts and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has markedly declined since the United States withdrew its forces and the government it backed was ousted by the Taliban in August 2021.

However, many armed groups – including ISIL (ISIS) – remain a threat.

Dozens of people were killed in a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Kunduz in October 2021, with the ISIL affiliate in Khorasan Province (ISKP) claiming responsibility.

In March last year, a suicide bomber killed at least three people when he detonated a bomb outside a bank in the southern city of Kandahar, in an attack claimed by the regional chapter of the ISIL.

Despite the ongoing attacks, the Taliban authorities say they have mostly crushed the group.

[Aljazeera]

Google has begun calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America following United States President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the body of water.

The California-based internet giant said on Monday that the name of the gulf on its applications would depend on the location of the user.

“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Gulf of America,’ and people in Mexico will see ‘Gulf of Mexico.’ Everyone else will see both names,” Google wrote in a blog post.

Google flagged its intention to make the change in a post on X last month, explaining that it uses the designations of the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), a database run by the US Geological Survey.

In the same X post, Google said it would also change the name of Mount Denali in Alaska to Mount McKinley, after former US President William McKinley, once it was updated in the official database in line with Trump’s order.

Trump signed his executive order to rename the natural features hours after taking office on January 20, casting it as a decision to “honour American greatness”.

Mount Denali, the highest peak in North America, was given its name by the Indigenous Koyukon Athabascan people.

The US government changed its name to Mount McKinley in 1917 in honour of the late Republican president, who was assassinated by an anarchist in 1901.

Former US President Barack Obama’s administration restored the mountain’s Indigenous name in 2015 before a presidential visit to Alaska.

Trump’s decision to rename the natural features drew backlash from Indigenous groups in Alaska and prompted Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to sarcastically suggest that North America be renamed “Mexican America”, as it was referred to in one of the country’s founding documents.

[Aljazeera]

The  government has identified that development of rural roads is one of the prominent activity of the government’s development agenda and it has planned to introduce a broad access for renovation of roads, construction and maintenance.

Accordingly, it has been decided to prioritize to develop 1,500 kilometres of roads within the northern province and 500 kilometres of roads within the eastern province representing every divisional secretariat division, since most of the roads in the northern and eastern provinces are in dilapidated condition.

Contribution of the public, Community Based Organizations and local government institutions will be obtained to select roads for renovation and upgrading and, approval of the relevant divisional coordination
committee and district coordination committee will be obtained for the recommended road list.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution submitted by the Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation to implement the proposed rural roads enhancement / upgrading programme in northern and eastern provinces.