KABUL, Afghanistan – A bomb exploded near a girls’ school in a majority Shiite district of west Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, many of them young pupils between 11 and 15 years old. The Taliban condemned the attack and denied any responsibility.

Ambulances evacuated the wounded as relatives and residents screamed at authorities near the scene of the blast at Syed Al-Shahda school, in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said. The death toll was expected to rise further.

In Dasht-e-Barchi, angry crowds attacked the ambulances and even beat health workers as they tried to evacuate the wounded, Health Ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigar Nazari said. He implored residents to cooperate and allow ambulances free access to the site.

Although no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, the Afghan Islamic State affiliate has targeted the Shiite neighborhood before. The radical Sunni Muslim group has declared war on Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslims. Washington blamed IS for a vicious attack last year in a maternity hospital in the same area that killed pregnant women and newborn babies.

Protests growing in Colombia

Thousands of Colombians have protested across the country against a government they feel has long ignored their needs, allowed corruption to run rampant and is so out of touch that it proposed tax increases during the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite virus lockdown orders, protesters have turned out in more than half of Colombia’s municipalities since last week for mostly peaceful protest against the administration of President Ivn Duque. But violence during some demonstrations has resulted in 26 people dead, including a police officer, and more than 800 people injured, according to government figures.

Human rights organizations have denounced numerous police abuses and give a higher death toll, while the international community is calling for dialogue.

Israeli police block Muslim pilgrims

Israeli police on Saturday clashed with Palestinian protesters outside Jerusalem’s Old City during the holiest night of Ramadan in a show of force that threatened to deepen the holy city’s worst religious unrest in several years. Earlier, police blocked busloads of pilgrims headed to Jerusalem for prayer at Islam’s third holiest site.

Police defended their actions as security moves, but these were seen as provocations by Muslims who accuse Israel of threatening their freedom of worship.

3 in Illinois light explosive, die

Three men who died after apparently igniting an explosive powder near northern Illinois’ Starved Rock State Park appeared to have been fishing along a river before the blast killed them, the coroner said.

LaSalle County Coroner Rich Ploch said the men were apparently relaxing along the Illinois River on Thursday evening before the “black powder substance” was ignited in a hole. Ploch theorized the men had either lit the powder for entertainment or, more likely, they were trying to light a fire to cook food found nearby.

UFOs identified as Starlink satellites

A string of lights that lobbed across the night sky in parts of the U.S. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday had some people wondering if a fleet of UFOs was coming, but it had others – mostly stargazers and astronomers – lamenting the industrialization of space.

The train of lights was actually a series of low-flying satellites launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet service last week. Callers swamped TV stations from Texas to Wisconsin reporting the lights and musing about UFOs.

Astronomy experts said the number of lights in quick succession and their distance from Earth made them identifiable as Starlink satellites for those who are used to seeing them.