Suicide bomb blast near Kabul mosque blast kills five
Suicide attacker posing as shepherd detonates explosives close to Hussainia mosque in Afghanistan's capital, police say.
At least five civilians were killed on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a Shia mosque in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, according to officials.
As many as 19 others were wounded in the attack close to Hussainia mosque that came two days before Ashura, the holiest celebration in the Shia religious calendar.
Police official Sadiq Muradi said police confronted the suicide bomber as he came through a checkpoint near the holy site, calling for him to stop. It was then when the attacker ignited his explosives, blowing himself up.
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"The bomber was grazing a herd of sheep and before reaching his target he detonated himself 140 metres from Hussainia mosque," General Salim Almas, Kabul's criminal investigative director, told AFP news agency.
Najibullah Danish, interior ministry spokesman, said that all victims were civilians.
Kabul's Emergency Hospital tweeted that it had received 19 wounded, including four children.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but following the attack the Taliban were quick to distance themselves from the bombing.
"Today's Kabul attack has nothing to do with us. After a thorough investigation we found out that we had no operation in Kabul, and this attack is not linked to us," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said.
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There had been fears fighters would strike as Shia Muslims prepare to commemorate Ashura.
The celebration falls on the 10th day of Muharram, which is the mourning period for the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
The faithful gather to beat their chests and hit their backs with chains until they bleed in commemoration of Hussein's death.
But in recent years the sacred day has been marred by deadly violence.
In 2011, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the middle of a crowd of worshippers at the main Shia shrine in Kabul on Ashura, killing 80 people, including women and children.
Afghan officials blamed the bombing - the first major sectarian attack on a key religious day in Afghanistan - on Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Last October, gunmen entered the Karte Sakhi shrine near Kabul University and killed 18 people gathering to mark Ashura, an attack claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
The following day at least 14 Shia were killed in a bombing at a mosque in northern Afghanistan. A few weeks later Baqui ul Ulom mosque in Kabul was targeted when a massive suicide blast claimed by ISIL killed dozens of worshippers.
Doing it for Ghana: Man's epic 4,900-mile road trip from Paris to Accra
(CNN)Flying from Paris to Accra takes six hours and 20 minutes, direct. But why fly when you can drive? One Ghanaian opted to take the road less traveled this summer, clocking 4,900 miles in just nine days. Why? For family and for country.
Twenty-nine-year-old mechanical engineer Nicholas Afedi Donkoh drove all the way from his house in France to his hometown in Ghana to prove a point: that everyone deserves an adventure.
"I just wanted the world to know that it's not only white people who can go on such trips, but we blacks, too, can do that as well," he says.
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There was a secondary purpose also: "The whole idea was to make Ghana more popular and also make Ghanaians all over the world proud."
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Donkoh says he bankrolled the trip himself, denying earlier reports that he received sponsorships, while revealing he spent nearly $2,400 just on fuel.
Before setting off, Donkoh tinkered with his BMW 7 Series to boost performance.
"I increased the horsepower from 400 to 450 so that the car could move a little bit faster," he says, adding that a trip to the Chambre de Commerce in Paris was required for all the necessary travel documents and permits. A bit of self-care was also called for, with the driver kick-starting an exercise regimen to ready himself for the road.
Rough sleeping and unlikely hospitality
On the evening of Friday July 7, the Ghanaian loaded his car with 24 bottles of water, food and two spare tires and set off into the night, quad bike in tow.
Driving through France to the southern tip of Spain, Donkoh arrived at the port city of Algeciras on the Bay of Gibraltar. From there he hopped on a ferry to Tangier in northern Morocco. With the Atlantic to his right, he continued through Western Sahara, then Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso.
