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Nineteen people have been killed by gunmen who stormed Kabul University before engaging security forces in an hours-long battle on Monday. Afghan security personnel stand guard at the university. Photo: AFP A spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry said the attack was eventually stopped when three gunmen were killed. At least 22 people were wounded, the interior ministry said. The attack began around the time government officials were expected to arrive at the campus for the opening of an Iranian book fair. All of the dead were students, including 10 women, a Kabul police spokesman told the AFP news agency. The Taliban denied involvement and condemned the attack. The Islamic State group has targeted education centres in Afghanistan in recent years, including an attack outside a tuition centre in Kabul last month that left 24 people dead. The group also claimed responsibility for a 2018 attack in front of Kabul University in which dozens were killed. Video footage from the university campus on Monday showed students running away from the site with the sound of gunfire in the background. Some scaled walls in an effort to escape. One of the attackers detonated explosives, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. "They were shooting at every student they saw. They even shot at the students who were running away," witness Fathullah Moradi told Reuters news agency. Fraidoon Ahmadi, a 23-year-old student, was in class when the gunfire started: "We were very scared and we thought it could be the last day of our lives.... Boys and girls were shouting, praying and crying for help," he told AFP. He and other students waited two hours until they were rescued, he added. Violence in Afghanistan has worsened in recent months even as the Taliban conduct peace talks with the government in Doha, Qatar. A senior UN official told the BBC last week that al-Qaeda was still "heavily embedded" within the Taliban, despite assurances from Taliban officials to the US that it would sever ties with the terror group. - BBC

Veteran foreign correspondent Robert Fisk has died of a suspected stroke at the age of 74. Robert Fisk interviewed Osama Bin Laden several times and described him as a "shy man". Photo: AFP The Irish Times reported that Fisk was admitted to St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin after falling ill at his home on Friday, and died shortly afterwards. Fisk won numerous awards for his coverage of the Middle East, where he reported from the 1970s, but he also created controversy for his sharp criticism of the US and Israel and of Western foreign policy. Covering wars in the Balkans, Middle East and North Africa for UK newspapers over five decades, the New York Times described him as "probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain" in 2005. Born in Maidstone, Kent in 1946, he later took Irish citizenship and had a home in Dalkey outside the capital Dublin. Irish President Michael D Higgins expressed his "great sadness" about Fisk's death on Sunday. "With his passing the world of journalism and informed commentary on the Middle East has lost one of its finest commentators," he said in a statement. "With his passing the world of journalism and informed commentary on the Middle East has lost one of its finest commentators."Statement from President Higgins on the death of Robert Fisk:https://t.co/iuewqXuE4n — President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) November 1, 2020 After starting his career at the Sunday Express, Fisk moved to Belfast in 1972 to cover the Troubles as Northern Ireland correspondent for The Times. He became the paper's Middle East correspondent in 1976. Based in the Lebanese capital Beirut, he reported on the country's civil war as well as the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the Iran-Iraq War. He resigned from The Times in 1989 after a dispute with owner Rupert Murdoch and moved to The Independent, where he worked for the remainder of his career. In the 1990s he interviewed Osama Bin Laden three times for the paper. He described him as a "shy man" and looking "every inch the mountain warrior of mujahedin legend" in their first interview in 1993. After the September 11 attacks plotted by the Saudi terrorist, Fisk spent the next two decades covering conflicts throughout the Middle East, including in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. As an Arabic speaker and experienced reporter who dismissed journalists who sat behind desks, he became highly regarded for his knowledge of and experience in the region. He was also well known for his staunch criticism of the US and Israel. In his 2005 book The Great War for Civilisation - The Conquest of the Middle East he wrote about the region's history and also about many of the conflicts on which he reported, expressing his criticism of US, UK and Israeli policies. Fisk married US journalist Lara Marlowe in 1994 but the pair divorced in 2006. He had no children. Robert Fisk was simply the best foreign correspondent by a mile. Honest, diligent and fearless. Hated by those who wished to justify illegal invasions and war crimes. Disliked by those on all sides who put their international political allegiances before the truth. https://t.co/xaXZjVoTUP — Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) November 1, 2020 Saddened to hear of the passing of Robert Fisk. One of the last of the old guard of journalists who weren’t desk-bound, and it showed. — Philip O'Connor (@philipoconnor) November 1, 2020 I will miss you terribly my friend Robert .You were a remarkable person with unbelievable courage and a unique reporter .We met during crucial moments of the Lebanese civil war and you predicted the fate of the Lebanese like the Arabs today »Pity the Nation « #robertfisk pic.twitter.com/fkag7N4ntW — Walid Joumblatt (@walidjoumblatt) November 1, 2020 Robert Fisk - you great, great hack: who will I sit for hours with in Beirut to grumble about the world! May your ink never dry..... pic.twitter.com/jCasXjX5ki — Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) November 1, 2020 - BBC

Two days before election day, President Donald Trump launched a campaign sprint across US battleground states with chilly outdoor rallies in Iowa and Michigan as he seeks to defy the polls and fend off Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Donald Trump waves to supporters in Washington, Michigan, on 1 November. Photo: AFP Trump, aiming to avoid becoming the first incumbent president to lose a re-election bid since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992, has a frenetic schedule for Sunday, with stops also planned in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania with a drive-in rally in a parking lot outside a Philadelphia church. Buffeted by snow flurries in Washington, a town north of Detroit, in his first appearance of the day Trump wore his trademark red cap emblazoned with the words "Make America Great Again" and was bundled up in an overcoat he addressed a boisterous crowd on a cold and blustery morning. After the crowd loudly chanted, "We love you" Trump responded, "I love you, too. If I didn't, I wouldn't be standing here because it's freezing out here." "You better get out there and vote," Trump told the crowd. Trump predicted he would repeat his 2016 victory in Michigan and touted his efforts to create auto jobs, a key issue for the auto manufacturing state. "We brought back your car industry. Your car industry was finished. You would have had nothing left," Trump said. Motor vehicle manufacturing employment in Michigan has fallen by about 5000 jobs since Trump took office, and there are about 13,000 fewer jobs making vehicle parts. Trump then addressed another spirited rally in windy Dubuque, where he made his pitch to Iowa farmers in the important corn-growing state and predicted he would win there as he did four years ago. Joe Biden campaigning in Iowa on 30 October (file). Photo: AFP / Getty Images Biden has held on to a steady lead in national opinion polls as a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 230,000 Americans and battered the economy has weighed on Trump's campaign. The former vice president was ahead 51 percent to 43 percent in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, taken Oct. 27-29. Polls show Trump still close in enough battleground states that could give him the 270 votes needed to win in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the overall victor. The race remains a toss-up in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona, Reuters/Ipsos polls showed, while Trump trails by 7 percentage points in Pennsylvania and 10 percentage points in Michigan and Wisconsin. In his 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the real estate developer and reality TV personality-turned-politician took Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as Michigan, states that for decades had gone in the Democratic column. Polls show a tight race in Iowa. Anita Dunn, a Biden campaign adviser, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program, "We feel confident about where we are." The Democratic governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all said they were upbeat about Biden's chances in their states. Ohio's Republican governor predicted Trump would win the state by a couple of percentage points. Biden is scheduled to campaign again on Sunday and Monday in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born, with events in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Biden also added a stop in Ohio on Monday, indicating his campaign views that state as winnable. Trump is due to stage 10 rallies - five a day - on Sunday and Monday, the campaign's busiest stretch, with Monday appearances planned in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and back in Michigan. Hitting on familiar themes, Trump portrayed himself as running against "a corrupt politician" and "a dummy and a half" in Biden as well as a "left-wing mob" and Democratic "maniacs." Both men have previously mused about physically striking one another. Trump, 78, brought it up again on Sunday, saying of his 77-year-old rival, "He thinks he's a tough guy. ... You know what, boom ... ding, he's gone." Trump also again criticized the U.S. Justice Department for not investigating prominent Democratic adversaries. Texas courts hear Republican voting challenge The contest has proven unexpectedly close in Texas, typically a reliable Republican state. In Democratic-leaning Houston, a Republican state legislator and a conservative activist are seeking a court ruling that drive-through voting is illegal and that about 120,000 votes already cast should be thrown out. The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday declined to hear their claims. A federal judge is due to hold an emergency hearing on their request on Monday. A record-setting 93 million early votes have cast either in-person or by mail, according to the U.S. Elections Project, a phenomenon expected to boost Biden's chances. Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that mail-in ballots - a regular feature in U.S. elections - are rife with fraud and has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if the results show he has lost. Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller told ABC's "This Week" the president is banking on in-person voting on Tuesday to push the president over the top. Miller also questioned the integrity of the election, saying, "If you speak with many smart Democrats, they believe President Trump will be ahead on election night, probably getting 280 electoral (votes), somewhere in that range. And then they're going to try to steal it back after the election." - Reuters

The Duke of Cambridge contracted Covid-19 in April, Kensington Palace sources have told the BBC. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, on a visit to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, on 20 October. Photo: AFP It is believed he tested positive at a similar time to his father, the Prince of Wales. According to the Sun newspaper, which first reported the story, Prince William, 38, kept his diagnosis private to avoid alarming the nation. Kensington Palace, the office and home of Prince William, refused to comment officially. Prince William did not tell anyone about his positive test result because "there were important things going on and I didn't want to worry anyone", according to the Sun. He was treated by palace doctors and followed government guidelines by isolating at the family home Anmer Hall, in Norfolk, the paper added. In March Prince Charles tested positive for the coronavirus. - BBC