From Washington, this is VOA news. Hello, I'm Steve Miller.

Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide blast inside a crowded Shiite Muslim mosque in Kabul has killed at least 40 worshipers and wounded dozens more. Ayaz Gul has details.

It was in fact a crowded mosque for Shiite Muslims where a suicide bomber just walked in and blew himself up, and there are dozens of people seriously wounded, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry.

And in fact what we are hearing right now is that there were two attackers and as soon as the first one blew himself up, there was a second attacker. He was armed with automatic weapons and he started shooting at the crowd.

There was reporter Ayaz Gul.

Militants killed 14 policemen and wounded eight in a shootout during a raid Friday on a militants' hideout southwest of Cairo. Marissa Melton has more.

Egypt has been struggling to contain an insurgency by Islamic militants led by an affiliate of the Islamic State group.

Attacks have centered mostly in a northern region of the Sinai Peninsula but attacks on the mainland have also recently increased.

The country has been under a state of emergency since bombings and suicide attacks targeting minority Coptic Christians killed scores earlier this year. Those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Marissa Melton, VOA new.

Somalia's prime minister says the president will announce a "state of war" against the al-Shabaab extremist group blamed for the country's deadliest attack. Military officials say the United States is expected to play a supporting role in the new offensive.

Somalia's information minister says the death toll has risen to 358 in the country's worst attack ever.

This is the Voice Of America news.

Aid agencies report nearly 7,000 Rohingya refugees stranded in dire conditions on the Bangladesh side of the border with Myanmar have been allowed to enter the country of refuge. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

The refugees, who were stranded for four days in no-man's land, are now being assisted by aid agencies in Cox's Bazar.

Spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Joel Millman, says the refugees have told aid workers heartbreaking stories about their perilous escape from Myanmar, "talking about families, saying that they could take only some of their children from Myanmar, left others behind with neighbors, people who walked for 11 days."

Nearly 600,000 Rohingya have fled violence in Myanmar since late August, and agencies say more are on their way to Bangladesh.

Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.

Security sources said Iraqi forces took control on Friday of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle. Emily Wither has that story.

The fighting centered on the district that lies on the road between Kirkuk and Irbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Kurdish fighters fought advancing Iraqi troops with machine-guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

Earlier this week, Iraqi forces took control of the Kurdish-held Mosul Dam and elsewhere in Nineveh province.

And in an attempt to ease tensions, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on the government to protect the Kurdish population during Friday prayers.

Tens of thousands have fled to the two main cities of the Kurdish region.

There have been reports of forced displacement and destruction of Kurdish homes.

The rapid advance over the last few days is likely to hamper any Kurdish aspirations for independence.

There was Emily Wither.

Spain's prime minister says his government will unveil specific measures Saturday to halt Catalonia's independence bid but refused to confirm if that would include plans to hold a regional election in January.

The opposition Socialists are supporting the conservative government's effort to rein in the country's deepest political crisis in decades and said an early election in the prosperous northeastern region of Catalonia had been agreed upon as part of the deal.

The U.S. military has blamed Islamic State militants for the deaths of four U.S. special forces soldiers in southwestern Niger [as] and has said it is conducting an investigation into the October 4 attack.

From Washington, I'm Steve Miller.

That's the latest world news from VOA.