Kabul

They are working harder than ever to keep up with the death toll from the novel coronavirus. "People bring their dead during the day and during the night," says a gravedigger named Abbas.

The assault in Kabul targets a maternity ward and shocks a country grimly accustomed to violence. And it isn't the only attack Tuesday as a suicide blast tears through a funeral in another province.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted members of the Sikh religious minority in the Afghan capital Wednesday.

The Babur Garden is a place of respite in an often chaotic city. "Do you think the Taliban will ever accept this?" asks one man, pointing to himself and his fiancée, strolling among blooming roses.

The attack, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, occurred as President Ashraf Ghani was making a rare personal appearance. Due to security concerns, he gives many speeches through his laptop.

The bomb attack outside a police center came as talks continue between the U.S. and the Taliban, and sparked fresh security concerns in the lead-up to Afghanistan's presidential elections next month.

In his essay this week, NPR's Scott Simon writes about how Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather ended up in a pile of books on the streets of Kabul and sparked one young man's imagination.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing and hours-long standoff with police in Kabul on Monday. Most of the people who died were government employees.

A suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a wedding hall in Kabul as religious scholars gathered for the holiday commemorating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.

A suicide bomber reportedly struck a classroom in a Shiite neighborhood where teenagers, male and female, were studying for college entrance exams. Authorities say the death toll is at least 48.

The attack appears to be the latest in a series claimed either by the Islamic State or the Taliban in recent months that have targeted government buildings, checkpoints and hotels.

Shah Marai with Agence France-Presse was among those killed in twin suicide blasts in Kabul. "Life seems to be even more difficult than under the Taliban because of the insecurity," he wrote in 2016.