October 16, 2021 (Saturday)

The Taliban says that they will step up security at Shi'ite mosques after ISIL-K bombed mosques in Kunduz and Kandahar in the past week, killing more than 120 people in total.

Yesterday's killing of MP Sir David Amess, who was stabbed to death in a Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, is declared as a terrorist incident by police. The attack had "a potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism", according to police.

Eleven people drown during a school outing for a river clean-up in West Java, Indonesia.

Three people are killed and seven are injured as a 4.8 earthquake hits Bali, Indonesia.

Southern Tasmania, including the state capital of Hobart, enters a lockdown after an increase in locally transmitted COVID-19 cases.

Russia reports a record for the fourth consecutive day of 1,002 deaths from COVID-19, which is the first time that the country has reported more than 1,000 COVID-related deaths in a single day since the pandemic began. Only 32% of the population has been fully vaccinated, amid wide distrust in vaccines.

Seven activists are sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to twelve months' imprisonment for protesting against the national security law in July 2020. Among those sentenced are Leung Kwok-hung and Figo Chan. Leung is currently serving two sentences of 18 months' imprisonment for other charges and Chan is currently serving a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment for unauthorized assembly.

Argentine federal judge María Romilda Servini indicts post Franco-era Spanish minister Rodolfo Martín Villa on four counts of homicide. Villa, who resides in Spain, says that he will appeal the decision of the Argentine judge.

An unidentified armed gang kidnaps 15 American missionaries and their families in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Colombian businessman Alex Saab is extradited to the United States from Cape Verde ahead of an initial court appearance in Florida on October 18 over his alleged money laundering for the Venezuelan government.

French president Emmanuel Macron condemns the Paris massacre of 1961 on the eve of its 60th anniversary, but does not issue a formal apology. Macron is the first French president to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims.

Shenzhou 13 launches on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia, for the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station, where the crew will stay for six months. It will be China's longest crewed mission to date.

Lucy, a NASA spacecraft that will visit Jupiter's trojan asteroids, launches today at 09:34 UTC from Cape Canaveral, Florida.