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/ 29 December 2007

Pakistan tense amid dispute over Bhutto

Pakistan was on Saturday gripped by division and uncertainty following the burial of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as her supporters angrily rejected a government explanation of her death. Bhutto died on Thursday shortly after a suicide attack targeting her vehicle at a campaign rally in the northern city of Rawalpindi.

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/ 28 December 2007

Bomb rocks Baghdad market

A car bomb exploded in a busy market in central Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 66, medics in the capital’s two hospitals said. The attack occurred at about 1pm local time in the Iraqi capital’s Bab al-Sharji market, which is popular for trading food and clothes, security officials said.

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/ 28 December 2007

Bhutto: Pakistan points to al-Qaeda

Pakistan pointed a finger on Friday at al-Qaeda for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, as her body was taken to her ancestral home for burial and anger at her death erupted into deadly unrest. The scale of the violence left the nuclear-armed Muslim nation shell-shocked, triggering alarm around the world.

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/ 28 December 2007

Pakistan on edge after Bhutto assassination

The body of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was taken to her family village for burial on Friday, a day after her assassination plunged the nuclear-armed country into one of the worst crises in its 60-year history. Her killing after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi triggered a wave of violence.

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/ 25 December 2007

Truck bomb kills at least 20 north of Baghdad

A suicide truck bomb killed at least 20 people and wounded 80 in the northern Iraqi city of Baiji on Tuesday, the United States military and police said, in one of the deadliest attacks in Iraq in two weeks. A Reuters photographer on the scene said the attack targeted a security checkpoint on a road leading to a residential compound.

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/ 20 December 2007

Suicide attack kills 42 in Pakistan mosque

A suicide bomber killed at least 42 people in a mosque in north-west Pakistan on Friday where a former interior minister was offering Muslim Eid festival prayers with worshippers, the government said. The former minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, survived unhurt but at least 80 people were wounded in the blast.

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/ 14 December 2007

Algiers bombers had been released in amnesty

Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out this week’s suicide bombings at United Nations and government buildings that killed 37 people, an Algerian security official said. One of the bombers was a 64-year-old man in the advanced stages of cancer, while the other was a 32-year-old from a poor suburb.

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/ 27 November 2007

Musharraf prepares to shed army uniform

Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf said farewell to military colleagues on Tuesday as he prepared to become a civilian president ahead of January’s general election. Musharraf visited Joint Staff headquarters in Rawalpindi a day before he steps down as army chief to fulfil one of the long-held demands of his political rivals and Western allies.

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/ 24 November 2007

Six schoolchildren die in Kabul suicide blast

A suicide bomb on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday killed six schoolchildren and wounded three Italians working on an aid project building a bridge, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said. ”It was a suicide bomber … six schoolchildren coming out from school were killed,” said Zemarai Bashary.

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/ 18 November 2007

Iraq violence flares with Baghdad bombs

At least 17 people were killed by explosions in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities on Sunday, Iraqi police and officials said. Nine people were killed and at least 20 others were also wounded in one of the worst attacks in the Iraqi capital in several weeks, which police said targeted Iraqi Finance Ministry adviser Salman al-Mugotar.

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/ 10 November 2007

The pupil who declared war

Pekka-Eric Auvinen, a student in the year above, came strolling along the corridor. The teenagers glanced at the familiar figure and carried on chatting. ”He walked towards us calmly and slowly … He lifted his arm. He pointed the gun at me and started shooting. The dude just pointed it at me and fired.”

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/ 9 November 2007

Suicide bomber targets Pakistan minister’s house

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the house of a Pakistani minister in the north-western city of Peshawar on Friday, killing four people, police said. Federal Minister for Political Affairs Amir Muqam, who is also the local head of President Pervez Musharraf’s ruling party, told state television that he was unharmed in the blast.

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/ 5 November 2007

Pakistani police smash protests

Pakistani police used tear gas and batons to crush protests by lawyers against President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, despite world outrage at the imposition of a state of emergency. The White House said it was ”deeply disturbed” by the crisis, urging Musharraf, a key ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, to quit his military post.

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/ 25 October 2007

Thirty dead in Pakistan blast

A blast tore through a security-forces vehicle in restive north-west Pakistan on Thursday, killing 30 people and wounding dozens more, officials said. The attack in scenic Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province was the latest in a wave of violence targeting the military since government troops stormed the al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.

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/ 13 October 2007

More bodies found in flood-hit Haiti

At least 45 people have died in the poverty-stricken island of Haiti as homes were swept away in floods triggered by heavy rain, the Interior Ministry said Friday. Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said 23 bodies had been found on Thursday in Cabaret, just north of the capital, and 12 were missing.

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/ 1 October 2007

Suicide bomber in Pakistan kills 15

A suicide bomber wearing a burqa set off explosives in the north-western Pakistani town of Bannu on Monday killing up to 15 people, including four policemen, security officials said. The blast was the lastest in a wave of attacks, most in the north-west of the country near the border with Afghanistan.

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/ 28 September 2007

UN rights investigators report abuses in Angola

United Nations human rights investigators say people are still being arbitrarily detained, tortured and often denied access to a lawyer in post-war Angola. Wrapping up a 10-day visit to the Southern African country, they also cited credible allegations that civilians are held incommunicado at military facilities in Cabinda province.