Afghanistan: Afghan police say a bomb ripped through a police bus today (Sunday) in the capital of Kabul, killing around 35 people.
Officials say the police academy bus was carrying several recruits near a police station in a crowded section of the city when the bomb went off.
Most of the dead are Afghan police officers or recruits. Estimates on the number of casualties varies, with the number of wounded ranging from 10 to 35. Some civilians are reported to be among the casualties.
Authorities are investigating if the attack was a suicide bombing, or if a bomb may have been planted on the bus.
The attack is one of the deadliest in Kabul since the Taleban was toppled in 2001.
Afghanistan's insurgent Taleban movement has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Afghan officials said Saturday a suicide bomber struck near a convoy of foreign forces in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, killing one civilian and wounding at least six others.
Palestinians: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has sworn in an emergency Cabinet to replace the coalition Hamas and Fatah government he dissolved after Hamas took control of Gaza by force last week.
The Cabinet is led by respected economist Salam Fayyad, who will also serve as finance minister.
The new ministers took the oath of office today (Sunday) in the presidential compound in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Soon after the ceremony, President Abbas issued a decree outlawing the armed groups of Hamas.
The ban applies to the Hamas militia, known as the Executive Force, and to Hamas' other armed groups.
The decree said anyone involved with the groups would be punished.
Iraq: Iraqis returned to the streets of Baghdad today (Sunday) after the cancellation of a four-day curfew imposed after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine.
The curfew was imposed Wednesday after two gold-topped minarets of the al-Askariya mosque in Samarra were destroyed by suspected al-Qaida militants.
On Saturday, visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the recent arrival of 28-thousand additional troops in Iraq is only now starting to have a full impact.
Gates was on a one-day visit where he was briefed by U.S. commanders about the surge, intended to help the Iraqi army quell sectarian violence.
He said he traveled to Baghdad to press Iraqi leaders to make progress toward national reconciliation.
Also Saturday, the U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said his forces have begun new offensives against al-Qaida insurgents in and around Baghdad. The general also announced the arrest of two key insurgent leaders in recent days.
UN – Dafur: A U.N. Security Council team has arrived in Khartoum for talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on the deployment of peacekeepers in the troubled Darfur region.
The delegation is seeking confirmation from Mr. Bashir on the speedy deployment of around 20-thousand U.N. and African Union peacekeepers. Khartoum had previously rejected attempts to send large numbers of U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur, but finally agreed last week amid intense world pressure and threats of tougher U.N. sanctions.
The African Union already has about seven thousand peacekeepers in Darfur, who have not been able to stop the region's violence.
Four years of fighting in Darfur has left more than 200-thousand people dead and more than two million displaced. Government-backed Arab militias are accused of atrocities in battling Darfur rebels.
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