Iraq violence including Baghdad bombings kills 47

BAGHDAD: A series of bombings across Baghdad were the deadliest in a spate of nationwide attacks that killed 47 people on Tuesday, as Iraq struggles with its worst violence since 2008.

At least eight car bombs and several roadside bombs struck the capital just before Iraqis broke their daytime Ramadan fast, the latest in brutal violence during the Muslim holy month that has left hundreds dead.

Attacks on Baghdad mosques kill nine

BAGHDAD: A Shia and a Sunni mosque in Baghdad were targeted in bombings that killed at least nine people, Iraqi officials said.

Police officials said a suicide bomber set off his explosives on Shia worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in the city's suburb of Hussainya late on Tuesday.

Seven people died and 11 were wounded in that attack.

Air raids kill 11 Syrian kids

BEIRUT: Seven children in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo and another four in Homs in the center were among 17 civilians killed in air raids on Tuesday, a watchdog said.

The deaths in Homs come as troops pressed an offensive against remaining rebel areas there, while in Aleppo province, the raid comes exactly a year into the rebel takeover of the targeted town of Anadan.

Militants kill nine police in Iraq's north: officials

BAGHDAD: Militants have killed nine policemen in an attack in the Iraq’s north, police said.

A police officer said an unspecified number of militants attacked a police headquarters outside the northern city of Mosul early on Wednesday.

He said the attack triggered a shootout that left nine policemen dead and two wounded.

There were apparently no casualties among the attackers, the police officer said.

Protest rallies against attack on Hazrat Zainab’s (RA) shrine

Demonstrators on Sunday took to the streets in Karachi and twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi against a rocket attack on the shrine of Hazrat Zainab (A.S) in Syria.

In Islamabad, hundreds of people marched and presented a memorandum to officials of Foreign Office.

The rally, which was taken out from from Sector G-6/2 Imambargah to Radio Pakistan Intersection, was led by Aleema Amin Shaheedi, Deputy Secretary General of Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM).

“It was not attack on the shrine of Bibi Zainab, it was an assault on the unity of Islamic ummah,” one of the protesters remarked.

Chief justice Adly Mansour sworn in as interim president

CAIRO: The chief justice of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court was sworn in on Thursday as the nation's interim president, taking over hours after the military ousted the Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Adly Mansour took the oath of office at the Nile-side Constitutional Court in a ceremony broadcast live on state television. According to military decree, Mansour will serve as Egypt's interim leader until a new president is elected. A date for that vote has yet to be set.