A suicide bomber killed at least 28 people today in a town near Pakistan’s tribal areas, the latest in an escalating series of attacks targeting the country’s Shiite Muslim minority.
Several of the most lethal bombings of recent months have apparently been motivated by sectarian strife, rather than the more typical attacks by Islamic militants against government and military installations.
Many analysts believe Pakistan’s Taliban movement is actively fomenting sectarian violence as a means of sowing chaos and further destabilizing Pakistan’s shaky central government.

The Arab League has condemned Israel’s seizure of a ship carrying humanitarian aid from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.
The league’s envoy to the United Nations, Yahya Mahmassani called the interception an act of piracy and asked U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to intervene.
Crew members and journalists aboard the Lebanese ship say Israel’s military fired in the ship’s direction before Israeli forces boarded the vessel. The Israeli military denied it fired on the ship.
Israeli officials said the Lebanese ship was escorted to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and that any aid …

BAGHDAD — Iraqis across the country voted Saturday in provincial elections that will help shape their future, but regardless of the outcome it is clear that the Americans are already drifting offstage — and that most Iraqis are ready to see them go.
The signs of mutual disengagement are everywhere. In the days leading up to the elections, it was possible to drive safely from near the Turkish border in the north to Baghdad and on south to Basra, just a few miles from the Persian Gulf — without seeing …

Iran will have enough enriched uranium to make a single nuclear weapon later this year, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reported on Tuesday.
The think tank made the prediction in its ‘Military Balance 2009,’ an annual assessment of global defense and military developments.
Announcing the new report on Tuesday, Mark Fitzpatrick said the threat may not necessarily as big as it sounds.
“Being able to enrich uranium is not the same as having nuclear weapons,” he said.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Now that there is a cease-fire in place, Israelis are asking whether the 22-day war against Hamas in Gaza achieved its aims.
The government argues that overwhelming victory in the field will advance what was Operation Cast Lead’s primary goal: bringing a long period of quiet to civilians in southern Israel, freeing them from the tyranny of cross-border rocket attacks from Gaza.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The last Ethiopian troops left Somalia’s capital on Thursday after a two-year deployment and Islamist militiamen took control of the bases, fueling fears they could try to expand their power in this lawless Horn of Africa nation.
Ethiopia’s prime minister said he could not predict what would happen when his troops leave Somalia completely, but he expected the extremist Islamic group, al-Shabab, and others to try to seize control.
Al-Shabab, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida, says it wants to establish an Islamic …

The war against Hamas is taking place not only in the Gaza Strip, but in the West Bank as well, Palestinians said on Thursday.
Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security forces, they noted, had stepped up their crackdown on Hamas supporters and figures in the West Bank since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead.
The latest anti-Hamas measures in the West Bank, which are being carried out in coordination with the IDF and under the supervision of US security experts, are designed to foil any attempt by the movement to overthrow the PA.

Pakistan has arrested more than 100 people in a crackdown on groups allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks, a top official said Thursday, adding that the information India has handed over still needs work before it can be used as evidence in court.
Despite the announcement, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik dodged a question on whether he was conceding the plot _ which killed 164 people in India’s commercial capital and raised tension between the nuclear-armed rivals _ was hatched on Pakistani soil.

Heavy fighting is reported around the sole remaining Tamil Tiger stronghold of Mullaitivu in Sri Lanka as the army presses ahead with its offensive.
The defence ministry said troops had captured one “administration base” with jets bombing jungle hideouts.
Rebel sources have not commented on the claim, but say civilians have been wounded by artillery fire.
Meanwhile doctors in the recently captured town of Kilinochchi say that healthcare is breaking down.

JERUSALEM (CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet Sunday he had “no alternative” but to order a ground incursion in Gaza to end Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel.
The Israeli army’s objectives were to “strike at the military infrastructure that Hamas has established and to take control of the areas from which most of the missiles have been fired” at Israeli territory, Olmert said.
Hamas has vowed to “fight until the last breath,” warning Israel that “Gaza will be your cemetery” as Israeli ground forces entered the …