Bombings kill 43 people in Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan – Bombings killed at least 43 people in three different areas of Pakistan on Sunday, just as Britain’s prime minister was in the capital pledging to help to fight extremism.
In the deadliest of the attacks, twin blasts near a Shiite Muslim mosque in Quetta, the capital of southwest Baluchistan province, killed at least 22 people, including two women and several minors, and wounded 65 others, said senior police officer Ishtiaq Ahmed.
Initial reports indicated a hand grenade caused the first blast, forcing people to run in the direction of the mosque, where a suicide bomber detonated his explosives, said another police officer. Radical Sunni Muslims have stepped up attacks in the last two years against minority Shiites, whom they consider to be heretics.
Brazilian protests target soccer match
RIO DE JANEIRO – More than 5,000 anti-government protesters marched Sunday near the Maracana football stadium before a major international match, venting their anger about the billions of dollars the Brazilian government is spending on major sporting events rather than public services.
About a half hour before the match started, small clashes between police and some of the protesters who massed at security blockades broke out, with some protesters hurling rocks at authorities who responded with tear gas and shock grenades.
Though smaller in size, the march was the latest in a wave of protests that has spread across this continent-sized country in recent weeks. Many are calling the protest movement the biggest seen here in decades, with more than 1 million people having taken to the streets nationwide on just the night of June 20.
The demonstrations have dwindled in size and frequency in recent days as officials from all levels of government have scrambled to calm public anger with woeful public services and a heavy tax burden.
Syrian official: War costs equal $15 billion
AMMAN, Jordan – More than two years of fighting in Syria’s civil war has damaged some 9,000 state buildings and run up $15 billion in losses to the public sector, a government minister said Sunday, shining a light on the devastating toll the crisis has taken on the country’s economy.
Syria’s civil war has laid waste to entire neighborhoods in the country’s cities and towns, destroyed much of its manufacturing base and infrastructure and brought oil production and exports to a halt. The damage to the nation’s human resources has been just as severe. More than a million people have fled the country and millions more are displaced within it. According to a U.N. estimate, more than 93,000 people have been killed.
In comments published in Syrian newspapers, Local Administration Minister Omar Al Ibrahim Ghalaounji said the $15 billion in damages to the public sector were sustained between March 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar Assad began, and March 2013.
Associated Press
