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Two bombs tore through a throng of people gathered to celebrate the return of Benazir Bhutto in the coastal Pakistani city of Karachi, leaving at least 133 dead. The former Pakistani prime minister escaped uninjured. Hundreds of Bhutto's supporters were bussed in from around the country to great her as she ended years in exile to attempt to steer Pakistan away from the precipice. Various Islamist and pro-Taliban militant groups had threatened to stage attacks against the planned rally in Karachi.
In her first public comments since the attack, Bhutto that the bombings were targeted at what she "represents", at "democracy, at the very unity and integrity of Pakistan". Fifty of her security guards were killed in the blast. Critics suggest that it was unwise to orchestrate such a public and publicised triumphal return.
Karachi police claim that the attack was "planned meticulously" and conducted "expertly".
Markets and bazaars throughout Karachi remained shut today as the city undergoes a security clampdown.
Turkey to invade Iraq?
Turkey's parliament has voted to support any government military action that would send Turkish troops into northern Iraq to flush out Kurdish separatists from their hideouts in the rugged border region.
Iraq's foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari has asked Kurdish militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to leave the country and not bring Iraq "more problems than we're already suffering".
The central government in Baghdad has had to rely on the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish administration to tackle the PKK in their territory, a task that the Kurds have failed to do.
Colonel facing court martial for helping al-Qaida
Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele is facing a court martial for allegedly aiding al-Qaida in Iraq and keeping thousands of sensitive documents without clearance. Prosecutors have accused Steele of allowing a detainee to make an unmonitored call on the US officer's mobile-phone.
US legislators have demanded that the Bush administration apologise to Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was detained in New York before being rendered to Syria where he was tortured and imprisoned for a year. Arar has been cleared of any links to terrorism or terrorist groups.
As public scrutiny lingers on the private American security firm Blackwater for its killing of numerous Iraqi civilians, a UK security firm is accused of shooting a number of civilians in Kirkuk.
Manila blast
At least eight people were killed when a bomb tore through a shopping mall in the capital Manila, the second such blast in recent weeks. Government officials suspect Muslim separatists to be behind the bombings.
Three Catholic bishops have called for the country's leader President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down amidst a string of corruption allegations.
Moscow's shuttle diplomacy
At a meeting with Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini, Russia's President Vladimir Putin is said to have proposed a serious solution to the ongoing diplomatic impasse regarding Iran's nuclear program. Iranian officials are considering it seriously.
Putin subsequently met with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert to discuss Moscow's negotiations with Iran.
Maoris protest anti-"terrorist" raids
Over one thousand mostly Maori protesters in New Zealand decried the heavy-handed tactics used by the police in raiding alleged "terrorist camps" where Maori and environmental activists were said to be training with guns.
