Bombings that hit markets and other insurgent strikes primarily targeting Iraq’s Shiite community killed 31 people today, challenging government efforts to promote a sense of stability by preventing attacks during a major Muslim holiday.

A bombing near a playground and other insurgent attacks killed 18 people including several children in Iraq today, challenging government efforts to promote a sense of stability by preventing attacks during a major Muslim holiday.

It is being hailed as a miracle in a conflict that has seen endless misery.

Two deadly car bombs and sporadic fighting marred a shaky holiday truce today in Syria, although thousands of protesters used the brief respite in the civil war to pour into the streets and demand president Bashar Assad’s removal.

A suicide bomber has blown himself up outside a mosque in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 20 people and wounding 50.

The Syrian military says it will cease military operations for four days starting tomorrow in observance of a major Muslim holiday.

The Syrian government and some rebel leaders have agreed to a ceasefire during the forthcoming Muslim four-day holiday.

The leader of the main Syrian opposition group said today that the chances of a truce proposed by the UN for a Muslim holiday this week are slim, partly because the plan is too vague.

Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of five more victims of Turkey’s latest earthquake, increasing the death toll to at least 17, including a Japanese aid worker who came after last month’s devastating quake.

A RADICAL Muslim sect responsible for attacks that left more than 100 people dead in north-east Nigeria at the weekend could bomb three luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in oil-rich nation’s capital, the US Embassy warned yesterday.

At least six people - including two police officers - have died in a suicide bombing that hit worshippers exiting a mosque in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province.

Violence has erupted in the restive Syrian city of Homs, killing at least five people as tank shells slammed into an area that has turned into one of the main centres of both protest and reprisal during the seven-month uprising, activists said.

At least 67 people died in a wave of bombings and shootings carried out in north-east Nigeria overnight, officials said today, as frightened mourners left their homes to begin burying their dead.

A shoot-out inside a mosque in south-western Pakistan wounded 18 people today during one of Islam’s most important holidays.

A JOYOUS Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan has the potential for misunderstandings or worse in the United States.

THOUSANDS of Muslim pilgrims massed in a valley near the Saudi holy city of Mina yesterday for the stoning of Satan, the last and most dangerous rite of the annual hajj.

Vandals who desecrated at least 500 tombs of Muslim soldiers in France today were guilty of “repugnant racism” President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Legendary French actress Brigitte Bardot went on trial on Tuesday to face a charge of inciting racial hatred after making controversial comments concerning the religion of Islam.

IRAQI security forces were on high alert yesterday around Baghdad and in the Sunni heartland north of the capital as the country marked the one-year anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s execution.

The purported leader of al-Qaida’s umbrella group in Iraq has confirmed the death of a top militant who the US military said was killed in an attack last month, according to a new audiotape.

Police examined clothing, shoes and the severed legs of a man today trying to determine the identity of a suicide bomber who killed at least 50 people during a holiday prayer service at a crowded mosque in north-western Pakistan.

Pakistani police rearrested a prominent opposition lawyer this morning, despite promises that he would be allowed to remain free for the three-day Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, his son said.

At least 42 people were killed when a suicide attacker detonated a bomb packed with ball bearings and nails amid hundreds of holiday worshippers at the home of Pakistan’s former interior minister today, authorities said.

AN EXPRESS train crowded with holiday travellers derailed in southern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 58 people and leaving hundreds of terrified survivors to claw their way out of the wreckage in total darkness.

Two of Saddam Hussein’s co-defendants were taken from their cells and told they were going to be hanged on the same day the former Iraqi dictator was executed, their lawyer said.

Saddam top aide wishes he had been executed with the deposed leader, an Iraqi lawyer said today.

ARMED men cut off the ears and nose of a Pakistani man who married one of their tribe for love after he and his family refused to hand over his wife, police said yesterday.

Sunni Muslims, angered by the execution of Saddam Hussein and the hurried and undignified way his hanging was carried out, have taken to the streets of Iraq in mainly peaceful demonstrations.

Rage over the hanging of Saddam Hussein spilled into the streets in many parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland today, especially in Samarra where a mob of angry protesters broke the locks off the badly damaged Shiite Golden Dome mosque and marched through carrying a mock coffin and photo of the executed former leader.

US troops killed six people today during a raid on a possible safe house for al-Qaida in Iraq, the military said, while the death toll of American service members in Iraq rose above 3,000.

Hundreds of Turks spent the first day of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha holiday in emergency wards today after stabbing themselves or suffering other injuries while sacrificing startled and agitated sheep and other animals.

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed today.

Israel’s Defence Minister Amir Peretz said today he has asked the army to dismantle some of the checkpoints that have severely disrupted Palestinian travel in the West Bank, part of a package of goodwill gestures Israel hopes will boost the moderate Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.

ANGER mounted across Pakistan yesterday after an attempt to kill al-Qaida’s number two missed the target, but caused the death of at least 17 other people.

A hotel at the gates to Mecca’s Islamic shrines in Saudi Arabia collapsed today as millions of Muslims gathered in their holiest city for the annual hajj pilgrimage.

A car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque packed with worshippers celebrating a major Muslim holiday yesterday, and a suicide driver blew up an ambulance at the wedding of a Shiite couple south of the capital.

Islamic militant group Hamas joined in the mood of optimism in Gaza today and signalled it would suspend rocket attacks on Israel.

A car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad killing at least 14 people and wounding 40 today in the latest violence in the lead-up to next weekend’s elections.

A car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad today, killing at least 13 people and wounding 40, police and hospital officials said.

SOME 2.5 million Muslims took part in the Stoning of Satan ritual, as the Islamic world marked the Eid al-Adha feast of sacrifice following the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

At least four people died and dozens more were trapped when an 11-storey apartment building in central Turkey collapsed into a heap of twisted metal and chunks of concrete, rescuers and officials said.

NEARLY 250 Muslim worshipers died in a hajj stampede yesterday during the annual stoning of Satan ritual in one of the deadliest tragedies at the notoriously perilous ceremony.

TWO suicide bombers struck the offices of two US-backed Kurdish parties in near-simultaneous attacks yesterday as hundreds of Iraqis gathered to celebrate a Muslim holiday.

Two suicide bombers struck the offices of two US-backed Kurdish parties in near-simultaneous attacks today as hundreds of Iraqis gathered to celebrate a Muslim holiday.