Israel has widened its range of Gaza bombing targets to civilian institutions with suspected Hamas ties and announced it would hit northern Gaza "with great force" to prevent rocket attacks from there on Israel.

Funding from an Islamic bank will help develop agriculture in poor countries, a UN food agency said ahead of a summit to discuss the goal of reducing the number of hungry people in the world.

Dozens of Shiite villagers in northern Iraq were massacred by Sunni extremists, officials said today, while car bombs killed at least a dozen people in Baghdad.