At least 24 people were killed and 66 injured when two bombs ripped through a Pakistani army bus and a commercial district in a city near the capital Islamabad today.

Pakistani troops attempted to clear a women’s religious school after seizing Islamabad’s Red Mosque in fierce fighting that left at least 40 militants and three soldiers dead.

Hamas officials today gave Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the go-ahead for negotiations with Israel, a major shift in the militant Islamic group’s position toward the Jewish state as it worked to end its international isolation.