Tunisia
Ex-PM forms new party to counter Islamists
TUNIS - A former prime minister who led Tunisia's transition government after the fall of its autocratic leader has launched a new political party to counter-balance the Islamists running the North African country.
Beji Caid Essebsi announced the formation of the Nida' Tounes, or Call of Tunisia, party on Saturday before thousands of men and women in a packed hall. The 85-year-old said he wants a party "that unifies everyone, without exclusion." He called it a "balancing force that can create conditions for an alternative."
The moderate Islamist Ennahda party was elected after a transition period following the January 2011 ouster of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. However, hard-line Islamists are emerging and last week clashed with police over an art exhibit they judged blasphemous.
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Israel
Rockets crash in desert, sparking speculation
JERUSALEM - Two rockets crashed into open desert areas in southern Israel, the military said Saturday, causing no damage or injuries.
It was not immediately clear from where both rockets, which landed some 60 miles apart, were launched. But the incidents raised concern over increasing militant activity in Egypt's neighboring Sinai peninsula, which has seen growing lawlessness following the uprising last year that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired thousands of rockets in recent years at Israeli communities on its border. But the rockets, which landed late Friday, were found in areas far from Gaza, sparking speculation that they may have been fired from Sinai.
Pakistan
Two bomb attacks kill 33, wound more than 50
PESHAWAR - Two bombs killed 33 people in tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, officials and witnesses said, a reminder of the instability wracking the nuclear-armed country.
The first blast, a car bomb, hit a crowded bazaar in the town of Landi Kotal in the Khyber region near the Afghan border, government administrator Khalid Mumtaz said.
It killed 26 people and wounded more than 50 others.
Later in the nearby district of Kohat, a bomb hidden in a handcart killed seven people, among them police officers, said police officer Naeem Khan.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, but suspicion fell on Pakistani Taliban insurgents who often target security forces and public places with bombings and shooting attacks.
Militant: No polio shots till US drone attacks stop
PESHAWAR - A militant commander in northwest Pakistan warned polio vaccination teams on Saturday to stay away from the territory he controls near the Afghan border, saying he would not allow immunizations until U.S. drone attacks in the country are stopped.
The statement by Hafiz Gul Bahadur is an obstacle to efforts to beat polio in Pakistan, one of only three nations where the virus is endemic.
The threat came in a pamphlet distributed Saturday in markets in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region. "We don't want benefits from well-wishers who spend billions to save children from polio, which can affect one or two out of hundreds of thousands, while on the other hand the same well-wisher (America) with the help of its slave (Pakistan's government) kills hundreds of innocent tribesmen including old women and children by unleashing numerous drone attacks," it said.
The polio virus attacks the nerves and can kill or paralyze.
Yemen
Al-Qaida branch impaired after another army attack
SANAA - Yemeni troops killed 21 al-Qaida fighters as the army pushed on with an offensive in two southern provinces, military officials said Saturday, while Washington commended the government for successfully routing militants from some of their strongholds.
The fighting in Azan town in Shabwa province and the Hassan valley in neighboring Abyan follows a surprise government assault earlier this week that recaptured the al-Qaida base of Jaar after weeks of battles that raged back and forth.
The military campaign, assisted by U.S. military advisers and bankrolled by neighboring Saudi Arabia, has left al-Qaida's dangerous Yemen branch on the run.
The Associated Press
