The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY “This is an outrage that anyone would even think of holding an election in the midst of this carnage.” Rime Allaf, an adviser for the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition opposition group, after Syria’s leaders called for a presidential election June 3 in an effort to shore up support for President Bashar Assad Article, this page33 die as Iraqi violence continues its run

BAGHDAD - Suicide bombings and other attacks across Iraq killed at least 33 people and wounded nearly 80 more Monday, officials said, the latest in an upsurge in violence before parliamentary elections April 30.

Monday’s deadliest attack took place south of Baghdad in Suwayrah, where a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint, killing 12 people - five policemen and seven civilians. A police officer said 19 people were wounded in the attack.

In the nearby town of Madain, another suicide car bomber struck an army checkpoint, killing three soldiers and two civilians, a second police officer said. Twelve people were wounded, he said.

An Iraqi soldier was killed and three were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in the northern town of Mishahda, a police officer said. And in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car killed one civilian and wounded two, a police officer said.

On Monday evening, four more bombings in Baghdad killed at least 14 people and wounded 40, police said.

S. Sudan killing of 200 said ethnic-based

KAMPALA, Uganda - United Nations human-rights investigators have confirmed that hundreds of civilians were killed because of their ethnicity after rebel forces seized a disputed town in South Sudan last week, the U.N. said Monday.

The U.N. Mission in South Sudan condemned what it called “the targeted killings of civilians based on their ethnic origins and nationality” in Bentiu, the capital of oil-producing Unity state, last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thousands of people have been killed in violence in South Sudan since December, when presidential guards splintered and fought along ethnic lines.

According to human-rights investigators, anti-government forces entered the Kali-Ballee Mosque in Bentiu last Tuesday, separated civilians of certain nationalities and ethnic groups and led them to safety while the others were killed.

More than 200 civilians were reportedly killed and more than 400 wounded at the mosque, said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Nigerian parents insist 234 girls missing

CHIBOK, Nigeria - Some 234 girls are missing from the northeast Nigerian school attacked last week by Islamic extremists, significantly more than the 85 reported by education officials, parents told the state governor Monday.

The higher figure came out when Borno Gov. Kashim Shettima visited the town of Chibok a week after the kidnappings. Parents told the governor that officials would not listen when they said 234 children were missing.

The discrepancy in the figures could not immediately be resolved.

Borno state Education Commissioner Musa Inuwo Kubo and the principal of the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School had initially said 129 science students were at the school for an exam when the abductors struck early April 14. Twenty-eight pupils escaped from their captors between last Tuesday and Friday. Another 16 were found to be day scholars who had returned to their homes in Chibok before the attack.

Security sources have said they are in “hot pursuit” of the abductors, but so far they have not rescued any of the students, all ages 16 to 18.

Hit back at Gaza rocket fire, Israel says

JERUSALEM - Militants from the Gaza Strip fired a missile at Israeli troops patrolling the border and several rockets into the country’s south Monday, the last day of the Passover holiday, the military said. No injuries were reported.

The attacks drew retaliatory airstrikes by Israeli aircraft, hitting targets of the Islamic militant group Hamas, the Israeli military said. Hamas said seven airstrikes targeted training centers used by the group.

Gaza ambulance services said four Hamas members were wounded in the strikes.

The Israeli military said the latest bout of attacks started late Sunday when an explosive device went off targeting Israeli troops along the border. It said that 12 hours later, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a missile at soldiers on patrol in the same area. After that, at least seven rockets were fired into southern Israel, it said.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 04/22/2014

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