In the World

IRAQ

Series of bombings leave 19 people dead

A series of bombings in Iraq killed 19 people Saturday, a day after army shelling killed 11 civilians and gunmen in the militant-held city of Fallujah, authorities said.

Police officials said the deadliest of Saturday's attacks happened in the afternoon when a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into the security checkpoint in the town of Dujail, killing six security force members and a civilian. They said the attack wounded 15 people.

Dujail is 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Earlier, police said a bomb blast at an outdoor market killed four people and wounded 17 in the town of Tarmiyah, just north of the capital.

Another bomb exploded near a patrol of Sunni anti-al-Qaeda militiamen in the town of Dawr, killing three Sunni fighters and wounding two.

- AP

C. AFRICAN REPUBLIC

U.N. sanctions

The United Nations has imposed sanctions on the Central African Republic's former president Francois Bozize and two rebel leaders for undermining peace and fueling violence in the conflict-torn country.

They are the first Central Africans to be sanctioned under a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in January.

An alliance of Muslim rebels called the Seleka overthrew Bozize in March 2013. They quickly became despised by Christians in the capital after Muslim fighters went on sprees of violence. - AP
SYRIA

Return to Homs

Thousands of Syrians returned to war-battered parts of the central city of Homs on Saturday, many making plans to move back as opposition activists expressed bitterness over the rebels' surrender of their strongholds to pro-government forces and vowed they would return. - AP