WASHINGTON
White House advances immigration bill The White House is advancing work on early drafts of a comprehensive bill that would offer 11 million illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship along the lines of the principles that President Obama laid out several weeks ago, administration officials said. USA Today said the plan would allow illegal immigrants to become permanent residents within eight years. Obama said he preferred to let lawmakers work out their own bill, but that he would be prepared to submit legislation if their effort stalls.
SOMALIA
Blast strikes seaside restaurant; 1 killed A bomb ripped through a popular beach restaurant that is a symbol of Mogadishu's renaissance. Witnesses said a soldier was killed after a car bomb was remotely detonated.
BANGLADESH
Thousands protest killing of activist Tens of thousands of people resumed demonstrations in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, intensifying demands for more severe punishment for war criminals from the 1971 liberation war while also demanding justice for the slaying of a blogger who had been a leader of the protests. Rajib Haidar's body was discovered on Friday night near his home after he had been stabbed.
PAKISTAN
Bomb rips through market, killing 81 A bomb ripped through a vegetable market in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 81 people and wounding 164. Shiites, a minority in the Sunni-dominated country, have been increasingly attacked by militants who view them as heretics. Many of the Shiites in Quetta are Hazaras, an ethnic group.
SYRIA
Captured Syrians released after talks Recent tit-for-tat kidnappings of more than 140 people have provoked fears of an expanded sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Idlib Province. But one set of hostages was released after negotiations between residents of two of the affected villages, according to a rebel commander. Kidnappings for money or political reasons have become common in northern Syria as government control has eroded.
INDIA
Girl, 6, raped, dumped on road in capital A 6-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped and dumped by a roadside in New Delhi in the latest of a series of violent sexual attacks that have shocked the country. Many rapes have been reported since December's fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus.
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