RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Hamas militiamen were out in strength in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, asserting their authority over the Palestinian enclave after a bloody showdown with a rival Islamist splinter group aligned with al Qaeda.

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - A series of huge bombings in northern Iraq have triggered fiery accusations of blame between Arabs and Kurds, escalating a dispute over land and oil that has played into the hands of a resurgent al Qaeda.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Communist North Korea denounced impending joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States, and said it would “wipe them out” with nuclear weapons if they threatened it, its KCNA news agency said on Sunday.

YANGON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator met Myanmar’s top general and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while arranging the release of an American prisoner on a weekend mission that offered a rare opening for better ties with the isolated nation.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Palestinian families held funerals in the dead of night on Sunday for at least a dozen gunmen from a pro-al Qaeda group killed in fighting with the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers.

KUWAIT (Reuters) - A fire broke out in a women’s tent at a Kuwaiti wedding party on Saturday killing at least 41 people, Kuwaiti media reported.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s ruling Labour Party trails the opposition Conservatives by up to 17 points in the polls with a parliamentary election less than a year away, according to two surveys published on Sunday.

KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb that killed seven people on Saturday in the heart of the Afghan capital’s most secure district five days before an election the Islamist group has vowed to disrupt.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three Iraqis were killed and another wounded when they wandered near an artillery firing exercise held by Iraqi and U.S. troops Saturday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Palestinian Islamists Hamas struck back at an al-Qaeda challenge to their hold on the Gaza Strip by storming a mosque in battles that left the leader of the “Warriors of God” splinter group among up to 28 dead.