Two bombs near a Sunni mosque and another targeting a Sunni funeral procession killed 49 people in Iraq on Friday, officials said, after two days of attacks against Shiites that killed dozens. The surge in violence raises the spectre of tit-for-tat killings common during the height of sectarian bloodletting in Iraq that killed tens of thousands of people, and comes at a time of simmering tension between the country's Sunni minority and Shiite majority.

Singaporean housewife Siti Khadijah Abdul Rahman accumulated a few thousand dollars' worth of gold accessories over the past two decades, but now a rising cost of living is forcing her to pawn them. With a stretched household budget that must also cater to school expenses for her two teenage children, the 49 year-old is pawning her gold to relieve pressure on her security guard husband, who earns Sg$1,500 ($1,211) a month. "Pawning is better than going to friends or family when you have budget problems," said Abdul Rahman. "When I have money, I will claim it back."

Brazilian police have uncovered a trafficking network involving Bangladeshis who were smuggled into the South American country with promises of good wages but ended up doing slave labor. About 80 Bangladeshis working in slavery-like conditions were discovered in eight homes on the outskirts of the Brazilian capital, Police Commissioner Dennis Cali said Thursday, according to state news agency Agencia Brasil. No arrests have been made but four suspected Bangladeshi smugglers have been identified, he said.

Bahrain's main opposition accused government troops of raiding the home of the country's leading Shiite cleric on Friday, and warned that authorities will bear responsibility for this "dangerous" act. The Shiite Al-Wefaq movement levelled the accusations in a statement and distributed pictures of what it said was damage caused to the home of Ayatollah Issa Qassem in the town of Diraz, west of Manama. There was no immediate confirmation from the minority Sunni-ruled government of Bahrain -- home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.