In brief: Twelve killed in likely sectarian attack on bus

QUETTA, Pakistan – Suspected Sunni extremists opened fire on Shiite Muslims traveling through southwestern Pakistan today, killing 12 people and wounding six, police said.

Sunni militants with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against minority Shiites in recent years, but recent weeks have been particularly bloody.

The gunmen who attacked today stopped a bus carrying mostly Shiite Muslims on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, said police official Hamid Shakeel.

The attackers forced the people off the bus and opened fire. Eleven Shiites and one Sunni were killed.

JERUSALEM – Jewish extremists are suspected of torching a mosque in a northern Israeli town on Monday, the latest in a string of anti-Arab attacks that have enraged Palestinians and alarmed Israeli security officials.

After setting the mosque in the Bedouin village of Tuba-Zangariya on fire, vandals spray-painted the words “revenge” and “price tag” on the walls.

Extremist groups say such attacks are in retaliation for efforts to dismantle Jewish settlements that Israel has deemed illegally built, or for incidents of Palestinian violence against settlers.

The increase in settler attacks has also been linked to Palestinians’ campaign at the United Nations to become a full-member state.

Raids free sex slaves in gold rush region

LIMA, Peru – Peruvian prosecutors say five people have been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking in police raids on brothels that rescued 293 women in a jungle region rife with illegal gold-mining.

The women were rescued from sexual slavery in the Amazon state of Madre de Dios. The weekend raids on 60 houses of prostitution involved more than 400 officers.

Local prosecutor Fernando de Santa Maria said that of the 293 women, at least were five minors, the youngest age 13.