In brief: Suicide bomber targets checkpoint

Gao, Mali – A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military checkpoint outside the northern Mali city of Gao on Friday, in the first sign that al-Qaida-linked militias may be adopting new tactics since being driven back by a French-led invasion.

A man on a motorcycle approached a group of soldiers at a military checkpoint and detonated explosives, according to a military officer contacted by the Los Angeles Times. The attack was confirmed by Gao Mayor Sadou Diallo.

The bomber died and one Malian soldier was injured.

An al-Qaida-allied militia, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, claimed responsibility for the attack, news agencies reported, and it vowed to carry out more.

Mob tortures, immolates woman

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea – A mob stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of horrified witnesses in a Papua New Guinea town, police said. It was the latest sorcery-related killing in this South Pacific island nation.

Bystanders, including many children, watched and some took photographs of Wednesday’s brutal slaying. Grisly pictures were published on the front pages of the country’s two largest newspapers, while the prime minister, police and diplomats condemned the killing.

In rural Papua New Guinea, witchcraft is often blamed for unexplained misfortunes.

Kepari Leniata, a 20-year-old mother, had been accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who died in a hospital on Tuesday.