Teen dies stopping suicide bomber at school in Pakistan

A 14-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero in Pakistan for tackling a suicide bomber -- dying at the main gate of his school and saving schoolmates gathered for their morning assembly.
Ninth-grader Aitazaz Hassan Bangash was on his way to the Ibrahimzai School on Monday in the Hangu district of northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the bomber, dressed in a school uniform, asked him where the school was, the teen's cousin told CNN.
Aitazaz and his cousin, Musadiq Ali Bangash, became suspicious, Musadiq said.
"The other students backed off, but Aitazaz challenged the bomber and tried to catch him. During the scuffle, the bomber panicked and detonated his bomb," he said.
Rajab Ali, who also witnessed the bombing, told CNN that he saw Aitazaz throw a large stone at a boy trying to enter the school. The blast happened when Aitazaz grabbed him, he said.
Aitazaz and the bomber died at the scene. Witnesses say the blast injured two other people.
Iftikhar Ahmed, a Hangu district police officer, confirmed the details of the attack to CNN.
Hangu is a troubled district bordering Pakistan's tribal areas. It is rife with sectarian violence, with attacks against Shia and Sunni Muslims.
"It was a great sacrifice to save the lives of hundreds of both Shia and Sunni students, who were in morning assembly," Musadiq said.
Aitazaz is survived by his father, Mujaad Ali Bangash, a laborer; his elder brother, Mustajab Hassan Bangash, a student in Pakistan; and three sisters.
Local residents such as Nawaz Khan are calling for Aitazaz to receive a posthumous award for his bravery. "He saved the lives of hundreds of students. He deserves more recognition than Malala Yousafzai," he said.
Pakistanis are comparing him to Malala, the schoolgirl shot by the Taliban in October 2012 for promoting education for all boys and girls.
Pakistanis on social media are praising Aitazaz's bravery, with people on Twitter asking everyone to use hastags #onemillionaitzazs or simply #aitzaz and calling for his heroism to be recognized with an award.
Afghan girl says she was sent on a suicide mission
Suicide bomb kills 9 in Baghdad

Car Bomb Kills 3 Police Officers in Afghanistan

A provincial official in Afghanistan say a suicide car bomber has attacked a security checkpoint in the country's east, killing three police officers.

Musa Khan Akbarzada, the governor of Ghazni province, says the attack Monday also wounded three officers in the Shilghar district.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in an email to journalists.

Earlier, the Interior Ministry said police had apprehended a 10-year-old girl who had intended to carry out a suicide attack against Afghan border police in southern Helmand province. In a statement, the ministry said the girl claimed her brother, a local Taliban commander, had sent her on the mission.

Afghan forces are seeing their casualties mount as the U.S.-led international force there pulls back ahead of its withdrawal at the end of 2014.

Militants in Iraq storm TV station; anchor among dead

 A news anchor and four other people were killed on Monday in a suicide bombing after armed militants stormed a TV complex in Tikrit, Iraq, police said.

The violence unfolded when a car bomb exploded outside Salaheddin TV and the local offices of al Iraqiya state TV in Tikrit, a major city in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad.

Militants then stormed the offices and a suicide bomber killed five employees inside Salaheddin TV, including a female anchor and the head of its news department, police said.

At least two attackers wore explosive vests.

Security forces arrived at the scene, fought the attackers and regained control of the building, police said.

Authorities imposed a curfew on Tikrit, and Salaheddin TV stopped broadcasting until further notice.

Political and sectarian violence has plagued Iraq throughout the year, with thousands of deaths reported. Tensions have pervaded the Sunni community, which has felt marginalized by the Shiite-dominated government.

Iraq's unrest reaches world of journalism

Journalists haven't been immune from the terror. Before the latest violence, Irina Bokova, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, denounced the killings of eight journalists in Iraq this year.

"Violence against media workers undermines the ability of journalists to carry out their work freely as well as the right of citizens to receive the independent information they need," Bokova said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a watchdog group, said in a report this month that journalists have been subjected to threats and killings. The report focused on unrest in Mosul, the religiously and ethnically diverse city in Iraq's north.

"These killings are a significant deterioration from 2012, a landmark year in which no journalists were killed for their work in Iraq for the first time since the 2003 American invasion," the report said.

"That brief reprieve was part of a larger decrease in overall political violence, but that reprieve now seems to be over. And just as the underlying causes of political violence in Iraq were never resolved, neither have the underlying drivers of violence against journalists. There are simply too many triggermen ready to silence journalists, knowing full well that there is little that can stop them."

Other violence

Violence occurred in other regions of Iraq on Monday, police said.

At least six soldiers were killed when mortar rounds landed on a military base near Baghdad.

Four people died when gunmen attacked pet stores in southern Baghdad, and three people died when a bomb exploded in an outdoor market in the northwestern part of the Iraqi capital, police said.

Three people died in shootings in Mosul, and an attack on a bus in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, left three others dead, police said.