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Iraqi army soldiers search the houses during a "cordon and knock" operation near the northern Iraqi city of Baiji. With U.S. army troops from the 101st Airborne Division acting as advisors, Iraqi soldiers searched homes and questioned residents on Thursday near the scene of several recent roadside bombings on the outskirts of Baiji.

Winter weather has made life more difficult for survivors of last year massive earthquake in South Asia where more than two million people have been living in tents or crude shelters patched together from ruined homes.

Israeli troops killed five Palestinians on Thursday during the biggest raid against West Bank militants for months, stoking tension as Hamas Islamists held talks to form a new Palestinian government.

An Urdu-speaking Pakistani refugees take part in a hunger strike at the refugee camp in Mohammadpur, Dhaka. Bangladesh has been home to some 300,000 refugees since 1971 when East Pakistan split from the West to become Bangladesh.

Thousands of people in Indian Kashmir protested against the army on Thursday, a day after four youths were killed in a shooting incident, police and witnesses said.

There is a rescue operation at the site where an elementary school is believed buried by a massive landslide at Guinsaugon village, southern Leyte province in central Philippines. Rescue operations were suspended on Thursday because of bad weather. At least 123 bodies have been retrieved since Friday, but officials estimate the number of those who perished in the landslide at more than 1,000, including about 200 school children.

Sectarian violence in Iraq after suspected al Qaeda bombs devastated a major Shi'ite shrine left religious and political leaders in Baghdad and abroad scrambling to halt a descent into all-out civil war. Three Sunni clerics were among six people killed, police said, at 27 Sunni mosques in Baghdad attacked by militants. Much damage was minor but at least two mosques were burned out.

The families wait for news from rescuers trying to reach trapped miners in San Juan de Sabinas, northern Mexico. Frantic efforts to rescue 65 Mexican miners trapped in deep coal shafts for two days dragged on Tuesday and relatives of the men broke down in desperation at the slow progress.