A suicide bomber driving a minibus packed with explosives killed at least 32 people and wounded 147 on Sunday in the southern Iraqi city of Hilla, police and medical sources said. The attacker approached a main checkpoint at a northern entrance to the largely Shi'ite Muslim city and detonated the minibus, a police officer said.

By Hamid Shalizi and Katharine Houreld KABUL (Reuters) - The powerful Afghan vice president died of natural causes on Sunday, a government spokesman said, only weeks before Afghanistan goes to the polls to elect a new president. Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, vice president since 2009, had been a top commander in the Northern Alliance, a group of anti-Taliban militia leaders, during the civil war. May his soul rest in peace," presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi wrote in a tweet. Fahim, a former defense minister, was a staunch backer of President Hamid Karzai and commanded great loyalty from former fighters of the Northern Alliance, which he headed after the death of famous militia leader Ahmad Shah Masoud in 2001.