Bombs have killed 84 people across six Iraqi provinces during a Shia religious festival. Eighteen people were killed in the capital when four bombs went off across Baghdad, as Shia pilgrims gathered to mark the death of an 8th-century imam, Moussa al-Kadhim. Further south in Hilla, two car bombs were set off at a restaurant popular with police, killing 22 people and wounding 38.

The bombs are part of a string of recent attacks on mainly Shia targets – further worrying evidence of growing sectarian tensions across the region, which are reflected in Syria's continuing vicious conflict.

Read more: The Christian Science Monitor probes the reasons behind the continuing violence – this was written back in March, but the analysis is still spot on.

Sources: BBC, Guardian, Avaaz