Pakistan shells border with Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD — An escalating border conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan is threatening to undermine their cooperation on terrorism and peace talks with the Taliban as the Trump administration begins weighing its options to spur progress on both fronts.

After a blitz of terrorist bombings across Pakistan left more than 125 people dead, Pakistani forces began shelling both sides of the border Friday, aiming at camps used by a group tied to the Islamic State that claimed most of the attacks. Pakistan closed all border crossings.

Afghanistan has protested that the shelling is forcing hundreds of villagers to flee their homes. U.S. officials have asked Pakistani military leaders to cooperate with their neighboring country in going after the militants, but Pakistan has threatened to take further unilateral action.

And in a tit-for-tat exchange of demands, Pakistan asked Afghan officials Saturday to hand over 76 alleged militants based in Afghanistan, while Afghan diplomats Sunday called for action on a list of 32 terrorist training centers and 85 militant leaders they say are in Pakistan, including the Haqqani Taliban faction that is fighting against the Afghan state.

Suicide bombers with grenades and assault rifles struck outside a courthouse in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing six people in an attack claimed by a Taliban splinter group.

Riots erupt in Sweden

STOCKHOLM — Just two days after President Donald Trump provoked widespread consternation by seeming to imply, incorrectly, that immigrants had perpetrated a recent spate of violence in Sweden, riots broke out in a predominantly immigrant neighborhood in the suburbs of Sweden’s capital, Stockholm.

The neighborhood, Rinkeby, has seen riots in 2010 and 2013, too. And in most ways, what happened late Monday was reminiscent of those earlier bouts of anger. Swedish police apparently made an arrest around 8 p.m. For reasons not yet disclosed by the police, word of the arrest prompted a crowd of youths to gather.

Over four hours, the crowd burned about half a dozen cars, vandalized several shopfronts, and threw rocks at police. Police spokesman Lars Bystrom confirmed to Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper that an officer had fired shots with intention to hit a rioter, but did not strike his target. A photographer for the newspaper was attacked by more than a dozen men and his camera was stolen, but no one was ultimately hurt or even arrested.

Leader appoints wife

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Azerbaijan’s president on Tuesday appointed his wife as the first vice president of the ex-Soviet nation — the person next in line in the nation’s power hierarchy.

Ilham Aliyev, 55, named his wife Mehriban, 52, to the position created after a constitutional referendum in September. Ms. Aliyev, who married her husband when she was 19, graduated from a medical university. She has served previously as a lawmaker and headed a charity.

Mr. Aliyev’s critics say the September referendum that also extended the presidential term from five to seven years effectively cemented a dynastic rule.

Oligarch arrested

VIENNA — An Austrian appeals court approved a U.S. request to extradite Dmitro Firtash on corruption charges in a surprise decision that opens the way for the Ukrainian tycoon to be sent to the U.S. for trial.

But that could be delayed after the case took another unexpected turn minutes after the verdict on Tuesday, when plainclothes Austrian police arrested Mr. Firtash as he left the courthouse on a separate Spanish warrant. Magistrates in Barcelona charged him with money laundering and engaging in organized crime, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. It wasn’t immediately clear what impact that case would have on the U.S. extradition bid.

Also in the world ...

Determining whether poison killed the half brother of North Korea’s leader in a busy airport is proving difficult for Malaysian officials, who said autopsy results are so far inconclusive. ... Afghan soldiers and policemen surrounded the house of Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum on Tuesday in an apparent effort to arrest nine of his aides accused of kidnapping and raping a political opponent on his orders. ... A plane crashed into a shopping mall in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday, killing four American tourists along with the pilot, police said.