BAQOUBA, Iraq -- Scattered sandals and overturned bicycles were all that remained hours after suicide bombers struck the Saad military camp.

The twin blasts in Baqouba recalled the scenes of mass terror and grief that were almost a daily routine before last year's steep decline in violence.

In an old tactic of Sunni extremists, two suicide bombers set off explosives among the army recruits Tuesday, killing at least 28. Violence also flared in the northern city of Mosul, where a dozen people died in bombings that targeted the Iraqi police and army.

The attack in Baqouba, capital of Diyala province, came ahead of a planned Iraqi military offensive to halt attempts by militants to regroup in the volatile area northeast of Baghdad. Late Tuesday, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed by a bomb while searching a house in the province Tuesday, but gave no other details.

Diyala is critical to Baghdad's security because of its strategic importance as an entrance to the capital and a threat to supply routes going north. The ethnically mixed area also borders Iran, which the United States has accused of helping militants to stage attacks on American troops.

U.S. military officials said Tuesday's attack did not reflect any increase in militant strength in the area.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City police say they have detained a man who allegedly tried to use a fake CIA badge to enter the U.S. Embassy to seek work as a driver.

Police say they detained 47-year-old Israel Cortes after he cut to the front of the line at the embassy by showing a fake CIA badge supposedly signed by U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza.

A U.S. Embassy official confirmed Monday's detention, but declined further comment.

Police say Cortes acknowledged making the false ID as well as a phony recommendation letter signed by an alleged U.S. diplomat because he wanted to apply for a job as a driver.

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's Islamic-rooted government, which was elected last year with a huge majority, continues to bask in popular support -- and will probably fall within a month.

The strange state of affairs is not due to any internal revolt or opposition threat, but to a case before Turkey's Constitutional Court that seeks to ban the Justice and Development Party on charges of undermining secularism.

With the court stacked with members of the secular elite, many Turks expect to see their democratically elected government booted out.

The consequences could be grave for Turkey's bid to join the European Union and for stability in this NATO member of 70 million people that strategically straddles Europe and the Middle East.

Foreign investors could be unsettled, and political gridlock would halt crucial reforms. Perhaps most importantly, such a radical step would trigger questions in an already leery EU about whether Turkey is the mature democracy it portrays itself to be.

SYDNEY, Australia -- More than 100,000 Roman Catholic pilgrims from around the world swarmed Sydney Harbor on Tuesday, waving the flags of their countries and singing as they awaited a Mass opening the World Youth Day festival.

The star of the show, Pope Benedict XVI, remained ensconced at a retreat on Sydney's outskirts where he was resting before joining the celebrations Thursday.

The scale of World Youth Day was revealed when pilgrims arrived in droves and gathered along a waterfront near the city's landmark harbor bridge for a twilight Mass.

Rites, including the Holy Communion, hymn singing and a sermon delivered by Sydney's Archbishop Cardinal George Pell, left many in tears.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Belgium's government collapsed Tuesday, unable to resolve an enduring divide over more self-rule for the country's Dutch and French speakers. The gap was so wide the premier suggested the end of Belgium as a country was looming.

King Albert II immediately began political discussions with lawmakers to try to resolve the situation, talks expected to take several days. He did not formally accept the resignation of government offered by Premier Yves Leterme late Monday, so Leterme's government stays on in a caretaker capacity for now.

In an unusual declaration, the premier said Belgium's constitutional crisis stems from the fact that "consensus politics" across Belgium's widening linguistic divide no longer works.

"The federal consensus model has reached its limits," Leterme said.

Leterme failed to get his Cabinet -- an unwieldy alliance of Christian Democrats, Liberals, Socialists and nationalist hard-liners from both language camps that took office March 20 -- to agree on a future together by devolving more federal powers to the Dutch-speaking Flanders and Francophone Wallonia.

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip -- Mideast envoy Tony Blair on Tuesday called off what would have been the first visit of a top Western diplomat to Hamas-ruled Gaza, after Israel's Shin Bet security service said he might come under attack there.

The Shin Bet security service said it had received "pinpoint information that Palestinians were planning to attack Blair in Gaza, so the relevant services alerted him to the fact."

Blair told The Associated Press that the threat was "specific" and "credible," forcing him to call off the trip but he said it was a postponement, not a cancellation.

"I intend to go to Gaza as soon as I can, and I will continue to press for help for the people there," he said.

Blair's visit Tuesday was to have included a tour of a Gaza waste water project and meetings with traders and U.N. officials, but not with leaders of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that seized Gaza by force more than a year ago.