BAGHDAD — A car bombing in the northern city of Mosul left 18 people dead and about 60 wounded today, while a suicide bomber killed at least 12 people west of Baghdad at a meeting of tribal sheiks opposed to al-Qaida.

The attacks were part of a spike in violence in Iraq after weeks of relative calm.

The bomb in Mosul exploded between the government headquarters and a market, where the governor of surrounding Nineveh province, Duraid Kashmola, was inspecting damage from an earlier rocket attack, police said. Kashmola said 18 people were killed and 60 wounded.

Today's other attack in Karmah occurred only days before U.S. troops are to hand over security responsibility for Anbar to the Iraqis, marking a major milestone in the campaign to lower the U.S. profile in an area that had once been center-stage of the war.

Col. Fawzi Fraih, civil defense director of Anbar province, said the sheiks were meeting with Americans when the attack occurred in the town of Karmah, about 20 miles west of Baghdad.

Fraih said 12 people were killed and 11 wounded. A police officer in the town said 15 were killed and 12 wounded.

SRINAGAR, India — Tens of thousands of Kashmiris filled the streets for a fourth day of protests today, after police killings during earlier demonstrations enflamed their anger over the transfer of land to a Hindu shrine in this Muslim-majority region.Protesters clashed with riot police in several parts of Srinagar, the main city of India's portion of Kashmir. Police responded to rock-throwers by firing live ammunition and tear gas into the air in an attempt to disperse the mobs, said police officer Sajjad Ahmed.More than 20,000 people were protesting in towns across the Himalayan state, Ahmed said, and thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers were spread out to control the angry mobs.No injuries were immediately reported today.Three people have been killed and dozens wounded since Monday as police tried to quell the protests that erupted over the transfer of 99 acres by the state government to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running a popular Hindu shrine.

DARWIN, Australia — Drinkers at an Outback watering hole might have wondered if perhaps they'd had one too many when they were greeted by a crocodile at the pub's door.But being good hosts, they did the only polite thing and invited him inside.The saltwater croc was just 2 feet long and more a curiosity than a threat to drinkers at the Noonamah Tavern on Sunday. The aggressive hunters can grow to more than 16 feet and have been known to attack people.Barmaid Sarah Sparre said today that three patrons spotted the creature outside the pub, grabbed it and brought it inside."You could say we were a bit surprised," Sparre said. "He was pretty complacent, easygoing. But we weren't going to test him out."