WORLD

At least 31 people have died in Egypt after blasts targeted Coptic Christians on Palm Sunday. Six people were killed when an explosion struck outside St Mark’s Coptic Church in Alexandria, according to official sources. Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church, had been attending mass inside. Twenty-five people had died in an earlier blast at St George’s Coptic ...

Mogadishu – Somalia’s northeastern semiautonomous state of Puntland has executed five men who were convicted of murdering two regional officials. Saturday’s executions by firing squad are the latest of several in the region that is battling both extremist group al-Shabaab and fighters linked to the Islamic State group. A military court sentenced the five defendants for the murders in December ...

Rabat – Morocco’s new government is set to be dominated by officials close to the palace despite the premier hailing from the country’s ruling Islamist party. King Mohamed VI on Wednesday announced the new line-up to be led by Prime Minister Saad-Eddine El Othman, second-in-command of the Justice and Development Party (PJD). Local press on Thursday said the new government ...

Maiduguri – Five people were wounded and two female suicide bombers died on Saturday in an attack outside a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, local police said. The women wearing explosive belts died after one activated her explosives when stopped trying to enter a mosque near a federal court in Maiduguri, said Borno police spokesperson Victor Isuku. “Following an explosion close ...

Harare – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabehas reportedly mocked efforts by opposition parties to form a “grand coalition” to contest his Zanu-PF party in next year’s elections, saying this will lead to a “grand defeat”. According to the state-owned broadcaster ZBC, Mugabe, 93, said that the coalition would fail, as the opposition continued to chase “a mirage?”. The veteran leader said this ...

Kampala – Uganda has arrested a prominent academic for criticising the wife of President Yoweri Museveni on social media, police said Saturday. Stella Nyanzi criticised Janet Museveni, who is education minister, on Facebook after the government reneged on a campaign pledge to supply free sanitary pads to schoolgirls struggling to afford hygiene products. Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima confirmed that Nyanzi ...

Once again, there are signs of growing xenophobia in South Africa. Despite the lives lost in previous waves of violence, the country has still not learned this painful lesson. It’s a familiar escalating narrative: vigilante groups accuses foreign migrants of local crime and go on attack, the government blames “criminal elements,” the public marches against xenophobia, and little more is ...

A series of xenophobic attacks on foreigners in South Africa have provoked an angry response in Nigeria, where protesters ransacked the offices of a South African telecoms giant Thursday. A spokesman for South African mobile phone firm MTN said that protesters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja had “vandalized equipment, stole customer phones and iPads” and attacked MTN customers at ...

By LOUIS NELSON 04/05/17 08:42 AM EDT TRUMP’S SCHEDULE: 10 a.m. The president will receive his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office. 11:55 a.m. The president and first lady will greet King Abdullah II of Jordan and his wife Queen Rania. 12:10 p.m. The president will meet with King Abdullah II in the Oval Office. 12:30 p.m. The president ...