Diocese pulls nuns out of Mexican city
MEXICO CITY — The Roman Catholic diocese where two priests were killed earlier this month has withdrawn all nuns from the violent city of Chilapa in southern Mexico.
The diocese said in a statement that the parents of one of the nuns had been killed and that their school had to close for several months last year due to threats from drug gangs operating in the area.
The nuns ran one of the oldest and most respected schools in Chilapa. The church did not specify how many nuns were involved, but local media said there were four.
The diocese openly called on the gangs not to hurt children’s education and said it hoped others can be found to run the school.
Two priests were shot to death and four other people were wounded Feb. 5 when gunmen attacked their truck as they returned home from a concert in another town.
Egypt kills 53 insurgents in offensive
CAIRO — Egyptian security forces killed 53 militants since the beginning of a massive security operation, mainly in restive northern Sinai Peninsula, the epicenter of a yearslong Islamic insurgency, the armed forces said Thursday.
Spokesman Col. Tamer el-Rifaai said forces also arrested five militants and 680 others, including “criminal elements” and people suspected of supporting militants. He spoke at a news conference in the presence of senior military and Interior Ministry officials.
El-Rifaai also said forces found and destroyed hundreds of militant hideouts, targets and explosive devices.
The casualty figures couldn’t be independently verified as journalists and independent investigators are banned from accessing the turbulent Sinai region.
The security campaign that began Feb. 9 covers north and central Sinai and parts of Egypt’s Nile Delta and the Western Desert, along the porous border with Libya that authorities contend Islamic militants and smugglers use as their route into the country.
U.S., Britain lay cyberattack on Russia
LONDON — Britain and the United States blamed the Russian government Thursday for a cyberattack that hit businesses across Europe last year, accusing Moscow of “weaponizing information” in a new kind of warfare.
British Foreign Minister Tariq Ahmad said “the U.K. government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyberattack of June 2017.”
The fast-spreading outbreak of data-scrambling software centered on Ukraine, which is embroiled in a conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in the country’s east. It spread to companies that do business with Ukraine, including U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck, Danish shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk and FedEx subsidiary TNT.
Ahmad said the “reckless” attack cost organizations hundreds of millions of dollars.
“This was also a reckless and indiscriminate cyberattack that will be met with international consequences,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied Russia’s involvement.
Taliban kill 10 Afghans; 2 children die
KABUL, Afghanistan — Attacks blamed on the Taliban in northern and western Afghanistan killed at least 10 members of the country’s security forces, officials said Thursday, while a land mine explosion in western Herat province killed two children.
In western Farah province, police commander Abdul Razaq Alkhani said a Taliban attack killed seven policemen Wednesday night. The Taliban hit a police post in Bala Buluk district, and the hourslong fighting also killed three insurgents before the Taliban were pushed back, Alkhani said.
In northern Faryab province, Karim Yuresh, spokesman for the provincial police chief, said a Taliban attack killed three policemen in Qaysar district, also Wednesday night. Ten Taliban insurgents were also killed in the ensuing gun-battle, he added.
The two children killed in a land mine explosion in western Herat province were children of a local Taliban figure, said Abdul Ahad Walizada, spokesman of the provincial chief police. He blamed the Taliban.
The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for either of the two attacks.