Jacques Agency

Attack on mosque in Egypt's Sinai kills at least 235: state media   Cairo (AFP) - Armed attackers on Friday killed at least 235 worshippers in a bomb and gun assault on a packed mosque in Egypt's restive North Sinai province, state media reported, the country's deadliest attack in recent memory. A bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque frequented by Sufis roughly 40 kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish before gunmen opened fire on those gathered for weekly Friday prayers, officials said. Witnesses said the assailants had surrounded the mosque with all-terrain vehicles then planted a bomb outside. The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they attempted to flee and used the congregants' vehicles they had set alight to block routes to the mosque. State television reported at least 235 people were killed and 109 wounded in the attack, the scale of which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist groups. Egypt...

Germany Plunged into Political Crisis After Coalition Talks Fail - The New York Times BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany faced the greatest crisis of her political career on Monday, after late-night negotiations to form a new government collapsed, raising the prospect of a snap election. The chancellor said she remained hopeful about forming a majority government. But if forced to choose, she said she would prefer to go through new elections rather than try to lead a minority government. “I don’t want to say never, but I am very skeptical, and believe that new elections would be the better way forward,” the chancellor told the public broadcaster ARD. The uncertainty raised new doubts about the political longevity of Ms. Merkel, considered perhaps the West’s most ardent defender of democratic values and freedoms. At a time when the European Union is facing a host of pressing problems, from Brexit negotiations with Britain, to the rise of right-wing populism, to separatism in...

Iraqi forces retake last town under Islamic State control - The Washington Post BAGHDAD —  Government forces wrested back the final piece of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate in Iraq, the country’s military said Friday, reclaiming the small town of Rawah near the border with Syria. The Islamic State extremist group, which at its peak in 2014 held about a third of Iraq, including large cities such as Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah, is now scattered and severely diminished. With the loss of Rawah, the militants no longer can claim to hold territory in Iraq and are quickly ceding ground in Syria, as well. Still, Iraqi officials warn, the Islamic State poses a threat as it turns to more-traditional terrorist tactics. Since losing its de facto capital of Mosul in July, the group has been able to stage deadly suicide bombings, and its gunmen have struck civilians throughout Iraq. Rawah is a small and sparsely populated town about 68 miles east of the Syrian border. It was su...

Tax reform roadblocks emerge in Senate - POLITICO   Republicans were able to muscle their tax-rewrite  plan , through the House exactly two weeks after it was unveiled, but they are already facing far tougher sledding in the Senate. GOP leadership is confronting mushrooming demands from individual senators with much more power to bollix up the tax plans, thanks to the party’s super-thin majority.

U.S. envoy says no communication, no signal from North Korea amid nuclear crisis North Korea is under heavy international pressure to end its nuclear and missile programmes, pursued in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, but has vowed never to give up its nuclear arsenal which it says it needs to counter perceived U.S. aggression. Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korean peace and security affairs, and his U.S. counterpart, Joseph Yun, met on the southern resort island of Jeju, following a summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump in Seoul last week. “There is no doubt that both of the presidents want to find a peaceful way in regard to North Korea’s nuclear issue,” Yun told reporters, according to Yonhap news agency. “So we discussed them and we agreed the pressure campaign has to be a central element.”

A Texas State University fraternity pledge has died — continuing the alarming trend of deaths at public university fraternities - AOL News Texas State University on Tuesday suspended the activities of all Greek organizations following the death of a pledge — the second such death at a college fraternity in a month, and the fourth this year.  Matthew Ellis, 20, died on November 13 following an initiation into his fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi,  The University Star reported.  An investigation is currently underway, but preliminary findings indicated that alcohol may have played a role in his death. Texas State  President Denise Trauth emailed the community following Ellis' death, announcing the suspension of all Greek activities pending a review. "As a result of this tragedy, I have suspended activities of all Greek fraternity and sorority chapters at Texas State," Trauth wrote, according to The University Star. "These chapters are prohibited fro...

North Korean state newspaper announces 'death sentence' for Trump - AOL News A North Korean state newspaper has issued a death sentence for U.S. President Donald Trump after he insulted Kim Jong-Un during his recent trip to Asia, according to the  Guardian .  An editorial in the ruling party's newspaper Rodong Sinmun declared Trump a "criminal" and said their nation's people had sentenced him to death because of the unflattering way he talks about their country and their supreme leader.  "The worst crime for which he can never be pardoned is that he dared [to] malignantly hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership," the editorial  read . "He should know that he is just a hideous criminal sentenced to death by the Korean people." The scathing article was in response to comments Trump made during his recent visit to South Korea, where he condemned the North's "cruel dictatorship" in a speech to South Korea’s National Assembly....