Reuters, Cairo
A police officer and a soldier were killed by a roadside bomb in Egypt’s northern Sinai peninsula on Saturday, security sources said.
The bomb was detonated remotely when the victims’ armored vehicle passed by during a security operation, the sources said.
Mali sends back migrants deported by France
BBC Online
Mali has sent back two people who were deported from France on the same planes they arrived on, questioning whether they were even Malian citizens.
The pair were flown to Bamako using European travel permits or “laissez-passer”, not passports or other Malian papers, the government said.
US sanctions 7 Pak entities
Dawn.com, Washington
The US government has announced sanctions against seven Pakistani entities allegedly associated with the country’s missile programme, says an official notification.
The notification by the US Department of Commerce said that the entities added to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) list “have been determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”.
British PM criticises US stance on Israel
AP, London
British Prime Minister Theresa May has taken the unusual step of distancing her government from President Barack Obama’s criticism of Israel.
A spokesman for May said the British government does not think it is “appropriate to attack the composition of the democratically elected government of an ally.”
IS chief still alive, leading: US
AFP, Washington
The Pentagon said Friday it believes that Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is indeed alive, despite repeated efforts by the US-led coalition to take out the jihadist group leader.
Baghdadi has kept a low profile, despite having declared himself the leader of a renewed Muslim caliphate, but last month released a defiant audio message urging his supporters to defend the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
