SYRIA
Rebels enter strategic neighborhood
Syrian rebels pushed into a strategic neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy clashes, seizing control of at least part of the hilltop district and killing a pro-government cleric captured in the fighting, activists and state media said Saturday. There were conflicting reports about the scale of the advance into the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood by rebel forces battling to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. But the gains marked the biggest shift in the front lines in the embattled city in months.
NIGERIA
Attacks leave more than 50 dead
Attacks on villages surrounding a central Nigerian city at the heart of unrest between Christians and Muslims killed more than 50 people last week, officials said Saturday, as authorities pleaded for peace over the Easter holiday. The attacks around Jos come as a string of unsolved killings continue to plague the region that has seen thousands killed in massacres in recent years.
TANZANIA
Building collapse kills at least 18
At least 18 people were killed when a building collapsed Friday in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, and hopes have dimmed of rescuing more survivors, a municipal official said Saturday. Poor equipment hampered efforts to rescue more than 60 people believed to be trapped under the rubble, Dar es Salaam commissioner Said Siddiq said by telephone. At least 17 people, three seriously injured, were pulled out of the debris Friday. The building was under construction. Most of the people caught in the collapse were laborers or passers-by.
VATICAN CITY
Shroud of Turin goes on display
The Shroud of Turin went on display for a special TV appearance Saturday amid new research disputing claims it’s a medieval fake and purporting to date the linen some say was Jesus’ burial cloth to around the time of his death. Pope Francis sent a special video message to the event in Turin’s cathedral, but he made no claim that the image on the shroud of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Christ was really that of Jesus. He called the cloth an “icon,” not a relic — an important distinction.
FRANCE
Ancient tusk falls victim to chain saw
A man was arrested Saturday for allegedly breaking into Paris’ Museum of Natural History and cutting off a tusk from a centuries-old elephant skeleton with a chain saw. A police official said a neighbor of the Left Bank museum alerted authorities after hearing the sawing sound at around 3 a.m. The suspect, about 20 years old, had the tusk in his possession when police arrested him outside the museum. Museum official Jacques Cuisin said the damage can be repaired.
ISRAEL
Natural gas from new field flowing
Natural gas has started flowing from one of Israel’s sizable gas fields. Israel’s Energy Ministry said gas from the offshore Tamar field began flowing for the first time Saturday and would reach a processing facility on Israel’s coast by this afternoon. Tamar was discovered in 2009 and holds an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. Israel has long relied on imports to meet most of its energy needs. The new gas finds are expected to supply Israel’s domestic needs for decades and could transform the country into an energy exporter.
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