Policeman killed in south Tunisia ambush

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A police officer was killed and another wounded in a night-time ambush on a checkpoint in southern Tunisia, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

Two suspected jihadists were killed and another seriously wounded in the incident near Kebili, 480 kilometres (300 miles) south of Tunis, in what the ministry described as a “terrorist attack”.

The ambush by motorcycle-mounted gunmen occurred early Sunday on a police checkpoint, it said, adding that a fourth attacker fled the scene and was being hunted.

“Home-made explosives” were found on the motorbikes, the ministry added.

Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub was among a large crowd of mourners who attended the policeman’s funeral at Kebili on Sunday afternoon.

Since its 2011 revolution, the North African country has experienced an increase in jihadist attacks that have cost the lives of dozens of members of the security forces and also 59 foreign tourists.

A soldier was wounded when a mine exploded on Sunday in the Mount Sammama area of central-western Tunisia, a defence ministry spokesman said.

Mount Sammama is in a range of hills that are a favoured hideout of loyalists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

It is adjacent to Mount Chaambi, considered to be the main rear base of the jihadists near the border with Algeria.

The injured soldier was hospitalised, but his life is not in danger, the spokesman added.

Tunisia has been under a state of emergency since November 2015, when a suicide bombing in Tunis claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed 12 presidential guards.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2mXFNyf

Pope to meet EU leaders on eve of Rome summit…Read full details

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Pope Francis gestures as he delivers a speech on stage during a meeting with students and teachers at the Roma Tre University, in Rome, on February 17, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Tiziana FABI

Pope Francis will meet with the leaders of all EU nations at the Vatican on March 24 ahead of the bloc’s special summit in Rome, Vatican sources said Thursday.

The March 25 summit will mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding treaty. The pontiff will meet the leaders in the afternoon, the sources said.

The pope has already received EU leaders at the Vatican in May 2016 when he was presented with the bloc’s Charlemagne Prize for his contribution to European unification.

In a speech at that ceremony he called on them to “tear down the walls” and build a fairer society.

Invoking the memory of the EU founding fathers’ pursuit of integration in the aftermath of World War II, the pontiff said they inspired because they had “dared to change radically the models” that had led to war.

The pope also made a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in November 2014.

Vía Uzomedia http://ift.tt/2mQqCmT