70 Dead In Tali-ban Suicide Bombing : Pakistan

the blast happened near swings in a park where Christians, many of them children and women, had gathered to celebrate Easter.

Video: Dozens Killed In Pakistan Bombing

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A suicide bomber linked to the Taliban has killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300 others outside a park in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore.

The explosion took place in the parking area of Gulshan Iqbal Park, just a few feet away from some children's swings.

The area was crowded at the time because Christians were gathering to celebrate the Easter holiday.

The Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar said it carried out the attack, adding that it was targeting Pakistan's Christian minority.

Prime Minister David Cameron has promised British help for Pakistan after the bombing, while Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said British nationals were advised to avoid the area and monitor local travel advice and local media.

Many families were leaving the park when the blast happened.

Police say many of the wounded are women and children

Muhammad Usman, an administration official in Lahore, said more than 50 children were among the injured.

Eyewitnesses said they saw body parts strewn across the car park in the wake of the attack.

Video: Dozens Killed In Pakistan Explosion

Television footage shows children and women crying as rescue officials, police and bystanders carry the injured to ambulances.

Javed Ali, a 35-year-old resident who lives opposite the park, said the force of the blast shattered his home's windows.

"Everything was shaking - there were cries and dust everywhere," he said.

"After 10 minutes I went outside. There was human flesh on the walls of our house. People were crying, I could hear ambulances."

Superintendent Mustansar Feroz said most of the dead are women and children.

Lahore is the capital of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's political heartland of Punjab, the biggest and wealthiest province in Pakistan.

The country is currently battling a Taliban insurgency, criminal gangs and sectarian violence.

In 2014, Pakistan launched an offensive against Taliban and affiliated jihadist fighters in North Waziristan, seeking to deprive them of safe havens from which to attack both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Sunday's blast came as the army was also deployed on the streets of Islamabad after thousands of protesters clashed with police in chaotic scenes, throwing stones and setting a container on fire.

The demonstrators were supporters of Islamist assassin Mumtaz Qadri, who was hanged on 29 February for killing a Punjab governor over his call for blasphemy reform.

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 Singaporeans fear they could be next on Terrorist attacks

FOLLOWING a tragic week filled with deadly suicide bombings across Belgium, Iraq, and Pakistan, Singaporeans have become increasingly wary, with most believing that their country could be next.

Three out of four Singaporeans think it is “only a matter of time” before the small island republic falls victim to a terrorist attack, according to a poll conducted by Singapore’s The Sunday Timesrecently.

An overwhelming 75.2 percent of those polled out of a total of 500 respondents answered “Yes” to whether they felt Singapore would ever face a terrorist attack.

While most respondents (54.2 percent) also believe that Singaporean authorities are prepared in the event of such an attack, 34.6 percent of them still have doubts.

Of those polled, the majority see Changi International Airport, also ranked as the world’s best airport in the 2016 World Airport Awards, as the likeliest target.

Private tutor Fred Tan, 57, told The Sunday Times: “We are a center for air travel, and people can go in and out of the airport easily. You can’t tell who’s a terrorist by how they look.”

The city-state’s bustling Central Business District and popular shopping destination Orchard Road are also considered probable targets.

The survey was carried out last week following the shocking suicide bombings in the Belgian capital of Brussels on Tuesday, which led to the deaths of up to 31 people and left more than 300 injured. Two bombers had blown themselves up at Brussels Airport, while a third had hit the city’s subway.

Many are concerned that a similar event could take place in Singapore due to the fact that it is a regional travel and business hub, as well as the Singaporean government’s support of countries actively fighting against the Islamic State militant group.

Singapore’s neighbors have also come under attack, most recently Indonesia, which saw its capital Jakarta struck by bombings in January this year that killed at least four civilians, further increasing the locals’ sense of unease. The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the attacks.

An increasing number of arrests in the region involving those with connections to the terrorist group have also been made recently.

Due to increased security risks, Singaporean authorities have upped security checks, particularly at customs and immigration checkpoints and MRT stations.

The Straits Times reported Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam saying that Singapore was facing its highest terror threat level yet, following an announcement of the formation of a new quick-response police team and an increase of CCTV camera coverage in public areas across the island.

“It is no longer a question of whether an attack will take place, but really, when is an attack going to take place in Singapore, and we have to be prepared for that,” said Shanmugam.

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Brussels attacks: Security guard at Belgian nuclear site killed and pass stolen, reports

A security officer at a nuclear site was killed in the Belgian city of Charleroi, according to reports from local newspaper Derniere Heure

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The guard, who was walking his dog, was shot dead in the early evening on Thursday, according to the paper,

Meanwhile, a British man has been confirmed dead following the terror attacks in Brussels.

The family of David Dixon (50), who was originally from Hartlepool but was living in the Belgian capital, said they had received "the most terrible and devastating news".

At least 32 people were killed and 270 injured when suicide bombs ripped through an airport and a Metro station on Tuesday morning.

A statement issued by the Foreign Office on behalf of Mr Dixon's family said: "This morning we received the most terrible and devastating news about our beloved David. At this most painful time our family would gratefully appreciate it if we could be left alone to grieve in private. Please respect our wishes."

The Foreign Office said officials knew of seven British nationals who were injured in the attacks, with three still being treated in hospital.

Mr Dixon, an IT programmer, had been missing since the Metro blast, and his family previously said that they were "anxiously waiting" and hoping for some "good news" about him.

Meanwhile, police in Brussels raided neighbourhoods in an operation the mayor said was linked to both the airport and subway bombings and to the arrest in the Paris suburbs of a man who may have been plotting a new attack in France.

Three people were detained, with two of them shot in the leg, the federal prosecutor's office said. The operation was conducted in the Schaerbeek district, which was raided on Thursday night, as well as the neighbourhoods of Forest and Saint-Gilles.

Belgium's state broadcaster said one person was carrying a bag of explosive material.

The area remained cordoned off even after heavily-armed officers had left, a resident said. Three of six people detained on Thursday in the investigation have been released, prosecutors said.

On the third and final day of national mourning for Tuesday's attacks, Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel missed a wreath-laying ceremony at the airport with US Secretary of State John Kerry because of the police raids.

Mr Kerry, in a hastily-arranged visit, defended Belgium's counter-terrorism efforts despite a series of security and intelligence failings in the run-up to the bombings on Tuesday.

Confirming that several FBI agents were involved in the investigation, Mr Kerry said the "carping" about Belgium's shortcomings "is a little bit frantic and inappropriate".

Members of Belgium's embattled government are facing criticism over its counter-terrorism efforts since and before the November 13 Paris attacks, which authorities believe were plotted from Belgium.

Mr Kerry also said the US and other countries had already scheduled meetings with Belgium prior to the attacks about improvements they could make to their laws, intelligence collection and attempts to blunt the radicalisation of youth.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris and Brussels, and Mr Kerry lashed out at the extremist group.

"We will not be deterred," the US Secretary of State said.

"We will come back with greater resolve, with greater strength, and we will not rest until we have eliminated your nihilistic beliefs and cowardice from the face of the Earth."

Authorities also announced that American, British, Chinese, French and Dutch citizens were among the dead.

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Ivory Coast President calls emergency meeting after Al-Qaeda attack

Ivory Coast ministers are to hold emergency talks today after the first jihadist attack in the country left 16 dead at a beach resort popular with foreigners, the latest such Islamist assault in West Africa.

Armed with grenades and assault riffles, the attackers stormed three hotels in the weekend resort of Grand-Bassam, a short 40-kilometre drive from the commercial capital Abidjan.

Witnesses described scenes of panic as gunmen sprayed bullets across the beach, and one told AFP they heard an assailant shouting “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is greatest”.

Condemnation of the bloodshed came from around the world with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pledging to help government “efforts to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.”

It was the third such attack in four months in West Africa and a blow to a nation working to lure back foreign tourists to its palm-fringed beaches and rainforests as it recovers from a brutal civil war.Former colonial power France blasted “the cowardly attack” and offered to help track the culprits while the United States vowed to fight “terrorists who seek to undermine efforts by West African governments.”

“Measures will have to be taken, especially with regard to security,” a source in the Ivorian presidency said ahead of the crisis meeting.

An official source said 22 people were injured while the local media reported some missing.

Among the dead were a French and a German citizen as well as two other foreigners. A Ukrainian soldier serving withe UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast was also hurt.

The German victim was named as 51-year-old Henrike Grohs, who headed Abidjan’s Goethe Institute, the German language centre’s secretary-general said.

Grand-Bassam is packed at weekends with visitors drawn by its magnificent beaches and UNESCO-listed colonial-era buildings.

Inside a hotel crowded with expats, an AFP journalist saw a bullet lodged in the front of the bar refrigerator and a large pool of blood on the floor.

Carine Boa, a Belgian-Ivorian teacher at an international high school in Abidjan, was at one of the beach bars with her two sons when the gunmen arrived.

“We were really scared. We thought of the people at the Bataclan,” she said, referring to the concert venue attacked by gunmen during November’s terror attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.

“I thought this was it for us,” she said.

“I saw one of the attackers from far away,” said Abbas El-Roz, a Lebanese salesman who was in the pool of a hotel when the attackers struck.

“He had a Kalashnikov and a grenade belt. He was looking for people.”

Fourteen civilians and two special forces troops were killed in the shooting spree, along with six assailants, according to Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara.

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group said Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the terror group’s North African affiliate, had claimed responsibility.

AQIM said in a statement three of its fighters had been killed.

Hundreds gathered at the attack site on Monday morning and one woman was in tears as she looked for her missing son, a vendor at the beach.

“He’s not in hospital and not at the morgue,” she said. “I don’t know where he is. He’s handicapped.”

Salata, an ice-cream seller, said she was in shock.

“I couldn’t sleep at night,” she said. “I’m going to get back my ice box from the beach but I’m scared they’ll start shooting again.”

West African nations have scrambled to boost security after jihadist attacks in November and January on upscale hotels in the capitals of Mali and Burkina Faso that were also claimed by the group.

Robert Besseling of Exx Africa, a specialist intelligence company, said the attacks should not have come as a surprise.

“Cote d’Ivoire has been receiving warnings for at least a year from France’s intelligence service that Islamist militants are planning to attack major cities,” said Besseling, using the French name for Ivory Coast.

Amid such fears, the recent annual Flintlock military exercise, grouping African, US and European troops, focused on the need to counter jihadism in the region.

Sunday’s attack also bore grim similarities to the Islamist gun and grenade assault on a Tunisian beach resort last June, which left 38 foreign holidaymakers dead.

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