BURKINA FASO ON ALERT AFTER TERROR ATTACK
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO» Burkina Faso’s leaders urged vigilance Saturday, a day after brazen Islamic extremist attacks on the army headquarters and French embassy in the capital, which killed eight people.
It is the third attack on Ouagadougou in just over two years and it was aimed directly at the army’s central command and the heavily guarded embassy, raising concerns that extremists are growing bolder in their assaults on the West African nation. The attack on the army headquarters narrowly missed a conference of top military leaders, indicating the extremists may have had inside information.
Previous extremist attacks had been on soft targets of restaurants which caused a greater loss of civilian lives.
Turks claim Kurdish enclave.
MARSAWA, Turkey’s prime minister said Saturday that Turkish troops have captured a strategic village in the Kurdish-held enclave in northwestern Syria, tightening its grip on Kurdish militia in the sixth week of its offensive on the area.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the Kurdish Afrin district has been “surrounded” by the military, special police and paramilitary forces, as well as allied Syrian opposition fighters.
Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters have been attacking Afrin from the north, west and east, and have formed a crescent around the district.
Virgin Mary gets her own feast day.
VATICAN
Pope Francis has made the devotion to the Virgin Mary a new fixed celebration in the Roman Catholic calendar.
The Vatican published a decree Saturday in which Francis declared that the Mary “Mother of the Church” feast would be celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost. This year, it falls on May 21.
The decree said Francis wanted the devotion to “encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety.”
Welsh teen sentenced for plot. LONDON» A 17-yearold Welsh teen has been sentenced to at least 11 years in prison after being convicted of plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack on various targets including a Justin Bieber concert.
Judge Mark Wall on Friday sentenced Lloyd Gunton to an indeterminate sentence after concluding he had a total “disregard for human life.”
Evidence during his trial showed that Gunton had researched several targets in Cardiff, the Welsh capital, including a shopping center and Bieber’s performance last June 30. The teen lives in Llantrisant, which is in south Wales.
Swiss to vote on public television.
BERN, SWITZERLAND» Voters in Switzerland are deciding whether they should have to keep paying hundreds of francs every year for public television and radio programming, a referendum that’s being watched closely elsewhere in Europe.
The vote to eliminate the mandatory national TV fee was sponsored by free-market proponents and other fee critics, who say residents shouldn’t have to pay for public broadcasting if they don’t watch or listen to it.