Lucknow/ AFP A stampede at a religious gathering in northern India killed 19 people on Saturday as thousands of devotees of a controversial guru tried to cross a bridge at once, police said. The followers of Jai Gurudev, a leader of a local religious sect, had gathered in Varanasi, a Hindu holy town in Uttar Pradesh state, when the deadly …

  Baghdad / AFP A suicide bomber attacked a Shiite-majority area of north Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 32 people and wounding more than two dozen, security and medical officials said. The bomber struck in the Shaab area of the Iraqi capital, targeting either a funeral tent or one at which Shiite Muslims distribute food and drinks on the occasion …

  Tripoli / AFP Libya’s UN-backed unity government suffered a blow in its Tripoli base when a rival seized key offices in the capital and proclaimed the reinstatement of the former administration. The Government of National Accord (GNA) is the centrepiece of Western hopes to stem an upsurge of extremism in the North African nation and halt people trafficking across …