Homeland Security News

At least 69 people have been killed and scores injured in an explosion at a public park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials say.  The park was crowded with families, some celebrating Easter. Many victims are said to be women and children.

Police told the BBC it appeared to be a suicide bomb. A Pakistan Taliban faction said it carried out the attack.  Pakistan's president has condemned the blast and the regional government has announced three days of mourning.

All the major hospitals in the area were put on an emergency footing after the blast early on Sunday evening.  The explosion appears to have been at the main gate to the Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in an area where cars are usually left - and a short distance from the children's swings.

Read more:  BBC News

Dutch anti-terrorism police on Sunday arrested a 32-year-old man in Rotterdam on suspicion of preparing an attack on France and also detained three other people, national prosecutors said.   "French authorities on Friday requested the arrest of the French citizen, who had been identified in a terrorism investigation," prosecutors said in a statement. He was suspected of "involvement in preparing a terrorist attack".

The arrests were carried out by a specialized anti-terrorism police squad, and the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD and prosecutors also took part in the operation, prosecutors said.

Two of the others detained were described as aged 43 and 47 and "having an Algerian background," while the third had not yet been identified.  Police were searching two addresses in western Rotterdam associated with the suspect, and people living in nearby buildings had been evacuated as a precautionary measure, the prosecutors said.

Read more:  Reuters

Syrian government forces backed Sunday by Shia militias and unrelenting Russian airstrikes recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State militants, Syrian officials said.

Antiquities experts were already developing strategies for rehabilitating iconic ruins that were severely damaged by the militants who swept into the city last May.

The rout followed a three-week siege that left hundreds of militants dead and sent many more fleeing into the desert, the army said. It follows a string of military setbacks for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or or ISIL, in its efforts to create a Sunni-based caliphate from a wide swath of Syria and Iraq.

Read more:  USA Today