IN BRIEF

Italy

3,000 rescued in Mediterranean

Around 3,000 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean on Saturday as they tried to reach Europe, the Italian coast guard said in a statement. The people were picked up in more than 20 separate rescue operations. According to the International Organization for Migration, as of April 26, 43,490 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea.

Nigeria

82 schoolgirls freed in suspect swap

Eighty-two schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram terrorist group have been released in exchange for suspected members of the terror group, the government said on Saturday. About 276 girls were seized by Boko Haram fighters, who stormed their dormitories in April 2014 in the town of Chibok in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria.

Iraq

Islamic State kills 2 in base attack

At least two people were killed and six injured when multiple Islamic State suicide bombers attacked a base in northern Iraq where US military advisers are stationed, security sources said on Sunday. "They were wearing uniforms like the Kurdish peshmerga and had shaved their beards to look like us," one officer told Reuters.

Indonesia

Hundreds still at large after jail break

Indonesian authorities said about 200 inmates remained at large two days after a mass escape from an overcrowded prison on Sumatra island. The jail break on Friday occurred when inmates were let out of their cells at Sialang Bungkuk Prison in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, for prayers. Police said 242 men had been recaptured.

Germany

50,000 evacuated over war bombs

About 50,000 people from the city of Hanover were evacuated in one of the largest postwar operations to defuse World War II-era bombs. Residents were ordered to leave their homes for the operation, planned since mid-April, to extract five recently discovered unexploded bombs.

Reuters - Xinhua - Ap