Maggie Michael

A priest and a witness say masked gunmen in central Libya have kidnapped 20 Coptic Christians from Egypt.

Abu Anas al-Libi, a man accused by federal prosecutors of being an al-Qaida member involved in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, died of complications from liver surgery, his wife said Saturday.

Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen threatened an American hostage who was the target of a rescue attempt by U.S. special forces last month, warning Washington in a video released Thursday not to try again, and giving it three days to meet unspecified demands.

Egyptians are bracing for potential violence ahead of a planned major protest Friday by Islamists calling for the toppling of the government and the defense of their religion, with security forces vowing to confront any unrest with “lethal force.”

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Saturday that an assault on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 30 troops was a “foreign-funded operation” and vowed to take drastic action against militants.