MARAWI, Philippines – A week after Islamist militants kidnapped some 240 Catholics in the Philippines, a video has surfaced online showing one of the hostages, Fr. Chito Suganob, calling for the government to halt their military offensive in the city.

PARIS – The urgent pleas for national unity heard after every terrorist attack in France are sounding ever more strained as the killers inspired by the Islamic State group nimbly shift their tactics and targets and confound the politicians struggling to combat them.

Before being shot by security forces, the Islamist militants who attacked a café in Dhaka said they would happily become “martyrs” because they had successfully completed their jihadi mission and were bound for heaven, eyewitnesses said.