Pope condemns fatal bomb blast at Egyptian church

POPE BENEDICT yesterday condemned a bomb blast outside a church in Egypt which killed at least 21 people, the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in the Middle East and Africa.

“This vile gesture of death, like that of putting bombs near to the houses of Christians in Iraq to force them to leave, offends God and all of humanity,” the Pope said after his weekly Angelus blessing.

The car bomb explosion outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria on Saturday wounded dozens of people as worshippers gathered to mark the new year and Egypt’s Interior Ministry said a foreign-backed suicide bomber might have been responsible.