Blast at a Crowded Park in Lahore, Pakistan, Kills Dozens

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide bomber set off a powerful blast close to a children’s swing set in a public park on Sunday evening in the eastern city of Lahore, killing at least 69 people and wounding around 300, rescue workers and officials said.

The blast occurred in a parking lot at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, one of the largest parks in Lahore, said Haider Ashraf, a senior police official in the city. The bomb was detonated within several feet of the swings in a park crowded with families on Easter.

Jamaat-e-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the blast. Its spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said in a statement that Christians were the target.

It was the third bombing in Pakistan in this month alone, a reminder that even as the military has cracked down on extremists over the past two years, Islamist groups remain a potent threat.

The bombing came as large protests were held in other parts of the country to protest the execution in February of the man who murdered a secular politician five years ago. While public opinion has largely been galvanized by attacks on civilians by jihadists, particularly the killing of 150 people at a school in Peshawar in 2014, the protests are a sign that widespread sympathy remains for extremist groups in Pakistan.

Killer Whale From ‘Blackfish’ Film Is Ailing, SeaWorld Says

Tilikum, the orca whose killing of a trainer at a SeaWorld park in Orlando became the focus of the documentary “Blackfish,” has been found to have a respiratory disease that could likely end in death, his caretakers said.

According to a statement by SeaWorld, the killer whale, known to his caretakers as Tili, has been in captivity since 1983, and is estimated to be around 35 years old.

In an accompanying video, Tilikum’s veterinarian, Dr. Scott Gearhart, said that the bacteria found in the orca’s lungs is found also in wild marine animals, and that “there’s no doubt in my mind” that care at SeaWorld prolonged his life.

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Republicans Speed Across South Carolina as Race Tightens

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The Republican presidential candidates hurtled across South Carolina on Friday to make their final, frantic pitch one day before the state’s primary, as polls showed the race tightening here after a volatile and often nasty week of campaigning.

The vote on Saturday, a critical test of organization and strength for much of the field, comes as the candidates are closing in on Donald J. Trump, who until now has held comfortable leads in the polls here. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Mr. Trump just five points ahead, down from his 16-point lead in the state a month ago.

Justice Antonin Scalia, Who Led a Conservative Renaissance on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 79

Justice Antonin Scalia, whose transformative legal theories, vivid writing and outsize personality made him a leader of a conservative intellectual renaissance in his three decades on the Supreme Court, was found dead on Saturday at a resort in West Texas, according to a statement from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. He was 79.

“He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues,” Chief Justice Roberts said. “His passing is a great loss to the Court and the country he so loyally served.”

The cause of death was not immediately released.

Maurice White, Founder of Earth, Wind & Fire, Dies at 74

Maurice White, the founder and leader of Earth, Wind & Fire, whose genre-defying music made it one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, has died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 74.

The band’s publicist, Mark Young, said Mr. White died late Wednesday or early Thursday. He did not specify the cause, but Mr. White had announced in 2000 that he had Parkinson’s disease.