DAKAR, Senegal — Boko Haram has killed at least 60 people in a “devastating” attack on the northeastern Nigeria border town of Rann earlier this week, Amnesty International said Friday, calling it one of the deadliest assaults by the extremist group in its nearly decadelong insurgency.

Fighters on motorcycles drove through the town near the Cameroon border on Monday morning, setting houses on fire and killing people left behind, the international rights group said in a series of Twitter posts. The fighters also chased residents fleeing the “massive attack” and killed several outside town.

Amnesty published satellite imagery that it said showed “hundreds of burned structures.” Many likely served as shelters for displaced people who had arrived in recent months seeking protection. Most of Rann is “now destroyed,” the group said.

The attack came as Nigeria faces what it has called an extremist resurgence, posing a serious challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari as he seeks re-election in two weeks’ time. His administration once claimed Boko Haram had been “crushed” or “technically defeated,” while the military has faced questions over low morale and support.

Witnesses told Amnesty that soldiers had left their posts the day before the attack. There was no immediate military statement. But a new report Friday by the United Nations noted the “recent withdrawal” of the Multinational Joint Task Force, a regional counterterror entity, after its fighters secured the town following a mid-January attack.

N.J. Sen. Cory Booker joins the Dems’ 2020 presidential race

WASHINGTON — Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said Friday that he will seek the Democratic nomination for president, adding his name to a growing and increasingly diversified field of 2020 candidates intent on taking on President Trump.

Booker made his announcement via an email and video to supporters.

“I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind ... where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame,” he said.

Booker, 49, joins a race occupied by three other senators — Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — as well as several other candidates.

His decision did not come as a surprise. Booker has been traveling to early-voting states for months, teasing his eventual entrance.

Hong Kong makes a record seizure of pangolin scales, ivory

HONG KONG — Hong Kong customs officers have intercepted a record 8.3 tons of pangolin scales and hundreds of elephant tusks worth more than $8 million combined, underscoring the threat to endangered species from demand in Asia.

Acting on a tip from mainland Chinese authorities, local officials found the haul in mid-January in a refrigerated container labeled as frozen meat from Nigeria, officials said Friday. Police arrested two people in connection with the seizure.

It was the largest-ever seizure of pangolin scales in Hong Kong, representing the product of some 14,000 animals, and one of the largest of ivory in a decade, the officials said. Scales of the anteater-like pangolin have for centuries been highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine.

Avenatti won’t face charges

in domestic violence incident

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles prosecutors said Friday that they have declined to charge attorney Michael Avenatti with misdemeanor domestic violence but will hold hearings on the allegations.

Actress Mareli Miniutti got a restraining order against Avenatti in November after accusing him of dragging her by the arm across a bedroom floor of his apartment following an argument.

Avenatti, who represents porn actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Donald Trump, denies the allegations and said on Twitter that the prosecutors’ decision vindicates him.

A spokesman for the city attorney said charges of spousal abuse or battery could be brought after informal hearings for Miniutti and Avenatti to present their cases.

Cherokee Nation: Warren apologized to chief

WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has apologized to Cherokee Nation after releasing DNA test results in October indicating she had Native American ancestry, a tribe spokeswoman said Friday.

The apology was made Thursday in a phone call to tribe Chief Bill John Baker, Cherokee Nation spokeswoman Julie Hubbard confirmed Friday.

Warren is expected to run for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination. Her campaign could not be reached Thursday afternoon to confirm the apology.

The move to release results of a DNA test was intended to quell backlash against her claims of Native American heritage but instead resulted in even more mockery.

Cherokee Nation condemned Warren for appearing to define ethnicity through a test.

President defends troop pullout after Senate rebuke

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pushed back Friday on Senate Republicans, who voted overwhelmingly the previous day for a measure that rebuked his rationale for withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan.

In morning tweets, Trump said that the moves were consistent with a campaign promise to withdraw from “Endless Wars” that have resulted in “unlimited spending and death” and argued that under his leadership the Islamic State had been all but destroyed.

Trump’s tweets came a day after the vast majority of Senate Republicans backed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in voting for a measure that declared the Islamic State’s presence and activity in both Syria and Afghanistan continue to pose a serious threat.

Temblor: A strong earthquake jolted southern Mexico on Friday, swaying tall buildings hundreds of miles away in the capital, but there were no reports of serious damage, injuries or deaths. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.6 quake was centered 10 miles from Tapachula in Chiapas state.

U.S.-Mexico border: An experimental U.S. policy that requires migrants to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed will soon expand to multiple border cities and apply to migrant families, Homeland Security officials said Friday. The new measures were implemented this week at the San Ysidro, Calif., crossing.