All Latest News Wires
- Sergei Filin, Bolshoi ballet director, injured in acid attack by masked assailant
A colleague said Filin's car tires had been slashed earlier in the week and that he was targeted this month by hackers who posted his professional correspondence online.
- 30 hostages killed? Algerian hostage event over, casualties still uncertain
30 hostages were killed, Reuters is reporting. Other sources have wildly different casualty estimates, but all agree that hostages were killed in the attempt to rescue oil workers.
- 30 hostages killed? Casualty counts vary in Algerian crisis
30 hostages were killed, including at least seven foreigners, one source told a Reuters reporter. Other sources offer widely varying numbers of hostages taken, escaped, and killed.
- Iran-IAEA wrap up nuclear talks, agree to meet again
Iranian media did not say if any progress was made, but a senior diplomat from an International Atomic Energy Agency member state in Vienna said shortly before talks ended that they were 'not going well.'
- French forces in Mali take bridge at key north-south river divide
French forces now number 1,400 in Mali: 'The actions of French forces, be it air forces or ground forces, are ongoing,' says a French military official in Paris.
- Algerian 'Battalion of Blood' kidnapping fracas results in 6 dead, 25 escaped, reports say
Reports varied wildly from Algerian military action after a hostage taking at a natural gas facility in south-east Algeria. The French government says this attack confirms why action in Mali against Islamist rebel groups is needed.
- Pakistan's anticorruption board refuses to arrest prime minister, but cleric keeps pressure on
Pakistan's government granted talks with the Muslim cleric whose calls for the administration to resign have apparently electrified thousands of protestors camped out near Parliament.
- Syrian activists report 106 killed in raid on civilians, call for UN action
Activists say women and children were among the 106 people killed by forces who stormed an impoverished district on the edge of Homs, where a similar raid happened in 2011.
- Twenty hostages escape from Islamic militants in Algeria, reports
Twenty foreign hostages – including some Americans and Europeans – have escaped from Islamic militants holding them at an Algerian natural gas facility, says an Algerian source. The militants said they had captured 41 foreigners, including seven Americans, yesterday.
- Algeria: Identities of hostages still unclear
Forty-one foreigners were taken hostage by an Islamist militant group at a BP gas field in the desert of Algeria on Wednesday. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta deemed Wednesday's hostage taking a 'terrorist attack'. Seven Americans are among those being held.
- Algerian militants take hostages, 41 foreigners
As the French military continues its build up in the West African former French colony of Mali, an Islamist group holds hostages at a BP plant in Algeria. The hostages include local people as well as dozens of foreigners, reportedly including seven Americans.
- Some 100,000 flee Darfur, many villages burned, 100 dead: UN
Weeks of clashes around a gold mine dispute in northern Sudan ends with dozens of villages burned, and human toll worse than estimated.
- Algerian militants: We hold 41 foreigners, including 7 Americans
Their claims have not been confirmed, but local authorities say over 20 captives are inside the natural gas complex that the militants seized near the Libyan border.
- Obama makes Page 1 in Israel ahead of elections, after US columnist quotes
Comments by Obama on Netanyahu published by Bloomberg columnist track ongoing disagreements between the two leaders over settlements and military action on Iran. But contretemps unlikely to cut into Netanyahu's large poll margins ahead of Jan. 22 elections.
- Islamic militants attack Algerian gas field, kidnap at least nine
It is not clear whether the dawn raid, which left two dead and at least nine foreigners kidnapped, was tied to France's military intervention against Islamist rebels in neighboring Mali.
- French troops set to engage Mali militants 'in coming hours'
The head of France's armed forces confirmed that the campaign had begun against the Islamist rebels who control northern Mali. Fighting has been reported in the rebel-held town of Diabaly.
- Helicopter crashes into construction crane in London, killing two
A helicopter crashed into a crane in central London which was packed with thousands of commuters at the time on Wednesday, killing two people as it burst into flames and threw plumes of smoke into the foggy air above.
- US demands Morsi repudiate 'deeply offensive' comments
Egyptian President Morsi must reject his past statements calling Zionists "apes and pigs" and urging supporters to "nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred," say White House officials.
- Horse meat found in burgers — traces of pig, too
Horse meat and pig meat were found in burgers and ground beef sold at Ireland's biggest supermarkets. Traces of pig DNA appear in 85 percent of the tested meat, and one burger was roughly 30 percent horse meat.
- French will triple troops in Mali, prepare for ground fight
French military officials say they will up forces from 800 to 2500 and in Mali a huge logistical operation to support ground forces grinds into place.