BBC News with Sue Montgomery
The Algerian state news agency says at least 12 foreign and Algerian hostages have been killed at a gas plant in the desert that came under siege when Islamist militants launched a hostage-taking raid on Wednesday. It says at least 18 militants died. Bridget Kendall reports.
It’s hardly surprising that the Algerian authorities moved so swiftly against the hostage takers without consulting other governments. Their military forces are battle-hardened with the experience of fighting an Islamist insurgency during a long and bloody civil war in the 1990s. And the Algerian government claims it had no alternative—it had to launch an attack to stop the kidnappers fleeing into the desert with their captives. Now the question is whether this crisis can be ended peacefully without endangering more hostages.
The United States government has said it does not negotiate with terrorists following reports that militants had offered to trade two Americans held hostage in Algeria for two high-profile prisoners convicted of terrorist offences in the US
Officials in Mali say Islamist militants have left the town of Diabaly which they seized on Monday following the French aerial bombardment of the town. On Thursday the Malian army recaptured the town of Konna. From Mali, Mark Doyle reports.
One of the small towns, Konna, is significant because it was the first to be taken in an attempted push last week into southern Mali by the Islamists. And the other town, Diabaly, matters because the Islamists occupied it just as the French forces arrived here. Diabaly is also quite close by the standards of this very large country to the capital Bamako—about 400km. Although the news of the Islamist withdrawal from these towns will please the French forces and the Malian government, the reality is that the war for northern Mali has probably only just begun.
A former mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, has been charged with corruption by a federal grand jury in the United States. Mr Nagin achieved fame for his passionate calls for assistance as Hurricane Katrina struck the city in 2005. Jonny Dymond reports.
He had come into office as a reformer and an anti-corruption campaigner. Mayor Ray Nagin left it desperately unpopular as post-Katrina crime soared and reconstruction foundered. Now he has been charged with 21 counts of corruption—taking kickbacks for steering city contracts to businessmen. Few will be surprised as the steamy politics of "The Big Easy" claims another one of its own.
The television network Al Jazeera says one of its reporters has been shot dead by a government sniper in the Syrian province of Deraa. The TV station said the journalist, Mohamed Horani, was targeted while he was covering clashes there.
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A former minister from Ivory Coast has been extradited from Ghana. Charles Ble Goude, who was the head of a youth movement, was viewed as a right-hand man of the former President Laurent Gbagbo. Mr Ble Goude was arrested on Thursday after 18 months in exile. Nicknamed the Street Minister for his ability to mobilise protesters, he’s the subject of an Ivorian arrest warrant for his role in the violence that followed the 2010 election. He denies leading militias that attacked foreigners and northerners during the unrest.
The Burmese government says it will end a military offensive against ethnic minority rebels in the northern state of Kachin. Official statements said the offensive would stop at six o’clock on Saturday morning local time. The BBC’s Soe Win Than says the ceasefire follows significant gains by the army.
When they started this offensive, they had some military aims, which is to retake the area where the Kachin rebels were ambushing their troops. They have secured that area, so their military gain is achieved. That’s why they called for the ceasefire. The forces are still very close to each other—in fact they are facing each other. So when two fighting forces are facing at very close quarters, any time fighting could flare up again.
The artistic director of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet, Sergei Filin, has undergone eye surgery to try to save the sight following serious burns to his face sustained in an acid attack. A masked man in Moscow threw acid in his face. The director of the Bolshoi said he was convinced the attack was work-related.
A judge in Nicaragua has sentenced 18 Mexicans who came into the country posing as journalists to long prison terms for drug trafficking. The group was arrested last year crossing into Nicaragua in vans carrying the logo of the Mexican TV network Televisa. They said they had been sent to cover a high-profile murder trial but could not explain the almost $10m stashed in their vehicles.
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