Algeria’s four-day hostage stand-off came to a bloody end today when the country’s special forces stormed the remote desert gas plant and killed 11 militants, but not before they in turn executed seven hostages, Algerian state news agency APS reported.

Eleven militants have been killed in a final assault by Algerian special forces on a desert gas facility where workers were being held captive, the state news agency said today.

A Scottish man held hostage in Algeria has spoken of his relief at being rescued.

Algerian special forces are continuing to hunt Islamist militants who overran a BP gas plant as freed hostages headed home.

The bloody three-day hostage standoff at a natural gas plant in the Sahara took a dramatic turn yesterday as Algeria’s state news service reported that nearly 100 of the 132 foreign workers kidnapped by Islamic militants had been freed.

Two Britons and two Filipinos have been killed in the operation by Algerian forces to liberate hostages held by militants in a remote natural gas complex, Algerian state television said tonight.

The Taoiseach has called for the immediate release of a married 36-year-old Antrim man being held captive by Islamic militants in Algeria, as news of a successful escape bid by some of the hostages begins to come through.

Security forces in Algeria have surrounded Islamist fighters who killed two people and have taken 41 foreign hostages, including one Irishman.

A married 36-year-old Irishman is believed to be unharmed after he was caught up in a terrorist attack on an oil facility in Algeria. He is still a hostage of the militant Islamist group that carried out the attack.

At least 19 people have died after a bus plunged into a ravine in Algeria, according to reports.

A DUTCH court yesterday slapped a €1 million fine on a Swiss-based company whose chartered ship dumped hazardous waste, which the Ivory Coast says killed 17 people.

British Airways said today that it had agreed a recovery plan for its underfunded pension schemes in a move which paves the way for its merger with Spanish rival Iberia.

AN advanced paramedic (AP) service which will be launched in north Cork in the coming week will effectively take advanced life-support out of the A&E to the roadside where it is needed.

BRITISH taxpayers are standing behind almost £3 billion (€3.3bn) in negative equity mortgages in Ireland.

Shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of Lloyds Banking Group’s UK record £13.5bn (€14.8bn) cash call today.

Lloyds Banking Group today set out details of its £13.5bn (€15bn) UK record cash call to the bank’s army of 2.8 million private shareholders.

British Chancellor Alistair Darling today defended British government plans to pump another £30bn (€33.2bn) of public money into banks - insisting the taxpayer was getting a "better deal".

Royal Bank of Scotland said today that it would have to sell more of its businesses than originally planned to gain European approval for state support.

Lloyds Banking Group confirmed today it was in advanced talks with Government and regulators over a potential fundraising that will allow it to side-step the toxic asset protection scheme (APS).

Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland is weighing up a new fundraising to prevent the British taxpayer's stake in the ailing bank from rising further, it was reported today.

The British part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group may be forced to sell off parts of the business as the price of UK government support, the bank said today.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika hailed his landslide re-election for a third term as a “lesson in democracy”, but opposition politicians and independent media alleged fraud at the polls, and the US government expressed concern.

The UK Shareholders Association (UKSA) today said it was forming an action group to represent smaller investors in Lloyds Banking Group in the wake of its latest bail-out from British taxpayers.

Security forces have killed 120 militants linked to al-Qaida in Algeria over the past six months and arrested 322, the government said.

Two successive bombs rocked a train station in Algeria today, killing 13 people, mostly firefighters and soldiers responding to the first bomb, a security official said.

An al-Qaida-linked group said it carried out the Algerian truck bombings that killed at least 26 people in carefully timed blasts that drew swift international condemnation.

A booby-trapped car exploded at a barracks housing coast guard officials in Algeria today, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 30, the country’s official news agency reported, citing hospital authorities.

At least 16 people were killed and more than 74 injured by a bomb that ripped through a crowd waiting for the Algerian president to arrive in an eastern town.

Security forces killed a man described as the military adviser to the head of an al Qaida affiliate in Algeria in an assault on a mountain hide-out, it was reported.

Bombs ripped through the Algerian prime minister's office and a police station today in co-ordinated terror attacks that Algerian authorities said killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 160.

At least 17 people were killed in two bomb attacks in Algeria today, one targeting the prime minister’s office and the other a police station.

An apparently co-ordinated wave of bombings largely targeting police killed six people and injured nearly 30 others in Algeria today, according to the official news agency, police and hospital staff.

A wave of car bombings and other attacks killed six people and injured 13 in Algeria today, the country’s official news agency reported.

ISRAELI tanks and troops pulled back to the Israel-Gaza border yesterday after a particularly deadly incursion that killed 30 Palestinians over three days.

Israeli troops withdrew from northern Gaza early today after a bloody two-day sweep that killed 29 Palestinians, the deadliest concentration of violence since Israel’s incursion began over a month ago.

Israeli troops and tanks pulled out of northern Gaza early today after a bloody two-day sweep, killing 29 Palestinians, but Israeli aircraft pounded the area.

A MULTI-NATIONAL consultancy firm awarded government contracts worth millions of euro yesterday described as an “embarrassment” delays in filing its own accounts because of internal system failures.

An Algerian terror leader who allied himself with Osama bin Laden has been killed, it was reported today.

At least 13 workers were killed when a tank filled with liquefied natural gas exploded at an Algerian refinery, state radio said.

British Airways PLC is to face additional contributions to its two pension schemes of £133m (€191.12m) a year.

A man attempted to hijack an Air Algeria jet today, threatening the crew with what he said was a grenade before surrendering to security services, Algeria’s official news agency said.

Panic-stricken families slept in the streets and parks of Algeria’s seaside capital for a second night, while rescuers led a frenzied hunt for survivors near the epicentre of a devastating earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people and injured nearly 7,000.

More than 500 people have died and around 4,600 were injured in the massive Algerian earthquake that shook the area near the capital.

THE crash of an Air Algerie passenger jet that killed 102 people in the Sahara Desert was probably caused