An army general in Burkina Faso who is involved in the search for the missing Air Algerie flight carrying 116 people, claims that a witness saw a plane coming down in Mali.

An Algerian aviation official says the passenger plane missing over Northern Mali has crashed.

The interfaces of Islamic and Western culture are many, but when Tinariwen guitarist Abdallah Ag Lamida was abducted by Islamist rebels in Mali in 2012, it was a potential watershed. The plentiful al-Qaida African affiliates seemed to be saying western music is satanic.

Two French journalists working for the radio station RFI have been killed in northern Mali hours after being kidnapped by gunmen, the French foreign ministry said.

Voters headed to the polls today in Mali’s first election since last year’s coup, struggling to cast their ballots despite the logistical and technical problems that have plagued the hastily-organised poll.

More than a dozen people have been injured in two car bomb attacks in Niger.

WHEN Irish soldiers arrived in troubled Mali last week as part of an EU training force, they will have encountered a country where the security situation remains tense and a year-long conflict has had a catastrophic humanitarian impact on the population.

Chadian president Idriss Deby has announced that Chadian troops fighting to dislodge an al Qaida affiliate in northern Mali have killed one of the group’s leading commanders, Abou Zeid.

Troops from Chad have killed 65 Islamic extremist rebels and destroyed five vehicles in fierce fighting in northern Mali, the country’s military said today.

A suicide bomber has attacked a checkpoint in northern Mali, killing only himself, in the first known suicide bombing since French military forces intervened in the country.

French troops have started to withdraw from Timbuktu after securing the fabled city as they ramped up their mission in another northern Mali city.

France’s Defence Ministry has said the country’s military forces continued aerial strikes in northern Mali, just a few hours after a visit to the country by President Francois Hollande.

Troops are in control of Kidal airport in northern Mali, seizing a key position in one of three provincial capitals the Islamist militants took last year.

French and Malian soldiers have won control of the desert city of Timbuktu following the retreat of Islamist extremists,

French troops, backed by helicopters and planes, have advanced on the key Malian town of Diabaly, seized a week ago by Islamic extremists.

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

An Irishman is among up to 41 oil workers believed to have been kidnapped by al Qaeda-affiliated group at a gas field in Algeria.

The UN Security Council said it will consider a request from West African countries for military intervention in Mali to root out al-Qaida-linked Islamists who have seized control of the country's northern region.

THE Cork Midsummer Festival opens at the Cork Opera House on June 21 with the critically acclaimed show, ‘Rian,’ created by musician Liam Ó Maonlaí of ‘The Hothouse Flowers’ fame and innovative choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan of ‘Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre Company.’

IRISH rock star Bob Geldof yesterday gave a moving speech about the dangers of human indifference to genocide, warning “words without actions are no good to dead people”.