Al-Qaida denies links to ISIL in Syria
Statement denying any relationship with the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) seen as a bid to reassert authority over rebels
Al-Qaida's general command has said it has no links with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in an apparent attempt to assert authority over the Islamist militant groups involved in Syria's civil war.
The small but powerful ISIL has been caught up in battles with other Islamist insurgents often triggered by disputes over authority and territory, and has also clashed with secular rebels.
The internecine fighting - among the bloodiest in the three-year conflict - has undermined the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and dismayed western powers pushing for peace talks.
Rebel-on-rebel violence in Syria has killed at least 1,800 this year alone.
ISIL follows al-Qaida's hard-line ideology and, until now, the two groups were widely believed to be linked.
Is this the face of the French right? ‘We are witnessing a union of extremes never before seen in France’
Calls for a return to traditional, conservative family values are being hijacked by anti-Semites and homophobic nationalists, prompting fears that the ‘disturbing’ politics of the 1930s are back
Century of Violence: What World War I Did to the Middle East
World War I may have ended in 1918, but the violence it triggered in the Middle East still hasn't come to an end. Arbitrary borders drawn by self-interested imperial powers have left a legacy that the region has not been able to overcome.
Damascus, year three of the civil war: The 4th Division of the Syrian army has entrenched itself on Kassioun Mountain, the place where Cain is said to have slain his brother Abel. United Nations ballistics experts say the poison gas projectiles that landed in the Damascus suburbs of Muadamiya and Ain Tarma in the morning hours of Aug. 21, 2013 were fired from somewhere up on the mountain. Some 1,400 people died in the attack -- 1,400 of the more than 100,000 people who have lost their lives since the beginning of the conflict.
Nigerian Muslim cleric opposed to Boko Haram shot dead
KADUNA, Nigeria
A Nigerian Muslim cleric who openly criticized Islamist sect Boko Haram has been killed in Zaria, hundreds of miles from where the military is fighting insurgents, police said on Monday.
Gunmen opened fire on Sheik Adam Albani's car on Saturday evening as he drove home from preaching in a mosque, also killing his wife and young son, police spokesman Aminu Lawan said.
Western governments see prominent leaders like Sheik Albani playing a role in the long-term fight against Boko Haram and other al Qaeda-linked groups, in a deeply religious country of 170 million people.
El Salvador election: Is 'democratic revolution' fading? (+video)
As Salvadorans go to the polls to elect their next president, the leading FMLN remains torn between its guerrilla heritage and the need to play politics and win votes.
Tomás Minero joined the Farabundo Martí Liberation Front (FMLN) as a teen in the 1980s, just as this country’s bloody civil war was getting underway.
For the next 11 years he fought for the Marxist guerrilla group: running offensives, escaping prison, and getting shot twice.
After the FMLN signed peace accords, disarmed, and
became a leftist political party in 1992, Mr. Minero and many other former fighters followed. Minero is now mayor of Ciudad Delgado, a crowded, working-class municipality just northeast ofEl Salvador’s capital.
“It’s a thousand times harder to be a mayor than a guerrilla,” he says, sitting in his sparsely decorated office. “As a guerrilla you need only to fight, to plan, and to have a strong conscience. To be a mayor you’re not dreaming, but resolving.”
3 February 2014 Last updated at 08:53
Tributes paid to actor Philip Seymour Hoffman
Tributes are pouring in following the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman at his home in New York on Sunday.
The Oscar-winning actor, 46, was found by a friend who called emergency services. He was declared dead at the scene.
A police spokesman said investigators found two small plastic bags and a substance suspected of being heroin.
In a statement, his family said: "We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil."
Hoffman is survived by his partner Mimi O'Donnell, and their three children.
Robert De Niro was among many fellow actors expressing their sorrow. "I'm very, very saddened by the passing of Phil. He was a wonderful actor. This is one of those times where you say: 'This just shouldn't be'," he said.
"He was so young and gifted and had so much going, so much to live for. My family and I send our deepest condolences to his family," he added.
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