Mali rebels

Kidal (Mali), Feb. 4 (Reuters): Tuareg rebels in northern Mali today said they had captured two senior Islamist insurgents fleeing French air strikes towards the Algerian border.

Pro-autonomy Tuareg MNLA rebels said they had seized Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed, an Islamist leader who imposed harsh sharia law in the desert town of Timbuktu, and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed, believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of a French hostage by the al Qaida splinter group MUJWA.

Egypt torture

Cairo (AP): An Egyptian Opposition party on Monday claimed that police tortured one of its members to death, electrocuting him and beating him repeatedly on the head — the latest case alleging police brutality in a crackdown on anti-government protesters.

UK MP guilty

London (Reuters): Former British energy secretary Chris Huhne pleaded guilty today to perverting the course of justice by persuading his then wife in 2003 to accept penalty points on her driving licence for a speeding offence he had committed. Huhne resigned from his cabinet post in February 2012.

Fidel votes

Havana (Reuters): Fidel Castro voted in Cuba’s general election on Sunday and chatted with well wishers and Cuban reporters in Havana for more than an hour, in his first extended public appearance since 2010.