World News

French President Francois Hollande. (PHILIPPE WOJAZER/AFP/Getty Images)(PARIS) -- An al Qaeda-linked terrorist group announced Wednesday that it planned to execute a French spy codenamed Denis Allex, who has been held captive in Somalia for years and who French authorities believe is already dead. The Somalia-based group, al-Shabaab, said via Twitter that France "voluntarily signed Allex's death warrant" by attempting to launch a rescue operation for the intelligence agent over the weekend. That rescue failed and French authorities acknowledged that two French commandos were killed in the operation. Top French officials, including President Francois Hollande, previously said that they believed Allex ... Read more!

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron weighed in Wednesday on the discovery that some hamburger products sold in supermarkets in Ireland and the United Kingdom have been found to contain horse meat, calling it “completely unacceptable.”Tests on beef products sold in stores found low levels of horse DNA in hamburgers, and while there is no health risk, stores are pulling implicated products from their shelves.Most of the products include trace amounts of the horse DNA (about 0.1 percent – 0.3 percent), but one product, a beef burger sold at Tesco, was found to contain 29 percent horse ... Read more!

ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/Getty Images(MOSCOW) -- Russia’s most notorious mafia boss was gunned down in broad daylight by sniper fire as he exited a restaurant in central Moscow on Wednesday, according to Russia’s Interior Ministry.Aslan Usoyan, who was more commonly known as Ded Hasan (Grandpa Hasan), was the patriarch of one of Russia’s most infamous mafia clans. The tabloid news website Lifenews.ru published a bloody photo of Usoyan’s dead body.The mobster had just left an Azeri restaurant around 2:30 p.m. when he was struck by gunfire. Reports said the shot came from a sniper rifle fired from a nearby rooftop. ... Read more!

Matt Hosford/ABC News(TOKYO) -- Two Japanese airliners have grounded their Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes after a jet was forced to make an emergency landing on Wednesday, prompting more concerns as a recent string of mishaps continues to plague the new fleet.All Nippon Airways (ANA) said a battery warning light and a burning smell were detected in the cockpit and the cabin, forcing the Dreamliner to land at Takamatsu Airport in Japan earlier Wednesday.The domestic flight landed safely about 45 minutes after it took off and all 128 passengers and eight crew members had to evacuate using the emergency ... Read more!

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- At least two people were killed and 13 others injured when a commercial helicopter crashed in central London during rush hour Wednesday morning.Police were alerted to the incident on Wandsworth Road at around 8 a.m. local time, Scotland Yard said in a statement. Officials said the helicopter clipped a crane attached to one of the tallest residential towers being built in London and then spun out of control, slamming into the ground and setting cars and neighboring buildings on fire.The helicopter's pilot was killed, and an additional person was killed by the crash, police said.The ... Read more!

AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The White House on Tuesday sharply rebuked comments made by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi before he rose to power in 2010 in which he exhorted followers to hate Jews and Zionists.Obama administration spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at his daily press briefing that Morsi "should make clear he respects people of all faiths...We strongly condemn these comments...This type of rhetoric is unacceptable in a democratic Egypt."What now concerns the U.S. is Morsi's sincerity since he has pledged to uphold a longstanding treaty Egypt has with Israel while seeking peace in the volatile region.That could ... Read more!

AFP/Getty Images(ALEPPO, Syria) -- The two sides involved in the ongoing Syrian conflict are blaming each other for bombings Tuesday at the University of Aleppo that left at least 82 people dead and scores more wounded.Witnesses said there were two powerful explosions on the college campus in Syria's largest city while classes were in session.According to activists, the destruction was caused by Syrian military jets.  However, Syria's official news agency alleged that rebel forces fired missiles into the campus.The University of Aleppo was established in 1946 and currently has an enrollment of over 60,000 students.Fighting in ... Read more!

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(PARIS) -- Facing Islamist fighters determined to overrun the country, the French government is on the verge of deploying more troops to the North African country of Mali.The militants have already taken large swaths of northern Mali and seem poised to enter the capital city of Bamako but French airstrikes are preventing that from happening for now.France currently has a force of about 1,700 in Mali, with 800 actual soldiers on the ground.  The goal is to bolster Mali government troops while waiting for thousands of soldiers from West Africa.While stressing that his country has no plans ... Read more!

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A Belgian woman who set off on a 90-mile trip to pick up a friend at a Brussels train station accidentally drove to Croatia -- some 900 miles from her home.According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Sabine Moreau, 67, was to drive north of her home in Hainault Erquelinnes to reach Brussels, but her GPS told her to drive south.  And drive she did -- for two days.  Moreau slept by the side of the road twice, and even got into a minor car accident along the way.  Her journey only ended when she realized ... Read more!

Duncan Chard/Bloomberg via Getty Images(TOKYO) -- Japan Airlines Tuesday grounded all five of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes, following an emergency landing made by All Nippon Airlines (ANA) when a battery warning light went off in the cockpit of one of the airliners.Boeing's new Dreamliners have had a series of problems in the past two weeks; the plane is being rolled out first by the two Japanese carriers. ABC's aviation consultant John Nance says the problems with the new plane don't seem to be connected or related to the plane's new technological advances. "It does seem very ... Read more!