Militants in Mali storm two hotels

BAMAKO, Mali – Jihadists stormed two hotels in central Mali on Friday, seizing at least six hostages and killing three Malian soldiers and a UN peacekeeper in one of the most brazen attacks in months, defense officials said.

The Islamic militants assaulted one hotel in the town of Sevare, and then after an exchange of gunfire moved on to the Hotel Byblos next door where they grabbed between six and 10 people, said Lt. Col. Diarran Kone.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement based on information from its embassy in Algeria saying that the goal of the attackers was believed to be to take hostages from among the foreign citizens living in the hotel.

UN to probe claims of chemical weapons

UNITED NATIONS – The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday aimed at identifying those responsible for using chlorine and other chemical weapons in attacks in Syria that have killed and injured a growing number of civilians over the past two years.

The resolution, negotiated primarily by the United States and Russia, establishes an international investigative body that would assign blame for any chemical weapons attacks during the Syrian conflict, now in its fifth year, so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice.

A chemical weapon attack on a Damascus suburb killed hundreds of civilians on Aug. 21, 2013.

200 migrants may have died off Libya

ROME – Survivors of a migrant boat that capsized off Libya as rescuers approached told investigators that smugglers armed with knives forced people to stay in the trawler’s hold, increasing fears that more than 200 had been trapped inside and drowned, officials in Sicily said Friday.

Police said the five suspected smugglers Libyan and Algerian men were detained Thursday in Palermo as they disembarked, along with 362 survivors, from an Irish naval vessel. Six other survivors were taken by helicopter to hospitals, and 26 bodies have been recovered.

Associated Press