Gunmen have shot and killed a Somali journalist working for an independent media outlet in the capital, Mogadishu.

The Shabelle Media Network says broadcast journalist Abdihared Osman Adan was shot several times as he was leaving for work early Friday.

He is the first journalist to be killed in 2013 in Somalia, Africa's deadliest country for media personnel. Nearly 20 journalists were killed in the country last year.

Shabelle, which has had several journalists killed in recent years, described Adan as an "outstanding colleague and very active journalist."

Algeria's state news agency reported that nearly 100 foreign hostages seized by Islamist militants at a remote natural gas plant have been released.

Friday's report, citing an unnamed security source, said militants seized a total 132 foreign hostages when they attacked the complex in eastern Algeria on Wednesday.
​​The agency said the Algerian military operation at the site is ongoing, and that special forces are negotiating with militants still holding a group of hostages.

U.S. and allied officials are working "around the clock" to resolve the hostage situation in Algeria, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said.

Earlier this week, Panetta confirmed that Americans are among those taken hostage in eastern Algeria Jan. 16 when terrorists attacked and occupied a natural gas plant. During a speech at King's College, the secretary departed from his prepared remarks to comment on the situation.

The Malian army says it has re-taken control of the central town of Konna, as French and regional forces continue to pour into the country to fight a rebel offensive.

The army says it has gained "total control" of the city after inflicting "heavy losses" on the Islamist rebels there. The militant takeover of the town last week prompted France to intervene in its former colony.

The Malian army has previously reported military successes in Konna, but the claims are difficult to verify, since journalists have had difficulty accessing the city.

France Moves Against an Al-Qaeda Haven
By Harold Hutchison

ISLAMIST UPRISING IN MALI
A year ago, most of you reading this issue had never really heard about Mali. About all you’d probably know about that country would be that it is somewhere in Africa. Maybe you’d know that it is where Timbuktu is now located. But beyond that, not too many people know that much about Mali.

Residents are fleeing a Malian town seized earlier this week by Islamist militants, while others report fighting between French forces and the militants on the outskirts of the area.

​A local journalist in the nearby town of Niono told VOA correspondent Anne Look he has seen "many" people leaving Diabaly Thursday, fleeing south away from the northern region controlled by the militants. He said phone lines in Diabaly are not working and that residents have reported Islamists deployed throughout the town.

Algerian forces have raided a remote desert gas plant where al-Qaida-linked militants seized hostages Wednesday.

A spokesman for the militants was quoted as saying 34 hostages and 15 of their captors were killed in the operation. Algerian sources were quoted as providing lower casualty figures, but there was no immediate official confirmation on the number of killed or wounded and details of the operation remained sketchy.

The Mauritanian news agency ANI said it received word on the casualties on Thursday from one of the militants at the complex, located east central Algeria.

The Somali militant group al-Shabab says it has executed a French hostage who was kidnapped and held for more than three years.

Al-Shabab posted on Twitter Thursday that Denis Allex had been executed a day earlier.

The group released a statement Wednesday declaring its intent to kill the intelligence officer, who was the target of a failed French rescue operation last week. French officials already had presumed the man dead.

Islamist militants in Algeria say they have taken up to 41 foreigners hostage, including seven Americans, in an attack on a natural gas field.

The militants tell regional media the raid early Wednesday was in retaliation for France's military intervention in Mali.

The attackers reportedly have killed two people, including a British national, and wounded at least six others.

The gas field is partly operated by British energy company BP, which confirmed via Twitter that a “serious security incident” was in progress at its Ain Amenas gas facility.