Witnesses say Islamist militants have seized a town from government troops in central Mali.

A spokesman for militant group Ansar Dine says Islamist fighters took control of Konna at 11 a.m. local time Thursday. Residents of Konna confirmed the takeover to VOA's French to Africa Service.

Bombings in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and north of the city have killed at least six people and wounded 14 others.

Four of the victims Thursday died in a blast near a bus stop in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite Hurriyah neighborhood. The explosion destroyed several vehicles and damaged nearby buildings.

Amateur video captured shortly after the blast showed multiple cars engulfed in flames.

A second attack hit a convoy carrying the head of Diyala University, killing two bodyguards.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the bombings.

Pakistani officials say a bomb attack in the city of Quetta has killed 11 people and wounded dozens more.

Quetta senior police officer Zubair Mehmood told reporters the explosion in a crowded area of the city also injured 27 people. It was not immediately clear what kind of a device it was. Reports said the explosion may have targeted paramilitary soldiers.

​​Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, which has grappled with a decades-long separatist insurgency. It is also home to Islamic militants.

French police say three Kurdish activists, including a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party militant group, have been shot to death in Paris in what the French interior minister has termed an "assassination."

French Interior Minister Manuel Vals was greeted by protests from France's Kurdish community as he arrived at the Kurdish information center in central Paris, just hours after the killings. He said he hopes a police inquiry will advance quickly.

Police in Kenya say at least eight people have been killed in the latest tribal unrest to hit the Tana River region.

Raiders from the Pokomo community attacked an Orma community village with guns and machetes before dawn Wednesday.

Initial reports say six Orma and two Pokomo were killed.

One local youth says members of his group killed two of the attackers in self defense.

The U.S. government is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the capture of two Sudanese nationals accused of killing a U.S. diplomat and his driver.

The State Department announced the bounty Wednesday through its Rewards for Justice program.

Rewards of $5 million each are being offered for Alhai Alhassan Haj Hamad and Mohamed Makawi Ibrahim Mohamed. The two were among five men convicted in a Sudanese court for the 2008 New Year's Day killing of U.S. diplomat John Michael Granville and his driver, Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

NATO says a British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan by a suspected member of the Afghan National Army.

A NATO spokesman, Brigadier General Gunter Katz, says the shooter turned his gun on international troops at a base in southern Helmand province and opened fire.

General Katz says the attacker was shot in the incident. Local officials say several British troops were wounded in the attack.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for Monday's shooting. A spokesman said in an email to Western media outlets the attack was carried out by a militant "infiltrator."

Pakistani officials say a U.S. drone strike has killed eight suspected militants near the Afghan border, in an area considered a stronghold of the Taliban.

Officials said an al-Qaida operative is believed to be among the victims of the strike near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan.

The attack early Tuesday is the latest in a spate of attacks reported in the border region. On Sunday, Pakistani officials said at least nine suspected Taliban fighters were killed in a drone strike on suspected hideouts in South Waziristan.

Abid Naseer, a 26-year-old Pakistani terror suspect, appeared in a federal court in New York City on Monday. Naseer pleaded not guilty to charges that he participated in an al-Qaida plot to bomb the city’s subway system.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie ordered Naseer held without bail at the end of his five-minute arraignment.