Anti-terror raid in Belgium foils attacks 'on a grand scale'
Belgian police killed two men who opened fire on them during one of about a dozen raids on Thursday against an Islamist group that federal prosecutors said was about to launch "terrorist attacks on a grand scale".
Coming a week after Islamist gunmen killed 17 people in Paris, the incident heightened fears across Europe of young local Muslims returning radicalised from Syria.
But prosecutors' spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt said the Belgian probe had been under way before the Jan 7 attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
A third man was detained in the eastern city of Verviers, where police commandos ran into a hail of gunfire after trying to gain entry to an apartment above a town centre bakery.
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Malian who saved lives in Jewish deli attack gets French nationality
A Malian Muslim who hid shoppers from an Islamist gunman during an attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris will be given French nationality, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
After the gunman had already killed people during a hostage taking in the store on Friday, 24-year old shop attendant Lassana Bathily hid several people in the store's freezer, turned off the light and told them to stay calm. He then escaped to look for help.
A petition had been going around France over the last week to give Bathily citizenship.
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#JeSuisCharlie creator seeks to shield slogan from money-makers
They were three little words that circled the globe, and now Joachim Roncin, the graphic designer who coined the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie (I am Charlie), is seeking to legally protect the phrase from commercialisation.
The slogan that has come to symbolise the fight for freedom of expression has become a money-spinner for opportunists, with the logo - the words in white and grey on a black background - plastered on everything from coffee mugs to T-shirts.
The French patent office told AFP that of the 120 applications it has already refused, two sought to use the slogan to help sell weapons.
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Homeless Russian cat 'saves' abandoned baby boy
A homeless cat in Russia has won praise for caring and keeping warm a baby boy abandoned in a chilly entrance-way.
The story took place in the town of Obninsk in the Kaluga region, where the baby was abandoned in the entrance-way to an apartment block and left lying on the floor on Saturday, a day when temperatures were several degrees centigrade below zero.
A local cat by the name of Masha that lived in a cardboard box in the hallway "warmed the baby for several hours with her body," TV Zvezda channel reported Thursday.
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Football: Torres double dumps Real Madrid out of Cup
Fernando Torres scored his first Atletico Madrid goals in eight years as the La Liga champions dumped holders Real Madrid out of the Copa del Rey 4-2 on aggregate after a 2-2 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu on Thursday.
Already leading 2-0 from last week's first-leg, Torres stunned the hosts inside the first minute when turning home Antoine Griezmann's pass to hand Atletico a vital away goal.
Sergio Ramos pulled a goal back for Real, but Griezmann and Torres repeated the trick seconds into the second-half to restore Atletico's lead.
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