US 'reasonably certain' that ISIS militant Jihadi John killed in strike
The United States announced on Friday it was "reasonably certain" a drone strike in Syria had killed Jihadi John, a British citizen who became the public face of Islamic State and a symbol of its brutality after appearing in hostage execution videos.
US and British officials welcomed the apparent success of the operation targeting Mohammed Emwazi, saying his death, if confirmed, would be a big blow to Islamic State's image and prestige even though Emwazi was not a significant tactical or operational figure in the militant group.
The US-British missile strike believed to have killed Emwazi was months in preparation but came together at lightning speed shortly before midnight on Thursday, as two US MQ-9 Reaper drones and one British MQ-9 cruised above the Syrian town of Raqqa, officials said.
NCIS actress Pauley Perrette assaulted in Hollywood
Pauley Perrette, an actress on the popular US television show NCIS, was attacked in Los Angeles by a homeless man who punched her repeatedly in the face and made her fear for her life, she said in a social media post.
A man has been arrested in connection with the attack.
Perrette wrote that on Thursday night she was walking on the street near her home when the man grabbed her and struck her on the nose and forehead while threatening to kill her. "There was an empty garage behind me and I knew if he got me in there I was dead," Perrette wrote in an emotional account of the incident that she shared via Twitter.
Thousands cheer India's Modi at London mega-rally
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a rock-star welcome on Friday at Britain's biggest stadium, packed with some 60,000 people noisily celebrating British-Indian ties and India's growing international clout.
Members of Britain's large Indian diaspora waved India's tricolour flag, wore Modi masks and chanted Modi's name between blasts of Indian pop music that had the crowd dancing in the aisles of Wembley Stadium.
The event underscored Modi's shift from political pariah to - according to his many supporters - India's saviour, after he swept to office last year promising economic reform and less bureaucracy.
Football: Benzema 'admits he was sex tape case go-between'
Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema admitted to investigators he was supposed to act as an intermediary between a friend and his French international teammate Mathieu Valbuena in a sex tape blackmail case, sources told AFP on Friday.
Benzema also told police he felt "stupid" when confronted with the evidence, said one source close to a case that has cast a shadow over the national team as France prepares to host Euro 2016 next year.
The centre-forward has been charged over the case in which Valbuena went to the police after being approached for money by men claiming to be in possession of a sex tape featuring the Lyon midfielder.
Adele's 21 deemed Billboard's greatest album of all time
Adele's Grammy-winning 2011 release, 21, was deemed by Billboard magazine the greatest album of all time based on chart position and the soundtrack of the 1965 Julie Andrews movie The Sound Of Music came in second.
The British singer racked up the most weeks - 24 - for an album by a woman atop the Billboard 200 album charts and saw 78 weeks in the top 10, Billboard said in a ranking released this week based on chart positions dating to 1963.
The Billboard rankings used a descending point system that awarded the highest value for weeks that an album spent at No. 1 with consideration for changes in chart-ranking methodology over the years.
