Gunmen kidnap and kill two French journalists in Mali

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="storyHead" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h1 itemprop="headline name" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.16em;"><img alt="Ghislaine Dupont, left, and Claude Verlon" height="387" itemprop="image" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02721/Mali-Kidnap_2721797b.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #282828; display: block; font-size: 10px; overflow: hidden;" width="620" /></span></h1><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">Bullet-ridden bodies of Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont found near KidalGunmen abducted and killed two French journalists in northern Mali, where thousands of French troops intervened this year to drive back Islamists who had seized control of the vast desert region.</span></div></div><div class="storyHead" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">The deaths of Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont came just four days after France rejoiced at the release of four of its citizens held hostage for three years by al-Qaeda's north African offshoot.</div><div class="storyHead" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">President Francois Hollande's office said he "expresses his indignation over this despicable act" and that the Socialist leader would hold an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss the killings.</div><div class="storyHead" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">The two Radio France Internationale (RFI) journalists were kidnapped on Saturday in town of Kidal, near the Algerian border, the French foreign ministry said.</div><div class="storyHead" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Their bullet-ridden bodies were found a short time later on the outskirts of the town, where an ethnic Tuareg uprising last year led to a coup in the capital Bamako and the occupation of the northern half of the former French colony by militants linked to al-Qaeda.</div></div>

Gunmen kidnap and kill two French journalists in Mali

Bullet-ridden bodies of Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont found near KidalGunmen abducted and killed two French journalists in northern Mal...

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