Catholic church to lose historic property tax exemption in Italy

Mali Islamists tell France they will open doors of hell

Reuters/Reuters - (First row, L-R) Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila, France's President Francois Hollande and Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore attend the opening session of the Francophone summit in Kinshasa October 13, 2012. REUTERS/Bertrand Langlois/Pool

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Mali threatened on Saturday to "open the doors of hell" for French citizens if France kept pushing for armed intervention to retake the rebel-held north.

The renewed threats against French hostages and expatriates came as French-speaking nations met in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where French President Francois Hollande was expected to urge the rapid deployment of an African-led force to rout the Islamists.

Hollande said the threat would not deter France's determination to quash the Islamists in Mali.

"If he continues to throw oil on the fire, we will send him the pictures of dead French hostages in the coming days," said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a spokesman for Islamist group MUJWA, in apparent reference to the six French nationals still held by armed groups after being seized in the region.

"He will not be able to count the bodies of French expatriates across West Africa and elsewhere," Hamaha said by telephone.

MUJWA is among the Islamist groups which seized control of the northern two-thirds of Mali when fighters swept into the territory in April following a coup in the capital Bamako.

Regional and Western powers are now considering armed intervention to retake the area, with former colonial ruler France seeking swift military action by regional bloc ECOWAS.

The U.N. Security Council called on Friday for an intervention plan to be drawn up within 45 days after passing a French-drafted resolution to revive attempts to end the crisis.

Hollande on Saturday dismissed the MUJWA threat, saying it would not alter its stance on Mali.

"We have always said that we would always do everything to secure the release of our hostages," he told a news conference in Kinshasa. "Should we tone down our message on the integrity of Mali, on the fight against terrorism, because of these threats? I think it's quite the opposite."

"It's by showing our determination to stand by our position of fighting terrorism that we can convince the abductors that it is time to free our hostages," he added.

Al Qaeda's north African wing has threatened repeatedly to kill French hostages if Paris tries to mount a military intervention in Mali.

Seven workers for French firm Areva were seized in northern Niger in 2010, and all but four have since been released. Two other French citizens were taken hostage in Mali in November.

MUJWA's Hamaha said that Islamists in the Sahara desert were largely funded by ransom payments from France and others.

"The top country who finances the jihadis is France," he said, adding that MUJWA could try to kidnap Hollande himself. "I wonder what the international community would say if we took the French president hostage."

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Kinshasa; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Blasts in southern Afghanistan kill 9

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up at a localintelligence office in southern Afghanistan, in the deadliest of three attacks that left at least nine people dead on Saturday, officials said.

Six people — four Afghan intelligence officers, a coalition service member and a civilian employee working for the coalition — died in the bombing, which took place in the Maruf district of Kandahar province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadisaying in a text message to reporters that the group was targeting international forces operating in Afghanistan.

Kandahar provincial spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal said the blast occurred in the morning at an entry point to the intelligence office. He said three other Afghan intelligence officers were wounded, including two who were in critical condition.

Insurgents frequently target Afghan security forces and government officials in an effort to weaken the government.

Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the international coalition, confirmed that one coalition service member and a civilian working with the coalition died in the bombing. The wounded were evacuated to coalition medical facilities for treatment, he added.

A second attack killed two Afghan policemen and left three others wounded in Qalat, the capital of neighboring Zabul province, provincial spokesman Shariullah Nasari said. After a police vehicle ran over a roadside mine, he said, a second blast struck police who had rushed to aid their colleagues.

NATO also said that another service member with the U.S.-led coalition was killed in a roadside bombing in the south. It declined to release further information, pending notification of family members of the deceased.

Turkish premier slams Security Council over Syria

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a forum in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. Turkey’s prime minister sharply criticized the U.N. Security Council on Saturday for its failure to agree on decisive steps to end the 19-month civil war in Syria. (AP photo)

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's prime minister sharply criticized the U.N. Security Council on Saturday for its failure to agree on decisive steps to end Syria's civil war, as NATO allyGermany backed the Turkish interception of a Damascus-bound passenger jet earlier in the week.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan told an international conference in Istanbul that the world was witnessing a humanitarian tragedy in Syria.

"If we wait for one or two of the permanent members ... then the future of Syria will be in danger," Erdogan said, according to an official interpreter.

Russia and China, two of the five permanent Security Council members, have vetoed resolutions that sought to put concerted pressure on Damascus to end the conflict and agree to a political transition.

Erdogan called for a reform of the Security Council, which he called an "unequal, unfair system" that didn't represent the will of most countries.

He spoke as Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with Arab and European leaders amid growing tensions between Turkey and neighboring Syria.

Davutoglu held talks Saturday with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and U.N. envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi. He told reporters after the meetings that Turkey was prepared to use force again if it was attacked, just as it did last week when a shell fired across the border from Syria killed five Turkish villagers.

"If a similar incident occurs again from the Syrian side, we will again take counter action," Davutoglu told reporters, while stressing that the border between Syria and Turkey is also the frontier of NATO.

One week after the shelling, Turkey intercepted a Syrian passenger plane en route from Moscow to Damascus and seized what it said was military equipment on board.

Syria denounced the move as air piracy, while Russia said the cargo was radar parts that complied with international law.

The state-run Syrian news agency SANA reported late Saturday that Syria decided to ban Turkish Airlines flights from Syrian airspace.

Germany's foreign minister backed Turkey on Saturday, saying Berlin would have acted the same way if it believed weapons were being transported to Syria over its airspace.

"It's not just about weapons. Weapons need to be steered. Weapons need to be delivered," Westerwelle said. "These are all things that don't need to be tolerated."

But he cautioned the situation between Turkey and Syria could quickly escalate out of control.

"The danger of a 'wildfire' is very big," said Westerwelle, who also met briefly with Abdelbaset Sieda, head of the Syrian National Council opposition group. "If that happens, then this can become a devastating conflict for the whole region."

In Syria, activists said Saturday that army troops clashed with rebels on several fronts across the country, including in Aleppo, the largest city.

Amateur video posted online Saturday shows the aftermath of what is described as an artillery attack on a neighborhood in Aleppo. The video shows a large cloud of gray smoke pushing through a narrow street lined by apartment blocks. Residents then converge on a damaged building. "Is anyone in there?" one of the men is heard calling out as others try to put out small flames with pieces of cloth.

Eventually, rescuers are seen pulling at least two bodies out of the building. One has a bloody face, and another is carried away on a stretcher, amid shouts of "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great.

The authenticity of such videos cannot be confirmed independently, since Syria imposes tight restrictions on foreign journalists.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, said at least two people were killed in the shelling.

Another amateur video posted Saturday showed the scattered, burning wreckage of what appeared to be an aircraft. Several gunmen stood near the debris, as civilians rushed to the scene. The narrator said video was shot in the countryside west of Aleppo.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory, said he was told by local rebel fighters in the area that they had shot down the plane. The video showed flames shooting out of what appeared to be left of a wing or tail, and other wreckage a few dozen yards away.

The claim could not be verified independently.

Opposition fighters have claimed to have shot down helicopters and warplanes in the past, although the regime blamed most of the problems on mechanical difficulties.

Over the past month, rebels overran two air defense bases, including one on Friday near Aleppo. This would give them access to heavy weapons, though experts questioned whether they would be able to make use of any missiles they may have spirited away.

More than 32,000 people have been killed in Syria since a revolt against President Bashar Assad erupted 19 months ago. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled the fighting, which has devastated whole neighborhoods in Syria's cities and towns.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said regime forces were pounding the rebel stronghold of Homs in central Syria with mortar fire and artillery Saturday. The southern province of Daraa, the birthplace of the revolt, also sustained shelling by the Syrian army throughout Saturday. Fighting between army troops and rebels raged around Idlib province, in and around Aleppo and on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, the Observatory said.

Earlier, Syria's state-run news agency reported that Damascus supported a proposal by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to find a "mechanism of direct security communication between Syria and Turkey."

SANA reported that Syrian government officials and Russia's ambassador in Damascus discussed ways to establish a joint Syrian-Turkish security committee that would "control the security situation on both sides of the border in the framework of respecting the national sovereignty of the two countries."

Turkey has made no comment on the proposal, and it is unclear whether Moscow has presented it to the Turkish government yet.

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Barbara Surk in Beirut and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.