Paris police shot on Champs-Elysees; IS group claims attack

A gunman opened fire on police on Paris' iconic Champs-Elysees boulevard Thursday night, killing one officer and wounding three people before police shot and killed him. The Islamic State group quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, which hit just three days before a tense presidential election.

Security already has been a dominant theme in the campaign, and the violence on the sparkling avenue threatened to weigh on voters' decisions. Candidates canceled or rescheduled final campaign events ahead of Sunday's first round vote.

3 Kashmir civilians killed in protests against Indian rule

Three civilians were killed and 28 other people were injured in anti-India protests that erupted Tuesday following a gunbattle between rebels and government forces that killed a rebel in disputed Kashmir, police and witnesses said.

The gunbattle began after police and soldiers cordoned off the southern town of Chadoora following a tip that at least one militant was hiding in a house, said Inspector-General Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani.

As the fighting raged, hundreds of residents chanting anti-India slogans marched near the area in an attempt to help the trapped rebel escape.

Blind cleric behind 1990s terror plots dies in US prison

Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik convicted of plotting terror attacks in New York City in the decade before 9/11 and spiritual guide to a generation of Islamic militants, has died in a federal prison. He was 78.

Abdel-Rahman, who had diabetes and coronary artery disease, died Saturday at the Federal Correction Complex in Butner, North Carolina, said its acting executive assistant, Kenneth McKoy. The inmate spent seven years at the prison medical facility while serving a life sentence.

"We are saddened by your departure, father," the cleric's daughter, Asmaa, tweeted in Arabic.

Death toll in Mali suicide blast rises to at least 60

A suicide bomber in an explosives-laden vehicle penetrated a camp in northern Mali on Wednesday, killing at least 60 people and wounding 115 soldiers and former fighters who are trying to stabilize the region. The attack marked a significant setback for peace efforts.

Suspicion quickly fell on the Islamic extremist groups operating in the area which oppose the 2015 peace agreement that brought the parties together. A Mauritanian news agency that frequently receives communications from extremist groups, Alakhbar, said a group linked to al-Qaida's North Africa branch, al-Mourabitoun, had claimed responsibility.

Dueling truths follow Indian raid in Pakistani Kashmir

In New Delhi, they say that highly trained Indian soldiers slipped across the de facto border and into Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in a daring nighttime raid, killing anti-India militants preparing to launch attacks.

In Islamabad, they say only one Indian soldier made it across the border — and he was captured — with Pakistani forces easily driving back the other Indians, who retreated as soon as they encountered resistance.

India says it has struck militants across Kashmir frontier

India said Thursday it carried out "surgical strikes" against militants across the highly militarized frontier that divides the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, in an exchange that escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Pakistan dismissed the reports that India's military had targeted "terrorist launch pads" inside the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir. Islamabad said instead that two of its soldiers were killed in "unprovoked" firing by India across the border.

India says Pakistan believes terror will bring territory

Pakistan continues to believe terrorist attacks will allow it to obtain territory it covets in Jammu and Kashmir, India's foreign minister said Monday.

In her speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Sushma Swaraj also rejected accusations made by Pakistan's prime minister from the same podium last week that India violates human rights, calling them "baseless."

United States, India agree to boost anti-terror cooperation

The United States and India agreed Tuesday to boost counterterrorism cooperation by expanding intelligence sharing about known or suspected extremists and terrorist threats.

Speaking after conclusion of the second U.S.-India strategic dialogue in New Delhi, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said the two countries also renewed their commitment to track down and prosecute perpetrators of several terrorist attacks on Indian soil, including the 2008 strike in Mumbai that killed 172 people and a January 2016 attack on the Pathankot Air Force base. India has blamed Pakistan-linked groups for the attacks.