Al-Qaeda Murders British Hostage Held in Mali

A British hostage held in Mali has been killed by his al-Qaeda captors, the terror group announced on a website. Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the murder as an "appalling and barbaric act of terrorism," reports the BBC. Edwin Dyer was kidnapped in Niger in January with a group of European tourists. His death followed the British government's refusal to comply with al-Qaeda demands to release a radical Jordanian cleric from prison. Dyer's body has not yet been found.

"The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the Crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west," said the al-Qaeda statement. (More al-Qaeda stories.)