Rebels attacked an army base in Niger, killing 13 soldiers and taking at least 47 prisoners on Friday, the government said. An ethnic Tuareg group claimed responsibility, just days after it said it was behind an assault on a local airport. In addition to the 13 soldiers killed, 30 others were wounded at the base, about 2 000km north-east of the capital.

A car crash in the remote desert of Niger killed French film director Jean Rouch, whose pioneering 1960s work in the documentary-style filming known as cinéma-vérité inspired filmmakers in France and the United States. Rouch helped pioneer cinéma-vérité, known for blurring boundaries between fiction and reality, director and subject.