The Telegraph

Demanded they turn over bloody weapons.

A 48-year-old woman put her life on the line Wednesday after the brutal beheading of a British soldier in the south London neighborhood of Woolwich, demanding that the killers hand over their bloody weapons. Ingrid Loyau-Kennett jumped off a bus when she passed the scene and tried to check the dead soldier's pulse. Kennett saw that the body was covered in blood, and a "black guy" on the scene with a revolver, a kitchen knife, and an axe. The man said he had killed the soldier "because he killed Muslims in Muslim countries." Kennett then demanded that the man and his accomplice hand over their weapons. "It's only you versus many people, and you are going to lose," she reportedly said.

Read it at The Telegraph

Alastair Grant/AP

Just after a man believed to be a soldier was beheaded near London, another man with bloodied hands holding two large knives ranted to a nearby camera. Watch the video.

A beheading in broad daylight. A possible soldier, reportedly returning to his barracks, viciously attacked in a modern metropolis. This was London today, where two men wielding what were called "meat cleavers" by witnesses slashed a man in the middle of the street, near a primary school. Following the attack, a man with bloodied hands and carrying two large knives—one believed to be a machete—approached a camera to justify what just happened.

Alastair Grant/AP

A man believed to be a British soldier was allegedly beheaded by two men, reportedly Islamic extremists, wielding machetes. Peter Jukes reports from London.

In what the BBC is calling a “terror attack,” a man was killed in broad daylight in Woolwich, London, on Wednesday afternoon. Two apparent suspects were later shot by police. According to the local MP, Nick Raynsford, the victim was an off-duty soldier from the nearby army barracks—as well as a local primary schoolteacher.Two men, who are suspected to be Islamic extremists, reportedly attacked a soldier wearing a “Help for Heroes” T-shirt, just after 2 p.

Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty

In protest of police killing a 69-year-old man.

Violence erupted in Stockholm on Tuesday night as one of worst riots in Swedish history raged into a third day. Among the targets in last night’s uprising were a police station, two schools, and an arts-and-crafts center. Although no injuries were reported, at least eight people were taken into custody. The riots—which began Sunday with the burning of an estimated 100 cars—were sparked by the death of a 69-year-old man, killed by police while wielding a machete. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt pleaded with the protesters Tuesday to end the violence. "Everyone must pitch in to restore calm," he told reporters.

Read it at NBC News

Khaled Elfiqi/EPA/Landov

After being kidnapped.

Seven soldiers kidnapped on the Sinai Peninsula last week have been freed, the Egyptian Army said Wednesday. “They were released thanks to the work of military intelligence and in cooperation with the noble tribal leaders of Sinai,” said an Army spokesman in a statement Wednesday. The men were treated to a royal welcoming by President Mohamed Morsi, who rolled out a red carpet to welcome them at a Cairo military base. The kidnapping was staunchly protested by Egypt, which shut down the Gaza border Saturday in protest. Morsi applauded their successful return as an “example of cooperation,” kissing each of the men as they arrived.

Read it at Al Jazeera

Kim Kwang Hyon/AP

In attempt to mend ties with its only ally.

Confirming speculation that Kim Jong-un is anxious to mend ties with China, the North Korean leader reportedly dispatched a “special envoy” to Beijing on Wednesday. Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, the first North Korean official to visit China on behalf of Kim, is a high-profile choice, as the acting director of the General Political Bureau of the North Korean People’s Army. A senior analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea confirmed that the meeting suggests there is something “quite urgent” to discuss. Considering that Kim sent his top military official, the agenda likely consists of convincing China—the nation’s only remaining ally—that North Korea’s nuclear-weapon touting is warranted. Good luck.

Read it at Al Jazeera

Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty

Afghans fear the very militias America has set up to protect them—and allegations of sexual violence abound. Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau report.

Jumadin, a 45-year-old farmer from the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, returned to his modest mud-brick home late one evening last January to find the front door shattered. He rushed inside, calling and searching for his 19-year-old daughter, Monizha, who had been home alone while Jumadin’s wife and three other children visited relatives in Pakistan. He was panic-stricken. The small house had been ransacked, and Monizha was nowhere inside.

Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty

So far the Obama administration has pledged only nonlethal and humanitarian aid, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wants to go much further—approving a bill Tuesday to arm the rebels.

In a bipartisan rebuke of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, almost all the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Tuesday to authorize arming moderate elements of the Syrian opposition.Democrats and Republicans alike criticized the Obama administration for not being more active in its efforts to encourage the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to support the more secular parts of the Syrian opposition, who could find themselves in another war with extremist groups now fighting alongside them if and when the regime falls.

PIERRE VERDY

To protest gay marriage and "Islamists."

Right-wing historian Dominique Venner shocked visitors Tuesday when he shot himself in the head at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. In a blog posted before his suicide, Venner denounced France's new law legalizing gay marriage and warned that his country was "falling into the power of Islamists." He said "new, spectacular, and symbolic gestures" would be needed to "reawaken" France's racial and cultural origins. Venner fought in France's colonial war in Algeria in the 1960s and was a member of the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète (OAS), a far-right terror group that attempted to overthrow the French government and assassinate President Charles de Gaulle after he agreed to give Algeria independence. Later in life Venner devoted himself to a career as a historian, winning a few prestigious prizes for his books. Members of the French far right, including Front National leader Marine Le Pen, praised Venner's suicide as "eminently political" and "Promethean."

Read it at BBC News

Force-feeing kits at Guantanamo Bay. (Carol Rosenberg/Miami Herald/MCT, via Getty)

Dismissing claims that it is ‘unethical.’

One of the head military physicians at the Guantánamo Bay detention center is denying claims that the force-feeding of prisoners—who have been on a hunger strike since February—is unethical. “It's very easy for folks outside of this place to make policies and decisions they think they would implement," the doctor told Al Jazeera. “When faced with people who are to the point of needing medical intervention to protect their life … suddenly it's not a very abstract decision.” The practice, which consists of threading a tube through the prisoner’s nose and injecting supplements into their stomach, was condemned by the American Medical Association in April.

Read it at Al Jazeera