(Reuters) - Google Inc intends to finance, build and help operate wireless networks from sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia, hoping to connect a billion or so people in emerging countries to the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The Internet search giant - which has for years espoused universal Web access - is employing a patchwork quilt of technologies and holding discussions with regulators from South Africa to Kenya, the WSJ cited people familiar with the strategy as saying. ...

By Abdoulaye Massalatchi NIAMEY (Reuters) - French special forces and Niger troops shot dead on Friday the last two Islamists involved in a twin attack on a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger claimed by the mastermind of January's mass hostage-taking in Algeria. Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of al Qaeda's North African operations, said in a statement that his Mulathameen brigade organised Thursday's raids with the MUJWA militant group in retaliation for Niger's role in a French-led war on Islamists in Mali. ...