BBC News with Marion Marshall

Islamist forces linked to al-Qaeda are reported to have seized the key town of Gao in northern Mali. Residents of the town say Islamist fighters have taken over buildings occupied by Tuareg rebels, including their headquarters, and raised the black flag. Our West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy reports.

Islamist combatants have once again taken the upper hands over the Tuareg-led counterparts in the vast northern region. After weeks of uneasy

truce

in Gao and the failure to build an alliance, MNLA Tuareg-led fighters have reportedly been driven out of the key northern town by militants who want to impose sharia law. Heavy fighting broke out on Wednesday morning between the two rival groups. A doctor at a hospital in Gao said over the phone that most people killed and injured seemed to have been armed but a number of civilians had also been caught in the fighting.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said there are no quick or easy solutions to the crisis in the eurozone. Mrs Merkel has been holding talks in Paris with the French President Francois Hollande. Speaking ahead of an EU summit on Thursday, she said leaders should avoid making rash promises they can't keep.

"There is no easy and quick solution. There is no magic formula or single

coup

which can make the government debt crisis go away

once and for all

."

British politicians have hailed a historic handshake between the Queen and a former IRA leader, Martin McGuinness. The Queen and Mr McGuinness, who's now a Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, shook hands at a theatre in Belfast. A spokesman for the Prime Minister David Cameron said the meeting had taken the Anglo-Irish relationship to a new level. Speaking at a Jubilee party attended by the Queen, Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson said that the handshake was an important moment.