BBC News with David Austin

Chad says its army has killed one of the most senior Islamist militants in North Africa Moktar Belmoktar. Moktar Belmoktar was at one point a leading figure in the North African militant group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Tomas Fessy reports

The deputy chief of staff for the Chadian army, General Zakaria Ngobongue announced in state television that Moktar Belmoktar was killed on Saturday during a military operation in Mali’s far north. Chadian troops have totally destroyed the main jihadi base, general Ngobongue saying in the mountains bordering Algeria. He said several other fighters were killed in the attack while dozens of vehicles, weapons and equipment were seized. Moktar Belmoktar claimed responsibility for the attack on a gas facility in eastern Algeria earlier this year in which foreign workers have been killed.

Airborne troops in the international mission in southern Afghanistan have shot dead two Afghan shepherd boys both under the age of seven. The governor of Oruzgan province said Australian soldiers had killed them by mistake. A Nato-led force said a coalition helicopter had opened fire on them during an operation against the Taliban on Thursday. Nato officials called it a tragedy.

Massed rallies have been taken place across Portugal to demonstrate against the government’s austerity measures. At one rally in the capital Lisbon, students and teachers gathered in front of the Education Ministry to protest against education cuts.