President Francois Hollande says more French troops are to be deployed in Mali to support the 750 in the country countering an Islamist insurgency.

Mr Hollande said new air strikes overnight had "achieved their goal". One target was the town of Diabaly, which rebels entered on Monday.

West African military chiefs are meeting in Mali to discuss how an alliance with the French will work.

France began its intervention on Friday to halt the Islamists' advance south.

Late on Monday, the UN Security Council unanimously backed the intervention.

To the people of the Internet who knew his work, he was an "enormous intellect," a "brilliant and determined spirit" and a "hero of the open net."

To federal prosecutors, he was a criminal.

The suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz continued to send shock waves Monday through the hacker community, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the larger online world.

Swartz, a digital prodigy who helped develop social-news site Reddit and RSS, the technology that allows websites to send updates to subscribers, was found hanged Friday in his Brooklyn, New York, apartment. His death has inspired a flurry of online tributes and mobilized Anonymous, the loosely defined collective of so-called "hacktivists" who oppose attempts to limit Internet freedoms.

Technology reviews by website CNET have long been respected for their thoroughness and integrity, but that reputation has come under scrutiny after a top reporter quit over what he says is editorial interference by its parent company, CBS Corp.

The dispute centers on CNET's choice of best gadgets from last week's International CES show in Las Vegas.

CNET voted Dish Network Corp.'s "Hopper with Sling" the best home theater and audio product. Because CBS is in a legal fight with Dish over the Hopper's ad-skipping capabilities, CBS vetoed the selection, saying the product couldn't be considered "Best of CES." Instead, CNET's official selection was a sound bar from TV maker Vizio.

Reporter Greg Sandoval tweeted on Monday morning that he was resigning, saying he had lost confidence that CBS is committed to editorial independence.

Israel had no immediate comment on the shooting of the man, who the Hamas-run Health Ministry said was a farmer, in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip on Monday, medical officials said.

Israel had no immediate comment on the reported shooting of the man, who the Islamist Hamas-run Health Ministry said was a farmer, in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on the frontier with Israel.

Palestinian officials said a gunshot to the head had critically wounded 21-year-old Mustafa Abu Jarad. Doctors in the hospital at Shifa where he was treated said he had died of his injuries.

"How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?" - Bob Marley

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation . . . shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863

On January 11, 2013, according to indoctrination organs of the criminal Syndicate calling itself the US government (a Syndicate comprised, for the most part, of big bankers, generals, spooks and, below them, their puppets in the White House and gubernatorial mansions, Congress and state legislatures, and almost the entire judiciary), Aaron Swartz, aged 26, killed himself.

Many on the internet have already traced Aaron's tragic and untimely death directly to the Syndicate. I wish to add my voice to this growing chorus, placing this recent event in a somewhat larger context of historical scholarship.

In relating this story, the Syndicate's propaganda organs conveniently forgot four crucial points:

Media scoundrels stopped short of truth and full disclosure. The Wall Street Journal headlined "An Internet Activist Commits Suicide."

New York's medical examiner announced death by "hang(ing) himself in his Brooklyn apartment."

Lingering suspicions remain. Why would someone with so much to give end it all this way? He was one of the Internet generation's best and brightest.

He advocated online freedom. Selflessly he sought a better open world. Information should be freely available, he believed. A legion of followers supported him globally.

Alive he symbolized a vital struggle to pursue. Death may elevate him to martyr status but removes a key figure important to keep alive.

For Washington, There Is No Arms Control Abroad .

Given these last weeks, who doesn't know what an AR-15 is? Who hasn't seen the mind-boggling stats on the way assault rifles have flooded this country, or tabulations of accumulating Newtown-style mass killings, or noted that there are barely more gas stations nationwide than federally licensed firearms dealers, or heard the renewed debates over the Second Amendment, or been struck by the rapid shifts in public opinion on gun control, or checked out the disputes over how effective an assault-rifle ban was the last time around? Who doesn't know about the NRA's suggestion to weaponize schools, or about the price poor neighborhoods may be paying in gun deaths for the present expansive interpretation of the Second Amendment? Who hasn't seen the legions of stories about how, in the wake of the Newtown slaughter, sales of guns, especially AR-15 assault rifles, have soared, ammunition sales have surged, background checks for future gun purchases have risen sharply, and gun shows have been besieged with customers?

If you haven't stumbled across figures on gun violence in America or on suicide-by-gun, you've been hiding under a rock. If you haven't heard about Chicago's soaring and Washington D.C.'s plunging gun-death stats (and that both towns have relatively strict gun laws), where have you been?

Has there, in fact, been any aspect of the weaponization of the United States that, since the Newtown massacre, hasn't been discussed? Are you the only person in the country, for instance, who doesn't know that Vice President Joe Biden has been assigned the task of coming up with an administration gun-control agenda before Barack Obama is inaugurated for his second term? And can you honestly tell me that you haven't seen global comparisons of killing rates in countries that have tight gun laws and the U.S., or read at least one discussion about life in countries like Colombia or Guatemala, where armed guards are omnipresent?

Somali witnesses said today that at least eight civilians were killed in the disastrous French operation to rescue a kidnapped secret agent but France's defence minister defended the decision to launch the raid.

Sources in lawless Somalia also suggested the reason Saturday's raid failed was that the Al Qaeda-linked Shebab group holding the hostage received advance warning.

"Four civilians, including three from one family, are among the dead. They were all killed outside Bulomarer, where the French commandos landed before entering the city," resident Adan Derow said by telephone.

The victims were a couple, their son and another man, other residents said.

"We don't know why those civilians were killed" outside Bulomarer, where the raid took place, added another resident, Ali Moalim Hassan.

"Four other civilians were also caught in the crossfire and died in the town of Bulomarer" during a pitched battle between French commandos and Islamist fighters.

Freshman Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) on Monday threatened to impeach President Barack Obama if he used an executive order to infringe American's Second Amendment rights.

"The White House's recent announcement they will use executive orders and executive actions to infringe on our constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms is an unconstitutional and unconscionable attack on the very founding principles of this republic," he said in a statement.

"I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment."

During a press conference Monday morning, the President suggested he would use an executive order to reduce gun violence. Obama explained there were "some steps that we can take that don't require legislation and are within my authority as president."

Islamist forces based in northern Mali vowed Monday to avenge France's fierce military offensive against them on French soil.

"France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France," said a leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), an offshoot of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Asked where they would strike, Abou Dardar told AFP by telephone: "Everywhere. In Bamako, in Africa and in Europe."

Authorities in France were already on high alert over fears of a backlash on home soil by Islamist extremists. The MUJAO official also referred to France's eight hostages held in the Sahel region.