A picture taken on December 14, 2008 shows a foreign delegation visiting the Krechba gas treatment plant run by the Sonatrach, BP and Statoil, about 1,200 km (746 miles) south of Algiers. AFP PHOTO / STRINGER

Militants at a gas field in Algeria kidnapped 41 hostages, including Americans and Filipinos (according to a French TV telephone conversation with one of the hostages). The US State Department calls this a terrorist attack. The hostages are being held at a gas operation in In Amenas, a joint-venture operation that includes BP. The kidnappers told two Mauritania-based news agencies they held 41 hostages and that they were retaliating against France for its intervention in Mali. A spokesperson for Britain's Foreign Office says a British national has been killed in the attack.

Read more about the Filipinos in the group, how Algeria is handling it, and the Americans whom the State Dept chooses not to name for security reasons.