An eight-year-old boy whose kidnapping caused outrage in Syria when a video of him being tortured by his abductors was posted online has been freed. Fawaz al-Qataifan was handed over on Saturday after his family paid a ransom to the gang who seized him in Deraa province in November, state media said. He seemed to be in good health when he recounted his ordeal in a TV interview. Local police said they had arrested four suspects last week by tracing a telephone number used to send threats. The kidnappers then twice agreed times and places with Fawaz’s family for a handover, but failed to turn up on both occasions, according to Deraa Police Commander Brigadier Dirar al-Dandal. On Saturday, they told the boy’s father to take the ransom – reportedly 500m Syrian pounds ($199,000; £147,100) – to a location near the town of Nawa. After receiving the money, they left Fawaz outside a pharmacy.(BBC)…[+]

Film-maker Ivan Reitman, who directed blockbuster comedies including the original Ghostbusters, has died at the age of 75. After his family fled Communist oppression in post-war Czechoslovakia, Reitman grew up in Canada, where he trained in film-making. His big break came when he produced the 1978 frat-house comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House. His other films as director included Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Junior. He died peacefully in his sleep at his home in California, his family said. “Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life,” his children said in a statement.(BBC)…[+]

French police have shot dead a man wielding a knife who threatened them at Paris’s Gare du Nord train station. The man attacked two police officers on patrol at the station, with a 30cm (12in) knife, police said. An anti-police inscription was found on the man’s knife, reports say. No police officers were injured in the incident, which occurred at about 07:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Monday. The authorities believe the incident was not terrorism-related. “The police used their firearms, thus eliminating all danger, both for themselves and for travellers,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote in a tweet (in French). An eyewitness told BFMTV: “I was climbing up the stairs that go up to the Eurostar platform, I heard screams on the right. I saw a man, quite tall, a large knife in his hand with a very impressive blade who threatened two or three policemen who were armed… The police made us go up on the platform, made us lie on the ground.” Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari later told RMC TV the man was known to the police “as someone who wandered around in the station”.(BBC)…[+]