WORLD
* Algerian forces brought an end to the hostage crisis after nearly a four-days standoff between Algerian security forces and an al-Qaeda-backed Islamist group, official said on Saturday.
*Chinese police arrested over 1,150 people suspected of disclosing and illegally dealing personal information in a major crackdown earlier in the week, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.
*Croatia has recognized the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SNCROF) as the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said.
RUSSIA
*Hundreds of people gathered in central Moscow on Saturday afternoon to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the 2009 murders of a human rights lawyer and a journalist by a far-right gunman.
*Doctors say the Bolshoi Ballet artistic director who suffered an acid attack on Thursday is in stable condition, an assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets told RIA Novosti Saturday.
*More than 82,000 Moscow residents bathed in icy cold water to mark the Epiphany early Saturday, as air temperature in the Russian capital stood at minus 13 degrees Celsius (+ 8.6 Fahrenheit), a spokesman for the Emergency Ministry’s Moscow branch said Saturday.
BUSINESS
*Tech industry enthusiasts have called three-dimensional (3D) printing one of the hottest technological advancements expected to go mainstream in 2013.
SPORT
* Lance Armstrong has denied offering money to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to suppress the damning report that led to his Tour de France victories being wiped from the record books.