WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT Armed jihadists have killed at least 27 people in a deadly shooting rampage at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali, which also saw 138 people taken hostage. Automatic weapons fire was heard throughout the seventh floor of the 190-room hotel, where it is thought as many as ten militants were going floor to floor taking hostages. One hostage who escaped said the militants were speaking to each other in English. Another witness described how the gunmen allowed around 20 hostages to leave safely after they proved they were able to recite verses of the Koran. US Special Forces stormed the hotel and began clearing the building one floor at a time. All 22 American nationals inside were rescued. The al-Qaeda affiliated group al-Mourabitoun, based in northern Mali, have claimed responsibility for the hotel attack.

The grievances of the Islamic terrorists who have brought carnage and bloodshed to the streets of Paris twice this year reach far back into history, writes TOM HOLLAND. In their minds, it is not simply wanton violence, but the continuation of a struggle which has raged for more than a millennium. That is what Osama bin Laden was talking about when he warned the Muslim world back in 1996 'that the people of Islam have always suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed on them by the Zionist-Crusader alliance'. Today, ISIS (inset) nurtures its resentments in a similarly poisonous manner. Main: The conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks saw the most famous of Christian capitals transformed into a bastion of Islam.

Seven people are dead after a helicopter crash in Fox Glacier (inset), on the western coast of New Zealand's south island. The helicopter, which was operated by a popular tourist company, was carrying seven people when it crashed (main) about 1pm local time on Saturday. Poor weather conditions are delaying a rescue operation from taking place.

Lord Colin - who was married to the I'm A Celeb favourite briefly in the 1970s, pictured together right - revealed to SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE that he was not even aware she was on the ITV show, left. Lord Colin, (inset centre in 2005) the 69-year-old son of the 11th Duke of Argyll and a cousin of the Queen, ended the marriage after a year when he was 'horrified' and 'traumatised' to learn his bride had been raised in Jamaica as a boy.

Linda Hunter (pictured) and her husband George paid their mortgage on a house they thought was worth £120,000 only to find the houses on their Liverpool street sold for £1 after a botched council regeneration plan. The community of Garrick Street in Liverpool has disappeared (inset in the 1960s), with the road lined by boarded-up houses and anti-social behaviour rife.

Kim Woodward (left) was a 'naive' 19-year-old student when she met Rupert Ashmore (right with Kim, and inset with Kim and their son Jack), her art college lecturer. But after 25 years, in 2010, their relationship broke down and she was left penniless. The deeds to the home she shared with Ashmore were in his name only. So was the business to which Kim had devoted the best years of her life. It had paid for his Jaguar while Kim, who drove a VW Polo, received just £400 a month. But last week she emerged victorious after winning a £275,000 settlement following a two-year legal battle bitterly defended by Ashmore.

The daughters of the Duke of Rutland are causing a stir in British high society with their rowdy antics and lives they share on Instagram. We haven't heard the last from Lady Violet, 22, Lady Alice, 20, and Lady Eliza 18 Manners who been compared to the Mitford girls even though it might be more accurate to liken them to the Earl of Grantham's lively daughters in Downton Abbey.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has submitted plans to bulldoze the 1920s retreat, in Rock, Cornwall, to build a bigger replacement. Lavish plans include a swimming pool, wine cellar and ensuites for each bedroom. Ramsay also wants to put up a three-bedroom grass-covered boathouse in the grounds, which cover one-and-a-third acres with direct access to the beach. Rock has been nicknamed Kensington-on-Sea because of the number of wealthy interlopers with large holiday homes in the area.

When the world-famous feminist wrote the letter to author Amis, right, in 1976, she was in a relationship and hoping to have a baby with another man, old Etonian James Hughes-Onslow. In the end, Greer, left, never sent the letter - and now doesn't want it published. But is it because it shows off her softer and more vulnerable side, asks the Daily Mail's GEOFFREY LEVY.

These are the dramatic scenes as members of 43 Commando scaled the side of a moving passenger ferry as it sailed between Ardrossan to Brodick on the Isle of Arran. The marines, from HMNB Clyde, perform several similar training missions each year for possible anti-hijack and anti-pirate operations.

A majestic mountain lion called Mufasa, who spent 20 years in captivity as part of a cruel travelling circus in Peru, has been set free. A film crew captured the tear-jerking moment he was released into the wild, having spent the majority of his life shackled in the back of a pick-up truck amongst rusting equipment.

She received backlash off body shamers last week after she uploaded an image of herself wearing a yellow two piece bikini. And on Saturday model Bridget Malcolm hit back at the haters who labelled her as 'anorexic'. 'It is a horrible psychological disorder men and women have to go through,' she told the Daily Mail Australia while adding women should be supporting one another not spreading hurtful statements.

For Instagram-obsessed tourists, nothing beats a holiday home with unrivalled views of a sweeping valley or crystal clear sea from what may seem like the edge of the world. The most amazing cliff houses in the world include Australia's Pole House (top left), which plays tricks on visitors' eyes, and Scotland's Eagle Bay Cottages (bottom right), which looks like a den for a Bond baddie. Other stunning holiday spots include Alinghi Beach House (top right) in Australia, Villa Barcelona (bottom left) in Spain, and Villa Aretusa (inset) on Italy's stunning Amalfi Coast.

Ernest Shackleton (inset) and his crew struggled to survive for months against the odds in the punishing conditions of the Antarctic. They were left stranded after their ship the Endurance became trapped in the ice (left and right) before being crushed. A new exhibition will open at London's Royal Geographical Society on Saturday, 100 years to the day that the magnificent ship sank beneath the Antarctic ice. Haunting photographs in the exhibition reveal never-before-seen insights into the day-to-day struggles of the 28-man crew, trapped and fighting for their lives in the 'world's last great wilderness'.

Rose Hardy, (inset) headmistress at the all-girl St Margaret's School in Bushey, Hertfordshire, (main) insisted the names are not appropriate and don't represent a 'modern, female educational institution'. The school's houses were all named after prominent British male figures in the 17th to 19th centuries. They included Sir Walter Raleigh, (bottom left) Charles Gordon, (top left) John Wesley (bottom right) and John Nicholson, (top right). They have now been changed to Southwark, Windsor, St John's and Waterhouse, which have geographical links to the school.

Daniel Helps poked his iPhone under the doors of cubicles in a bid to film girls as young as 13 naked hundreds of times, a court heard. He wept as he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, and blew a kiss to his pregnant wife and his parents as they watched from the public gallery at Swindon Crown Court. Helps admitted six counts of voyeurism and two of making indecent images of children, confessing that he recorded 298 obscene films on 118 different occasions between 2011 and 2014.

The actress, 33, took to Twitter to slam commenters who said she look 'fat' and 'ugly' at the premiere of The Good Dinosaur on Tuesday. Anna said that just because she wasn't wearing a skin-tight dress doesn't mean she's pregnant, and told them she doesn't care if they don't like her dark hair.

The unnamed British mum, who blogs at Tiaras & Prozac, has taken the internet by storm with her easy parenting hack. After reading an article on a 'Facebook parenting group', she admits she had a 'vest epiphany' regarding the removal of her children's baby grows. She revealed the special fold on the shoulder, pictured inset, allows parents to pull down their newborn's all-in-one when they've made a huge mess, eliminating the need to manoeuvre it over their head. Pictured main, her daughter.

Zoo staff have announced the birth of a three-week-old calf, which has not been named or sexed, and is spending its days sleeping, eating and swimming around a pool at the pygmy hippo house. The baby doesn't stray very far from its mother, Sirana, who has been seen nudging her baby back into shallow water in the pool. The hippo house has been closed to allow the calf's mother and father settle into parenting, but will reopen to visitors soon.

The video, taken in India, shows a child, believed to be around three to four-years old, sat on the knee of a man who then places a cigarette in the little boy's mouth and lights it up. The most shocking aspect of the video is that a child smoking appears to be some form of entertainment for those watching, who cheer and clap in the background.

James Lett, 38, made the spoof video in an effort to help bolster the image of the family's hometown of Staveley, near Chesterfield (top left), Derbyshire. The video has already clocked up more than 1,000 views online since James posted it Facebook. The comedy clip echoes the style of the much-loved show starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams and has a narrator and snapshots from different areas of the town including the local supermarket (bottom right), the newsagents (bottom left) and tasty eateries (top right).