ISIS image claims it was bomb on jet

CAIRO -- The Islamic State group on Wednesday released a photo of a bomb hidden in a soft drink can it said had brought down a Russian passenger jet over Egypt last month. The photo, which has not been corroborated, was released by the group's English-language online magazine. It showed a can of Schweppes Gold, a soft drink sold in Egypt, and what appeared to be other bomb components next to it. The Metrojet Airbus 321-200 crashed in the Sinai desert shortly after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for St. Petersburg. All 224 people aboard, mostly Russian tourists, were killed. In the magazine, the group said it "discovered a way to compromise the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport," without providing details. It said it initially planned to bring down a plane from one of the countries taking part in the U.S.-led coalition's air campaign against IS militants in Syria and Iraq but changed the target to a Russian jetliner after Moscow began its airstrikes in Syria in September.

ISIS claims it killed captives

CAIRO -- The Islamic State group said Wednesday it has killed Norwegian and Chinese captives after earlier demanding ransoms for the two men.The extremist group published two images of the men in the second-to-last page of its English-language magazine, saying they had been "executed after being abandoned by kafir nations and organizations." "Kafir" is the Arabic word for infidel. In the images, the men appeared to have been shot to death. The Norwegian man had been identified as Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, 48, a graduate student in political philosophy from Porsgrunn. The Chinese man had been identified as Fan Jinghui, 50, a self-described "wanderer" from Beijing who once taught middle school. The militants did not say when or where the two were captured when announcing their captivity in a previous issue of the magazine, which showed them in yellow jumpsuits.

Boko Haram kills 49 in suicide bombings

YOLA, Nigeria -- The suicide bomber exploded as truckers were tucking into dinner at the bustling marketplace where vendors urged them to buy sugar cane. At least 34 people were killed and another 80 wounded in Yola, a town packed with refugees from Nigeria's Islamic uprising, emergency officials said Wednesday. Later Wednesday, two more suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of Kano and injured 53, according to police. Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said more than 100 were hurt. The blasts were the latest by Boko Haram, Nigeria's homegrown extremists whose six-year insurgency has killed 20,00 people and forced 2.3 million to flee their homes.

-- From wire reports