Mali Unrest

Mali's Tuareg-led rebel alliance prepared today to sign a landmark deal to end years of unrest in a nation riven by ethnic divisions and in the grip of a jihadist insurgency.

On the frontline in Libya and Mali, hawkish on Syria, uncompromising on Iran: France, long critical of the United States' role as the world's policeman, is emerging as the most interventionist of Western states.

Balama Mali Gubio lost phone contact with his relatives 10 days ago, like many residents in this region of Nigeria caught between a military offensive and Islamist extremist attacks.

Heavy clashes in northern Mali have left at least 50 rebel fighters and a French soldier dead, officials said Sunday, following reports that two top Islamist militants were killed in recent days.

Hundreds of jihadists poured into northern Mali over the weekend to help armed Islamist groups hang on to the territory as the country's neighbours speeded up efforts to wrest control of the vast desert region from the Al Qaeda linked militants.

Booms from rocket launchers and automatic gunfire crackled on Sunday around Mali's fabled town of Timbuktu, known as an ancient seat of Islamic learning, for its 700-year-old mud mosque and, more recently, as host of the musical Festival in the Desert that attracted Bono in January.

Television screens throughout Mali momentarily went black on Friday, as residents near the building housing the state broadcaster saw troops erecting barricades, fearing a possible countercoup a day after a military takeover.

Renegade Mali soldiers on Thursday claimed they had seized power from an "incompetent regime," announcing on television they had suspended the constitution and dissolved state institutions.

Mali's Tuareg-led rebel alliance prepared today to sign a landmark deal to end years of unrest in a nation riven by ethnic divisions and in the grip of a jihadist insurgency.

On the frontline in Libya and Mali, hawkish on Syria, uncompromising on Iran: France, long critical of the United States' role as the world's policeman, is emerging as the most interventionist of Western states.

Balama Mali Gubio lost phone contact with his relatives 10 days ago, like many residents in this region of Nigeria caught between a military offensive and Islamist extremist attacks.

Heavy clashes in northern Mali have left at least 50 rebel fighters and a French soldier dead, officials said Sunday, following reports that two top Islamist militants were killed in recent days.

Hundreds of jihadists poured into northern Mali over the weekend to help armed Islamist groups hang on to the territory as the country's neighbours speeded up efforts to wrest control of the vast desert region from the Al Qaeda linked militants.

Booms from rocket launchers and automatic gunfire crackled on Sunday around Mali's fabled town of Timbuktu, known as an ancient seat of Islamic learning, for its 700-year-old mud mosque and, more recently, as host of the musical Festival in the Desert that attracted Bono in January.

Television screens throughout Mali momentarily went black on Friday, as residents near the building housing the state broadcaster saw troops erecting barricades, fearing a possible countercoup a day after a military takeover.

Renegade Mali soldiers on Thursday claimed they had seized power from an "incompetent regime," announcing on television they had suspended the constitution and dissolved state institutions.