Malo News

Relatives say Mohamed Ould Ali , an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has been arrested in Mali's capital.

A suspected jihadist opened fire on a crowd at an aid distribution point in a north Malian village, killing three civilians, a local official said.

Sidi Ben Hamou, an elected official in the town, said that the bombers were carrying their explosives in water bottles.

Members of the Pan African Parliament have supported the idea of establishing a standby force with a rapid deployment capability to contain outbreaks of conflict on the continent.

After eight months, many tough negotiations, and even tougher decisions, French President Franois Hollande has delivered on his promise of a White Book on Defense and Security.

The spokesman for the Malian military confirms that the army is preparing for an assault on Kidal, the last rebel-held town in northern Mali.

Soldiers from Mali and Burkina Faso pushed into the village of Ber, located 50 kilometers northeast of Timbuktu, which had previously been occupied by fighters from a Tuareg rebel group, the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA.

WHATEVER may be thought in Britain about the new Commonwealth formula, the general fear among English-speaking South Africans is that it will be used by the Nationalist Party in the struggle for a Republic.

The Department of Home Affairs has left me seething and frustrated. Which is a feeling I'm sure many South Africans are familiar with, says Lauren Hess .

The attack, in which four other soldiers were wounded, underscores the challenges facing the country following a French-led military intervention, which succeeded in liberating the three main towns occupied by the al-Qaida-linked groups in northern Mali.

The French military spokesman says French forces in Mali have arrested a French citizen who converted to Islam, took on the jihadist cause and threatened France in a video last fall.

This Feb. 21, 2013 file photo shows Malian soldiers, working with French forces, battling radical Islamic rebels in Gao, Mali.

"It was an unfamiliar scene in the Libyan capital's upscale residential neighbourhood, which left many confused," wrote my colleague in Tripoli, Rana Jawad, following Tuesday's bomb which wounded two French guards and several residents.

Malian troops stand at attention during interim President Dioncounda Traore's visit to their base in the town of Nara, 375 km from Bamako April 13, 2013.

Nearly 40 years ago, the African nation of Mali gave former East Germany a baby crocodile as a gift.

The council is expected to vote Thursday morning on a resolution that would authorize a U.N. force comprising 11,200 military personnel and 1,440 international police.