President Benigno Aquino III has turned down overtures from former Playboy playmate Pamela Anderson for a dinner date. The bachelor president’s reasons were not immediately known but the Canadian blond bombshell’s motive turned out to be far from romantic.
A suicide bomber attempted to force his way past the defenses of the city of Timbuktu on Saturday, detonating himself on its outskirts, while a landmine exploded in another part of northern Mali, killing a total of three, officials said.
The death of a top al-Qaida-linked warlord in combat with French-led troops represents a victory in the battle against jihadists who had a stranglehold on northern Mali. But it is far from the defining blow against a wily enemy that can go underground and regroup to renew itself. Even the fearsome Abou Zeid is replaceable.
An Al-Qaeda source has confirmed the death of one of the leaders of the organization’s north African wing, in the most significant success yet for the French-led operation against Islamist fighters in Mali.
Nine female commercial models and entertainers on Tuesday stripped down for the cameras to demonstrate what they called “the naked truth” about the condition of Mali, Manila Zoo’s lone elephant.
Britain is considering sending about 200 non-combat troops to help the military operation against Islamist militants in Mali, with a decision expected within days, media reports said Tuesday.
The death toll from the terrorist siege at a natural gas plant in the Sahara climbed to at least 81 on Sunday as Algerian forces searching the refinery for explosives found dozens more bodies, many so badly disfigured it was unclear whether they were hostages or militants, a security official said.
As they prowled the In Amenas gas complex for hostages, the gunmen who attacked the Algerian site discovered a brutal but effective tactic to persuade foreign workers to come out of hiding.
DAKAR, Senegal — West African nations that promised to send troops to fight al-Qaida in Mali are finding it’s a lot trickier than they’d hoped to actually get boots on the ground. Political debates, fears that fleeing militants might scatter abroad, and logistics — even feeding the troops— have stalled plans to deploy against [...]
Algerian special forces on Thursday launched a rescue operation on a desert gas complex, killing fleeing Islamists and an unknown number of their hostages, the communication minister said.
French air strikes forced Islamist guerrillas to flee towns in northern Mali and Paris secured new international support for military action as the militants struck back, seizing a small western town.
France, breaking its own rules with a surprise military intervention in Mali, appears to be halting the lightning advance of radical Islamists seen as a threat to Europe.
A senior U.N. official who just returned from Mali says radical Islamists who now control about two-thirds of the country are targeting women — demanding that they cover their heads, restricting their ability to work, and compiling a list of women who are pregnant or have children but are not married which has raised fears of punishment.
