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Fabled Timbuktu, once the site of the world's southernmost Islamic university, harbors thousands upon thousands of long-forgotten manuscripts. A dozen academic instutions from around the world are now working frantically to save and evaluate the crumbling documents. Bundles of paper covered with ancient Arabic letters lie on tables and dusty leather stools. In the sweltering heat, a man wearing blue Muslim robes flips through a worn folio, while others are busy repairing yellowed pages. An astonishing project is underway in Timbuktu, Mali, one of the world's poorest countries. On the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, experts are opening an...

President Bush met this morning with President Amadou Touré of Mali in the Oval Office TranscriptThis afternoon President Bush celebrated African American History Month in the East Room Enoy your visit to Sanity Island

Ancient Blood Found On Sculptures From Kingdom Of MaliA new, highly-sensitive analytical test was used to confirm the presence of blood in the coating of this animal-like artifact used in ancient Mali rituals. (Credit: Pascale Richardin, Center for Research and Restoration for the Museums of France)" ScienceDaily (Dec. 8, 2007) — Scientists in France are reporting for the first time that sculptors from the fantastically wealthy ancient Empire of Mali -- once the source of almost half the world's gold -- used blood to form the beautiful patina, or coating, on their works of art. Pascale Richardin and colleagues describe...

.."surrendered after disagreements with other leaders in the organization."

Charity charged with funneling funds to Iraq Columbia Islamic group, now defunct, is accused of sending $1.4 million during Hussein’s reign. By MARK MORRIS The Kansas City Star A defunct Columbia charity and five officers and associates have been charged with illegally sending more than $1.4 million to Iraq while Saddam Hussein was in power. The 33-count federal indictment, unsealed Wednesday in Kansas City, is the latest assault on a charity that in 2004 was designated a supporter of global terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and Hamas. At its core, the indictment alleges the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA solicited...

Some of the artefacts confiscated may be up to one million years old French customs officials say they have seized more than 650 ancient artefacts smuggled from Mali in one of the largest such finds at a Paris airport. Described as an "archaeological treasure", the objects were thought to be on their way to private US buyers. Experts say most of the items are from the Neolithic period, but some may be up to one million years old. The artefacts are thought to have been taken from archaeological sites on the edge of the Sahara desert. The 669 items...

19. January 2007, Swissinfo Swiss archaeologist digs up West Africa's past A Swiss:led team of archaeologists has discovered pieces of the oldest African pottery in central Mali, dating back to at least 9,400BC. The sensational find by Geneva University's Eric Huysecom and his international research team, at Ounjougou near the Unesco:listed Bandiagara cliffs, reveals important information about man's interaction with nature. The age of the sediment in which they were found suggests that the six ceramic fragments : discovered between 2002 and 2005 : are at least 11,400 years old. Most ancient ceramics from the Middle East and the central...

DAKAR, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Tuareg rebels in Mali's northern desert vowed on Thursday to chase an al Qaeda-linked militant group off their territory and said they were seeking support from neighbouring Algeria to help do so. The Algerian militant movement, Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda, is believed to be recruiting members around West Africa and training them in mobile camps in the Sahara. As it spread its operations from Algeria into northern Mali, the GSPC -- listed by Washington as a terrorist organisation -- has come into contact with Tuareg...

TIZIMIZI, Mali, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Mayor Amadou Harouna Maiga was surprised, to say the least, when a group of U.S. soldiers turned up one day and offered to help build a school in his African village. But six months later, he is confident the Americans mean business and keen to explore what more they can do to help. "We have no shortage of problems -- health problems, water problems, agricultural problems," said Maiga as a four-man U.S. team returned this weekend to his village of mud-brick houses by the Niger River to deliver blackboards, slates, pencils, sharpeners and exercise...

TIMBUKTU, Mali (Reuters) - Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand. The texts were stashed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French...

A Malian walks out of the Great Mosque in Djenne, Mali in this August 10, 2003 file photo. Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. (Yves Herman/Reuters) Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of...

AMERICAN GIRL RAPED APPARETNLY BY EX AUXERRE PLAYER (AGI) - Rome, Oct 11 - Garra D'Envele, a 20 year old football player from Mali was arrested and accused of having raped an American girl in the toilet of a club in the centre of Rome. The young player currently has a contract with Auxerre football club and was in Italy for some tests. This summer he had contacts to Lazio and Cisco Roma; in the next few days he should have been tested by Perugia and Treviso. The man was arrested in record time yesterday evening yesterday evening when he...

As journalist Robert Kaplan flew into Bamako, Mali, in 1993, he saw tin roofs appear through thick dust blowing off the presumably advancing desert. He used this image of a “dying region” to conclude his Atlantic Monthly article “The Coming Anarchy,” in which he drew a connection between environmental degradation and growing disorder in the Third World, a hypothesis that certainly seemed to fit not only Mali but most of West Africa. When the article was published in February 1994, it made a considerable splash in Washington policy circles. But even as Kaplan predicted doom, the situation on the ground...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday he had forged a strategic alliance to stand up to U.S. imperialism with fellow maverick Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. "Our countries must keep their hands at the ready on the sword," Chavez, in ex-Soviet Belarus as part of a world tour, said on a visit to a military academy. "After a day of intensive work, we have created a strategic alliance between our countries," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "It is absolutely vital to protect our homeland, to guard against internal and external threats." "The jaws of imperialism and hegemonism have both...

Mr Chavez said he wanted to conclude "a unity pact" in Minsk Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Belarus "as a model social state" like the one he and his government are building. During a visit to Belarus, he called for joint efforts to counter what he described as "hegemonic" capitalism. Mr Chavez later met Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights. Mr Chavez is on a world tour, partly to win support for a Venezuelan seat on the UN Security Council. From Belarus, he will travel to Russia, Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali....

Two men attacked and stabbed a nine-year-old girl of mixed Russian and African heritage in St. Petersburg, seriously injuring her in an apparent xenophobic attack, officials said Sunday. The Saturday evening attack took place in an apartment building hallway and was the latest incident targeting foreigners or minorities in Russia's second-largest city. Aliu Tunkara, who heads a civic group for Africans in St. Petersburg, said the girl was returning home after a walk and had just entered the building when two men stabbed her. Alexander Klaus, an investigator with the city prosecutor's office, said in televised comments that during the...

Diamond-producing countries and the diamond industry agreed yesterday to take unprecedented measures to stop the smuggling of "conflict diamonds" from West Africa. A resolution on Ivory Coast was unanimously approved at the Moscow plenary meeting of the Kimberley Process, the UN-backed international scheme to stop the illegal trading of gems. Recognising that millions of dollars' worth of conflict diamonds were being smuggled out of the rebel-held areas of Ivory Coast, members of participating countries agreed to put in place practical measures to stop the flow. "Intervention on the trade side will impose specific controls for diamonds in the whole West...

Set fire to In Paris: 17 died, 21 wounded PARIS - a fire in a residential building made 17 died and 21 wounded in Paris in the night of Thursday to Friday, according to a provisional assessment of the firemen. A first of the same assessment source made state of 16 dead and 22 wounded. Among deaths, there would be at least four children, one indicated to the ministry Interior. The stair-well burned 2e on the 7th floor of the building located in the 13e district at the south east of the capital. According to habitanst of the district,...

The majority of the world's gold comes from some of the poorest countries, but local mining communities often reap just a fraction of the riches that lie beneath their soils. Mali is no exception. The West African nation ranks near the bottom of just about every U.N. development indicator, even though its the world's ninth-largest gold producer. The southern village of Sanso struggles to capitalize on Mali's gold rush. On a sweltering morning, a parade of local dignitaries praised the rickety foundation of a new primary school, as village women sang in celebration. Five years ago, this village of 7,000...

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- The U.S. military has wrapped up exercises aimed at getting north and west African troops ready to fight al Qaeda-linked terrorists and making sure the militants don't get a toehold in a region of porous borders and weak states. U.S. commanders said Thursday they hope the exercise was only the beginning of a long-term relationship. Starting June 6, 700 U.S. troops ran about 2,100 soldiers from nine North and West African nations through counterterrorism exercises including mock patrols, target practice -- even airborne parachute drills that sent hundreds of African soldiers drifting from U.S. C-130 transport...

DAKAR, Senegal -- A weekend raid into Mauritania by Algerian Islamic militants illustrates why north Africa needs the U.S.-led joint counterterror exercises launched this week, a U.S. military spokeswoman said Wednesday. The training exercise began Monday in Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and, for the first time, Algeria, from where Islamic insurgents linked to the al-Qaida network began a raid into Mauritania that left two dozen dead. Five other countries will take part by the time the program finishes in two weeks. The Mauritania raid is an example of why nations in the region ''have to work together now,'' said Maj....

WASHINGTON - Just days ago, I folded myself into a US embassy vehicle in Bamako, Mali, fresh off the plane from Timbuktu, the historic center of Islamic learning and trans-Saharan trade in the north of the country. Looking out the car window, I saw that thousands of cheering Malians were lining the streets of this city, which had been cleared for VIP travel. I admit, I was stunned by this outpouring of enthusiasm for the American ambassador and an American senator. Then I realized that they weren't there for us. They were waiting to cheer the motorcade of Iranian President...

When experts from the US and the IAEA came upon blueprints for a 10-kiloton atomic bomb in the files of the Libyan weapons program earlier this year, they found themselves caught between gravity and pettiness. The discovery gave the experts a new appreciation of the audacity of the rogue nuclear network led by A. Q. Khan, a chief architect of Pakistan's bomb. Intelligence officials had watched Dr. Khan for years and suspected that he was trafficking in machinery for enriching uranium to make fuel for warheads. But the detailed design represented a new level of danger, particularly since the Libyans...

From Timbuktu and Bamako comes a lesson for the entire Muslim world: a secular detachment from politics and peace with the other religions. The Muslim president asks for the blessing of the Catholic archbishop ROMA – Is Islam compatible with democracy? Yes and no, replies the Vatican. “La Civiltà Cattolica” – the magazine of the Rome Jesuits printed with authorization from the secretariat of state for each issue – is the “No” voice. In an editorial last February 7, they wrote that because democracy “takes the sovereignty away from Allah and transfers it to the people,” this “for a faithful...

TIMBUKTU, Mali -- As the sun sank over the Sahara, Mohammed Cissé straightened his pristine white robe and fired up the voters. "We'll build you good schools, letting your children study instead of becoming delinquents," he bellowed. On cue, women in brightly colored bou-bous rose up from straw mats to cheer to the beat of a drum. The same day, sitting near an ancient mosque built of mud, a rival campaigner said the schools had only gotten worse under Mr. Cissé, Timbuktu's mayor for most of the past five years. The challenger's pitch drew equally thunderous applause from a throng...

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) - On the Green Berets' signal, the 120 Malian troops sprang across a thorn-covered sand dune and stormed a mock enemy camp, pouring assault rifle fire into human-shaped silhouettes and an old truck cab. It was part of the U.S.-led war on terror - an effort to head off any chance that the vast and lawless desert of this African nation might become the next Afghanistan. But the start of Thursday's live-fire exercise was briefly delayed: Two donkeys wandered into the firing zone, and a Malian soldier ran out to shoo them away. "Tell him to come...

<p>TIMBUKTU, Mali -- U.S. Green Berets ran mock ambushes Wednesday in the sand dunes of central Mali, where Malian troops fired blanks at a pretend enemy -- and shouted "bang! bang!" when the blanks ran out.</p> <p>The exercise is part of a months-long American effort to train troops in Mali and three other impoverished West African nations where Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida are alleged to have operated. The Associated Press was among the first media allowed to observe.</p>

US fears Islamic militants in Mauritania, Algeria TIMBUKTU, Mali, March 18 (Reuters) - The United States fears hardline Islamic militants moving around the Sahara desert could try to topple the Algerian and Mauritanian governments, senior diplomatic and military officials said. The U.S. ambassador to Mali, Vicki Huddleston, said a leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an Algerian group allied to al Qaeda, could be looking to re-arm and link up with other militants in the region. The leader, Amari Saifi, known as el Para and widely regarded as the GSPC's second-in-command, claimed responsibility for kidnapping 32...

Wednesday, 24 October, 2001, 09:40 GMT 10:40 UK Pakistanis arrested in Mali By Joan Baxter in Bamako Police in Mali have arrested a group of about 20 Pakistani citizens following a meeting called to express solidarity for Osama Bin Laden and the people of Afghanistan. Bin Laden is the chief suspect of the 11 September bombings in the United States. Government sources say the arrests follow a meeting last week between US officials and Malian security forces, in which the Americans expressed concerns about the activities of the Pakistanis in Mali. According to police sources not just in Bamako but ...

Pentagon fears growth of terrorist haven US special forces troops have arrived in several north African countries over recent months amid Pentagon warnings that the region runs the risk of becoming an al-Qaida recruiting ground and a possible back door into Europe. Three days before the Madrid bombing, where the first arrests included three Moroccans detained on Saturday, the deputy commander of the Stuttgart-based US European command - which covers all of Africa except the Horn - warned that al-Qaida had an interest in north Africa. "We have to get ahead of it," General Charles Wald told a group of...

Soldiers assigned to the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Stuttgart, Germany, are training African soldiers along the outer reaches of the Sahara Desert in support of the global war on terrorism. Special Forces training teams from Special Operations Command Europe are in Bamako, Gao and Timbuktu, Mali; and Atar, Mauritania in northwestern Africa to provide foreign internal defense training for the Pan Sahel Initiative, a U.S. State Department security assistance program. "We're training basic platoon level tasks to one company of the 33rd Parachute Infantry Regiment in Bamako in order to enhance their capabilities to police their...

A London accountant has described how Pakistan's disgraced nuclear hero Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan visited the West African state of Mali on three occasions between 1998 and 2000. Abdul Ma'bood Siddiqui accompanied A.Q. Khan on three mystery trips  between 1998 and 2000. Their final destination was Timbuktu, a remote outpost in the desert that has always been a magnet for explorers and adventurers from around the world. The mystery behind the visits has deepened following recent revelations that Khan is also the owner of a small hotel in the town that he has named after Hendrina, his Dutch-born wife and...

The London accountant who accompanied Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to Timbuktu on three occasions in 1998, 1999 and 2000 says the 'father' of the Pakistani bomb witnessed the digging of a well, toured an ancient Islamic library and enjoyed the views of the desert. A remote outpost in the middle of the West African desert, Timbuktu usually attracts explorers associated in the popular mind with the adventures of the comic character Tin Tin. And Pakistani dissidents told rediff.com the reason for Khan's visit to Timbuktu, part of landlocked West African state of Mali, was to prospect for uranium. They say...

How the French Plunder Africa France's unchallenged political, economic, and military domination of its former sub-Saharan African colonies is rooted in a currency, the CFA franc. Created in 1948 to help France control the destiny of its colonies, fourteen countries--Benin, Burkina-Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Bissau Guinea, and Chad--maintained the franc zone even after they gained independence decades ago. In exchange for France guaranteeing the CFA franc's convertibility, these countries agreed to deposit 65% of their foreign exchange reserves in a special account within the French Treasury and granted to...

PARIS, Jan 13 (AFP) - A woman from Mali was handed down a five-year suspended jail sentence in a French court on Tuesday for the genital mutilation of her three French-born daughters. Defence lawyers for Aminata Sall, 42, had argued that she had been unaware that excision, or genital mutilation, was illegal in France, and was only "respecting Malian custom". Sall had denied in court on Monday that her daughters, now aged 10, 14, and 15, had been excised. However, on Tuesday she confessed to having "been present" during their excisions. The mother maintained that she had not assisted in...

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — The United States is expanding anti-terror efforts to the remote reaches of West Africa's Sahara borders, dispatching U.S. troops and contractors to help seal the predominantly Islamic region to al-Qaida and its allies. American officials gave The Associated Press details of the anti-terror program, and Mauritania officials confirmed to AP a massive explosives theft that illustrates why the West is concerned about the region. A U.S. anti-terror team arrived Saturday in the arid, Arab-dominated Islamic republic of Mauritania, U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of State Pamela Bridgewater told reporters late Sunday during a visit here. The small team will...

Police in Mali have rescued more than 100 children from suspected traffickers believed to be taking them to forced labour, officials in the west African state said yesterday.Police at the weekend stopped 112 minors aged between 10 and 18 as they travelled in buses in the Segou region, north-east of the capital. They arrested two suspected traffickers. Mohammed Attayer Maiga, of the ministry for women and children, said most of the youngsters had been from neighbouring Burkina Faso and were sent back after police checked their papers. He said such children were normally taken to work in rice fields, often...

LONDON [MENL] -- Al Qaida operatives have been relocating to the southern Sahara Desert in Algeria and have prepared secret bases near the border with Mali. Western intelligence sources said the Al Qaida effort was detected in early 2003 and has been aided by the Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call. They said the Salafist leadership has provided Al Qaida with hideouts and logistics in the mountain region. "The area is ideal for Al Qaida training and command functions," an intelligence source said. "The area is isolated and is located along the border with Mali, where there is no trace...

MADRID, Oct 27, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Al-Qaida is building secret bases in the Sahara in north Africa with the help of Algerian extremists, Western and Arab intelligence sources said Monday. The Spanish daily Periodico De Catalonia quoted the sources as saying the Sahara, stretching between Mauritania and southern Libya, has become a base for al-Qaida. "The desert of Mali, especially in the north, and the area near the Algerian border has become a base and meeting point for al-Qaida members who have fled from the Middle East region," an Algerian source said. "We know that many...

A Malian man, who had his five-year-old son's throat slit to conjure up some good luck, has been sentenced to death. Fousseyni Thera, 27, from the West African nation, decided to sacrifice his son, Daniel, after meeting an elderly witchdoctor and asking him to create a good luck charm, court documents said. The witchdoctor demanded human blood to make the charm. The men brought the boy to a tree-filled ravine in the capital, Bamako, in January this year. His father held him down while the witchdoctor cut his throat, gathering the blood in a bowl into which he dipped the...

A GROUP of 14 European tourists held hostage for up to six months were today freed by their captors, officials in the northern Malian town of Gao said, amid a report that a ransom had been paid. The officials said the nine Germans, four Swiss and a Dutchman, abducted by a suspected Islamic extremist group, were released in the town of Tessalit in the northeastern region of Kidal. Germany's public ZDF television reported that it followed a payment to the kidnappers yesterday of a ransom, although the station said the money did not come from the German government. According...