Mali

* Mali army has headed toward Kidal, French oppose it entering town * Kidal, last rebel-held town in Mali, is central for July elections * French position is stirring frustration in army, on Bamako streets * Mali's interim president backs secretive...

NIAMEY, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. military instructors in Niger will train African forces participating in a U.N.-backed offensive against al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in neighbouring Mali, senior military officers said on Thursday. The United States...

By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS, May 15 (Reuters) - Former Dutch development minister Gerard Koenders will be named U.N. special envoy for Mali and head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the West African country, where Islamist militants hijacked...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will pledge more than half a billion euros($650 million) to help Mali rebuild after months of conflict, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Tuesday. "Tomorrow we will commit 520 million...

NIAMEY, May 14 (Reuters) - Niger is offering cash rewards to anyone reporting a case of Guinea worm as part of efforts to permanently eradicate the parasitic disease in the impoverished West African nation, the health ministry said. Though it once...

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Malian troops headed for the remote northeastern town of Kidal on Sunday ahead of a mid-May deadline set by the government to wrest it from the control of Tuareg separatist rebels. French forces which swept Islamist insurgents from the...

BAMAKO, May 12 (Reuters) - Malian troops approached the remote northeastern town of Kidal on Sunday ahead of a mid-May deadline set by the government to wrest it from the control of Tuareg separatist rebels. French forces which swept Islamist...

* EU, France organising donor conference in Brussels next week * Mali trying to rebuild after French offensive drove out Islamists By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS, May 10 (Reuters) - Mali will ask international donors for nearly two billion euros ($2.6...

* Jihadist recruiting behind bars a worry amid Mali crisis * Overcrowding, intelligence lapses, lack of chaplains weigh * Petty offenders easily lured into radicalism By Alexandria Sage VILLEPINTE, France, May 7 (Reuters) - In France, the path to...

* Editor published open letter criticising coup leader * Charged with inciting revolt * Arrest showed junta's lingering influence BAMAKO, April 30 (Reuters) - A court in Mali threw out a case against a newspaper editor who was arrested after publishing...

BAMAKO, Mali — Homemade twig pens stand like off-duty soldiers in a jar on Boubacar Sadeck's worktable. The morning sun steals into a room stuffed with a jumble of papers, ink bottles and stretched animal hides. He sits thoughtfully before a blank...

SABHA, Libya — Their fatigues don't match and their pickup has no windshield. Their antiaircraft gun, clogged with grit, is perched between a refugee camp and ripped market tents scattered over an ancient caravan route. But the tribesmen keep...