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The violent conflict in Libya has turned the neighbouring Sahel desert into a powder keg, regional powers said yesterday in Algiers, as former leader Muammar Gaddafi's arsenal risks being snapped up by al- Qaeda's local franchise... Algeria and other Libyan neighbours have expressed fears that the ousted Libyan leader's arsenal and remaining loyalists would be scattered across the Sahel, an 8- million-square-kilometre desert area south of the Sahara. Mr Bazoum said half a ton of Semtex explosive was seized in Niger in June, and warned that there might have been more, as well as surface- to-air missiles... French, American and...

Mauritania is at "high risk" of terrorist attacks, according to a recently published report from a British risk consultancy. The 2011 Terrorism Risk Index, published August 3rd by Maplecroft, placed Mauritania in the second highest category, grouped together with Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, among others. According to the study, the countries are "less risky but still dangerous". Mauritania was deemed only at "medium risk" of terror attacks in last year's survey. Maplecroft categorised countries according to their vulnerability to terrorist attacks. They examined the extent of terrorism's penetration in terms of planning, threats, fatalities and bombings across 197...

An Al-Qaeda leader of Algerian nationality was among 20 militants killed in southern Mauritania during a clash with military forces.Mauritanian forces on Tuesday reportedly responded to an attack on a military base in Bassiknou on the border with Mali by launching a counter-offensive against forces from The Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM the terror network's North African branch. The firefight lasted around 45 minutes and afterward Mauritanian forces chased the militants into Mali. Ten insurgents were captured during the standoff.

The Mauritanian army said it had destroyed a camp in neighbouring Mali Friday night that was sheltering militants linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Al Qaeda ’s North African offshoot carries out armed attacks from bases in Mali. AFP - The Mauritanian army has "completely destroyed" an Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb camp in neighbouring Mali in an assault that left four soldiers wounded, a security source said. Friday's attack in the forest region of Wagadou in western Mali involved air strikes and was staged in the evening, the Mauritanian source told AFP, adding that the "terrorists" struck...

Algeria on Wednesday called for an inclusive dialogue in Libya with the participation of all Libyan parties to reach a peaceful settlement of the crisis. Speaking at a press conference in the capital Algiers, Abdelkader Messahel, Algerian Delegate Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs, said his country is in contact with all concerned parties in Libya, and aims to help end the crisis in the neighboring country in a peaceful way. Messahel said Algeria supports the African Union (AU) roadmap for solving the conflict, which calls for political dialogue between different parties in Libya, necessary political reforms, and more effective...

Four members of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Anti-slavery Movement (IRA, Mauritania branch), were on Thursday detained briefly for questioning. Sources close to the organization told PANA that the brief detention followed an argument with a group of young supporters of the governing party. They are, however, to present themselves to the prosecution on Sunday, according to the chairman of the movement, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid. The leader of the anti-slavery movement denounced the government's attempt to intimidate and harass members of his movement.

Army chiefs from Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria are on alert as the crisis in nearby Libya deteriorates, placing the entire region at risk, a military source said on Saturday. Speaking after a meeting Friday between the four army heads, a Malian officer who attended said: "The situation in Libya is of great concern. There is a risk of destabilising the entire region." The meeting was to reinforce the fight against insecurity in a region threatened by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). "Moreover, because of the Libyan crisis, the security situation in the Sahel has deteriorated, so it is...

France has announced that talks for Gbagbo's surrender has failed, and forces loyalty to president elect Alassane Ouattara Wednesday mounted intense attack on the compound of the former president who remained in denial over a lost cause. President Ouattara is reported to be determined not to grant Gbagbo his apparent wish of becoming a martyr by having him killed in the process of forcing him out of hiding... The latest dreadlock came after Gbagbo refused to sign a UN document acknowledging the internationally recognised Ouattara as president of Ivory Coast... Gbagbo's three main generals also reportedly offered to the UN...

Four Israeli embassies and consulates have been temporarily shut down due to a mounting terror threat, according to foreign press. Turkish newspaper Hurriet reported that the Israeli embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul are among the diplomatic missions that have shut their doors. The Counter-Terror Bureau has cited, in recent days, a growing threat of the imminent execution of terror attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad, with emphases on Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania and Venezuela. The Bureau urges Israelis traveling to these countries to avoid places where there are concentrations of Israelis, and...

Recent events in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt spell a dangerous new trend in the region. There have been major developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, each of which is of tremendous importance. In Tunisia, a popular uprising fueled by unemployment, economic suffering and long-term discontent has overthrown the dictator, but not necessarily the dictatorship. In 55 years of independence, the country has been governed by two dictators, the current one being Zine al-Abedin Ben Ali, who has been president for 23 years and was a key power in the regime even before that. Is this going to spread? Does it...

The United States has signed a deal with Bhutan giving US citizens in the country immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the State Department said Tuesday. The deal with Bhutan brings to 34 the number of countries with which the United States has signed so-called "Article 98" agreements exempting US citizens from the court's jurisdiction, said Lynn Cassel, a department spokesman. Bhutan and Bosnia-Herzegovina both agreed to the pacts on May 16 but the deal with Thimphu was not announced until Tuesday. Washington refuses to support the ICC, arguing that it could become a forum for politically...

"This Islamic republic has no place for rape victims like me." Mauritanian laws are based on Sharia law and the penal code forbids relationships between both sexes outside marriage. That includes a consensual relationship between a boyfriend and girlfriend but can also criminalize a woman who is forced to have sex. Sidi Athman Ould Sidi Salem, a law specialist and legal adviser to the government, said: "If raped women don't bring strong evidence, which is not easy, they would be accused of Zina -- an Arabic word meaning sex out of marriage -- and end up in jail. It's because...

Al-Qaeda is poised to overrun five states in North Africa and the Middle East, creating terrorist safe havens from which the network can launch attack on the West, Europe and the US have been warned. Mauritania, Mali and Niger have seen a steady escalation of al-Qaeda activity targeting Western aid workers and experts. Somalia, to their east, has disintegrated in the face of Islamist assault. In Yemen, across the Red Sea from Somalia, security forces have been waging a losing battle against resurgent jihadist armies that have claimed the lives of dozens of troops. Amadou Marou, the President of Niger's...

PARIS (AP) - France has declared war on al-Qaida, and matched its fighting words with a first attack on a base camp of the terror network's North African branch, after the terror network killed a French aid worker it took hostage in April. The declaration and attack marked a shift in strategy for France, usually discrete about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism. "We are at war with al-Qaida," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau. The humanitarian worker had been abducted April 20 or 22 in Niger...

The following is from an e-mail (I have been contacted since I have done some research on Arab-Islamic slavery) I got from a person who seemed to be of a Jewish background, it's well written, I only did minor edits. An in-formal "apology" from "white" Jews to racist Islamic-fascists of the: Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party Dear racist Muslim of the NOI, NBPP, etc. Please "excuse" us for...: 1) Not dominating in the predominantly Arab-Muslim slave trade, wherein, your "glorified" Muslim "brothers" have uprooted you, sold you, traded you like cattle to the "white" [non-Jewish] man in Europe,...

How radical Islam makes you: a bigot religiously - a racist ethnically UNIQUENESS OF ISLAM'S INTOLERANCE While Christianity, ever since the termination of the Crusades and the Spanish inquisitions has no plans to "convert by force" anybody else, nor is ever Buddhism or Judaism, Islam --on the other hand-- even modern day Islam is about to Islamize the world, with any means possible. When (thank God) not "yet" accomplished, the Islamists bigotry has a few levels, the "people of the book" a.k.a. Christians & Jews are "allowed" to stay as an inferior class [Dhimmis], the other non-Muslims are "totally"...

SNIPPET: "An Aeromexico plane flying to Mexico City from Paris had to land late Sunday afternoon at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal to remove a passenger whose name is on the U.S. no-fly list, Radio-Canada reported. The man was escorted out of the plane and taken into custody by the RCMP."

Note: Video included at link. SNIPPET: "Now, law enforcement officials appear increasingly concerned Al-Shabaab members are trying to come back to America. But these members aren't disenchanted young men like Hassan, seeking to escape the terrorists' hold. Rather, the concern is that they are returning either to recruit more members or perhaps to plot attacks here." SNIPPET: "Al-Shabaab represents a "threat to the whole nation, all of the world," Ahmed told the IPT. "Everywhere they could recruit somebody they will try – Europe, North America, Australia, Africa…And they want to disrupt world peace." Ahmed warned that Al-Shabaab's main focus in...

CAIRO (AP) -- An al-Qaida offshoot in North Africa says it released a Spanish woman who spent 100 days as a hostage in Mauritania because she voluntarily converted to Islam. In a statement posted on militant Web sites Friday, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb says Alicia Gamez adopted the Muslim name Aicha after being exposed to the teachings of Islam by her captors. She and two male colleagues still being held captive worked as volunteers for an aid group called Barcelona Accion Solidaria.

The cause of democracy in Africa could have done without this latest affront. Barely six months after giving the French president an undertaking that he would leave power at the end of his second term, Niger’s president, Mamadou Tandja, has rewritten the rules to give himself power for as long as he wishes. A general election was held on 20 October to renew 113 seats in parliament, which Tandja dissolved in May to overcome its opposition to his plans to change the constitution. He organised a referendum on 4 August to obtain popular approval for new rules, doing away with...