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Niger's appeals court has dropped all corruption charges against ousted President Mamadou Tandja and ordered his release from jail. It said that under the country's law it was not possible to try a head of state after he had left office. Soldiers led the coup in February 2010 -- angered that after 10 years in power, he was seeking a third term in office. Last month, the junta officially handed power to opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou, who won an election in March. "All proceedings against Mamadou Tandja have been cancelled. He has been wholly exempted from the accusations against him,"...

Married to the mob: the man who married 107 women ... and had 185 kidsRobyn Dixon May 13, 2011 He fell in love with his first wife because she was sincere and eager to please. His second wife, a cousin, was irresistible because she did everything he wished and nothing he didn't. "That alone made me love her." His third wife won him because she submitted to his every request. "I saw her, I liked her. I went to her parents and asked for her hand in marriage." Wife No. 4 was very obedient. So was wife No. 5. Wife...

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...

'Al-Qaeda snatched missiles' in Libya From correspondents in Paris From: AFP March 26, 2011 1:03PM AL-QAEDA'S offshoot in North Africa has snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya during the civil strife there, Chad's President says. Idriss Deby Itno did not say how many surface-to-air missiles were stolen, but told the African weekly Jeune Afrique that he was "100 per cent sure" of his assertion. "The Islamists of al-Qaeda took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere," a desert region of...

NIAMEY, Niger — Hidden among the curios and trinkets in Niger’s National Museum, a small, seemingly innocuous glass vial filled with thin metallic pellets is perched tenuously atop a wooden stand. [Snip] Niger’s uranium deposits, among the world’s largest, have drawn the attention of two very disparate groups. On one hand, international investors, led by the French state-owned energy giant Areva and joined more recently by the Chinese National Nuclear Corporation, have long coveted these reserves for use as nuclear fuel. On the other hand, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, which thrives in the vast and...

The special UN appeal to be announced Monday in Geneva is intended to address the burgeoning humanitarian crisis on Libya's borders with Tunisia, Egypt, and Niger, according to UN officials. Most of the Egyptian refugees who fled Libya into Tunisia have been returned to Egypt, the officials say, but they add that thousands of mostly Bangladeshi nationals are still stuck just over the border from Libya in Tunisia, in rapidly deteriorating conditions. The torrent of refugees fleeing Libya has slowed to a trickle -- from nearly 15,000 a day crossing into Tunisia to fewer than 2,000 on Thursday, officials said...

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...

When Hollywood decides a former White House aide is fair game for attack, facts don't come into play. History, however, cannot be so cavalier about the truth. The new movie "Fair Game" - based on the outing of CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson during political battles concerning the war in Iraq - is anything but fair or honest. In depicting former vice-presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as a sinister point man in a broad effort to destroy Mrs. Wilson's career while concocting a fraudulent case for the war, the movie perpetuates myths that improperly damage U.S. credibility....

... the title is drawn from how Karl Rove told Matthews that the CIA agent Valerie Plame was fair game for critics of her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson. Wilson, you’ll recall, was dispatched by the CIA in 2002 at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney’s office to investigate whether Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from the African country of Niger. Wilson came back with the answer no, and he was outraged when President Bush nevertheless stuck with the claim in his 2003 State of the Union address, which made the case for war with Iraq. Just three...

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...

Militants linked to Al Qaeda are building fortified bun-kers in the Algeria and Mali areas of the Sahara desert to shelter militants from air attacks, security experts claim. The members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have hidden themselves in the desert without any notion of national boundaries, according to the experts. “We have different verifiable reports which enable us to state that AQIM is currently in the process of building shelters, or bunkers, in which to hide against attacks in the desert shared by Mali and Algeria,” a Malian source told Middle East Online, reported AKI. “There is...

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

SNIPPET - quote: Travel Warning United States Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs Washington, DC 20520 This information is current as of today, Wed May 12 2010 23:23:37 GMT-0700 (PDT). NIGER May 11, 2010 The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to Niger and recommends against all travel to the north of the country due to kidnapping threats against Westerners. Al-Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a terrorist group, continues its attempts to kidnap Westerners, including U.S. citizens in Niger, and has been successful in kidnapping Europeans in the region. On...

Florida Congressman and national embarrassment, Alan Grayson made a fortune as a plaintiffs' attorney specializing in whistleblower fraud cases aimed at Iraq war contractors. For example, employees of one contractor Custer Battles, were found guilty of making fraudulent statements and submitting fraudulent invoices on two contracts in 2003 Grayson disclosed his attorney fees and costs for the case exceeded $4 million, and that's just one case. In 2006, a Wall Street Journal reporter described Grayson as "waging a one-man war against contractor fraud in Iraq" and as a "fierce critic of the war in Iraq" whose car was "emblazoned" with...

The embattled representative from the state of Florida, Alan Grayson found himself on the verge of being caught in a coup in Niger earlier this week. www.southernstudies.org Representative Alan Grayson Democrat from Florida. Alan Grayson, the often outspoken Democratic Representative from Florida was on a trip to Niger earlier this week. While on his trip there was a military coup that Grayson almost found himself caught up in. According to a Grayson's press secretary, Todd Jurkowski, "He heard the gunshots. They were literally in the building next door." Grayson was serving as part of a congressional delegation that was...

Hundreds, if not thousands of people have taken to the streets of the capital, Niamey, Saturday in support of the military junta who seized power in a coup this week. Demonstrators were also out on the streets Friday showing their support for the coup that ousted the increasingly unpopular president, Mamadou Tandja. The demonstration of support comes as condemnations pour in from the international community. On Friday, the African Union suspended Niger and demanded a return to constitutional order.

News has a way of following U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson — even when he travels overseas. The bombastic lawmaker from Orlando was in the Niger capital this week when military officials overthrew President Mamadou Tandja in a show of force. Tandja has dissolved key government institutions in a bid to stay in power indefinitely. “He was very close to the action; he heard the gunfire” said Todd Jurkowski, a Grayson spokesman. He said the freshman Democrat already was on his way back to the United States and should land sometime late Friday or early Saturday. Jurkowski said Grayson’s stay in...

Niger's new military junta says it has dissolved the government after a coup that toppled President Mamadou Tandja in the impoverished but uranium-rich west African country. The Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) announced on Friday that its head would be squadron leader Salou Djibo, whose heavily armed unit played a key role in Thursday's coup. "The government is dissolved," said a statement signed by Djibo and read by an unnamed military officer on state television.

Niger's President Mamadou Tandja was detained by mutinous troops on Thursday after a coup in the west African uranium exporter that left at least three soldiers dead, military sources said. Three Nigerian military sources said the coup was led by a soldier named Major Adamou Harouna. "The coup leader has succeeded. It is being led by Major Adamou Harouna," one source said. The president and the ministers are being detained not far from the presidential palace, the sources added. Earlier in the day plumes of smoke were seen rising from the palace after soldiers attacked the building where Tandja was...