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Islamist spokesman surrenders in Mauritania

Agence France-PresseMay 20, 2013 09:00

A senior operative in an Al Qaeda-linked group in war-torn northern Mali has surrendered to Mauritania, a security source told AFP on Monday. Ansar Dine spokesman Senda Ould Boumama "went to the Mauritanian armed forces on the border", near the southeastern town of Bassiknou, on Saturday evening, the source said without giving further details. According to Mauritania's independent ANI news agency, Ould Boumama was transferred during the weekend to the capital Nouakchott, where he is being interrogated by police.

Booze and bikinis are welcome in Egypt, says tourism minister

Thomson ReutersMay 15, 2013 13:59

By Amena Bakr DUBAI (Reuters) - Islamist-ruled Egypt is open to visitors who drink alcohol and wear bikinis as it sets out to boost numbers by at least a fifth this year, the tourism minister said on Sunday. Tourism is a pillar of the Egyptian economy but has suffered since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and set off two years of periodic rioting and instability.

Prosecutors bid to extend jail term for Canadian held in Mauritania

The Canadian PressMay 14, 2013 10:47

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - Prosecutors in Mauritania are seeking to lengthen to 10 years the sentence of a Canadian man already imprisoned on alleged links to terror groups, a judicial official said Tuesday. Aaron Yoon, 24, was convicted last July on charges of having ties to a terrorist group and of posing a danger to national security and sentenced to two years.

Mubarak appears in fresh trial over protester deaths

Agence France-PresseMay 11, 2013 06:30

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak appeared in court on Saturday to face a new trial for complicity in the murder of hundreds protesters during the 2011 uprising, as well as for corruption. The 85-year-old Mubarak, who was taken into court in a wheelchair dressed in white and wearing sunglasses, is on trial along with his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, and six security chiefs. He also faces corruption charges with his two sons, Alaa and Gamal. All defendants pleaded "not guilty" to the charges levelled against them.

Tear gas fired as Egyptian Islamists target security HQ

Thomson ReutersMay 7, 2013 10:49

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces fired tear gas to disperse a small group of hardline Islamist protesters who were attempting to scale the walls of the state security headquarters in a Cairo suburb late Thursday night. Around 2,000 protesters from several Salafi Islamist groups had staged a protest earlier on Thursday night outside the security headquarters against what they said was a return to the force's pre-revolution methods.

Football: Sudan to host regional football tournament

Agence France-PresseMay 6, 2013 09:45

Sudan's war-torn regions of Darfur and South Kordofan will host next month's Cecafa Club Cup football championships, with at least 13 teams due to travel to the rebel-hit regions, officials said Monday. "We are looking forward to staging the tournament there between June 18 and July 2," said Cecafa secretary Nicholas Musonye, who led a fact-finding team to the region last week to inspect the facilities. "The two states are very determined they will organise a very successful event," he told AFP, speaking in Nairobi, the Cecafa's headquarters.

Search ends for 100 Sudan miners believed dead

Agence France-PresseMay 4, 2013 07:15

The search for about 100 workers believed to have died inside a collapsed gold mine in Sudan's Darfur region has ended after nine rescuers also became trapped, a colleague of the miners said on Saturday. No one has been found alive. "Today the searching has stopped because it was too dangerous," the man said from the scene of the tragedy in Jebel Amir district, more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of the North Darfur state capital El Fasher.

Algeria attack kills three auxiliary police

Agence France-PresseApril 28, 2013 23:31

Three Algerian auxiliary policemen were killed Sunday in what a security official called a "terrorist" attack, a term authorities use to refer to armed Islamists, the APS news agency said. The three had just quit work in the Tipaza region some 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of the capital Algiers and were going home when the attack occurred, the unnamed official told APS, declining to give further details.

Tunisia court review of jail terms for cartoons suspended

Agence France-PresseApril 25, 2013 18:00

Tunisia's highest court failed on Thursday to review, as expected, the jail terms given to two men for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, their lawyer said, creating confusion in a controversial case. "I was surprised to discover that the court has not acted because the demand for an appeal was mysteriously withdrawn," Ahmed Mselmi told AFP. He said he intended to "investigate what could have happened to cancel the appeal," insisting that the Court of Cassation hearing had been fixed for April 25.

Tunisia court reviews jail terms for Prophet cartoons

Agence France-PresseApril 25, 2013 07:16

Tunisia's Court of Cassation was on Thursday reviewing the jail terms of two young men for posting cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed on the Internet, a case that has angered the secular opposition. "I am at the court, the hearing is about to begin. After the hearing, I will make known the progress of the case," defence lawyer Ahmed Mselmi told AFP. Jabbeur Mejri and his co-defendant Ghazi Beji, who fled abroad, were sentenced in a closed hearing in March 2012 to seven and half years in jail for "publishing works likely to disturb public order" and "offence to public decency."