Troops from Chad have been sent in to take Kidal, the town in northern Mali that remains under the control of Tuareg separatist rebels, as France seeks to avoid confrontation.
With French forces carrying out air-strikes in preparation for an advance on Kidal, it remains unclear if the remote town is under the control of jihadists or Tuareg separatists.
Amid music and celebration in northern Mali since a French-led advance swept the jihadists from power, come growing reports of Tuareg and Arab residents forced to flee in reprisals.
In a mission slated to last two weeks, US Air Force C-17 transport planes are ferrying troops and material from France to Mali for the offensive against jihadist rebels.
With French troops fighting on the ground in Mali, jihadist militias advance on the capital, while Tuareg rebels pledge to re-establish a separatist state in the north.
France carried out air-strikes against Islamist rebels in Mali, helping government forces halt a drive southward by the militants who control the country’s desert north.
Kurdish activists charge that “dark forces” bent on sabotaging Turkey’s peace talks with the PKK were behind the armed attack that left three leaders dead in Paris.
Rebels who have taken up arms again in the Central African Republic’s south, accusing the regime of not honoring peace accords, have seized several towns in the south.
Military experts from Africa, the United Nations and Europe have drafted plans to retake control of northern Mali, as West African nations prepare a request for armed intervention.
A “European Day of Action and Solidarity against Austerity” marked the first time strike action was held simultaneously across four countries: Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal.
A right-wing "Identity Group" seized a mosque in Poitiers, issuing a "declaration of war" against the "Islamization" of France—weeks after a bomb attack on a kosher shop in Paris.
The new Socialist president of France, François Hollande, is emulating his reactionary predecessor Sarkozy in his response to a new uprising by immigrant youth.
