After the country's high Islamic Council rejected a proposed new law strengthening women's rights, Mali's president Amadou Toumani Toure has asked Parliament to reconsider the law “to preserve social peace and calm".
Some 50,000 people joined a demonstration in Bamako on Saturday to protest against legislation that would strengthen the rights of women in Mali. Leading imams and Muslim scholars say the new law "violates several articles of faith."
Immigration is one of the biggest challenges facing the EU. Focus goes to Mali, where emigration is increasing, and looks at France, long a destination for immigrants, and Romania, which has become a target since it joined the EU.
Werner Greiner, (left of photo) a Swiss hostage abducted in Niger on January 22, was freed in northern Mali by al Qaeda's north African branch on Sunday, say local authorities. He was the last of six kidnapped Westerners to be freed.
Mali's army has attacked an al Qaeda base near the Algerian border, killing several militants, according to security sources. The operation was believed to be the first attack by Malian troops against Islamist militants in the country's north.
A North African al Qaeda cell released a communiqué stating that it had carried out its threat of killing British hostage Edwen Dyer, who had been kidnapped in Niger. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the act "barbaric".
Two Canadian diplomats, including the UN envoy to Niger, Robert Fowler (photo), have been released along with two of the four European tourists held by al Qaeda's north African wing. Fowler and his aide had been missing since last December.
This week in Africa focuses on African women: those who are helping rebuild Rwanda, those who are fighting violence in South Africa, and a Malian singer who wrote an album about being a woman in Africa.
In this edition: French government efforts to reduce the flow of illegal migrants; the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte votes to become France's 101st department; and re-living Kenya's post-election violence, on cinema screens.
A driver kidnapped along with two Canadian diplomats in Niger last year has been released in Mali, according to a Malian defence ministry official. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb last month claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
