Mali’s military abandons isolated outposts amid attacks

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Dozens of soldiers posted to Mali’s remote northern town of Labezanga served as the last line of defense against extremists roaming the surrounding desert. Then one evening earlier this month the military pulled up stakes and left, part of a reorganization following a wave of...

The barrier-breaking ‘Atlantics’ heralds Mati Diop’s arrival

NEW YORK (AP) — Mati Diop has always lived in Paris but as a French-Senegalese woman whose family is from Dakar, she’s long been acutely conscious of another, unlived existence for herself in Africa. And it’s there that her life as a filmmaker has largely resided. Diop spent nine months in...

Oil tankers ‘go dark’ off Venezuela to evade US sanctions

MIAMI (AP) — In May, after pulling out of a Chinese shipyard for repairs, a giant oil tanker set out on a perilous journey. Dialing in “Caribbean” on a mandatory tracking system, the captain of the Liberia-flagged vessel headed west. Then, weeks later, as it neared Venezuelan waters, the VL...

UN chief: Terrorists strengthen foothold in Africa’s Sahel

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that terrorist groups have strengthened their foothold across Africa’s Sahel region, which is experiencing escalating violence. The U.N. chief said in a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Wednesday that the expanding...

Gambia truth hearings grip nation as past atrocities emerge

BANJUL, Gambia (AP) — The confessions stop people short in Gambia’s sunbaked streets, drawing crowds to radios crackling with accounts of atrocities that are only now coming to light. Murders. Rapes. Beatings. For more than two decades the citizens of this tiny West African nation knew life was...

Mali says several extremists dead in new military offensive

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Mali's government says several extremists have been killed after the army launched a large-scale offensive in parts of the central Mopti region. The government said Monday that soldiers have found identity cards of several nationalities. It said the operation is being carried out with...

Myanmar accused at UN court of genocide against Rohingya

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Myanmar was accused Monday of genocide at the U.N.'s highest court for its campaign against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority, as lawyers asked the International Court of Justice to urgently order measures "to stop Myanmar's genocidal conduct immediately." Gambia filed...

Gambia files case at highest UN court accusing Myanmar of genocide in its campaign against the Rohingya minority

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Gambia files case at highest UN court accusing Myanmar of genocide in its campaign against the Rohingya minority.

1 vs 2: LSU-Alabama is big, but loser still could make CFP

All eyes are on LSU-Alabama this week. It's the first matchup of Nos. 1 and 2 teams in The Associated Press Top 25 since the Tigers and Crimson Tide met in 2011. LSU and Alabama are 2-3 behind Ohio State, and ahead of Penn State, in the first College Football Playoff rankings released this week. The stakes in...

China hands Japanese politician life in prison in drug case

BEIJING (AP) — A court in southern China sentenced an elderly former Japanese politician to life in prison Friday for smuggling drugs in shoes packed inside a suitcase he was trying to take to his home country. A man from Mali was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and a Guinean received a life...