Libyan leader Moammar Qadaffi made a big show of boycotting the Mediterranean Union summit in Paris, bashing the new initiative as a "neo-colonial" project to weaken African and Arab unity. (RFE/RL, July 14) But days earlier, France and Libya signed a nuclear cooperation agreement, with Paris pledging to aid Tripoli in the development of "peaceful" nuclear energy and uranium exploration. Over the past year, Over the past year, France has signed similar agreements with Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. (World Nuclear News, July 11)

The New York Times scored a media coup July 1 with a front-page story on the revival Algeria's Islamist militant underground following its transformation into an al-Qaeda franchise, "Ragtag Insurgency Gains a Lifeline From Al Qaeda." The front-page story featured an interview (carried out by an intermediary using a tape recorder) with Abdelmalek Droukdal, who in 2004 "sent a secret message" to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia," resulting in "what one firsthand observer describes as a corporate merger." The fruit of this union was "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb," which has since been wracking up high-profile attacks in Algeria. But many in Algeria are furious at the Times now, deeming the account free advertising for the terror franchise.

Two bombs exploded June 8 at the Beni Amrane rail station in Boumerdès wilaya, just east of Algiers, killing 12, including fire-fighters, soldiers, an engineer from the French water engineering company Razel, and his Algerian driver. A third bomb was successfully disarmed, authorities said. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but this is the second time Razel has been targeted. Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the first blast last September, when three Razel employees, a driver and five police escorts were injured when a bomb targeted their vehicle in the Koudiet Asaserdoune area of Lakhdaria. Responding to the new bombings, French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika his "unwavering support in the determined struggle against terrorism."

The New York Times deigns to cover the conflict in Western Sahara (which the paper calls "nearly forgotten"—true enough, thanks in large part to the "newspaper of record") June 4—on the occasion of a Washington press affair featuring former residents of the Polisario Front's refugee camps in Algeria, who complained bitterly of authoritarianism and corruption by the camp's administrators. Dissidents are persecuted and international aid shunted to the black market by Polisario commissars, they said. The refugees, now receiving Moroccan aid in occupied Western Sahara, were generally circumspect about what political future they supported for the territory—but one openly said "We would like the Western Sahara to remain part of Morocco, of course." Only towards the end of the piece are we told the press affair was organized by the Moroccan American Center for Policy—loaning credence to Polisario Washington representative Mouloud Said's gripe to the Times: "These people are brought by the Moroccan public relations companies here, so they have to mislead."

A group of tribal elders sent by Libya has offered to serve as mediators in resolving the Tuareg rebellion in Niger. In a meeting with Niger's President Mamadou Tandja on Wednesday, the association of elders expressed its "will to contribute to peace" in the north of the country, a source told AFP.

Tuaregs flee MaliSeveral hundred civilians fleeing fighting between the army and Tuareg rebels in northern Mali have crossed the border into Burkina Faso since April. Over 300, mostly women and children, have been registered by the Burkina Faso National Commission for Refugees (CONAREF) in Ouagadougou, where they are being sheltered in locker rooms at the football stadium. A further 600 are setting up makeshift shelters in Djibo, some 50 kilometers from the Mali border. "The number of refugees arriving and claiming asylum is increasing," CONAREF official Kogda Der told the UN news agency IRIN.

Mali is sending army reinforcements to the desert North after attacks by Tuareg guerillas on several army posts left one dead May 6. A military base in Diabaly was attacked by rebels who made off with army supplies. (AFP, May 6) The new attacks began May 3 when Mali's army said it killed four Tuareg rebels after they attacked a military convoy. Authorities called it the first clash since an April 3 ceasefire brokered in Libya. (Reuters, May 3) In late April, Niger's parliament passed a tough new anti-terrorism law in response to the insurgency. (Reuters Africa, April 20)

A Feb. 1 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania and two other high-profile attacks since December have thrown into question the African republic's democratic opening. In the latest attack, the façade of the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott, that capital, was sprayed with machine-gun fire in the early hours of the morning. Guards returned fire and three people leaving a nearby nightclub were wounded. In December, four French tourists and three Mauritanian soldiers were shot dead by men accused of belonging to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Many in Mauritania say the attacks indicate a radicalization of society since a reformist coup in a 2005 ended harsh military rule. "Religious sentiment in Mauritania has become much stronger [since the coup], similar now to many Arab countries," said Professor Yahya Ould Al-Bara, an anthropologist at the University of Nouakchott. (IRIN, Feb. 1)