Mali | featured news

Mali's new interim president took office Thursday, returning the country to constitutional rule three weeks after mutinous soldiers overthrew the nation's democratically elected leader in a coup.

President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali formally resigns as part of a deal with coup leaders to end the crisis gripping the west African state.

Mali's coup leader said on Saturday the junta would hand power to an interim government within days in a deal with neighboring nations in return for an end to sanctions and help in tackling Malian rebels who have seized much of the north.

Mali is on the brink of a major humanitarian disaster following a coup and rebellion in the north, Amnesty International says.

The leader of a military coup in Mali, Amadou Sanogo, appeared on television on Saturday to say he was alive and well, denying rumors that he had been killed in a counter-coup days after seizing power.

Soldiers looted the presidential palace Thursday of one of the few established democracies in this corner of Africa, hours after ousting Mali's president just one month before he was due to step down at the end of his legal term....