Coup, Mali | featured news

In his first address to the nation since returning from his two-month-long exile, Mali's interim president on Sunday said that he "fully trusts" the army to assure his security, and outlined plans for the transitional government he hopes to lead until new elections can be held.

Perhaps most of all, it was like a bucket of ice water over the heads of Mali's 15.4 million people, who saw two decades of democracy collapse in just a few hours into what is rapidly becoming an ungovernable hole and a haven for al-Qaida-linked terrorists.

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.

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....