Sudan Sudanese security forces arrested Egyptian female journalist Shima Adel on Tuesday. Adel, who works for Al Watan newspaper, was arrested in a café along with a female Sudanese journalist and a female activist. She was released soon afterwards. The spokesperson of the Sudanese embassy in Cairo explained to Al Watan newspaper that Adel had been momentarily detained in a “routine investigation to verify the authenticity of her license." Adel is not the first Egyptian journalist to face arrest while covering the Sudanese protests. Salma Al-Wardani, a Bloomberg correspondent was also arrested by Sudanese forces and deported when she refused to cease coverage of the protests, according to Ahram Online. Mali Islamist militant group, “Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa" (MUJAO), planted land mines around the north Malian city of Gao, in an attempt to keep Tuareg rebels out of the city, according to the BBC. In recent clashes, MUJAO, working with the Islamist group Ansar Dine, has driven Tuareg rebels out of the major northern cities of Gao, Timbuktu, and Kidal. Since taking the cities, the militants have been attacking ancient shrines and mausoleums in the area, claiming that these Sufi religious sites contravene Shari'a law. The two groups united in March to take advantage of the military coup and declare the independence of the north. Yet, since then, there have been continuous clashes between the secular NMLA Tuareg rebels and the Islamist Ansar Dine, and MUJAO, in regards to imposing Islamic Shari'a on the conquered cities. France Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy's home and office were both searched on Tuesday, amid accusations that he received illegal donations for his 2007 presidential campaign. Claims suggest that the former French president received EUR 150,000 illegally from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt , France's richest woman. French laws limit the individual contributions for presidential campaigns to EUR 4,600. Losing the presidential elections against Francois Hollande, Sarkozy's presidential immunity expired on 16 June. Sarkozy, who's currently in Canada, vehemently denied the accusations. Bahrain The head of the Bahrain Centre for Human rights, Nabil Ragab, announced on Wednesday the failure of an initiative by Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Gaber Al-Sabah, Kuwait's Emir, to sponsor reconciliation between the Bahraini authorities and the opposition. Ragab said it was Bahraini authorities who had refused the reconciliation, after it was approved by the opposition. The news comes amid the escalating Bahraini hostility, from both Bahraini authorities as well as Parliament, against any foreign intervention in Bahraini affairs.
