Mali

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A French airman (center) talks with British military personnel at the French army base in Evreux, 56 miles north of Paris, on Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, before the takeoff the British C17 transport plane en route to Mali. British military equipment was readied for deployment in Mali on Monday as international intervention in the African country increased following advances in the north by Islamic extremists with reported links to al Qaeda. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

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French soldiers of the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment board a plane for Bamako, the Mali capital, at N'Djamena's airport in Chad on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. The battle to retake Mali's north from the al-Qaeda-linked groups controlling it began in earnest Saturday, after hundreds of French forces deployed to the country and began aerial bombardments to drive back the Islamic extremists from a town seized earlier this week. (AP Photo/ R.Nicolas-Nelson, French Army Communications Audiovisual Office [ECPAD])

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**FILE** Fighters from Islamist group Ansar Dine stand guard Aug. 31, 2012, in Timbuktu, Mali, as they prepare to publicly lash a member of the Islamic Police found guilty of adultery. (Associated Press)

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** FILE ** Fighters from the Islamist group Ansar Dine stand guard in Timbuktu, Mali, on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012, as they prepare to publicly lash a member of the Islamic Police found guilty of adultery. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Women wearing veils, as mandated by Islamist group Ansar Dine, walk along a street in Timbuktu, Mali, on Oct. 18, 2012. (Associated Press

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In this still frame made from video provided by ORTM Mali TV, Mali's Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra resigns during a broadcast on state television from Bamako, Mali, on Dec. 11, 2012, hours after soldiers who led a recent coup burst into his home and arrested him. (Associated Press)

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Malians opposed to foreign military intervention to retake Mali’s terrorist-held north clash with police as they march in the streets of Bamako, the capital, on Sunday. West African nations have agreed to send 3,300 troops to help Mali’s imperiled government recover the north. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Fighters from Islamist group Ansar Dine stand guard Aug. 31, 2012, in Timbuktu, Mali, as they prepare to publicly lash a member of the Islamic Police found guilty of adultery. (Associated Press)

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FILE In this Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 file photo, fighters from Islamist group Ansar Dine stand guard as they prepare to publicly lash a member of the Islamic Police found guilty of adultery, in Timbuktu, Mali. Ordinary Malians and international experts alike are not sure what will reunite and bring back political stability to a country that until recently had a reputation as one of West Africa's most steady democracies. Representatives of the United Nations, the African Union and regional body ECOWAS are to consider the situation on Oct. 19, 2012 in a meeting in Mali's capital, Bamako. (AP Photo, File)

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Two young fighters recite Koranic verses for a journalist, at the request of their Islamist commanders, in Douentza, Mali, late last month. Across northern Mali, Islamists have recruited and paid for as many as 1,000 children from poverty-stricken rural towns and villages, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Interviews provide evidence that a new generation in what was long a moderate and stable Muslim nation is becoming radicalized. (The Associated Press)