Mali

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** FILE ** Malian troops and soldiers from other African countries train with U.S. Special Forces in the Sahara Desert near the town of Gao in northeastern Mali in May 2010. The United States and other Western militaries are providing help to the Sahara region's weak armies, which face growing threats from al-Qaeda-linked militants and drug traffickers. (AP Photo/Alfred de Montesquiou)

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United States' Landon Donovan protests as Mali's referee Koman Coulibaly shows a yellow card and not a red card to a Slovenian player during the World Cup group C soccer match between Slovenia and the United States at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, June 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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Slovenia's Milivoje Novakovic, center, remonstrates with referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali, second from right, after Slovenia's Zlatan Ljubijankic, bottom, collided with United States' Clint Dempsey, not seen, during the World Cup group C soccer match between Slovenia and the United States at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, June 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

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** FILE ** In this March 18, 2004, file photo Malian soldiers from the 512th Motorised Infantry company complete their training by U.S. Special Forces, top, in the desert near Timbuktu in Mali as part of the U.S. Pan-Sahel Initiative to secure the Sahel region from being used by terrorists. A North African faction, which calls itself Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), is still small and largely isolated, numbering a couple hundred militants based mostly in the vast desert of northern Mali. But there are signs of signs of stepped-up activity in the region. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)