Malian government says war will be over soon

The Malian government has predicted that the war against rebels in the north will be over in a matter of days after government troops recaptured another town and advanced on the rebel stronghold of Gao.

Malian troops reached the town of Hombori, 100 miles south of Gao, on Thursday following a series of French air strikes against militant targets, officials said.

Sources said the army – which was driven out from the north of the country last March – retook the central town of Douentza on Monday.

"We are winning very rapidly," Manga Dembélé, Mali's communications minister, told the Guardian on Friday. "We are making quick progress." He added: "The rebels have been dispersed. We expect this to be finished in days."

For nearly two weeks, French aircraft have bombarded rebel positions, vehicles and stores in the centre and north of Mali as a ground force of African troops assembles to launch a UN-backed military intervention.

On Thursday, around 160 troops from Burkina Faso deployed in the dusty central Malian town of Markala – the first west African troops to link up with French and Malian forces. France has some 2,150 troops on the ground.

The French have repeatedly warned that the Islamist enclave in north Mali could be a launchpad for attacks on Europe and Africa. Western powers, including the US and Britain, have provided air transport and surveillance for the mission but are not planning to contribute combat forces.

On Friday, Dembélé said Mali would welcome more troops from any friendly country, including Britain. "All friends of Mali are welcome," he said.

France has said it will stay as long as needed in Mali, a former French colony. However, it has called for African nations to take the lead in fortifying the Malian army's efforts.

There are about 1,750 troops from countries in the region, including Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Senegal, Niger and Chad.

The Malian army, however, has been accused of committing retaliatory violence against civilians who appear to be northerners or those with suspected links to Islamists.

A French-based human rights group, the International Federation for Human Rights, or FIDH by its French acronym, charges that Malian forces have been behind about 33 killings since fighting erupted on 10 January.

The Malian army captain Modibo Traore called the allegations "completely false" but declined to comment further. A government statement issued on Thursday called on the military to respect human rights, saying "the army should be irreproachable".

Human rights groups have long expressed concerns about retaliatory violence against northern Malians or anyone seen as having ties to the Islamists, whose capture of the north has divided the country in two.

Meanwhile, the west African regional bloc known as Ecowas said it was organising an emergency session of defence chiefs from the 15 countries that make up the group. The gathering on Saturday will be held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

FIFA official Jerome Valcke: 'Match-fixing is a soccer disease'

Match-fixing is a "disease" that could kill football, a top official at the sport's world governing body told CNN on Wednesday.

Earlier this month FIFA handed lifetime bans to 41 South Korean players who had been involved in prearranging matches.

It followed December's suspension of the president of the South African Football Association ahead of an investigation into match-fixing in the country prior to it hosting the 2010 World Cup.

"I really think that it's a disease and a threat which is on a worldwide basis," FIFA's general secretary Jerome Valcke told CNN in an exclusive interview."It's not just about Africa. It is in Asia, it is in Europe, it is in North America, it is in Canada, it is in South America. It's all around the world that this match-fixing, or match manipulation, is active."Valcke was speaking after European football chief Michel Platini branded match-fixing the greatest threat to the future of football in an interview with a French radio station.

Platini had warned that football is "dead" if the outcome of matches is prearranged, a statement Valcke echoed by saying the appeal of the sport lies in its unpredictability.

"If you know the end of the party, of the game, then definitely football is dead," he said. "That's the beauty of the game, you never know who will be the winner.

"It can be the team you think would win, but it can also be the other team, the opponent who can make it because it's just played on one goal. So that's why we have to protect football as much as we can."

Valcke warned that the fight against the highly lucrative match-fixing business could take 10 years, and urged anyone with knowledge of such activity to come forward.In May 2011 FIFA announced it would donate over $25 million to Interpol over 10 years -- the largest grant the world police organization had ever received from a private body -- with a view to tackling corruption.

"When I was in Rome where we had this meeting with Interpol and 50 of the 53 of the European associations, I heard that the business of match manipulation per year is around 100 billion. I don't know it is in Euros or U.S. (dollars), but whatever, it is 100 billion, it's an amazing figure," Valcke said.

"I think it will be a very, very long fight and it will be very difficult to win. And if we want to win, it is all together. Also I told some media in South Africa, if you are aware of anything you should tell us. We have to fight all.

"All the people who love football should be together towards match-fixing. But it will not be a fight of one day as we have other fights which have been there already. And match manipulation will be another fight that will be there for the next decade."

Former Interpol director Ralf Mutschke replaced FIFA's former head of security Chris Eaton -- who joined a Qatar-based sports security consultancy -- in June last year, tasked with tackling the scourge of match-fixing.

In the past FIFA's own governance has been questioned. Corruption watchdog Transparency International cut its ties with the body in 2011 when two of its recommendations -- that the investigator charged with overseeing FIFA would be compromised if he was paid by FIFA and that he should be allowed to investigate old corruption scandals -- were dropped.

"There is no limit in what we have to do in order to make sure we can eradicate match-fixing one day in our game," Valcke said. "Or at least to make sure that match-fixing is not a threat anymore to our game."

Terrorists Taunt France After Failed Rescue Mission

Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Africa today posted gruesome pictures of a man they said was a French commando killed in a failed operation to rescue a French intelligence agent overnight Friday.

The pictures, released via Twitter by the Somalia-based terror group al-Shabaab, show a white male in a dark blue shirt and camouflage pants surrounded by military gear and weapons. The shirt is covered in blood and the man appears to be dead. As a caption for one photo that shows the man's crucifix necklace, al-Shabaab tweeted, "A return of the crusades, but the cross could not save him from the sword."

In another tweet, al-Shabaab showed a picture of the man and addressed the French president directly: "Francois Hollande, was it worth it?"

The raid was meant to free "Denis Allex," the pseudonym of an agent of the French foreign intelligence service DGSE who was kidnapped in Somalia in July 2009.

Late Saturday, Hollande acknowledged that two French soldiers had been killed in the operation and that it was likely that Allex was executed by his captors. Hollande offered his condolences to the families of the dead but said the operation "confirms France's determination not to give in to the blackmail of terrorists."

Today al-Shabaab put out a press release claiming it had killed "several" French commandoes, but that Allex was still alive. The group said it had "reached a verdict" on what to do with him and would announce it in coming hours.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday that the raiding party slipped secretly into the area but was met with "very strong resistance" on the ground and "very violent combat ensued." In addition to the French casualties, Le Drian said 17 terrorists were killed.

President Obama revealed Sunday that U.S. military forces had been involved in the mission, providing "limited technical support." Obama was required to notify Congress of the action, since it amounted to a deployment of U.S. military personnel, and released the notification letter to the public. U.S. aircraft "briefly entered Somali airspace to support the rescue operation, if needed," but did not use their weapons, the letter said.

Al-Shabaab formally allied itself with al Qaeda in February 2012, but that didn't stop African forces from handing the terror group a series of military defeats in Somalia, eventually pushing them out of all major urban areas in the East African nation.