REBEL forces in the northern Mali city of Kidal claimed on May 22nd to have defeated government forces as well as African UN and French troops. Dozens have died and other towns may have fallen to the rebels as well or are endangered. A few days earlier the government had dispatched 2,000 barely-trained soldiers 1,500 km from Bamako, the capital, to the troubled region around Kidal following an earlier armed standoff during a visit by the prime minister. They met an about equal number of ethnic Tuareg rebels, who may have been aided by jihadists.
Mali's instability: Northern exposure (The Economist) →
ON May 16th, as the showers known as mango rains arrived, Mali's new prime minister, Moussa Mara, announced that he would tour Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao.
Bursting HIV's bubble (The Economist) →
CURRENT treatments for HIV infection work by stopping the virus from reproducing in cells it has infected. But there may be a better way, namely stopping those cells getting infected in the first place.
We get old, just like anyone else (The Economist) →
WHEN Gary Payne and Dick Dehn met in New York City in 1957, they could not have known they would still be together 54 years later. Back then, according to Gary, a "long-term relationship" between men meant two weeks.
Bear bar (The Economist) →
THE Playwright Tavern is across the street from the Barclays Capital building, on 49th St and 7th Avenue in Manhattan. Barclays' building used to belong to Lehman Brothers; when Lehman filed for bankruptcy and Barclays purchased the company last September, the animated LED screens that wrap the building adopted their new owner's name and colours.