Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is bordered by Algeria to the north, Niger to the east, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire to the south, Guinea to the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania to the west. Its size is just over 1,24... Explore this topic

Islamism is a set of ideologies holding that "Islam should guide social and political as well as personal life". Islamism is a controversial neologism, and definitions of it sometimes vary. Leading Islamist thinkers emphasize the implementation of Sharia; of pan-Islamic politi... Explore this topic

Sharia is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia deals with many topics addressed by secular law, including crime, politics, and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, and fasting. Though interpretations of sharia v... Explore this topic

Jihadism is a controversial term to describe the renewed focus on armed jihad in Islamic fundamentalism. Jihadism emerged in the 1960s, with roots in the late 19th and early 20th century ideological developments of Islamic revivalism, developed into Qutbism and related ideolog... Explore this topic

In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority. This may be done for ransom or in furtherance of another crime, or in connection wi... Explore this topic

West Africa, also called Western Africa and the West of Africa, is the westernmost region of the African continent. Explore this topic

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers six percent of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. With 1.0 billion people, it accounts for about 15% of... Explore this topic

Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved. In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence. Julius Caesar was captured by pirates near the island of ... Explore this topic

Reuters is an international news agency headquartered in London, United Kingdom and a division of Thomson Reuters. Until 2008, the Reuters news agency formed part of an independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data. Since the acquis... Explore this topic