PARIS (Reuters) – West African nations will seek a U.N. Security Council mandate for military intervention in Mali where rising Islamist militancy has made the country an international security threat, Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou said on Monday.

“ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) has decided to refer to the Security Council with the objective of sending an armed force to Mali,” Issoufou told a news conference after meeting French President Francois Hollande in Paris.

PARIS (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday he was ready to hold dialogue with Israel if it freed prisoners and re-armed his police, but there could be no full peace talks without a freeze on West Bank settlements.

“We recently told them that if Israel accepted to free prisoners and allow us to re-arm the police then we would again sit at the same table as Netanyahu,” Abbas said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

PARIS (Reuters) – Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou said on Thursday that Afghan and Pakistani jihadis were training recruits for Islamist groups in northern Mali, the latest sign it is slipping into terrorist hands.

Speaking before a meeting with new French President Francois Hollande next week, Issoufou told France 24 that talks to reach a peaceful solution in Mali continued, but a United Nations Security Council resolution to allow military intervention would be a necessity if they failed.

PARIS (Reuters) – Niger’s President Mahamadou Issofou said on Thursday that Afghan and Pakistani jihadis were training recruits for Islamist groups in northern Mali, the latest sign it is slipping into terrorist hands.

Speaking before a meeting with new French President Francois Hollande next week, Issofou told France 24 that talks to reach a peaceful solution in Mali continued, but a United Nations Security Council resolution to allow military intervention would be a necessity if they failed.

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s new president, Francois Hollande, failed to win the backing of Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Friday for tougher U.N. sanctions aimed at ending violence in Syria.

Outrage at last week’s mass killings in the Syrian town of Houla prompted France to join several Western nations in stepping up pressure on Syria by expelling senior diplomats and calling on Russia to allow tougher action by the U.N. Security Council.

PARIS (Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday he did not expect talks next month with six world powers in Moscow on Iran’s nuclear program to yield any major breakthroughs, but hoped to improve confidence between the two sides.

The six powers – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – failed to persuade Tehran on May 23 to halt its most sensitive nuclear work, but they will meet again in Moscow on June 18-19 to try to end a stand-off that has raised fears of a new war that could threaten global oil supplies.

PARIS (Reuters) – The African Union plans to refer the situation in Mali to the United Nations Security Council so that it can create a framework for tackling the worsening crisis there, a diplomatic source close to the AU president said on Wednesday.

Mali, once regarded as a fine example of African democracy, collapsed into chaos after soldiers toppled the president in March, leaving a power vacuum in the north that enabled rebels to take control of nearly two-thirds of the country.

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Francois Hollande said he would try to convince Russia to back U.N. Security Council sanctions against Syria after he stepped up pressure on Damascus by announcing the expulsion of its ambassador on Tuesday.

Hollande, who will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris on Friday, said last week’s killing of more than 108 people in the Syrian town of Houla, near Hama, meant it was now time for stronger measures against Damascus.

CHICAGO May 20 (Reuters) – New French president Francois
Hollande likes to style himself as “Mr. Normal,” but his sudden
debut on the global stage this week has been anything but.

From the Oval Office to a meeting of G8 leaders at the Camp
David presidential retreat to the NATO summit in Chicago,
Hollande, a life-long party official who has never held a
ministerial post, sometimes looked as though he were trying the
role of international summiteer on for size.

CHICAGO, May 20 (Reuters) – NATO leaders charting a path out
of Afghanistan sought on Sunday to dispel fears of a rush for
the exits in the unpopular war even as France’s new president
vowed to stick by his pledge to withdraw French troops by year’s
end.

President Barack Obama, who once called the Afghan conflict
a “war of necessity” but is now looking for an orderly way out,
hosted the NATO summit in his home town, Chicago, a day after
major industrialized nations tackled a European debt crisis that
threatens the global economy.