Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Ebilmaali, editor-in-chief of the independent daily "Akhbar Nouakchott", was freed on 21 May 2005 after being held for three days. Following his release, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the police wanted him to show them the hiding place of Jemil Ould Mansour, an Islamist opposition leader he had recently interviewed.

The government of Mauritania has awarded its ministers a whopping six-fold pay increase in an attempt to clamp down on top level corruption as the West African country waits for its first offshore oilfields to come on stream later this year, officials said on Monday. They confirmed recent reports in the local media that 26 government ministers had been awarded a 633 percent pay rise to 950.000 Ouguiya (US$3,620), backdated to January.

The Mauritanian government has arrested Saleh Ould Hanenna, the mastermind of last year's military uprising against President Maaouiya Ould Taya, who had been on the run for 16 months. Ould Hanenna was the mastermind of a failed coup attempt on 8 June 2003 which led to two days of heavy fighting in the capital Nouakchott before forces loyal to Ould Taya regained control.

The Mauritanian government has announced that it has foiled a fresh coup plot and has once more accused Burkina Faso and Libya of supporting disaffected soldiers seeking to overthrow President Maaouiya Ould Taya. This is the third time in 15 months that the authorities claim to have foiled an attempted coup against Ould Taya. The former army colonel himself seized power in this desert nation of 2.8 million people through a coup in 1984.

Sghaira Mint Tesh does not remember the long-ago day she became the property of Arab slave owners. She does not know her exact age, or that of the infant daughter she cradles in her arms. The northwest African country of Mauritania outlawed slavery in 1981, but, despite government denials it still exists and anti-slavery groups say the practice remains widespread.