The mediator said he had met the kidnappers in northeastern Mali's Timetrine region, a hilly desert area where sources had earlier said the kidnappers had likely moved the hostages from Niger.

Aides to a Malian mediator said they have also been told that Francoise Larribe, 62, who was seized along with her engineer husband Daniel Larribe, is ill.

"The Frenchwoman is sick. We've been told she had been undergone treatment shortly before her kidnapping, but that she needs follow-up care," one of the mediator's aides said.

She underwent chemotherapy shortly before her kidnapping, the sources said.

"The kidnappers said the hostages are alive and well-treated," said the Nigerian mediator.

He added that the "kidnappers are open to any negotiations, and said they will soon make their demand known, but that the fate of the hostages is in the hands of 'all the factions' of AQIM."

"The process started months ago with the arrival of former Islamist prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. But we must add to that, the continued rise of Salafism as a doctrine which is gaining in significance throughout the Spanish geography. Moreover, the threat is seriously affected by the release of jihadist prisoners, not just those who have served time in Spain, but of those who are acquitted following their arrest for acts related to jihadist activity, "says a report by the responsible for fighting terrorism.

Those acquitted by the High Court the report refers to are Spanish national Gonzalo López Royo (aka "salaam1420", above) and Morocccan Fath Allah Sadaqa, arrested by the Guardia Civil after finding that these two men ennobled Islamic jihad over the Internet. The Third Division of the High Court, presided by Judge Alfonso Guevara and speaker Gregorio Ruiz Polanco, recognized as a fact that "the statements made by the two defendants were intended as a tribute to a Chechen guerrilla militant, devoting their website to all Muslims who die and suffer at the hands of the infidels, the desire to transform Spain again in Caliphate (and) their call for jihad and martyrdom (...) The accused Fath Allah Sadaqa uploaded to Youtube two videos, one with reference to three leaders of Al Qaeda, and another image of an attack against a U.S. vehicle in Iraq. "
The resolution of last June 21st, resolved to acquit both accused of "the crime of praising terrorism and contempt for the victims of terrorism with all the inherent favorable pronouncements such absolution has" . 

Judge Santiago Pedraz yesterday released Dehbi Mohamed Omar, a US citizen of Algerian origin, was arrested Monday in Esplugues (Barcelona), accused of funding Al Qaeda.

The magistrate heard evidence and accepted his explanation: that there were no recorded movements in his bank accounts which could prove that he has funded Islamic terrorism. The judge takes into account that banks "have not informed, despite their legal obligation" about those movements. Also the detainee admitted that he had known Taufik Mizi, wanted for collaborating with Al Qaeda, for nearly25 years and lent him €1,600 to buy clothes. He added that he severed all relations with him when he learned about Mizi's terrorist links. Despite these statements, the Judge has however imposed Dehbi the obligation of presenting himself daily in a police station and has forbidden him to go abroad.

A tape released Thursday on a jihadist forum shows the first images of a group of hostages including five French citizens since they were seized two weeks ago in Niger by an al-Qaida offshoot and taken into the desert.

The four-minute tape shows still images of the hostages sitting cross-legged in the sand with a gently sloping dune behind them. French officials believe the seven hostages are now in the bordering West African nation of Mali.

Debhi Mohammed Omar

National Police agents have arrested a person for his alleged links to international terrorism. The arrest took place yesterday at 12 noon at the Street Ronda in Canigó Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona), when Debhi Mohamed Omar, the suspected terrorist, left his home. He is a 43-year-old of Algerian origins and US nationality.

Investigations have linked him to crimes of terrorist funding in the Sahel for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and crimes of fraud to the Spanish Public Finance and Social Security, and forgery.

The arrest comes after an investigation conducted by the General Information Office and coordinated by the Central Court of Instruction No. 1 of the National Court.

According to police investigations, Debhi Mohamed Omar sent significant amounts of money, either by bank transfer or by human couriers, to an Algerian citizen living in his country, named Toufik Mizi, who is fleeing the Spanish judiciary since 2006 for allegedly belonging to a terrorist organization.

The two suspected terrorists had ties since 2003 and Debhi Omar's activity consisted mainly in bleaching and sending part of the money obtained to Algerian AQIM cells, hiding under the cover of fictious trade.

The money, in quantities that exceeded €60,000, was sent to Toufik Mizi, allowing its subsequent delivery to AQIM cells to optimize the purchase of material used in their terrorist activities.

In the house where the searches were performed, police have seized three laptop computers, hard drives, invoices and companies' constitution documents and numerous banking documents and other related research. It has also involved a luxury car and a pleasure boat, which he had anchored in Badalona's port.

The detainee lives in a residential community of 180 townhouses in the highlands of this dormitory town next to Barcelona. The development has communal areas such as gardens, swimming pool and gym, which the detainee and his family never used.

Debhi Omar Mohamed, a U.S. national of Algerian origins, aged 43, is married with six sons and daughters, some children still and some others teenagers. Some of them reside in the United States. The rest follow his studies at the American school near the estate. The wife, young-looking and "very beautiful", didn't walk much around the neighborhood because "she didn't leave the house just leave the house often".
The detainee led an "apparently normal" life, although he didn't engage at all with neighbors, according to inhabitants of the estate.
Neighbors describe the family of "rare", so his detention has not shocked anyone. Dehbi hadn't "strange" visiors at home, and he made no suspicious activity.
Debhi Omar and his companion drive expensive cars like a Cadillac Escalade and Cadillac TS, in addition to owning a boat that is moored in Badalona. However, they assure that their home is "austere" and "very simple."

France is ready to negotiate with the al-Qaeda-linked group that holds seven hostages in the Sahara desert, Defense Minister Herve Morin said.

“We are waiting for the demands of al-Qaeda in order to discuss” the matter, Morin said in an interview today with Canal-Plus television.

The hostages, five workers from Vinci SA’s Satom subsidiary and one Areva SA employee and his wife, were kidnapped Sept. 16 in Arlit, near a uranium mine in northern Niger, the companies have said. French officials say they think they’ve been moved to somewhere in Mali. Five of the hostages are French, one is Togolese, and one Madagascan.

Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, a terror group that operates in the southern Sahara desert, has issued two statements claiming the kidnapping.

France has sent two reconnaissance aircraft to Niger to help locate the hostages.

“As in all hostage cases, negotiations are complex, they are difficult, they are uncertain,” Morin said. “I am not more optimistic than yesterday, but I’m not more pessimistic either.”

Agence France-Presse reported over the weekend that an unnamed Malian said he’d seen the hostages, and that they are alive.

Al-Qaeda has warned Paris not to attempt to rescue five French nationals kidnapped by jihadists in Niger, SITE monitoring group said Thursday, as France mobilised its forces to find them.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb posted a statement on jihadist forums in which it said the kidnappings came in the "context of retaliation" promised by AQIM leader Abu Musab Abdul Wadud to France, the US-based group said.

SITE said the statement carried a warning to France that they should not attempt another rescue mission "like they had done for Michel Germaneau" and that the group "will issue their legitimate demands later."

"In the context of retaliation... a group of heroic mujahedeen under the command of Sheikh Abu Zeid, may Allah protect him, were able to break into the French Arlit mining area in Niger," said the statement carried by SITE.

"Despite the tough military stands in the area and the many security cordons, the lions of Islam were able to go through all the guards and kidnap five French nuclear experts working at Areva," it said.

"We also warn of the consequences should they commit any foolish action again, because it will be doomed to fail and they will certainly pay a heavy price."

France authenticated an Al-Qaeda claim to have kidnapped five of its nationals together with a Togolese and a Madagascan in Niger last Thursday, as it awaited the kidnappers' demands.

"We have not received proof of life, but we have good reasons to believe the hostages are alive," French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said after Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility.

Times Live:

Mauritania's air force bombarded Sunday positions held by militants of Al-Qaeda's north African wing in northern Mali, a senior Mauritarian military official told AFP.

"Our army at this moment is pounding the positions of the AQIM terrorists in the north of Mali," said the official at around 1200 GMT, referring to the group known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The action was "in the framework of the fight against bands of terrorists who plague the Saharan-Sahel region, and who threaten the security and stability along Mauritania's border," he said.

The official described the action as a "logical continuation" of an offensive started on Friday and continuing Saturday, which also included aircraft, after a convoy of militants was spotted approaching the Mauritanian border from Mali.

Seven foreign workers were kidnapped near a uranium mining zone in Niger. Five are French and the other two are from Togo and Madagascar, according to the New York Times.
Two of the hostages are an employee of Areva, the French nuclear engineering firm, and his wife, whereas the other five worked for Sogea-Satom, a subsidiary of Vinci that is contracted to Areva in Niger.
Areva and Vinci, as well as Bernard Valero, a French Foreign Ministry spokesperson, have confirmed that the workers were kidnapped kidnapped in Arlit, a town in the northern part of the country, during the night between Wednesday and Thursday. The two companies released a joint statement saying that security around the area has been increased.
“France will do everything to liberate them, as we do each time,” President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters, as quoted by the Times, also noting that the Sahel region is “extremely dangerous.