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Picture taken from www.naharnet.com

 The couple was placed in two holes and the Islamists stoned them to death 

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The execution came as interim President Dioncounda Traore finalised a unity government which foreign partners have demanded be formed by Tuesday to take decisive action against the jihadists who have cleaved the nation in two.

As politicians grappled for solutions in Bamako and west African capitals, the Al-Qaeda linked Islamists grew bolder, dragging a rural couple to the centre of the town of Aguelhok Sunday for a public stoning.

"I was there. The Islamists took the unmarried couple to the centre of Aguelhok. The couple was placed in two holes and the Islamists stoned them to death," said a local government official on condition of anonymity.

"The woman fainted after the first few blows," he said, adding that the man had shouted out once and then fallen silent.

A second official confirmed the information, saying the couple had two children the youngest of which was six months old.

"They were living in the bush, they were brought to town by the Islamists who stoned them to death. People came out to watch, there were witnesses," he said, also not wishing to be identified.

The small town in the region of Kidal near the Algerian border was one of the first to be captured by Tuareg separatist rebels on January 24.

Some 82 civilians and soldiers were summarily executed during the attack, France said earlier this year, accusing the rebels of using Al-Qaeda style tactics.

The Tuareg rebellion sparked a March coup by angry and overwhelmed soldiers, but the chaos only allowed the desert nomads and Islamists fighting on their flanks to seize the country's north, an area larger than France.

The Islamist groups, which experts say are acting under the aegis of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have since chased out the Tuareg separatists and are firmly in control.

In Timbuktu, they have also implemented strict Islamic law and destroyed ancient World Heritage sites which they consider idolatrous.

Once one of the region's stable democracies, Mali has crumbled into despair in half a year and the interim government which took over from the junta has been powerless in the face of the jihadist occupation.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) wants to send a 3,000-strong military force to Mali but is waiting for United Nations approval and a formal request from a more inclusive government.

Traore on Sunday announced the creation of new bodies tasked with ending the crisis.

In a televised address to the nation, he announced he would be in charge of a High Council of State, lead talks for a unity government himself and create a committee to negotiate with the Islamists.

"Mali will not collapse," Traore said several times during his speech.

ECOWAS had ordered the authorities to form a unity government by July 31 or face sanctions but it reacted positively to Traore's latest measures Monday and said the deadline would be extended.

The 70-year-old was appointed in April as a junta led by Captain Amadou Sanogo which ousted the regime of Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22 handed power to a civilian transition government.

However on May 21 a mob of protesters stormed his office and beat him savagely. He returned Friday from France where he has been recovering since.

The High Council of State is designed to "complete the country's institutional architecture" and "adapt it to socio-political realities."

It will be made up of the interim president and two vice-presidents, one of whom will be in charge of defence and security and handling the crisis in the north. The other will represent the various non-political forces in Mali.

Traore also announced that "neither the president, nor the prime minister, nor the ministers, can run in the next presidential election."

Some observers saw the announcements as a sign Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra was being pushed aside, after key political parties called for his resignation, accusing him of "incompetence and amateurishness"

"It is clear that with the new team, the prime minister's powers are really reduced," Malian sociologist Mamadou Diarra told AFP.

However Communications Minister Hamadoun Toure said this was a "false reading" of the president's speech.

Prime Minister Diarra, who has worked for NASA and was also the Microsoft chairman for Africa, is also seen as too close to the former putschists led by Sanogo.

Comments

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Thu May 23 07:52:58 SAST 2013 ::

Aug 1, 2012

ncagumbuduma

When they greet each other they say "peace be with you". Funny religion.
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Aug 1, 2012

maneater

if they come to SA then the whole country will be stoney!!!
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Aug 1, 2012

Mzabalazo

Religion as a whole is not funny but cruel and controlling . This is just very unreasonable. Islam says Allah is the altimate judge in one of the Surah verses, now if he really is then why do his blood thirsty followers do not let his do the punishment. If he has the power to punish why then his followers take his
Responsibility? Or why is he giving humans the dirty job of killing those who are called 'evil doers'? This proves the fact that he is not capable of executing any punishment, actually he did not even exit, because if he did, he would be stoning the woman herself. Muhammad introduced this ridiculous law amongst others and claimed that a God gave him such cruel laws. This is real shame, when people keep on perpetuating nomadic teachings and claiming that a winged animal like human from heaven brought such laws from a non- existing God
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Aug 1, 2012

Lehido

This guys are a disgrace to the human species
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Aug 1, 2012

DNAambassador

@ncagumbuduma, the actions of a few shouldnt be generalised otherwise we should generalise also Islam is the fastest growing religion by nearly double, if its so funny maybe the millions who revert are missing the punchline. Now go drink in the week, live a loose life then attend your church on Sunday to scream at the top of your voice.

@Mzabalazo you probably follow sangoma's. To criticise religion is childish and immature and shows your ignorance we should blame people who implement the shariah laws, there is almost no country that does it correctly eg to sentence someone to stoning we Islam requires at least 4 witnesses who were present at the time of the act and wat are the chances of people behind closed doors clsing the doors with witnesses, minimal so its nearly impossible to be punished. Now go look for body parts so that you can get that job
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Aug 1, 2012

MommaC

What happened to the children?

Damn but we are fortunate that our Muslim communities in SA don't put up with this nonsense 'extremist' BS. At least they know that you can't do something this brutally wrong in the name of a benign deity
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Aug 1, 2012

Mzabalazo

DNAambassador

What is childish and immature is your reasoning, Islam is baseless and despotic and it has no place in the civilized society. If Islam was moral then Mohammad would not have married a 13yrs old, what kind of person marries a grand child who is not even matured to understand womanhood , and guess what Allah did not ask for him to be stoned. If a person makes an under age person a wife then he cannot be trusted. As for amadlozi worship is just your stereotyping and guess what you got it wrong. Religion is mind controlling it does not allow independent thinking.
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Aug 1, 2012

Mzabalazo

DNAambassador

This is what I mean when I say Islam is just like any religion all about mind controlling.
Check this: Koran 5:90 ...intoxicants and gambling ... Are of Satan's handiwork, but Koran 47:15 Here is a parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised. In it are...revers of wine. My question to you how did Satan manage to introduce his handwork
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Aug 1, 2012

Mzabalazo

DNAambassador

How was a man created? Koran 96:2 Created man, out of a mere clot of congealed blood. In Koran 25:54 Muhammad forgot about the clot, it reads : It is he who has created man fro water... Then it it's clay in Koran 15:26 he created man from sounding clay,Koran 3:59 he created him from dust, then said to him Be and he was. Koran 19:67 But does not man call to mind that we created before out of nothing. Mohammed cannot make up his mind how we were created, this is a joke.
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Aug 1, 2012

DNAambassador

@Mzabalazo again showing your childishness must be ahrd to make friends your age lol 1stly society today is different to society 100 years ago, the intellect of teenagers cannot be compared in the time of Locke, Hobbs 15 year olds were considered leaders in academic findings so imagine 1000 of year ago. Females get their first periods from various ages some as young as 9 this indicates they are women ready for childbirth. Now the prophet saw intellect, reason, leadership in the 13 yr old and he married her to lead to guide the society back then. Now either you battling to comprehend a 13yr old 100 more times intelligent than you or you battling to see women as mother from a young age either way shows you prejeduce. also underage is secualr thing like you need to be 18 to vote etc back then people went accoridng to nature to tel them when marriage is correct justa ask your ancestors also he got married not like people of today eish

Dude we not in a religious class here had we been i would put your Koranic quotes in context, wil also give the original Koran as your is obviously from the USA Koran does not use words as wine etc in general references only in case of bad. Please present proper verses and not come here with an agenda you agent lol
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