NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 09, 2012

Q: After seizing the historic city of Timbuktu, Mali’s Tuareg rebels last week declared the independence of their "Azawad" nation in northern Mali. Where is Mali on this map?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Timbuktu has come to represent "the most distant place imaginable," according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It lies at the edge of what great desert?

A. Antarctic

B. Sahara

C. Gobi

D. Mojave

B. The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert and second largest desert, after Antarctica. It covers most of northern Africa, and with 3.6 million square miles it is almost as large as the United States or China.

Q: Timbuktu was founded by Tuareg nomads in the 12th Century and became an immensely wealthy city located at the center of important trading routes for salt and gold. Locals also considered Timbuktu a holy city for . . .

A. Jews

B. Buddhists

C. Christians

D. Muslims

D. Mali is 90 percent Muslim. The first European to visit Timbuktu and return was Frenchman Rene Caillie, who went there in 1830 disguised as a Muslim. A Scot, Alexander Gordon Laing, beat Caillie to Timbuktu by four years but is thought to have been murdered before he could leave.

Q: The traditionally nomadic Tuareg people have been fighting for independence for the northern half of Mali since at least 1958, when they asked their colonial rulers for a separate homeland called Azawad. Mali was a colony of which nation?

A. Belgium

B. Britain

C. France

D. Germany

C. The Sudanese Republic and Senegal became independent of France in 1960 as the Mali Federation. When Senegal withdrew after only a few months, what formerly made up the Sudanese Republic was renamed Mali. France has said it does not recognize the new Tuareg state.

Q: The military chiefs of 13 of Mali’s neighbors met last week to plan for a military intervention to push back the Tuareg rebels, as well as to restore constitutional rule in Mali after last month's military coup. The leaders met in the nation on Mali's southern border, Cote d' . . .

A. Ivoire

B. Faso

C. Or

D. Armor

A. Cote d'Ivoire also is known as the Ivory Coast. It also gained its independence from France in 1960. It's close ties to France, the development of cocoa production for export and foreign investment made Cote d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the West African states. By contrast, Mali is one of the 25 poorest countries in the world.