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Egyptian court grants Hosni Mubarak's appeal of his life sentence, orders retrial
• CAIRO (AP) -- A court granted Hosni Mubarak's appeal of his life sentence in a Sunday hearing, ordering a retrial of the ousted Egyptian president on charges that he failed to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that toppled his regime nearly two years ago.
• The ruling read out by judge Ahmed Ali Abdel-Rahman during a brief hearing also granted the appeal of Mubarak's security chief Habib el-Adly, who is also serving a life sentence after his conviction on the same charges. He too will be retried.
• No date has been set for the start of their retrial.
• The ruling came one day after a prosecutor placed a new detention order on Mubarak over gifts worth millions of Egyptian pounds (hundreds of thousands of US dollars) he and other regime officials allegedly received from Egypt's top newspaper as a show of loyalty while he was in power.
• The public funds prosecutor ordered Mubarak held for 15 days pending the completion of the investigation. Mubarak, 84, was moved to a Cairo military hospital last month after slipping inside a prison bathroom and injuring himself.
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African troops head to Mali as battle for north rages; 11 civilians dead
• BAMAKO, Mali (AP) -- Troops from Mali's neighbors are expected to join hundreds of French soldiers in the battle to push back Islamic extremists holding Mali's north, a fight that in its first two days has left at least 11 civilians dead, including three children who threw themselves into a river and drowned trying to avoid falling bombs.
• Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Nigeria agreed on Saturday to send soldiers, a day after France authorized airstrikes, dispatching fighter jets from neighboring Chad and bombing rebel positions north of Mopti, the last Malian-controlled town.
• State television announced that the African troops, including as many as 500 each from Burkina Faso and Niger, are expected to begin arriving on Sunday. Britain has offered the use of its transport planes in order to help bring in the soldiers, according to a statement released by Prime Minister David Cameron's office in London.
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