Historic documents destroyed by retreating insurgents in Mali

Gone forever are these 12th-century manuscripts from the Centre de Recherches Historiques Ahmed Baba in Timbuktu / Photo by Laura Watilo Blake These delicate pages of text survived for centuries in the dry desert air in Timbuktu, a remote outpost of the Sahara Desert in Mali, which was once a wealthy trading center. Today, the…

Photo contest finalist

My photo of a Tuareg man in Timbuktu, Mali, has been chosen as a finalist in a Travel & Leisure magazine photo contest and I would appreciate your vote by December 31. The magazine leaves it up to the world at large to vote on the finalists. Unfortunately, that means the photos with the most…