Coup leader-turned-politician General Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz has been declared winner of Saturday's presidential elections by Mauritania’s Interior Ministry. His main rivals, former parliamentary speaker Messaoud Ould Boulkheir and veteran opposition figure Ahmed Ould Daddah have rejected the results as "prefabricated, meant to legitimise the coup that brought General Aziz to power."

Nine candidates are competing for the presidency in Mauritania, in a campaign that runs from July 2nd through the polls on July 18th. Observers believe a balance between majority and opposition leaders in the election – agreed in June's Dakar Agreement – will ensure transparency.

Hanevy Ould Dahah, managing editor of the online newspaper Taqadoumy was on June 18, 2009 arrested and detained by gendarmeries in Nouakchott. The paper reported on its website that Ould Dahah was handcuffed and led to a police station in Nouakchott, the capital.

The official signing ceremony of the Mauritania peace pact, brokered by African Union Facilitator and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday to give time for the Facilitator to witness the signing, official sources told PANA.

General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, former leader of the ruling military junta in Mauritania, who is contesting the controversial 6 June election, says the vote would not be postponed. General Aziz, who resigned his position as President on 15 April to contest the election, told a press conference in Nouakchott that the 6 June date “is a choic e made by the Mauritanian people at the end of the ‘nationwide days for concerted action’ held in December 2008 and January 2009”.

Women in Mauritania who press charges for sexual assault face the risk of jail time because of poorly defined laws and stigma that criminalise victims rather than offenders, according to a local UN-funded non-profit. The subject of rape is still so taboo in Mauritania that there is no mention of it in the law and the word is absent from government documents, according to the NGO Mauritanian Association for Maternal and Child Health, based in the capital Nouakchott.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned an attempted murder of the editor of the independent Arab-language daily, El Wattan, and radio presenter Mohamed Ould Zeine in Mauritania. Mr Ould Zeine was allegedly attacked by two men with baseball bats and knives on the evening of 12 May. He reportedly suffered very serious injuries to his left hand.

Six candidacies have met the deadline to submit their papers to the Mauritania's Constitutional Council, and are now set to contest the 6 June presidential elections in the country, official sources told PANA. Gen. Mohamed Ould Aziz, leader of the military junta that overthrew democratically-elected President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi last August, was the first to submit his papers.

Any initiative to resolve the crisis in Mauritan ia must ensure that the coup of 6 August 2008 fails by stopping the execution of the electoral agenda of the junta, the National Front for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD) said on Thursday. Reacting to a proposal by Senegal to organise, in Dakar, a round table to find solutions to the Mauritanian political crisis, FNDD demanded an end to the electoral process that would lead to the presidential polls planned for 6 June and the r elease of former Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghef.

The police fired several canisters of tear gas to disperse opposition protesters in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, late on Thursday. The demonstration was held in response to the call by the National Front for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD), which is opposed to the 6 August 2008 military coup, on Mauritanians to resist the coup.

Mauritania's political crisis worsened this week, following a statement by French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner. In a March 20th interview with Jeune Afrique, Kouchner stated that General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Chairman of the High Council of State, "has to take off his military uniform at least 45 days before the presidential election that is slated for June 6th, 2009".

Abou Al Abbass Ould Brahim, a Mauritanian journalist, ar rested and detained by Police 15 March for allegedly criticizing the military junta in the country, has been released without being charged to court, the sub-regional press freedom body, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), said in a statement received by PANA Thursday.

The vice president of the Union of Democratic Forces (RFD), the main opposition party in Mauritania, Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Lematt, has rejected the electoral calendar proposed by military authorities, in power since the 6 August coup. In a chat with the press Wednesday afternoon in Nouakchott, Lematt said "This was unilaterally decided by the junta in power as part of the agenda aiming to give credence to the fait accompli."

The phenomenon of Leblouh is one of the oldest social values related to beauty in Mauritanian society. Under the practice, girls are made to eat huge quantities of food, sometimes by force, to make them fatter. The aim is to give them greater chances of marriage, beauty and social acceptance, as slim women are traditionally deemed inferior.

During a seminar entitled "Discrimination in Inheritance" held in Tunis on January 24th, Mauritanian human rights organisations and activists spoke out against slavery, which they said is still eroding Mauritanian society. "Slavery is a painful reality in Mauritania," said Bairam Ould Messaoud, head of Mauritania-based organisation SOS Slaves. "Some families still own slaves and take them around houses and farms here in Nouakchott without the government intervening."

The African Union (AU) has imposed sanctions, including a travel ban and a check on bank accounts, on Mauritania's military junta, it has announced. The AU says it will urge the United Nations to extend the measures so they are applied by every country. The move comes amid speculation that General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz could contest elections, set for 6 June.

Ten Mauritanian political parties Wednesday held a meeting in the capital Nouakchott, at the instance of the Alternative Party, the main party supporting the 6 August 2008 military coup in the country, as part of an effort to establish a permanent framework for dialogue.

One of Mauritania's political parties, the Alternative Party, has nominated its president, Mohamed Yehdi Ould Moctar Hacen, as its flag bearer in the 30 May 2009 presidential election in the country, the party said in a statement here Thursday.

Two years after more than 100 former slave families left their village in southern Mauritania to create their own community away from slave-owners, members of the group told IRIN they are still struggling to adapt to an independent life. Ramadan Ould Semette, one of those breaking away from the village of Lefrewa - where the families were slaves for generations - got his long-awaited new beginning but little else. “We have nothing but our muscles to survive by and we keep struggling in the desert.

The leader of Mauritania's opposition Rally of Democratic Forces (RDF), Mr. Ahmed Ould Daddah, has said the outcome of the country's national consultations, held 27 December to 6 January by the ruling junta, is against the principles of democracy and Mauritania's national interest. In a declaration which was made public Thursday in Nouakchott, the RDF leader also said the conclusions reached at the consultations could not guarantee peace and national unity, adding that the consultations were held under an atmosphere of utter confusion.