Mauritania

Some of the world's biggest oil companies have set their sights on Mauritania. BG, Britain's third-largest energy company; Premier Oil, an independent; and Australian heavyweights Woodside Petroleum, Hardman Resources and ROC Oil see the small country in western Africa as a new frontier in a world where finding oil is becoming increasingly difficult.

Mauritania's month-old military junta freed political prisoners jailed by the old regime, and thousands of people rushed to the main prison in the capital, Nouakchott, to greet the inmates as they were released.

A Mauritanian who reportedly has links to Saudi militant Osama bin Laden has been arrested on suspicion of having a role in plotting a bomb attack against the United States, security officials said Friday.

A gunman wounded an American aid worker and his 10-year-old daughter on a beach a mile north of Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, police said. Government officials ruled out any political motivation for the shootings.

Mauritania's government broke up a plot by military officers and radical Islamists to seize power in the West African nation through a bombing and assassination campaign, military and ruling party officials said.

The military overthrew Mauritanian President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya and said it would rule for up to two years. Hundreds of people took to the streets in celebration of the coup against Taya, who was out of the country.