LIFE AMONG THE BARBARIANS: Timbuktu mausoleums ‘destroyed.’ “Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th centuries. It is a UN World Heritage site with centuries-old shrines to Islamic saints that are revered by Sufi Muslims. The Salafists of Ansar Dine condemn the veneration of saints. . . . The news that further monuments were being destroyed came one day after Islamists were reported to have cut the hands off two people.”