At least 19 people died in a series of suicide bombings across northern Somalia which included a UN compound today.

A leader of Somalia’s ousted Islamic movement rejected a United Nations-brokered peace deal between the government and an opposition alliance, vowing the militants would fight on.

Four foreigners, including two with British passports, were killed when heavily armed Islamic militants seized a central Somali town, witnesses and police said today.

Two aid workers have been kidnapped by gunmen in Somalia.

Violence in Somalia’s war-ravaged capital has killed 5,960 civilians this year, the country’s oldest human rights group said today.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew that has been in place for three months has been lifted in the Somali capital of Mogadishu for the holy month of Ramadan, a government minister said today.

Somalia has agreed to allow the United Nations human rights commissioner to investigate allegations that recent fighting violated international law.

Ethiopian tanks and artillery shelled an insurgent stronghold in north Mogadishu today, as ceasefire talks floundered and rumours spread that a top Islamic rebel had arrived in the capital.

Artillery shells and mortars rained down on Mogadishu today after a week of fighting, despite a plea by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for an end to the violence that local groups say has claimed the lives of over 350 people.

The Somali capital’s streets were the scene of heavy fighting on Friday between Ethiopian troops backing the government and insurgents, witnesses said, a day after similar battles left at least 12 people dead and a suicide car bomb exploded at an Ethiopian army base.

Fierce fighting in Somalia’s battle-scarred capital between Ethiopian-backed government forces and Islamic insurgents has left nearly 400 people dead, most of them civilians.

Somalia’s transitional government lifted a broadcast ban today, said the government spokesman, a day after it had ordered three Somali radio stations and an international television channel to stop operations.

The first African peacekeepers to help the government assert its authority in Somalia are expected by the end of January, the prime minister said today.

New United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon fears that US bombing in southern Somalia could increase hostilities and harm civilians, some of whom are reported to have been killed in the air strikes.

Ethiopian fighter jets bombarded the Somali town of Belet Weyne today in a sharp escalation in violence that is threatening to engulf the volatile Horn of Africa.

Hundreds have been killed in clashes between Somalia's Islamic militia and the country's secular government while the United Nations issued a call for peace during a lull in fighting.

NEARLY 200 troops serving Somalia’s weak Western-backed government defected to the Islamic courts movement, an Islamic official said yesterday, as both sides braced for impending war.

Islamic leaders today ordered Somalis to hand in their weapons, but did not say how they would enforce the directive in a heavily armed country some fear is about to go to war with its neighbour.

The leader of Somalia’s Islamic radicals today urged Ethiopians to revolt against their government, which he described as an oppressive regime led by an unpopular minority ethnic group.

Fears of regional conflict has soared with the loss of a strategic port to Somalia’s radical Islamic militia, which faced angry demonstrations that erupted into deadly violence, and for the first time acknowledged getting help from foreign Muslims.

Hundreds of Islamic militiamen in heavily armed trucks took over the southern town of Kismayo, one of the last seaports that had been outside their control in Somalia, witnesses said.

Somalia’s president narrowly escaped an assassination attempt today when a car bomb exploded outside the parliament building in the city of Baidoa, but the blast and a subsequent gunbattle left 11 people dead, officials said.

Somalia’s virtually powerless government and an Islamic militia that has seized control of much of southern Somalia have signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army.

A MEMBER of Somalia’s virtually powerless government was assassinated as he walked out of a mosque yesterday, enraging hundreds of locals who rioted in the streets screaming: “We want a government that can restore law and order!”

A member of Somalia’s virtually powerless government was assassinated today as he walked out of a mosque, enraging hundreds of Somalis who rioted in the streets screaming, “We want a government that can restore law and order!”

Somalia’s transitional government will meet next week for peace talks with Islamic militant rivals who have seized control of much of the country, a presidential aide said today.

Unknown gunmen have killed 682 civilians, including a foreign journalist, in executions over the past year in Somalia, a local human rights group said in a report today.

Hundreds of Ethiopian troops moved into a second Somali town yesterday to protect the country’s weak, UN-backed government, as talks aimed at easing tensions fell apart when the government did not turn up and Islamist militia delegates walked out.

The Islamic militia that has seized control of Somalia’s capital said today the killing of a Swedish journalist was planned by a foreign enemy that wants to shatter weeks of relative peace in the Horn of Africa nation.

A cargo ship carrying 20,000 tonnes of coal sank off the coast of Somalia, and a rescue mission was under way to save the crew, officials said today.

African and Western diplomats were discussing the details of a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, an African Union spokesman said today, after militias vowing to impose Islamic rule took over the capital of the Horn of Africa country.

Residents of Mogadishu attended Friday prayers after a week of relative calm under the control of an Islamic militia, but many wondered if the peace can last in the hands of radicals accused of links to al-Qaida.

An Islamic militia today said it had seized Somalia’s capital Mogadishu after weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting in 15 years of anarchy in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

Islamic militias and secular warlords resumed fighting for control of the Somali capital today, killing at least five people and wounding at least 11 others after a five-day lull.

A ceasefire today allowed residents to venture into the streets of a northern Mogadishu neighbourhood that has been a battleground for more than a week in Somalia.

Rival militia battled with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and assault rifles for control of part of the Somali capital Mogadishu for a third straight day. Fighting has killed at least 75 people and wounded more than 100, according to medical workers.

Pirates hijacked a commercial ship off the coast of Somalia, killing an Indian crew member and wounding two others before releasing the vessel a week later to return to its home port in the United Arab Emirates, officials said today.

The European Union yesterday committed €70m in aid to Somalia to help rebuild the drought-stricken and civil war-plagued nation.

More than a million Ethiopian cattle herders face extreme food shortages after the failure of short rains that normally recharge water sources, a famine early warning group said today.

Inter-clan fighting for control of a town in southern Somalia today left 13 people dead and 20 injured, witnesses reached by radio said.

Warlords controlling thousands of militia fighters in the Somali capital will begin pulling their troops out of Mogadishu by the end of the week in an effort to beef up security there, four key warlords said today.

A BLAST yesterday killed at least seven people and injured an unknown number at a government rally in Mogadishu’s soccer stadium, exploding 10 yards from the new Somali prime minister who had just begun a speech.

Somalia's prime minister escaped unharmed in a blast that killed 10 and injured 60 as supporters turned out for a rally in Mogadishu's soccer stadium today.

A blast killed at least seven people and injured an unknown number at a government rally in Mogadishu’s soccer stadium today, exploding 10 yards from the new Somali prime minister who had just begun a speech, officials said.