The US military has said it carried out a drone strike in Somalia that killed a member of the al-Shabab extremist group, while Somalia's government said it believes the strike killed a high-level al-Shabab commander responsible for several deadly bombings in the capital.

Twelve Ugandan soldiers were killed and seven others injured in an ambush by al-Shabab Islamic extremists in southern Somalia on Sunday, Uganda's military said.

Latest: Fighting continued through the night as the extremists fought heavily-armed soldiers.

Here's what you need to know.

At least seven people have been killed by a massive car bomb blast at a restaurant in Somalia's capital.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

A suicide car bomber has detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at a security checkpoint near Mogadishu's international airport, killing at least three people, police said.

Foreign Correspondent Andrew Harding has covered 25 wars, yet his first book is an uplifting and redemptive tale set in Mogadishu, writes Sue Leonard.

Ten people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car outside the United Nations Mine Action Service offices in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a police official said.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed a hotel in the capital Mogadishu last night, killing at least six people and taking a number of hostages, police said.

A US drone strike killed more than 150 fighters when it struck a training camp for al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia who were preparing to launch a large-scale attack, according to the Pentagon.

A suspected suicide bomber who blew a hole in the fuselage of a Daallo Airlines plane last week and forced it to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight, the Daallo chief executive said.

A bomb blew a hole in a jetliner, killing one person and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday, an official said.

Going to Somalia to make a film about pirates wasn’t the easiest assignment for Tommy Pallotta, writes Ed Power

Two people have died in a car bomb blast in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Simon Reeve’s new BBC series has him staying closer to home than his usual locations, says Keeley Bolger

Interpol has said it will offer its full support to French, Tunisian, Kuwaiti, and Somalian authorities following four separate terrorist attacks yesterday.

A Man Of Good Hope

Sri Mulyani Indrawati says it will take a global effort to end poverty and suggests there is enough money in the world to do so, but getting hold of it is the problem

Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, have claimed responsibility for an attack on a bus in Kenya in which 28 non-Muslims were singled out and killed.

When world leaders, including the Taoiseach, meet at the UN Climate Summit, they have a chance to make a real difference. Right now, it’s as if we are falling from a skyscraper muttering ‘so far so good’, writes Éamonn Meehan, executive director of Trócaire

At least 12 civilians have been killed in a suicide attack targeting African Union troops in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, the first serious assault by suspected Islamic extremists after the killing of al-Shabab’s top leader in a US air strike last week.

Mortar shells have struck a Mogadishu neighbourhood a day after al Qaida-linked militants named a new leader.

More than 850,000 people in Somalia are in desperate need of food and “in crisis and emergency conditions,” the director of UN humanitarian operations said.

At least 13 people have died after a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a restaurant in a city north of the capital of Somalia.

One of Somalia’s most notorious pirate leaders, known as “Big Mouth”, has been arrested in Brussels and placed in custody pending charges, judicial sources said.

Another 39 people remain unaccounted for almost a week after the end of the attack Nairobi mall attack that killed at least 67, the Red Cross has said.

A harrowing video filmed by the Kenyan Red Cross shows responders rushing to help the injured shortly after the assault on the Westgate mall began.

This week's reviews in brief

A judge said he respected religious beliefs but that the law of Ireland had to be observed as he sentenced a Somali man for slaughtering four goats in Halal fashion in a house in Tralee.

Gunmen today stormed the Somali capital’s main court complex, firing guns and detonating two blasts.

A man has been stoned to death in Somalia for a homosexual sex act, reports say.

Check out some of this year's winners from the World Press Photo awards for 2012.

Irish troops could be training Somalian armed forces in Mogadishu within months, it emerged today.

Two people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside the presidential palace compound in Somalia, an official said today.

The French Defence Ministry said the captors of a military agent killed him during a French commando raid in Somalia.

French commandos have attacked a base of Islamist militants in Somalia in a hostage rescue attempt, a Somali intelligence official said.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore downplayed the disruption caused by Róisín Shortall's resignation as he prepared to address the General Assembly of the UN in New York this evening.

A popular Somali comedian and playwright who mocked Islamist militants for brainwashing children and killing civilians has been shot dead.

Concern chief executive Tom Arnold writes from Somalia exactly one year on from the famine that struck the country and wider region, and finds a country that has been rejuvenated

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore announced an additional €3m in life-saving assistance to Somalia during a visit to the capital, Mogadishu today.