From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Oct 15 2008 - 07:56:09 EDT
Somali violence leaves 41 dead
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:23:40 GMT
Chaos and violence dominates conflict-torn Somalia
At least 41 people, including Ethiopian soldiers have been killed in heavy clashes, as violence continues to dominate war-torn Somalia.
In the town of Baidoa, 250 kilometers southeast the capital Mogadishu, heavily armed insurgents fired mortars at two military bases in the region, killing at least 20 Ethiopian soldiers and seriously injuring 35 others, Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported on Wednesday.
The Ethiopians reacted by shelling residential areas, which left at least 11 civilians dead.
Meanwhile, early in the morning, an ambush attack on another military base in the same town left at least 10 Somali government soldiers dead and a dozen others injured.
Somalia has been plagued by almost uninterrupted civil unrest after the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and has had no effective central rule ever since.
Chaos and violence dominates the East African country with an especially fierce insurgency going on in Mogadishu.
Qatar will host conference on Darfur
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:46:43 GMT
The Qatari FM says consultations are underway to set a date for Darfur meeting.
Qatar plans to host a reconciliation meeting to end the bloody conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, its chief diplomat has said.
Qatari Foreign Minister Ahmed Bin Abdallah al-Mahmoud announced the plan on Tuesday in Cairo where he attended the Arab League meeting immediately after a week-long trip to Sudan.
The decision by Qatar to bring the warring Sudanese factions to the negotiating table in Doha has been backed by the United Nations and the African Union.
The Darfur conflict began in early 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the central government. They have been accusing the government of discrimination.
Human rights campaigners and international organizations claim that up to 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since the fighting began, a figure dismissed by the Khartoum government.
Qatar succeeded to broker a deal between rival Lebanese factions in May after two years of bitter political dispute. The Lebanon deal has encouraged the tiny Arab state to act as a troubleshooter which has already won it a strong public support in the Arab world and beyond.
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