MOGADISHU (AFP) — Ethiopian forces opened fire on two civilian buses near the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday, killing at least 30 passengers, witnesses told AFP.

Ethiopian soldiers in the town of Arbiska sprayed gunfire on the two vehicles, one of which was travelling from the capital and the other from nearby Afgoye, the witnesses said. More on 30 dead as Ethiopian(Woyanne) troops fire on Somali buses: witnesses

The decision by the Prime Minister to sack the Mayor of Mogadishu has caused diverse political opinions among Somalis in particular those interested in finding a lasting peace in Somalia. You only need to skim through news headlines and editorials by the numerous Somali websites – an ingenious technological tool that Somalis have excelled well in using it to report their country’s problems, a point well articulated by Abdirahman Ceynte of Hiiraan.com in his article the Somali Websites: A Competitive Alternative Media and a Force to reckon with. More on Nuur Cadde’s political manoeuvres: a step toward peace….?

Nigeria will send more than 800 peacekeeping troops to Somalia’s capital in the next few weeks, according to a defense spokesman.

“We are sending a battalion of 850 officers and soldiers to Somalia,” Brigadier General Emeka Onwuamaegbu said from Abuja on Thursday. More on Nigeria will send troops to Somalia

Republicans for Obama plans to launch a Web site outlining the policy differences between the two candidates. Beyond that, it isn’t clear what role Republicans for Obama will have in the general election. An Obama spokesman declined to comment on whether the three founding members would be attending the Democratic National Convention.

(Press TV) — Somalia’s president rejects an offer by Ethiopia Woyanne to mediate between him and the prime minister, saying he will take the case to the parliament.

The rift between President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein has widened after Hussein sacked Mogadishu mayor Mohamed Dheere, Press TV correspondent reports from Mogadishu. More on Somali puppet president rejects Woyanne mediation

NAIROBI, 12 August 2008 (IRIN) – Drought and recent fighting around the town of Beletweyne, in central Somalia’s Hiiraan region, have aggravated the plight of at least 1,000 Ethiopian refugee families, who were already facing acute food shortages, local sources told IRIN. More on ETHIOPIA-SOMALIA: Drought, fighting worsens situation of “Ogaden refugees”

The life line of TPLF’s iron clad hold of power is the reluctance and inability of different Ethiopian political forces (in organization level) to move beyond their archaic and rigid political maneuvers. Each group seeks to obtain victory all alone in a quest to exercise its own political ideology without having to worry about appeasing any other organization. I doubt if they have realized yet that the old winner – loser politics will bring neither peace nor development to the people they claim to represent. TPLF has injected the possibility of cessation of any ethnic-based region by ratifying article 39 of its constitution early on.

All morning, the hills above the village of Kersa have echoed with the wails of women walking in from the fields. They gather on a patch of open grass before a stretcher made from freshly cut bamboo, bound and laid with banana leaves. On it is a small bundle wrapped in a red-and-blue blanket. An imam calls the crowd together, asks them to take off their shoes and arranges them in two lines, women behind men, facing east. “Allahu akbar,” he says twice. Then four men pick up the bier, easily handling its weight with one arm, and walk a short way to a freshly dug hole, into which they lower the bundle and bury it. Three other small, fresh graves nearby indicate Ayano Gemeda, 6, was not the first child to starve in Kersa this year. The distended bellies and chicken-wing limbs of children looking on suggest he won’t be the last. More on Among the Starving in Ethiopia – Time Magazine

The spokesman of the Union of Islamic Courts warns Somalia soldiers to surrender their weapons within 24 hours or face consequences.

A Press TV correspondent reporting from south Mogadishu says the UIC spokesman, Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Addow, has threatened that Somalia’s Ethiopian-trained soldiers will come under attack unless they surrender their weapons. More on UIC urges Somali troops to surrender

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August 7, 2008 – Los Angeles, CA/Washington, DC – International Medical Corps (IMC) has positioned additional health workers and medical supplies to address the most urgent health problems of tens of thousands of displaced Somalis in and around the western city of Beletweyne. About 50 percent of the city’s inhabitants are said to have fled after they were caught in violent clashes between Ethiopian backed government forces and Islamist insurgents. Many are now in need of medical assistance without shelter, food, or clean water. More on IMC Steps Up Response to Humanitarian Crisis in Somalia