“The question is who in this crisis looked more presidential, calm and unflustered. It wasn’t John McCain,” ABC News’ Sam Donaldson said Sunday on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”

“His talking points have gotten all mixed up and I think the question of age is back on the table,” Donaldson said. McCain is 72 while Obama is 47.

About 40 people have been killed in the Somali capital, mostly when shells were fired on the busy Bakara market.

Witnesses say Ethiopian Woyanne troops fired mortars after insurgents launched simultaneous attacks on the two main African Union peacekeeping bases. More on BBC:Carnage in Somali market shelling

Today, nearly two years later, the transitional government that was forced on the Somali people by external forces has done nothing but leave a sad and embarrassing mark in the country’s history. The invasion of a sovereign state that was carried out in violation of international laws and charters was one of the 21st century’s worst war crimes. The transitional government that was installed in power to serve foreign interests failed to gain any acceptance among the people and is now a political corpse being guarded by external forces.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A lion ate a local man in eastern Ethiopia after escaping from a game park, police said on Sunday.

Staff at the Metehara sugar factory ventured into a nearby cane plantation last week to search for a missing worker. More on Lion kills Ethiopian after straying from park

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Mortars slammed into a market in Somalia’s capital Monday, killing up to 30 people including children and overwhelming hospitals with dozens of wounded in the worst fighting in months, witnesses said. More on Witnesses: Up to 30 killed in Somali capital

The African National Congress (ANC) said it had named Mr Motlanthe to take the position of caretaker president.

Parliament is to confirm Mr Motlanthe’s appointment to the post, which he will hold until elections in early 2009.

WASHINGTON – Five days from their first presidential debate, Democrat Barack Obama has climbed in the polls as Republican John McCain fumbled his response to a looming U.S. economic cataclysm — one that threatened to match the financial catastrophe of the 1930s Great Depression.

Mooshin ugu baaqaya dowladda Mareykanka inay soo gudbiso siyaasad sal iyo baar leh oo ku beegan Soomaaliya ayaa toddobaadkan la horkeenay Golaha Congress-ka ee dalkan Mareykanka.

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — The United States expressed concern on Thursday over an Ethiopian bill that could restrict the activities of foreign aid groups and sounded alarm bells over the food situation in the country.

The draft bill allows more government interference in the affairs of foreign NGOs and bans them from working on issues related to ethnicity, gender and children’s rights. More on US concerned over restrictive aid bill, food situation in Ethiopia