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| Africa Horn | |
| US seeks | |
| 2006-06-22 | |
The United States has asked the Islamic group that controls the
Ms Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, said there were many "foreign terrorists" in Somalia but the three most wanted by the US were: Comoran Fazul Abdullah Mohammed She said they had been involved in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people, and the 2002 attacks on Israeli targets in Kenya. The US has offered a reward of $5m for information leading to the capture of Mr Mohammed. "The best way to get America's support to the Somali people in a way that doesn't undermine our interests and their interests is for them to give up these foreign terrorists," Ms Frazer said, after meeting Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf in Kenya. Mr Yusuf then left for the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, for talks with a delegation from the Union of Islamic Courts. But he said he would not hold direct talks with the 10-member delegation from the courts, led by deputy chairman Sheikh Husein Mohamud Jumaale. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been having preliminary talks with Mr Yusuf, while Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa, has been seeing the Islamic courts delegation. BBC East Africa correspondent Karen Allen says accusations by the government that the Islamists are backed by foreign fundamentalists, and counter-claims that the fragile government is getting the support of Ethiopian troops, will make it difficult to find common ground. But the fact that the talks are happening at all signals progress, our correspondent says. There are fears of conflict between the Islamic courts, which controls much of southern Somalia, and the interim government, based in Baidoa, 200km north of the capital, Mogadishu. International pressure is mounting for both sides to negotiate a peaceful settlement and to establish Somalia's first effective national government for 15 years. The issue of power-sharing and a ceasefire are bound to be on the table, our correspondent says. The Islamic courts have organised protests in Mogadishu against Mr Yusuf's call for foreign peacekeepers in Somalia. Both the United Nations and the African Union are sending teams to Somalia to meet the Islamic courts' leaders and assess the possibility of sending peacekeepers, respectively. Uganda has said it is ready to send troops but only when the security situation improves. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 Good one WG! We need a Joke page on Rantburg. Lordy knows, the news on the other pages are depressing enough... |
| Posted by: Ptah 2006-06-22 20:15 |
| #1 There was this guy who bought an elderly circus elephant; I don't know why. Alas, he couldn't afford to feed it. He'd never seen an elephant jump with all 4 feet off the ground. So he started a contest: entry was $10, and the first person to get the elephant to jump with all 4 feet off the ground would get $50,000. All sorts of people tried, but nobody could get the elephant to jump. Finally, this little guy arrives in a limousine. He's carrying a baseball bat. He walks up to the elephant, swings the bat, and crunches the elephants balls pretty badly. Needless to say, the elephant jumps, and the owner pays out the $50,000. Unfortunately, the owner had barely collected enough to cover the prize, so he ran another contest. He'd never seen an elephant swing its head back and forth as if to say, "no." Same deal as before: $10 per entry, $50,000 prize. Lots of people try and fail. Then the little guy shows up in his limousine again, pulls out his bat, and walks up to the elephant. He says, "Remember me?" The elephant nods yes. The man says holds up his bat and says, "Want me to use this again?" The elephant nods his head rather emphatically no.... |
| Posted by: Whinetle Grush9406 2006-06-22 10:03 |