Missiles Neutralizing Israeli Tanks‎‎

An Israeli tank advances during an incursion in southern Lebanon near the village of Aitrun Thursday Aug. 3, 2006. Israeli soldiers have taken up positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon, the army said Thursday, as Israel tries to carve out a seven-kilometer-wide (five-mile-wide) Hezbollah-free zone ahead of what it hopes will be a speedy deployment of a multinational force there. (AP Photo/Uriel Sinai, Pool)

By Ken Silverstein

Wednesday, August 2, 2006 – Add Ethiopia to the list of countries cashing in on their cooperation with the Bush Administration's “war on terrorism.” Two weeks ago, with the world's attention focused on the Israel–Hezbollah war, several thousand heavily-armed Ethiopian troops tiptoed into neighboring Somalia. Their mission was to halt the advance of a radical Islamic group that already controls most of the country and to provide support for the weak transitional government based in Baidoa. It's not clear if the Ethiopian army's move into Somalia had the tacit approval of the Bush Administration, but the U.S. certainly did not ardently oppose its intervention.

In the face of widespread reporting of Ethiopian troops in Somalia, Inner City Press has for the last two days asked Kofi Annan's spokesman's office for confirmation and comment on this fact. Monday the response was that the UN "is not in the position" to ascertain whether there are Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia.

Prime Minister Ali M. Gedi - photo AFP

Washington, August 3, 2006 – The United States on Thursday called on its partners to help shore up Somalia's fragile government after the prime minister refused to resign despite a mass defection of government ministers.

On a mission to travel to unrecognized countries, BBC reporter Simon Reeve’s got enough material to write an encyclopedia.

For someone who started his career sorting mail for a newspaper and investigating neo-Nazi terrorists on the run when he was just 19, Simon Reeve’s career path seems ‘boringly normal’. Now 33, he’s written two books, one of which has been made into a Oscar winning documentary, has traveled to countries that ‘don’t officially exist’ and has been detained by a supposedly extinct KGB in one of those ‘countries’ - Transdniestria. So when he says he sometimes dreams of a normal life of going to the supermarket to pick up groceries, it’s easy to believe him.

The lexicon of the anti-Somaliland camp revolves around several mantra words such as dissent, limited government acreage of influence, clan dominancy, hijacked will, secessionist, northwestern Somalia, accidental president, pre-colonial, post colonial. They tell us if you are democratic why do you suffocate dissent voices, why do you arrest and deport native Somalilanders who oppose Somaliland 's decision to withdraw from the union. We tell them you are right my sisters and brothers we should not be doing that. Either we are democratic or we are not. Every Somaliland citizen should have the freedom to voice his/her opinion in Hargeysa; a valid point, well taken. Unlike you, our brothers and sisters, we are democratic and own up to our shortcomings.

Bilan Mohamud shows the injuries inflicted on her by a neighbor

London, UK, August 2, 2006 – Bilan Mohamud was walking her children home from school in October last year when a neighbor punched her in the face. She says he called her a "fucking nigger", threatened to kill her, then launched his fist at her. She was left with a fractured nose and cheekbone, and lacerations below her left eye. She still bears the scar.

Last Thursday, the man who did this to her, Gary Read, 38, of the Wendling estate in Kentish Town, north London, was convicted of grievous bodily harm and remanded in custody for sentencing next month. The jury did not accept the racially aggravated aspect of the charge against him.

By Elie Smith [Paris - France]

What may come up in the mind of the majority, could easily be the sad situation still going on in Western Sudan, however, that is not the worst case. Even though it has just come to show what those who cared, had always known and denounced (1). But the disgrace of African diplomacies and also that of the International community headed by the UN are manifest in the unsolved crisis in Somalia, Western Sahara, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Somalia is or was a country located on a section of the east of the Dark Continent known as the horn of Africa. It was a former Anglo-Italian protectorate which got its independence in 1960. Like most African newly created states, it got involved in the cold war rivalry.

As the on-going destruction of Lebanon by Israeli forces continues well into its fourth week, there is an unquestionable rise of hostile sentiment against the policies of Israel and its prime ally, the United States and the administration of George Bush in particular on the Arab street.

While there may be some political restraint shown by some of the governments in the region towards this unchecked assault and increased diplomatic overtures towards and immediate halt, there is no doubt where the true feelings of the masses lie. In an review of such emotions that covered several regions of this country, Saudis and non-Saudis alike echoed similar sentiments: ‘This barbarity has to be stopped immediately.’

Somalia's Islamists hail a familiar leader: Osama bin Laden

Mogadishu, July 27, 2006 - LAST week's arrival of Ethiopian troops in Somalia's dusty western town of Baidoa, ostensibly to protect the feeble transitional Somali government holed up there against its Islamist countrymen, has pushed the country closer to war. Ethiopia has long been suspected of having troops in Somalia, hidden in the deserts north of Baidoa. Now their very visible arrival in the town, and their entry into others such as Wajid, has raised the stakes.