Somalia News

MOGADISHU, Somalia a " A Somali businessman says pirates have hijacked a Panamanian-flagged ship with 18 crew.Abdirisaq Abdulkadir says he heads a business group that hired the al-Mizan to carry food, electronics and other small items from the United Arab Emirates to Mogadishu.

A New Jersey man alleged in a lawsuit today that U.S. officials were responsible for falsely imprisoning him for several months in Africa on suspicion of having ties to al-Qaida. Amir Meshal of Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, says that in December 2006 he fled Mogadishu, Somalia, where he had gone to study Islam, and was accused by U.S. officials ...

Somali pirates have seized a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo ship loaded with weapons bound for the anarchic Horn of Africa nation in contravention of a UN arms embargo, maritime experts said on Monday.

Heavy rain, lack of medical services, few latrines and reduced aid have worsened the plight of the growing number of internally displaced persons camping on the outskirts of Mogadishu, sources said.

By Mohamed Ahmed Mogadishu - Somalia's government expects a settlement in about three weeks with pirates holding hostage 36 crew of a Spanish fishing vessel, a source close to the Somalian prime minister said on Sunday.

At least one passenger has been killed and 10 others have been wounded in a truck accident occurred near Run Nirgod village in Middle Shabelle region in southern Somalia, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Friday.

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.

A defense official in Somalia says a roadside bomb in the country's semiautonomous northern region has killed two people, including an infantry division commander.

On Thursday Somalia's main Sufi movement, Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, wrapped up an unprecedented conference in Nairobi to strategise its response to the rise and radicalisation of the Shebab group.

Somali courtship was different in Hassan Aden's day. When he was a teenager, you gave the girl's parents 11 camels and an AK-47 assault rifle as bride price and then waited respectfully.

MOGADISHU: Unidentified gunmen in northeastern Somalia unsuccessfully tried to hijack a local commercial plane with two German journalists on board, officials said on Tuesday.

Somalia's mobile phone business is booming despite the almost daily artillery fire that flies over expensive satellite dishes and the violence that has brought misery to the population of the Horn of Africa nation.

A British couple, captured last week by Somali pirates aboard their yacht near the Seychelles Islands, have been taken ashore and moved inland into Somali territory, making a rescue by foreign navies in the region more difficult.

Now the waiting, and the negotiation, begins. Ransom demands have dropped from a reported $7 million to around $150,000, apparently because the pirates have realized how little money Paul and Rachel Chandler actually have. Some pirates, not necessarily speaking on behalf of this particular pirate gang, have suggested that the Chandlers be exchanged for seven Somali pirates detained by foreign naval forces operating off the coast of Somalia.

MOGADISHU, Somalia a " A Somali airline official says two men have failed in an attempt to hijack an airplane.Diallo Airlines marketing manager Ahmed Yare says the men drew guns on Monday's flight.

At least 36 people have been killed and scores wounded in three days of fighting in towns across chaotic southern and central Somalia, a local human rights group said Sunday.

The U.S. Navy says an American-flagged cargo vessel has escaped a brush with armed pirates off the coast of East Africa.

Al-Shabab militia patrol a market in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Al-Shabab accuses Israel of "starting to destroy" the Al Aqsa mosque "We are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers," Al-Shabab commander says It is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel Somalia has been mired ...

A Norwegian warship inspecting fishing boats off the coast of Somalia for suspected pirate activity has been caught in heavy gunfire, a European Union naval commander says.

Mogadishu - Somali pirates said on Saturday that a captured British couple had been moved on shore from a container vessel and that there was a dispute between different groups over the two Britons.

An airplane that transported Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed back to the capital Mogadishu was targeted by insurgent mortars on Wednesday, as at least 10 people were killed in attacks, Radio Garowe reports.