Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - African Union forces have routed Islamist militants from their last stronghold in Somalia's southern port city of Kismayu, handing the country its best chance at peace in two decades, PANA reported Friday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud has scored a major political victory in his first official week in power following the decision by the major Islamist group, Hizbul Islam, to quit the Al Shabaab alliance. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Somalia's Islamist group, Hizbul Islam, which has been propping the Al Shabaab, has announced it was quitting the alliance with Al Shabaab to protest a merger with the Al Qaeda terrorism network in East Africa, a military source told PANA here Tuesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has called on UN agencies and international organisations working in Somalia to relocate to the liberated areas of Somalia and directly provide humanitarian assistance to Somalis living there. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The African Union (AU) has warned that the targeted assassination of Somali politicians, who represent the voice of the people, will not derail the country’s political progress. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has registered its biggest victory in Somalia yet, with the surrender of more than 200 Islamist insurgents of Al Shabaab, following disagreements within the group's ranks that led to the factional killing of eight of its fighters, AMISOM said in a statement Sunday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Three Somali journalists were killed and at least four injured in a suicide bomb attack in a Mogadishu café Thursday evening, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement obtained by PANA here Friday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Security Council has urged new Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to appoint an inclusive and accountable government to facilitate stability in the country. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – The 2012 Nansen Refugee Award has been won by Hawa Aden Mohamed, the founder and director of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD) in Puntland, north-eastern Somalia, the Geneva-based United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Augustine Mahiga, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), has described the inauguration of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as a ''new era" for the war-scarred nation and pledged the world body's continued support to help it move forward. Full text...

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - Just hours after new Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud survived an assassination attempt in Mogadishu, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has saluted his recent election. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), Mr. Augustine Mahiga, has condemned Wednesday's attack on a hotel in the country's capital, Mogadishu, where the new Somali President was giving a press conference. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - France is ready to work with new Somali President Hassan Sheikh, who was elected on Monday, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement made available to PANA here Wednesday. Full text...

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The US has congratulated Somalia's new President Hassan Sheikh and the Somali people on Monday's election of the President. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Somalia's new era turned a new leaf on Monday with the election of the opposition candidate Prof. Mahmud Sheikh Hassan, a clear sign by the Somali parliament to make a clean break from their two-decade long war. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - After a historic vote, the first such vote inside Somalia, parliamentarians Monday elected a new president. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Incumbent Somali President, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, and Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, a member of the Somali Muslim Brotherhood, are running in the third round of the presidential election in Somalia, according to reports received here Monday by PANA. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A Spanish warship battling pirates off the coast of Somalia has rescued a boat with 68 people, after finding it adrift in the middle of the Gulf of Eden, the European anti-piracy task force said Monday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - African Union troops (AMISOM) have killed 36 Al Shabaab fighters in a new military push that brought them closer to the Islamist stronghold of Kismayu. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has asked Somali authorities to do everything in their power to put an end to the continuing violence that has already claimed the lives of eight journalists in the African country this year. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The African Union (AU) has given a 10-day ultimatum to Somali parliamentarians to conduct the much-delayed presidential ballot to end its political transition process. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) -The UN Security Council on Wednesday called on Somalis to continue to work together to ensure a swift end to the country's transition. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) – Mrs Catherine Ashton, senior EU representative for foreign affairs and common security, on Monday visited Somalia where she held talks with the transition federal authorities. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Augustine Mahiga, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia, has expressed deep concern at the ongoing delays in finalizing the list of new parliamentarians, warning that it might threaten the electoral calendar. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Kenyan contingent to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has reported its fiercest confrontation with the Islamic militant group Al Shabaab in the southern town of Fafadun as it pushes southwards towards the port city of Kismayu, a military spokesman said. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), Augustine Mahiga, has strongly condemned the killings of a government information official and a journalist in Somalia in separate incidents. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is seriously concerned about delays in the selection of the new Somali Parliament, a UN statement said on Monday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has signed an agreement with the Somali Stock Exchange Investment Corporation (SSE) for the creation of a bourse, officials said Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Somalia’s interim government has signed a pact with the UN, pledging to protect children from falling victim of shoot-to-kill orders and a pledge by the country’s defence minister to issue commands against the killing of children. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The United Nations (UN) has disputed reports on Somali media that President Sharif Hassan Ahmed walked out of a key meeting to discuss the terms of dissolving the country’s ruling interim government during a meeting in Nairobi of the signatories. Full text...

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The United States has hailed Wednesday's approval of Somalia's Provisional Constitution, saying it moves Somalia ''closer towards lasting stability''. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The global press freedom body International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the 31 July killing of Abdi Jeylani Malaq, a media worker in Mogadishu, Somalia. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Relief and child welfare organization Plan International said Thursday its intervention in the drought-hit East African region had helped to rescue 1.2 million people from hunger and starvation. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Somali community leaders have moved their country closer to a stable democracy after more than two decades of political anarchy by overwhelmingly voting in favour of a new constitution, paving the way for the election of the country’s President on 20 August.Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Security Council has extended for another year the mandate of the UN panel of experts monitoring compliance with the embargoes on the delivery of weapons and military equipment to Somalia and Eritrea. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A plenary meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia was due to hold in New York Wednesday (25July), as part of a growing diplomatic effort to stop criminal activity that threatens commerce and humanitarian aid deliveries along one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), Augustine Mahiga, has welcomed the progress made in the selection of an 825-member national body that will convene this week to discuss, vote on and adopt a new provisional constitution for the Horn of Africa nation. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - The Somali Parliament will elect a new President for the country on 20 Aug., the Ambassador and Special Representative of the African Union (AU) in Somalia, Mr. Boubacar Gaoussou Diarra, told PANA in an interview in Paris, France, Monday. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - African Union troops in Somalia (AMISOM) have killed four Al Shabaab militiamen and recovered a cache of weapons in a camp in Tarako village in the Gedo region, southern Somalia, the acting force commander said on Sunday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - In spite of the progress made one year after the declaration of famine in parts of southern Somalia, some 3.8 million people there are still in need of assistance, the UN said in a statement on Saturday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Somalia's population exodus has crossed a new threshold, hitting the one million mark as more people continue to flee to the surrounding region, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said here Tuesday. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The New York-based press freedom body, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has said that two unidentified gunmen shot a Somali journalist, Abdulkadir Omar Abdulle, PANA reports from here Tuesday.Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN and its diplomatic partners in support of efforts to restore peace and stability in Somalia have expressed concern over the missing of deadlines which form part of the process of ending the country's current transitional governing arrangements on 20 August. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Somali authorities have signed an agreement to release all child soldiers serving in the country’s national army and stop further hiring of children. Full text...

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The US has assured Somalia that it would continue to support the Horn of African nation after the current transition period. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said many displaced Somalis have been citing difficulty in providing for themselves as the main reason for fleeing their homes. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Mohamed Nur Mohamed, a radio journalist in Somalia, was shot by two gunmen in Mogadishu, the global press freedom body, Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) revealed Monday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the international community to provide support to Somalia on in its next political phase. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Ms. Irina Bokova, has condemned the murder of a Somali journalist and called on local authorities to ensure that those responsible for crimes against media professionals are punished for their deeds. Full text...