Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Some 57,000 children have been registered in a UNICEF-supported Child-to-Child Registration initiative "dubbed back to school" in the self-proclaimed Puntland, northeast Somalia since June 2005, says the UN agency in a report obtained here Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- An independent expert on the human rights issues in Somalia, Ghanim Alnajjar, arrived in the region this week for an 11-day mission to the war-torn country. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- A contingent of 65 senior police officers from Somalia has commenced a three-week training course in Uganda as the Horn of Africa nation embarks on institutional building after a protracted civil strife, media reports said here Wednesday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Monday said the 10-man crew taken hostage by pirates aboard the MV Semlow off Somalia which it chartered to deliver relief food to Somalia could facing difficult conditions as their ordeal enters its eighth week. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Somalia's U-20 national football team beat Tanzania Mainland 2-1 in the first match of the East and Central African soccer tournament played at the Amaan Stadium under floodlight in Zanzibar on Thursday night. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Urgent steps are required to prevent HIV/AIDS from becoming a major public health problem in war- wrecked Somalia, the United Nations said Tuesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- In the first organised repatriation to Somalia from Kenya in two years, the UN refugee agency on Tuesday returned home 43 Somali refugees. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Somali hijackers have made a fresh demand for ransom before releasing a World Food programme (WFP) hired ship laden with food aid, the owner of the Kenyan-registered vessel said here Saturday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Visiting Canadian MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj Monday called on the international community to increase its support for the new Somali government. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday it had reached an agreement with local leaders and the Somali government for the release of the UN agency-chartered ship, crew members and cargo, hijacked by militias off the country's coast six weeks ago. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi promised in Tripoli Tuesday to work towards reconciliation of the warring parties and the reconstruction of his war-torn country. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Kenyan government Tuesday announced it has directed its ambassador to Somalia, Mohammed Affey, to begin direct negotiations on Wednesday with pirates who hijacked a UN- chartered vessel en route to the tsunami-hit region with tonnes of relief food. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- UNICEF and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) are working on a project to provide shelter in August for over 2,400 people living in the Tsunami- affected town of Hafun in northeastern Somalia, they affirmed in a joint media release here Tuesday. Full text...

Brussels- Belgium (PANA) -- The European Union has condemned the 10 July assassination of Somali activist, Abdulkadir Yahya Ali, saying his death had deprive the country of a relentless campaigner for peace and stability in the war-torn nation. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Visiting Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi met here Sunday with Libyan Public Security Secretary Nasr Al-Mabrouk, on the strengthening of bilateral co-operation especially on security, official sources said. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- The UN Security Council is expected to ease its arms embargo against Somalia in order to facilitate the deployment of IGAD peacekeepers into the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country, an African Union (AU) source here told PANA Thursday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday welcomed the release of two radio journalists who were jailed for nearly two weeks in Bossasso, a city in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Visiting Somali deputy Prime Minister and co-operation minister, Ismael Mahmoud Herra and Libya's deputy foreign minister, Said Hefyana, on Monday reviewed efforts aimed at consolidating reconciliation and stability in the Horn of Africa nation based on a plan devised by the transitional federal government. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The UN has strongly condemned the murder of a key Somali activist-cum-aid worker who was gunned down by unknown militiamen in the capital Mogadishu in the early hours of Monday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday suspended all shipments of humanitarian assistance to Somalia following the hijacking of a chartered vessel carrying food aid for 28,000 tsunami survivors. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Tuesday expressed deep concern over the detention of two radio journalists and closure of their station in Bossasso, a city in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland. Full text...

Sirte- Libya (PANA) -- The African Union's Peace and Security Council (PSC) has decided to put in place, as quickly as possible, a follow-up mechanism for the socio- economic reconstruction of Somalia. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A United Nations monitoring team in Somalia Tuesday issued a warning to Somalis against violating a decade-old UN arms embargo and called for urgent end to rising military tension in the Horn of Africa nation. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- With the number of refugees in Kenya rising despite peace moves in Somalia and Sudan, the World Food Programme WFP is appealing for 6. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- A ship chattered by the World Food Programme (WFP) to deliver food aid to more than 28,000 Tsunami-affected people in the Somali region of Hafun, has been hijacked by armed Somali pirates between Haradhere and Hobyo, some 300-km from Mogadishu, WFP sources said here Thursday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Tuesday joined five local and international press freedom and human rights groups demanding the immediate release of Abdi Farah Nur, editor of Puntland's leading independent newspaper, Shacab (Voice of the People). Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- More than 250 houses were destroyed and over 2,000 people rendered homeless after a fire Sunday swept through Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Buulo Eelaay, on the outskirts of Bosaso in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, witnesses said Monday. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- Somalia's exiled transitional government has started establishing its fledging administration temporarily in the town of Jowhar, 90 km from Mogadishu, until the Somali capital is pacified. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The United States has praised the relocation of the Somali government and efforts to pacify the capital, Mogadishu, saying a Somali-led initiative to demilitarize the war-torn nation was the best way to ensure peace prevails. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned authorities in the autonomous Puntland region of northeast Somalia for arresting Abdi Farah Nur, editor of the weekly Shacab (Voice of the People) on Sunday "Puntland authorities are acting in an arbitrary and autocratic way toward this independent newspaper and its journalists," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- A five-day emergency day polio immunisation campaign targeting an estimated 500,00 children kicked off last Friday and Saturday, respectively in the self- autonomous region of Puntland and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Somali reconstruction and reconciliation will start next week following the reconstitution of 92 administrative districts, which will also spearhead a voluntary disarmament process, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghedi said here on Saturday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Somali Prime Minister Mohammed Ghedi Saturday left the relative safety of neighbouring Kenya for Jowhar, optimistic that his arrival will be timely to welcome exiled President Abdullahi Yusuf. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded since inter-clan fighting erupted on Thursday in the border town of Aato in Bakool region in Somalia. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- Somali warlord, Mohamed Omar Habeb alias Mohamed Dhere who controls the town of Jowhar, has suddenly refused the transitional government to settle there after President Abdilahi Yusuf and government members vacated Nairobi, Kenya on Monday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A nation-wide polio immunisation campaign begins in Somalia Friday to protect the country's children from life-long paralysis caused by the disease, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced here Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The UN children's agency, UNICEF has resumed operations in Somalia's autonomous north-eastern region of Puntland after a three-week suspension, the agency's Somalia Representative Jesper Morch, announced in Nairobi Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Somali legislators and delegates who are expected to relocate to Mogadishu from Nairobi have requested the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to facilitate their return to Somalia. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Interim president Abdullahi Yusuf Monday led his exiled government back to Somalia, confident that the move would set off the "rebirth and restoration" of the Somali state. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Somali government, which is expected to quit the relative safety of neighbouring Kenya on Monday afternoon, is going to a country with no formal police force, no organised army and a rundown infrastructure which it is expected to build from scratch. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- More than 55,000 farmers in Somalia's central region of Shabelle will benefit from a rehabilitated canal located in the town of Jowhar, 90 km from Mogadishu. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Regional Foreign Ministers meet in Nairobi Sunday to discuss the deployment of an African peacekeeping force to Somalia, a Kenyan official has said here. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya, (PANA) -- Somali MPs and officials serving in the Transitional National Government (TNG) based in Nairobi, have started checking out of their hotels ahead of their planned relocation to Somalia by 21 June. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- At least 20 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded in fresh inter-clan fighting the erupted Monday in Beledweyn town, the regional capital of Hiraan, central Somalia, 320 kms from Mogadishu. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the killing of radio journalist Duniya Muhyadin Nur, who was shot to death on Sunday while covering a protest in Afgoye, about 30 km from outside Mogadishu. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- Last Saturday night's torrential rains killed at least seven persons, swept away hundreds of huts and displaced thousands of peasants from their devastated farmlands in south-western Somalia'a Boaale district of middle Juba region. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- Health is universally defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- The municipality of Garowe in Somalia's self- proclaimed autonomous region of Puntland has approved the UN-HABITAT proposal on resettlement sites to construct low-cost housing for internally displaced persons (IDPs), according to Garowe mayor Mohamud Omar. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- Somaliland and Ethiopia have signed an agreement for the latter to use Berbera port during a ceremony held in Hargeisa, the Somaliland capital. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- At least 14 persons were killed and over 30 others wounded in factional fighting Monday in Baidoa town, about 230km outside here, medical sources confirmed Tuesday. Full text...