SOMALIA

Somalia's new security minister warned foreigners Friday not to visit the Horn of Africa nation without government approval after masked gunmen massacred seven Pakistani preachers at a mosque.

The European Commission expressed doubt on Friday over whether a merchant ship which has been missing for more than a week had fallen prey to pirates as the vessel's operator had suggested.

Pirates probably hijacked a merchant ship which disappeared after sailing through the English Channel last month, its operator said on Wednesday.

Somali pirates received a $4 million ransom to free an Italian tugboat that was seized four months ago with a crew of 16, a member of the gang that held it captive said on Monday.

Australian police arrested four men they said were linked to a Somali militant group on Tuesday, accusing them of planning a suicide attack on an army base and raising fears the al Qaeda-linked rebels were seeking targets outside Africa.

Somali pirates freed a German ship seized in April on Monday after receiving a ransom and a Malaysian-owned tug boat has also been released after being held for more than seven months.

Somali pirates have released a Malaysian-owned tugboat that had been held for more than seven months and its 11 Indonesian crew after a ransom was paid, a maritime official said.

Somali pirates holding a German ship with five Germans, three Russians, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board have received a $2.7 million ransom and are counting it before releasing the ship, a pirate told Reuters.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to meet the president of Somalia's transitional government during a seven-nation trip to Africa next week, the State Department said on Monday.

Somali pirates fired in the air in jubilation after receiving a $1.8 million (1.1 million pounds) ransom in exchange for the release of a German-owned vessel and its 11-member crew, pirate sources and officials said on Saturday.

A Somali Islamist group has handed over one of two French hostages to al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants to avoid clashes between the two insurgent bands, rebels and officials said on Thursday.

Washington has sent weapons to Somalia's government after a green light from the U.N. Security Council to prevent rebels seen as a proxy for al Qaeda overrunning the Horn of Africa nation, sources said on Thursday.

A NATO warship picked up fourteen Indian sailors off Somalia Saturday, a day after they were freed by pirates who had beaten them during 10 days of captivity.

In 1943, at the height of World War Two, Britain had little left in the bank but still spent 50 percent of gross domestic product on defense. To win the war, there was little other choice.

Sitting on a mat at home between taking orders for arms on his two mobile phones, Osman Bare gives thanks for the riches flowing from Somalia's war.

A Somali Islamist rebel leader on U.S. and U.N. terrorism lists denied on Monday reports that he had been seriously wounded in fighting between rival Islamist groups in the Horn of Africa nation.

Somali government forces drove Islamist insurgents from two districts of the capital on Tuesday in another day of heavy fighting that killed dozens of people, residents and officials said.

Interior ministers from G8 industrialised nations on Friday discussed closer cooperation in fighting organised crime and greater aid to African states to tackle drug trafficking cartels and rising maritime piracy.

The global economic downturn has aggravated human rights violations and distracted attention from abuses, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Somali government forces attacked rebel strongholds in Mogadishu on Friday, triggering battles across the capital that killed at least 15 people.

Islamist insurgents closed in on Somalia's coastal capital after seizing another strategic town north of Mogadishu Monday.