June 7, 2012 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

U.S. offers millions in bounty for top Somali militants

07 Jun – Source: Reuters / Chicago Tribune / Fox News /CBC News (Canada )- 725 words
The United States is offering rewards of up to $7 million for information leading to the location of seven key leaders of Somalia’s al Shabaab, seeking for the first time to target top echelons of the al Qaeda-linked militant group.
U.S. officials said the rewards, to be announced on the State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” website on Thursday, opened a new front in the battle against al Shabaab and signaled Washington’s determination to press the fight against terrorism across Africa.

Key Headlines

President Sharif challenges Somali elders to select qualified MPs (Bar-Kulan)
Somaliland: Flights to Hargeisa resume (Somaliland Press)
Tensions are high in Kismayu town (Radio Kulmiye)
Alleged al Shabaab fighters surrender to ASWJ in Gedo region (Bar-Kulan)
HAI charity digs 62 water wells in Somalia (Emirates News Agency)

SOMALI MEDIA

President Sharif challenges Somali elders to select qualified MPs

06 Jun – Source: Bar-kulan/Shabelle/Jowhar Online/Hiiraan Online – 96 words

President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Wednesday paid a courtesy visit to the constitutional assembly meeting venue in Mogadishu where he met with local elders attending the meeting. Speaking at the venue, the president challenged the elder to come up with qualified legislators who can represent the country and its citizens. President Sharif also refuted claims that those attending the constitutional meeting were not genuine elders from all regions of the country.

Somaliland: Flights to Hargeisa resume

06 Jun – Source: Somaliland Press – 98 words

Ethiopian Airlines announced it is resuming flights to Hargeisa, capital of the republic of Somaliland by next Sunday June 10, 2012. Ethiopian will operate daily flights to Hargeisa using its Q400 aircraft, with three morning and four afternoon flights.

Tensions are high in Kismayu town

06 Jun- Source: Radio Kulmiye- 156 words

Reports from the port town of Kismayu are claiming that tensions are high in the region as government troops backed by Kenyan contingents have been intermittently moving toward the town within the last 24 hours. Government officials told radio Kulmiye that they are heading toward the port town of Kismayu.

Alleged al Shabaab fighters surrender to ASWJ in Gedo region

06 Jun – Source: Bar-kulan – 95 words

Fifteen alleged al Shabaab militants on Wednesday surrendered to Ahlu Sunna group in Garbaharey town of Gedo region, an official with ASWJ, Mohamed Hussein Issack, has claimed. He claimed that there are other militant fighters willing to join them in the coming days.

UNHCR reports that Somali refugees are escaping to neighboring countries

06 May- Source: Radio Risaala- 146 words

The refugee agency of UNHCR issued a statement saying that Somali refugees are still escaping to the neighboring countries at a very high rate, seeking refuge. The number of migrants leaving the country in the last four months of this year is estimated to be 20,000 in total. These refugees flee to Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Kenya alert as top al Qaeda man is killed

06 Jun- Source: Standard-416 words

Kenya’s security agencies were put on alert following reports a drone strike in Pakistan had killed al-Qaeda’s number two Abu Yahya al-Libi. This is because al-Qaeda had announced it had merged with Somalia’s militant group al Shabaab in their terror related activities.

HAI charity digs 62 water wells in Somalia

06 Jun- Source: Emirates News Agency- 99 words

62 water wells digged by the UAE’s Ajman-based Human Appeal International (HAI) in different drought-hit Somali areas are now operational and serve hundreds of families. With a total cost of AED 630000, the 20 meter-deep wells were fitted with the latest equipment to provide water to families dependent on agriculture and raising cattle in local communities such as Heran and Bai.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

U.S. offers millions in bounty for top Somali militants

Official: Troops bomb pirate base in Somali region

06 Jun- Source: AP- 135 words

An official from the autonomous Somali region of Puntland says its forces launched an aerial attack targeting a pirate leader in Somalia. The official said Wednesday that forces in a helicopter fired on a house in the village of Bali Dhidid where the pirate was believed to be, possibly wounding him. The official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Swiss man charged with Somali Shabaab links

06 Jun – Source: AFP – 253 words

A Kenyan court on Wednesday charged a Swiss man with being a member of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda allied Shebaab, the latest in a string of foreign nationals accused of links to the Islamist insurgents. Magd Najjar, who was initially reported to be Swedish when he was arrested last month, was charged in a court in the Kenyan capital Nairobi of “engaging in organised criminal activities by being a member of Al Shabaab.”

With militants gone, Somalis return to Mogadishu

June 5 – Source: NDT TV – 366 words

After two decades of anarchy and civil war, some peace and quiet finally returns to Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu. Deka Cantar Adbikarin is a Somali citizen who lived most of her life in Canada.

She says that Somalia is now safe enough for people like her, who left the country because of the war.

“There are a lot people coming back here now and it is probably the safest time to be in Somalia, and it’s a very exciting time because of the election. There is a lot going, people are coming to rebuild again and to bring our country back together.”

Luxury dining on Somali beach as market matures

June 4 – Source: AP – 500 words
Beachfront dining, fresh lobster, and a European clientele: Somalia’s restaurant scene is quickly changing for the better.
Somali businessman Ahmed Jama recently returned to Somalia from London to open two Western-style restaurants in two hotels he owns, one on the beachfront and the other downtown Mogadishu. His beachfront property boasts stylish beach beds and flat-screen TVs.
It has quickly become Mogadishu’s version of South Beach or the French Riviera.

Somalis in Mogadishu enjoy the beach

June 5 – Source: Star Africa – 127 words

Daily life in Mogadishu is returning to normal as people are now enjoying the Lido beach in the eastern side of the capital city. Though the city was once a famous resort, Mogadishu residents have not being going to the beach for the past two decades as warlords wreaked havoc specially on the abandoned street that runs through the former commercial district known as the Green Line which divides the capital city into north and south. For the past four years, Islamic militants had blocked people from going to the beach as they controlled the capital, forbidding women from swimming with men. Nevertheless, freedom returned with the ousting of militants from Afgoi and Mogadishu and people started to go to the beach in thousands mostly on Fridays.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“There might be understandable rationalization behind Somali elites’ desperation slouching towards degradation and disdainfulness, however I beg to differ that elites’ reasons under these circumstances exist in rational form; if the real reasons are avoidance of huger and isolation. Yes! Somali people, especially Diasporas, exist with veil and confusion; secondly in Occidental, Oriental and African world, Somali people indeed feel emptiness with no true consciousness or rather dual consciousness, which make them feel lost souls and can only “see [themselves] through the revelation of other world” to borrow Dubois’ resourceful wisdom.”

Slouching towards Disdainfulness

06 Jun – Source: Wardheer News – 1431 Words

I have been told often enough that my writings and contestations transpire to be; on one hand, opaque, esoteric, contemptuous and pluralistic; on the other hand, texualization that persistently invites courage, indeed audacity. Audacity that endorses deeper, broader and higher intellectual endeavor resuscitating gifted minds and the pure human spirits of Somali people. Nonetheless, grand deficiency of my texualization is a crucial constituency that most Somali articles possess and reflect in abundance: unspoken oath and reference of particular political, genealogical and ritual allegiance, which indeed extinguishes (according to most Somali predilections), the quality of stimulusness, intensity and excitement of my articles; and thus uninspire numerous august Somali readers. In other words, majority of Somali learned people are not free from parochial Somali micro-politics, and every oeuvres and readings about Somalia should encompass interior virulent alienation and political fragmentation.