Nairobi/Mogadishu - At least seven persons were killed when armed militias attacked the Somalian parliament building on Saturday, the radio broadcaster Radion Garowe reported Sunday. At least three mortars struck the building in an attack coming shortly after deputies had met to debate the government's new budget proposals, the radio said.

Parliamentary speaker Aden Madobe said no deputies were injured, but among those killed was a security official. Other mortars struck nearby apartment buildings and a student dormitory, killing a number of pupils. About 15 people were wounded, the report said.

Nairobi/Mogadishu  - Somalia's interior minister was wounded and one of his entourage killed in a roadside bomb attack in the capital Mogadishu Thursday.

Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, who led the Islamic opposition before he joined the government this year, was leaving the Bakara market area when the bomb went off.

Radio Shabelle reported Sheikh Abdulkadir as saying that the attackers were former allies who did not support the new government led by his close ally President Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

Nairobi/Mogadishu - The African Union's special representative for Somalia Nicolas Bwakira on Thursday condemned a roadside bomb attack that killed an AU peacekeeper in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Two bombs exploded near Mogadishu airport on Wednesday, killing one peacekeeper and injuring another three.

Bwakira said that the attack, which he blamed on main insurgent group al-Shabaab, would not "derail" the AU's role in Somalia.

Nairobi/Mogadishu - Somali insurgents have installed strict Islamic law in Baidoa, the seat of the Somali government, after taking control of the town.

Main insurgent group al-Shabaab took over the town on Monday only hours after the pullout of Ethiopian troops who had been propping up the central government for two years.

Baidoa was one of the last remaining strongholds of the government, which now only controls parts of the capital, Mogadishu.

Nairobi/Mogadishu - Somali members of parliament on Monday voted to double the number of seats in parliament from 275 to include moderate Islamists and civil society.

The Islamist Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) will have 200 seats, while 75 members of civil society will take up the rest of the new seats.

The MPs, meeting in neighbouring Djibouti due to insecurity in Somalia, are also due to vote on whether to delay presidential elections due for the end of January.

Mogadishu - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed on Tuesday appointed a new prime minister, defying a vote by parliament not to approve his decision to sack Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

"After I consulted lawmakers, I today appointed Mohamed Mohamoud Guled Ga'madhere as prime minister," Yusuf told reporters in Baidoa, the seat of the Somali parliament. "I appointed the premier after I carefully considered the wrong decision parliament took yesterday."