Mogadishu - Somalia's parliament on Monday backed Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, scuppering President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's plans to fire him.

Yusuf on Sunday fired Hussein, saying he was "unable to perform his duties" and that he was obliged to act to save the country.

However, the parliament in the town of Baidoa must approve the decision - yet it voted overwhelmingly that Hussein and his government were "legitimate."

Yusuf has been at loggerheads with his prime minister since the summer, when Hussein fired the Mogadishu Mayor, a close ally of Yusuf.

Nairobi - The world's long-term neglect of conflict-stricken Somalia has created the current boom in piracy in the Gulf of Aden, diplomats and UN officials said Wednesday as the second day of an international conference on piracy began in Nairobi.

"The Somali leadership ... and the international community have neglected Somalia," UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said. "Piracy is one of the most important consequences of this neglect."

Over 140 delegates from 45 countries - including ambassadors, ministers and technical experts - have gathered in the Kenyan capital to look at how to increase cooperation in fighting Somali pirates, in particular the thorny legal aspects of the issue.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Somali pirates hijacked two Yemeni fishing ships and took 22 fishermen hostage in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, Yemen's Interior Ministry said.

The pirates attacked the ships as they sailed off the Mait area near the southern port city of Aden, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Before the pirates took control of the ships, seven fishermen escaped on a small boat to report the attacks to the Yemeni Coast Guard Authority in Aden, the statement said.

Nairobi/Mogadishu  - The crew of a hijacked Ukrainian ship failed in a bid to escape their Somali captors Tuesday, according to media reports.

The BBC, quoting a pirate spokesman, reported that several crew members attacked two of their guards, but were quickly overpowered.

The MV Faina, which was captured in late September, is carrying a cargo of 33 tanks and other military equipment.

The ship was the pirates' highest-profile capture until the seizure of a Saudi supertanker carrying crude oil worth 100 million dollars in November.

Hamburg  - A German tour operator said Tuesday it was allowing passengers to disembark from one of its cruise ships before it sails through the Gulf of Aden out of fear of an attack by pirates.

Hapag-Lloyd said 246 German passengers and a large number of crew would leave the MS Columbus at a port in Yemen and fly to Dubai where they would spend three nights in a luxury hotel.

Mogadishu - At least 15 Somali civilians died and many others were wounded when Ethiopian forces shelled an insurgent stronghold in north Mogadishu on Friday, witnesses said Saturday.

"In a vegetable market around me, five civilians died on the spot instantly after a shell landed," Fadumo Yusuf, a shopkeeper, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "The shells landed consecutively and it was to difficult to escape."

Another resident in the area Abdi Wahab told dpa that around seven other dead civilians could seen in the area and 10 wounded people were rushed to hospitals.