Nairobi/Mogadishu - Somali parliamentarians Wednesday voted to impeach President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed a day after he defied parliament and appointed a new prime minister to replace Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

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

However, parliament on Monday voted overwhelmingly to back Hussein, who said the decision to fire him was unconstitutional.

Dubai  - Iraq signed on Wednesday a three-billion-dollar agreement with General Electric Energy for the provision of power generation equipment and services to the country.

Under the agreement, General Electric will provide heavy-duty 9E gas turbines, that are capable of supplying about 7,000 megawatts electricity, according to a statement by the company.

The Iraqi government plans to install these turbines all over the country to provide support for the electricity grid.

Washington  - Barack Obama, the politician who rose from obscurity to become the first African-American president of the United States, was named Person of the Year by US magazine Time on Wednesday.

Time cited Obama's unlikely run for the presidency, his ability to energize voters and the expectations abounding for his presidency at home and abroad as some of its reasons for picking him as the top story of 2008.

San Francisco  - A new survey sponsored by computer chip giant Intel has found that about half of US women would prefer to go without sex for two weeks than manage without the internet for the same period of time.

Titled Internet Reliance in Today's Economy, the poll found that 49 per cent of women aged 18 to 34 would opt to forgo sex for two weeks rather than do without the internet, while 52 percent of women ages 35 to 44 made the same choice.

Nairobi  - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki have signed a deal to set up a local tribunal to try politicians and businessmen accused of orchestrating this year's post-election violence.

The deal was signed hours before the midnight deadline given by a commission headed by Justice Philip Waki.

Waki in October handed down the deadline to create a local tribunal to try those named in an envelope Waki handed over to former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

Rome  - Serie A giants AC Milan announced Wednesday that they will officially introduce English star David Beckham Saturday evening at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium.

Beckham is to remain at Milan until March, on loan from US club Los Angeles Galaxy.

The 33-year-old midfielder is expected to undergo medical tests over the weekend and watch Milan's home game Sunday against Udinese ahead of the Serie A winter break.