Nairobi - Around eight ships have been seized by pirates off the lawless Somali coast with gunfire being reported during one of the hijackings, an official said Monday.

"Around eight ships have been seized, but we believe there were no fatalities," Andrew Mwangura, the head of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"There was a shoot-out at one of the ships, but it was a quarrel between the gunmen," he continued. "We understand there were no injuries."

Earlier reports had suggested three sailors had been killed.

Nairobi - Kenya was Monday basking in the warm afterglow of its most successful Olympics ever with 14 medals, including five gold.

Samuel Wanjiru's Sunday victory in the marathon - Kenya's first ever Olympic gold in the discipline - topped off the display, leaving Kenya 15th in the overall medals table, three places ahead of rival and closest African nation Ethiopia.

Kenya was particularly proud of its female athletes, with Pamela Jelimo and Nancy Jebet Langat bringing home the first Olympic golds for Kenyan women in the 800m and
1,500m respectively.

Nairobi, Mogadishu  - The United Nations Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah on Saturday condemned the killing of civilians, as Islamic insurgents seized a major town after a bloody battle.

Over 50 died, hundreds were injured and thousands forced to flee as Islamic insurgent group al-Shabaab seized control of the strategic port of Kismayo, which lies around
500 kilometres south of Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab took over the city on Friday after three days of bloody battles with local clan militia that saw businesses shut down and bodies littering the street.

"The Islamic Courts and al-Shabaab control Kismayo," clan elder Abdi Bashi told Mogadishu-based Radio Garowe.

Nairobi/Mogadishu - Over 50 people have died and thousands have fled after three days of heavy fighting in the Somali port town of Kismayo, reports said Friday.

According to the online portal of Somali radio station Garowe, fighting broke out on Wednesday after a landmine targeted local clan militia travelling in a truck.

Islamic insurgent group al-Shabaab is believed to be attempting to seize the strategic port from the local clan that controls the town, which lies around 500 kilometres south of Mogadishu.

Garowe said that bodies were lying in the streets and that businesses remained closed as fighting raging throughout the town.

Nairobi - Joseph Kony, the leader of Uganda's notorious rebel Lord's Resistance Army, will only sign a final peace deal on Sunday if an international warrant for his arrest is dropped, the group's spokesman said Friday.

"It is possible he (Kony) will sign, but he wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop its arrest warrant before he signs," LRA spokesman David Matsanga told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Kony is on Sunday scheduled to meet United Nations special envoy Joaquim Chissano, former president of Mozambique, and the Vice President of Southern Sudan, Riek Machar on the border between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the LRA is holed up.