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Foreign Fighters Urged To Join Battle in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's Islamic militias called Saturday on foreign Muslim fighters to join their "holy war" against Ethiopian troops after days of fighting killed hundreds of people and threatened to engulf this volatile region.
"Muslims are brothers and help each other . . . in this holy war," Yusuf Indahaadde, national security chairman for the Council of Islamic Courts, said in the capital, Mogadishu.
The Islamic forces have declared they want to bring the country under Koranic rule and vowed to drive out troops from neighboring Ethiopia, whose predominantly Christian army is providing military support to Somalia's U.N.-backed government. Ethiopia denies its forces are fighting, saying it has sent only military trainers.
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THE AMERICAS
· HAVANA -- Acting president Raúl Castro complained to lawmakers about inefficiencies in the island's economy, telling them in comments made public that there is no excuse for the transportation and food production problems that anger many Cubans.
"In this revolution we are tired of excuses," he said, giving the strongest sense yet of the frank and demanding leadership style he would be likely to adopt if his ailing older brother, Fidel Castro, did not return as president.
After almost five months in power, Raúl Castro has shown a willingness to criticize aspects of the communist system that are not working.
· LIMA, Peru -- Heavy rains damaged several adobe walls in the ancient ruins of Chan Chan, the world's largest mud city, on Peru's northern coast, El Comercio newspaper reported.
An unusual downpour Friday morning saturated the top seven inches of the walls in a southern portion of the ruins and penetrated the sides, the director of the archaeological site told the newspaper.
In the early 1980s, torrential rains and flooding caused severe damage to Chan Chan, a 28-square-mile city that was inhabited by the Chimu people from about 1000 to 1470.
AFRICA
· PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- A car bomb exploded outside a state government building in Nigeria's southern oil hub in the first targeting of government installations by a militant group that has previously attacked foreign oil companies.
