LOL@this thread! Inshaa Allah somalidu waa ilbixi doontaa. Waa laga weynaan doonnaa magaaladaan annaggaa iska leh ama majority baan ka nahay! Dalkoo dhan lama sheegan karo; man rakaba farasayni shaqqa dubarah

Every Somali should write to their elected representatives about the situation in Somalia. ^^Good call yaa Socodka! Allaah ha u sahlo, dulmigana ha ka dulqaado!

Allaah ha u naxariisto hadday ku dhimatay! Muslims who die by drowning border shahiid status~~~ Farax B, i am glad to hear you are well and safe! Cabbaar baan ku raad-raadiyey then i gave up on you thinking inaad waa hore dhulkaba ka qaxday!

These are the highlights of Yey's trip: Darwishes will be under Yey orders, and not under the command of Cadde. Gaming for marine resources will be exclusively under Yey’s management. Exploring natural resources are deemed too important a task to be left for Cadde, the rookie, and will be managed by Yey in the future. You think Cadde lost in this deal? You are wrong. It’s win-win for both Cadde and the old man. The poor people of Puntland lost it big time. This is what they are promised to get for the next year and half: 1- more corruption and resource fleecing from Cadde and his admin 2- diminished political entity 3- and more miseries… What is your take on how Yey secured Puntland to remain on his thump? What you do expect the poor souls who are squeezed between Yey’s political ambitions and Cadde’s sheer financial greed to do?

Caamir, Some suspicions are a sin. In fact it’s a cardinal sin. Take that as a generous nugget of wisdom. Matter of fact, it’s from our Islamic tradition. Here is where yours lacks taste: posting glaringly biased articles in support of the defunct tfg, overlooking its erroneous policies, while habitually defaming and trashing the legacy of Islamic Courts, discounting of course all the good stuff they have achieved in their brief rule--- reeks quite a extreme stance to take adeer. What’s even more radical is your insinuation that Courts had sinister motives in their effort to mobilize Mogadishu residents to clean the city from the debris caused by a decade of civil war. ^^By doing that, Caamirow, you have indeed blown on that which is no fuel, to quote al Hariri, and taken for fat what is only swollen, even as you scoff off hard facts and deny the good that was done.

^^Thanks much sister Haneefah! It's expected that the number of dead will increase tomorrow. Rescue teams have switched to a recovery mode now after the night fall. Soomalidu meeshaas aad bay runtii u maraan ee Allah ha ka badbaadiyyo!

Interstate Bridge Collapses Into Mississippi River in Minneapolis By Joe Kimball and Elizabeth Williamson Special to the Washington Post and Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 2, 2007; A01 MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 1 ¿ An eight-lane highway bridge clogged with rush-hour traffic buckled and collapsed into the Mississippi River in central Minneapolis yesterday evening, pitching throwing numerous vehicles into the roiling water below. At least sevensix people were killed and dozens were injured, authorities the city's mayor said. Emergency officials said the toll could was likely to rise as rescuers, hampered by burning cars and hunks of shattered broken roadway, scoured the debris-clogged river for survivors. "This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota," said Gov. Tim Pawlenty ®.? "We are doing everythingevery thing we can to make sure we respond as quickly as we can to this emergency." It was not immediately clear what caused the Interstate 35W bridge to break apart. Witnesses described a lampost-shaking rumble at 6:05 p.m. central timeCDT as the concrete-and-steel structure rippled from south to north, then sheared broke apartoff, its 458500-foot long central section plunging from more than 60 feet into the greenish water. As massive swaths of concrete sheared off, vehicles on the bridge fell., including a school bus, careened downward. Some of them plunged into the water, while others, including the a school bus, came to rest on slanted sections of pavement at the cliff-like edge of the roadway. Several of the vehicles caught fire and one tractor-trailer was sheared in half. At least one person of the dead drowned. Rescue officials said many of the survivors were wounded seriously wounded. Minneapolis emergency official Don Stickney said some lanes of the 40 year-old bridge were closed for "general maintenance," which may have reduced the number of potential casualties. Regardless, heStickney said, "Tthis would have been the busiest time of the day." One eyewitness, Heather Munro,? said she heard a sound "like a wrecking ball hitting a concrete building." Turning in the direction of the sound, she said she saw a plume of dust rising above the treeline. "It looked like complete total structural failure," said Munro, 40, of Minneapolis. "There was twisted metal everywhere." Gazing down the embankment alongside the river, she spotted an injured man next to two SUVs sport-utility vehicles, one on top of the other piled atop each other. The man, his face streaming blood, was struggling to get up, but his right leg was askew as if broken, she said. About 300 feet away, she saw a woman climb out of the sunroof of her red Jeep. "It was so surreal," Munro said. "She was carrying her purse. She had her arms open in a 'wWhat the heck?' gesture. It was just total bewilderment. She must have been in shock." Homeland Security officials said they had have ruled out terrorism as a cause. Pawlenty said the bridge had been inspected in 2005 and 2006, and inspectors found "no immediate or noted structural problems" were found. with the bridge." He said the structure had been undergoing "cosmetic" repairs, including resurfacing, and guardrail and lighting replacement. Reports issued by the Minnesota Department of Transportation over the past decade have detailed problems/repeat with the 40-year-old bridge. In 1997, the department noted "problems with the approach spans on both ends of the bridge, including "cracks ..... in the cross girder at the end of the approach spans." In a 2001 report, department engineers said that the bridge's deck truss "has not experienced fatigue cracking, but it has many poor fatigue details on the main truss and floor truss system." But that report concluded that the bridge "should not have any problems with fatigue cracking in the foreseeable future." As a result, they authors wrote, the department "does not need to prematurely replace this bridge because of fatigue cracking, avoiding the high costs associated with such a large project." Jay Danz, 45, of St. Paul told the Minneapolis Star- Tribune newspaper that he was driving to the Minnesota Twins baseball game on a parkway beneath the structure when he heard the bridge "creaking and making all sorts of noise it shouldn't make." "And then the bridge just started to fall apart," he said. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board traveled to Minneapolis last night to determine why the bridge collapsed, said Chairman the board's chairman, Mark V. Rosenker? said. About 200,000 vehicles a day pass over the bridge, which connects two sides of Minneapolis,? according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. It is located near the city's business district and the University of Minnesota campus. "It's obviously a catastrophic collapse," Rosenker said, adding that he had no details about how the accident occurred. "We are calling in bridge experts from across the country." Emergency services officials from away as far as 430 miles arrived on away poured onto the scene. Racing against an approaching lightning storm and growing darkness, city officials dispatched boats and half a dozen a half-dozen dive teams in a frantic rescue effort. Rescuers scrambled up and down the riverbanks, moving amid half-submerged cars and SUVs in the shadow of dangling concrete and blacktop overhead, their shouts punctuated by the cries of bloodied survivors. Further into the In deeper water, rescue divers launched themselves into open car windows, looking for trapped victims. Rescuers helped motorists stranded in their cars inside a vV-shaped gorge created by buckled roadway. The bBroken north and south sections of the bridge stood almost vertical, bordered by snakelike twisted green girders, the roadbed's bottom edges resting on the wide riverbank below. Rescuers helped motorists stranded in their cars inside a vV-shaped gorge created by buckled roadway. As late as 9:30 p.m., rescuers were still trying to search caverns of stacked concrete for victims, said Minnesota director of emergency preparedness Kristi Rollwagen, Minnesota director of emergency preparedness. There were about 30 children aged five to 14 in the school bus, which was returning from a day camp. They were among the first to be evacuated and sent to local hospitals and shelters. Courtney Johnson of the American Red Cross said most of the children appeared not to be seriously hurt. "It looked like a terrorist attack," Ryan Murphey?, 30 of Minneapolis told the Star-Tribune. "But everyone there was very calm and organized." Murphey said he helped carry stretchers holding two victims from the east riverbank, including a middle-aged woman with a blood-smeared face. Emergency vehicles backed up several deep near the broken highway edge, where cars teetered crazily off the edge. Traffic had been moving at about 20 m.p.h. on the bridge when witnesses said its lightpoles trembled, and a low rumble built into the roar of the collapse. At the Holiday Inn Metrodome, within sight of the collapse, half a dozen police chaplains and Red Cross workers had assembled to meet with family members orf others seeking victims or survivors as huge banks of search lights illuminated the scene of the rescue efforts. Concerned Minnesotans jammed cell phone lines, looking for news of the crash and the whereabouts of loved ones headed home from work. Announcers told the crowd at the nearby Minnesota Twins game of the collapse shortly after 7:00 p.m. local time, but officials decided to continue the game after a moment of prayer to help prevent more traffic from from pouring into the chaotic scene. The National Transportation Safety Board's Rosenker noted that the safety board, which is better known for investigating airplane and rail crashes, has recent experience with construction projects. determining why a heavy ceiling panel collapsed in Boston's Big Dig tunnel last year, killing a woman. The board blamed the big dig collapse on the improper use of glue to secure those panels. wp

^^Xamdan li-Laahi. August 2, 2007 Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis Kills at Least 7 By LIBBY SANDER and SUSAN SAULNY An Interstate highway bridge in downtown Minneapolis loaded with rush-hour traffic dropped more than 60 feet into the Mississippi River last night, sending at least 50 vehicles and passengers into the water. Chief Jim Clack of the Minneapolis Fire Department said at least seven people were killed and more than 60 were injured. More than three dozen injured drivers and passengers were taken to hospitals. “This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty said at a news conference about three hours after the collapse. The eight-lane bridge on Interstate 35W, part of a major artery between Minneapolis and St. Paul, was being repaired at the time, and a witness told MSNBC that he had heard a jackhammer being used on the roadway just before the collapse about 6 p.m. Witnesses said the bridge, which was built in 1967, collapsed in three sections, sending a plume of smoke 100 feet into the sky. One section of the bridge lay flat in the river, with cars parked on the rolling pavement. The collapsed section of the bridge, which was about 1,000 feet long, had been supported by a steel truss structure. Repairs were being made to the bridge’s concrete deck, guard rails and lights, state officials said. Divers and rescue boats continued to search the river and the twisted wreckage of the bridge, with darkness setting in and rain beginning to fall. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis said some people were seen floundering in the river, calling for help. Leah R. Fulin, 16, of Minneapolis, had just crossed the bridge and was on the Washington Avenue exit when it collapsed behind her. “Most of the cars that were on the bridge went into the river,” she said. “There was a whole bunch of smoke when concrete breaks like that. There were people screaming.” Janet Stately was returning from Duluth, Minn. and decided to take an adjacent bridge to avoid traffic when the collapse occurred. “I heard an awful noise and saw what looked to me like a piece of the freeway just going down flat,” Ms. Stately said. Then she said she saw the road collapse into a V and cars rolling into the river. “I clearly recall horns honking. I was screaming. We were trying to call 911 on our cellphones.” Television pictures showed a school bus on one section of the collapsed slab, but the back door was open and no passengers were visible. Red Cross officials said 60 children were taken off the bus, 10 of whom had injuries that were treated at city hospitals. A column of smoke curled up from a tractor-trailer near the bus. “I saw a lot of crying,” Courtney Johnson of the Red Cross told CNN. “Some of the older children were comforting the younger children.” The children were 4 to 12 or 13 years in age, Ms. Johnson estimated. Berndt Toivonen, 51, of Minneapolis, told The Star Tribune he had been on his way home from a painting job when the bridge collapsed beneath his car. “The bridge started to buckle,” Mr. Toivonen said. “It went up and it came down. I thought I was going to die.” He was uninjured, but he said people around him, some injured, were screaming in their cars. Dr. Joseph Clinton, chief of emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, said six patients at the hospital had critical injuries and 22 had injuries that were not considered life threatening. There was one drowning fatality there, Dr. Clinton said. “This is a very busy bridge,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, whose home is nearby. “It’s really right in the heart of the city,” Ms. Klobuchar told CNN. “Thousands of commuters use this bridge every day.” According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the flow on the eight lanes of I-35W crossing the river was supposed to be restricted beginning Tuesday night for the northbound lanes and at 8 last night, about two hours after the collapse, for the southbound lanes. The reason stated on the agency’s Web site was “overlay work,” which refers to roadway resurfacing. A 2001 evaluation of the bridge, prepared for the state transportation department by the University of Minnesota Civil Engineering Department, reported that there were preliminary signs of fatigue on the steel truss section under the roadway, but no cracking. It said there was no need for the transportation department to replace the bridge because of fatigue cracking. Governor Pawlenty said the bridge had an unusual design and was inspected in 2005 and 2006. No structural deficiencies were detected, he said. Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, told CNN that the bridge had received a “clean bill of health” three years ago. Mr. Coleman said the construction work on the bridge was a resurfacing project, not uncommon in Minnesota in the summer. The Minnesota Twins postponed today’s baseball game at the Metrodome. A groundbreaking ceremony for a new baseball stadium was also postponed, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. “We’re getting a lot of spontaneous volunteers,” Ms. Johnson of the American Red Cross told CNN. “People are just showing up to help us out.” Cellphone calls in the area were disrupted after the collapse, possibly because antennas were overloaded with calls. As the toll of the injured and missing rose, a woman who was near the scene of the collapse called a cable network desperate for information: "If Janna or Paul hear grandma’s voice, please call home," she begged. The National Transportation Safety Board will send a team of investigators, a spokesman, Ted Lopatkiewicz, said. The board chairman, Mark Rosenker, will accompany the investigators, Mr. Lopatkiewicz said. ny times

^^I am glad to hear you made it saaxiib! Caawa meel walbaa lagaa dayey !

^^Tragic indeed! And aamin to your ducaa.

^^saaxiib, so far i have not heard about any somali casualties. Allaah ha ka badbaadiyo. watch some pics of the collapsed bridge

^^So far six dead...50-100 cars in the Missisipi river.

cnn bbc

Xaaladu ma fiicna. this is a true disaster. I hope and pray all the mn nomads are ok. Dadka waxyeeladu kasoo gaadhay allah u sahlo.

Ciidamada Itoobiya oo kaashanaya ciidamada haybta qabiil u kala jabay ayay ahayeen kuwii maxkamadaha la diriray oo meesha ka saaray.Marka waxaa laga yabaa in laisweydiiyo haday dowlada Federalka iyo sarakiisha Itoobiyaan sidaas xaalada uga wada dharagsan yihiin waa maxay sababta dowlada u meermeerayso oo aysan u guda galayn arrimaha dhabta ah oo dhinacyada iska soo horjeeda u dheexya si xal loo gaaro? ^^ Cajiib! Ciidamadda Ethiopia iyo tfg da laba qolo ayyaa waa gii taageertay. Qolo waxay ahayd qolo o u aragtay inay dawladdu ayagga tahay, Maxkamadahu duullaan ku yihiin masaalixdooda. Qolada kale waxay u badnaayeen warlordyo maxakamaduhu ka adkaadeen oo meelihii ay haysteen gacantoda ka waayey. Qoloda danbe markii la isticmaalay sidii maro wasakh ah baa loo xooray. Waxaa hadda kasoo haray calaacal iyo eed joogta ah. Waa kala qaaran yihiin: mabda' ay ku bareeraan oo tfg-da kagasoo horjeestaan malaha; maamulka hadda jira iyo Ethiopiankana miisaan badan kuma laha oo sidaas baysan u taageeraynin. Calaacal. Eed. Thumma calaal iyo eed kale. Bal waakane adigu aamusi! Need i cite examples of thier version of justice iyo maamul xalaal ah? Only if the cyber goons know what they are talking about...

Faarax, you are alone and unarmed in this thread! But you are fearless adeer---yours dangerously borders recklessness ! How dare you suggested that wives live off their husband’s income, or worse yet where did you get that teens don’t work, and hence are without income . Ayaamahan busy baan ahaa laakiin threadkan hadba waan fiirin jirey bal inaad weli bad qabto! War ka baxso meesha. Escape at your earliest opportunity, I say ! ^^Intaa dabadeed yaa yiri dumar & lacag baa heshiis ah? Alla bahashaas iyo duulku isku xumaa!

^^You should've, awoowe! I envy those who make it back home and have the opportunity to see the land and its people after all the hard times we’ve been through. I was in Ottawa few weeks back, and my young cousin told me her experience in Burco, Hargaysa, Jabbiuuti, and of course Gaalkacyo. She really had funny stories to tell about Burco …she has friends from that town and they wanted her to take some pics, and she innocently started taking pictures right and left without knowing the place and its culture! When they asked her(the guards at the airport did) where she was from and her destination, …war ma yaalla hee.

^^stop misleading people: You are not from there! If you were, you would've gone there and posted pictures of it, instead of going to caziir land . Unless we see pics of NGONGE with bud in Burco...we are not believing you man!

There is nothing wrong with it. In fact, if I were to advise those fighters in Xamar, I would tell them to ignore these odoyaal! Baashe wrote: Note my criticism on how this congress is not tackling the political issues and how the TFG is acting as a moderator of the conference. ^^That's the catch awoowe! If you are talking about real and genuine reconciliation, this conference is broken. It’s not intended to reconcile Somalis. This gathering was orchestrated and it’s being managed as we speak by one side of Somali conflict. The wadaads though militarily defeated and politically marginalized is yet a power to reckon with AND they are not there for many reasons. Reason # 1 being this conference is held under the shades of Ethiopian tanks so to peak. Wadaads perceive Ethiopia as an occupying force that has illegally deposed them and helped the return of Mogadishu warlords. Reason # 2 is that this conference, the form it was proposed, does not take up the question of political disputes. It makes this defunct tfg body the sole authority of the land and discussion about any reforms to it beyond any debate. Those are the two main sticking points that deem this conference as a useless gathering. There are minor technical issues as well but those would have been overcome if the fundamentals were addressed. So the point is not whether bunch of odayaal get the opportunity to rant and voice own grievances. It’s the format and the arrangement that’s at issue here awoowe!

Cakku Baashi & NGONGE! Maad daysaan JB ha iska riyoodee! You know, his is a peerless nation that has its own unique poets and artists.... Allow caqliga hanaga cayrayn!

^^You are probably sincere in your post but if one digs your logic a little deeper, one wonders if you buy into the line that asserts clerics are to blame for bombardments and suicide acts around the globe---the sort that’s linked to the Muslims youth! You see, there’s a noisy intellectual pack in the west that reckon if the western governments had put some controls on who and what’s preached in mosques, great strides would’ve been made to minimize Muslim violence. The root cause of the bloodshed we see today in the Muslims world, and the violent reaction that occasionally occurs in the western capital, it follows to reason, if you buy into the said line that is, has everything to do with the hatred and warped ideologies that some clerics preach, and little to do with any legitimate grievances! ^^If find that to be a pathetic line of reasoning, and so instead of you commenting on the margins of this issue yaa LG why don’t you firstly correct me on this one!

^^I think, his party in general, and himself in particular learnt great deal from Arbakan’s experience in modern Turkey. And it paid off!

^^ Mindhaad aakhiraad damacday inaad aado!

A man to be admired indeed!

^^Northerner, i even suspect you now ! Nay, i even suspect Siilanyo ! Bal wakaase sida Oodweyne jihaadka Somaliland's indepedence baan ku dhimmanayyaa ha lagaa maqlo... I agree with you that this man is really unique in many ways. I followed him through the years and seldom do the political events change his original stands. I reckon, this man had stayed above what could be termed Somalia’s clannish manure more so than any other Somali figure in recent years. It does not please me though to see that age has taken its toll on him…Allow ayyaama daa!