This beautiful region is now facing a naked aggression from the clannish-driven secession movement.

Mogadisho is the capital of Somalia. The notion that is belongs to a certain clan must cease and desist. How irrational is it to attribute the capital to a certain group's territory. My extended family alone [owns]owned hundreds of beautiful towers in the city, I swear in the name of God.

It is easy to be tricked when you are so poor and hopeless, a universal maxim. ------------------ Ethiopian migrants dumped off of Somalia's north coast 23 Feb 23, 2008 - 1:05:20 PM LAS QORAY, Somalia Feb 23 (Garowe Online) - Nearly 120 Ethiopian migrants were dumped off of north Somalia's coastal town of Las Qoray and informed that they were on Yemeni shores, local sources reported Saturday. Las Qoray residents awoke today to find the migrants near the coast, including women and children. A local source told Garowe Online that the migrants are from Ethiopia, and most belong to that country's ethnic Oromo majority. The migrants told Las Qoray locals that they were thrown overboard when they "saw lights" in the distance. The armed smugglers apparently told the migrants that they had reached the shores of Yemen, a destination for migrants fleeing the Horn of Africa region. The boat was loaded in a small village east of the port city of Bossaso, the commercial hub of the Puntland regional autonomy, the migrants said. The boat stayed on the high seas for many hours and then got close to the shore during the night, when the unsuspecting migrants could be easily tricked. "They [migrants] told us they were thrown overboard," said a local clan elder who spoke with the Ethiopians. "They looked tired and were in very bad shape." The Bossaso-to-Yemen smuggling route kills hundreds of African migrants each year. Earlier this week, at least 37 people, mostly Somalis and Ethiopians, died in the Gulf of Aden as they attempted to reach the Yemeni coast. Las Qoray is located in Sanaag, a region disputed for years between Puntland and the neighboring self-declared Republic of Somaliland. But since last year, Las Qoray and much of Sanaag region has remained in the hands of local clan leaders who established the Maakhir State of Somalia, which considers itself part of federal Somalia but independent of both Somaliland and Puntland. Source: Garowe Online

It is surprising to know that the United States or the installed Iraqi government's lack of protest against Turkey's violation on the territorial integrity of Iraq. ------------------------------- Turkey bombs Kurdish rebels in Iraq By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 16 minutes ago CUKURCA, Turkey - Turkish warplanes, helicopters and artillery bombed suspected hideouts of Kurdish rebels in remote, mountainous terrain of northern Iraq Saturday. The Turkish military said at least 35 Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers died in fighting Saturday. A total of seven soldiers and at least 79 rebels have been killed in Iraq since Turkey launched a ground incursion late Thursday, according to the military. The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, claimed it had killed 15 Turkish troops. The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Iraq's government criticized the offensive on Saturday, saying military force will not solve the Kurdish problem. "We know the threats that Turkey is facing but military operations will not solve the PKK problem. Turkey has resorted to military options, but this never resulted in a good thing," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. The rebels are fighting for autonomy in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey and have carried out attacks on Turkish targets from bases in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The conflict started in 1984 and has claimed as many as 40,000 lives. Turkey's government has complained that Iraqi and U.S. authorities were not doing enough to stop guerrilla operations. Turkey has assured the U.S.-backed Iraqi government that the operation would be limited to attacks on rebels. The United States and European Union consider the PKK a terrorist group. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday while visiting Australia that it will take a broader approach to erode support for the PKK in northern Iraq. "After a certain point people become inured to military attacks," he said, "and if you don't blend them with these kinds of nonmilitary initiatives, then at a certain point the military efforts become less and less effective." Massoud Barzani, head of the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, warned Turkey it will face large-scale resistance if it targets civilians in its ground incursion. The Turkish military said it had attacked rebel hideouts with fighter jets, helicopter gunships and artillery. The hideouts had ammunition and explosives inside, the military statement said. Turkey's state run news agency, Anatolia, said warplanes bombed suspected rebel bases in the Qandil mountain range, near the border between Iraq and Iran. The PKK said it killed 15 troops in Saturday's clashes and was in possession of their bodies, the pro-Kurdish news agency Firat reported, citing rebel spokesman Ozgur Gabar. It was not possible to independently confirm the conflicting casualty tolls. Coffins of some soldiers killed in Iraq, draped in red and white Turkish flags, were flown home, Associated Press Television News footage showed. An Associated Press reporter saw four Sikorsky helicopters used to transport soldiers and two Super Cobra attack helicopters flying Saturday toward the border from the town of Cukurca, the closest point on the Turkish side to the combat area. West of Cukurca, soldiers in Besta swept roads for land mines. Dozens of troops carrying assault rifles, light mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and sleeping mats patrolled near mountains with snow-covered peaks. The Iraqi government said Saturday that fewer than 1,000 Turkish troops had crossed the frontier. Turkish media reports have put the number in the thousands. The Iraqi government spokesman al-Dabbagh said Turkish commanders had assured Iraq that the "operation will be a limited one and it will not violate certain standards that they have set." Al-Dabbagh said Iraq's president and prime minister had spoken to Turkish officials. Turkey staged about two dozen attacks in Iraq during the rule of Saddam. Results were mixed; rebels suffered combat losses but regrouped after Turkish forces withdrew. ___ Source: AP

We have seen many unbelievable sceneries from Sanaag. Here are new ones from Ul-Xeed village, in the Cal-madow area, Sanaag. Strange camels. A body of water from MT peaks, I guess Source-LaasqorayNet Feyte37@hotmail.com

Suldaan, ninyahoo ma caloosha laguga ciiley. Bal ciil iyyo carro aad u qabtid reer Somaaliyeed yeysan ku dilin.

Dabshid, could you resize the pic to atleast 400-350 pixels.

Originally posted by Dabshid: Maakhir.com Dabshid, an official one should be launched in the future. It is too early to coordinate everything, if you know what I mean.

Qiiro badanaa!!!! As a young boy, I used to watch these Somali jets flying over us during the October 21st holiday. Kacaankii We were destroyed by the lack of leaders with vision and patriotism together with external forces.

It was all the dillema of identities, either forced or chosen. I strive for the chosen one but there are those who do the act of forced identity or secessionism on others. I was under the wrong impression that you meant it the default name for Northwestern Somalia. You are from Kenya. War ninyahoo saas kuuma maleynin. I love Kenya man

Somalipride is right. Maakhir is in hapless situation at the moment and can be claimed by either Puntland or Somaliland out of disregard of ethical considerations for people whom they view as regional rivals. It stands however the big call for Maakhirians to wake up from their big slumber. Lately, they have done commendable tasks and I am sure the biggest surprises are yet to come.

Btw, Something that was surprising discovery to me is that ONLY the New York Stock Exchange have a combined market capitalizatin of $ 15 trillion, whereas American households' assets are worth only about $460 billion, not even one trillion. We have at least dozens of Stock exchanges but NYSE is the biggest. It is amazing how little the general people are or hold valuable assets in financial terms.

At first sight this is proof that capitalism works. Money is flowing from countries with excess savings to those that need it. Rather than blowing their reserves on gargantuan schemes, Arab and Asian governments are investing it, relatively professionally. Isseh, this is how I think in basic terms the flow of international money and investments. Arab countries, in this case, might be considered as investors, but what if their poor long-term invesments result in huge losses in the event of Bankruptcy. The fact that public corporations have limited liability means that shareholders or blockholders can lose their original invesment in the event of failure. Or what if those rogue executives who hold their money commit financial scandals since the board who are mostly entrusted with the fiduciary duty to monitor or auditors fail to exericise due to hidden embedded interest to curry favors. In effect, This has been a long-lived systematic errors on the part of investors. Not a day passes without financial news scandals, litigation, etc. Logic: The Arabs have oil money but have to economically integrate with globalization and consolidation of stock markets to facilitate the nuts and bolts of cross-border trading. In the long-term, they are facing a major risk as it was evident in the Asian crisis and many other countries in Latin America. On the news today, Qatar Fund buys Credit Suisse stake

JB, Puntland and Maakhir sub-states should also seek Independence from Somalia. Is that what you hope to live to see brother-man?

Faarax, from Som? Is that an abbreviation of Somalia? Iga jaahil bixi saaxibow?

Originally posted by HornAfrique: Xiin- Gobonimadu waa loo kala dashaa adeer. For every Habar caaye that sprung from the Loins of Maakhir, Do you know what the word loin mean? mise waad caytameysaa?

How many countries have so far agreed to host an Africom base? America's Imperial Stretch into Africa

^I doubt that. H. Clinton pligiarizes his words Can Obama be Stopped After 10 consecutive defeats — including a heartbreaker in tailor-made Wisconsin on Tuesday — Hillary Rodham Clinton can't win the nomination unless Obama makes a major mistake or her allies reveal something damaging about the Illinois senator's background. Don't count her out quite yet, but Wisconsin revealed deep and destructive fractures in the Clinton coalition. It's panic-button time. That explains why Clinton's aides accused Obama of plagiarism for delivering a speech that included words that had first been uttered by Deval Patrick, the Massachusetts governor and a friend of Obama. The charge bordered on the hypocritical — Clinton herself has borrowed Obama's lines — and by itself was unlikely to have an impact on the race. Clinton claimed Tuesday that reporters, not her campaign, pushed the plagiarism story line. That is not true. The Clinton camp hopes to produce other instances of rhetorical theft and show a pattern of bad behavior. The danger for Obama is anything that undercuts his image as a candidate who rises above politics. Something like this might work to Clinton's advantage: Obama is backtracking on a pledge to abide by spending caps in the general election, and his explanation is bogus. Obama is undeniably raw. Less than four years removed from the Illinois Legislature, he stands at the brink of the Democratic nomination and will soon go one-on-one in debates with a tough and savvy former first lady. The odds of a misstep are low but not impossible for these reasons: Clinton will grow increasingly negative; Obama faces more scrutiny as the new front-runner; his performance in multi-candidates debates was uneven; and the charmed Illinois senator has never faced political crises. Should Obama stumble in the next two weeks, does he know how to recover? Clinton certainly knows how to bounce back. She helped her husband, Bill, recover from near-death experiences during his White House run and rebounded herself after a thumping in Iowa. But her rival has won the most states, earned the most pledged delegates and has all the momentum. Clinton needs to win Ohio and Texas on March 4 — then Pennsylvania in April — to narrow Obama's lead among pledged delegates. Only then could she argue with a straight face that a majority of the nearly 800 free-roaming "superdelegates" should back her over Obama. "Both Senator Obama and I would make history," the former first lady told supporters Tuesday night. "But only one of us is ready on Day One to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice." Only one of them can win, and it doesn't look good for her. "The chances of Obama doing something that's going to cause a major problem are about as low as her doing something that will turn it around," said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who is not tied to either campaign. "When you start pressing to come back, it's usually the person who's behind who makes the mistake." Ignore the Clinton advisers who argue that Wisconsin was just a bump on the road en route to the tell-all March 4 primaries. Listen instead to the message sent by her ragged coalition: Obama led among whites (widely among white men), moderates and those earning less than $50,000, all bastions of Clinton's past strength. Obama and Clinton split the vote among women, erasing her one-time advantage. Demographically, Wisconsin was a warm-up for Ohio: nearly 90 percent of Tuesday's voters were white; about 40 percent earn less than $50,000 annually; nearly 60 percent have no college degree; and half are over 50 years old — all demographics that have tended to favor Clinton. In a sign of desperation, the Clinton camp floated the idea of poaching delegates that Obama earned via elections. While allowable under Democratic National Committee rules, the tactic would likely divide Democrats along racial lines and set the party back decades. It would be the ultimate act of selfishness and foolishness. Even Clinton must realize there is little she can do to win the nomination. She can only help Obama lose it. AP

SOMALIA: Clashes force nomads out of south-central region 20 Feb 2008 14:10:46 GMT Source: IRIN NAIROBI, 20 February 2008 (IRIN) - Hundreds of nomadic families have fled the Middle Shabelle and Hiiraan regions of south-central Somalia after clashes between two communities claimed dozens of lives, sources said. The latest clashes, which began on 18 February between the Hawaadle and Abgal sub-clans of the main ****** clan, were concentrated around the small towns of Eil Qoryaale, and Eil Baraf, 260km north of the capital Mogadishu, and the surrounding villages. "The clashes have displaced hundreds of nomadic families on both sides," Yusuf Ahmed Hagar, the governor of the Hiiraan region, told IRIN. "We don't have exact figures but reports we are getting indicate a few thousand are on the move." Many of those affected have moved into the hinterland or towards major towns in the area for safety. A local journalist told IRIN that the Hawaadle were moving to the town of Jalalaqsi, about 270km north of Mogadishu, while the Abgal were moving south towards the town of Mahaday, 120km north of Mogadishu. The fighting, Hagar said, was being fuelled by insurgents loyal to the ousted Islamic courts and water shortages. "They [insurgents] are providing weapons to the nomads and exacerbating the situation," he said, adding that water shortages in the area were "a contributing factor. We are appealing to aid agencies to assist the affected people, with water trucking a priority." However, a local elder, who requested anonymity, said: "I don't think there is any involvement from the Islamic courts or anyone else," adding that the area was instead experiencing serious water shortages and people and livestock were in danger. "They have no access to wells or water points, because the areas they moved to were already dry." Another local source said the two groups had in the past fought sporadically over grazing land and water points, but the latest clash was linked to revenge killings and the competition for water. "The water situation is really desperate and that is making it a matter of life and death." Each side blamed the other for starting the fighting, he said. While fights over grazing pasture and water were not unusual in these areas, he said, "what is unusual is for the clashes to continue for over a month". Hagar said elders from both sides had been dispatched to the area to contain the situation. Adow Rage, the Mahaday district commissioner, said he was confident they would bring the situation under control very soon. "It is the first time and probably won't be the last but we intend to stop it from getting out of hand," he said. "We have sent officials to assess and report on the extent of the needs of the people affected." Other sources said tensions remained high in the area even though the fighting had subsided. Hagar, however, said: "I am hopeful we can contain the situation and there will be no new fighting." Source: IRIN

^Lol@ Nevermind. You right Ibtisam.

LX, do you approve of the justification made for the modern day Jihad-- Istishhad

Originally posted by General Duke: Thanks for the correctiontion. What I liked is the fact that she wants to rebuild most of the old ports, she named a few, one in Awdal, Bender Bayla, Eyl, Hobyo and a few others. A great project and we need to do more like this. Duke, The reconstruction of these old ports will be a wonderful projects in the future. She will be remembered for her amazing dreams, some accomplished, some yet. xiin, yes KT was there. Unfortunately, I wasn't there but my spirits were there.

Thanks Koora-tuunshe for these wonderful pics. The community's awareness for their country is now commendable compared to the past. More Pics from this humanitarian Event

Thanks Xudeedi for the article. Very insightful one