Somali refugees preparing to move to the United States are rushing to circumcise their daughters after learning the practice is illegal in their future home. An unusually large number of girls have been circumcised in recent weeks in the Kenyan refugee camps housing the nearly 12 000 Somalis from the Bantu ethnic group due to be resettled to the US early next year, humanitarian workers confirmed.

The International Federation of Journalists, the world's largest journalists' organisation, has expressed its solidarity with Somali journalists who went on strike in the capital, Mogadishu, in protest against new draconian media legislation.

The southwestern Somali town of Baidoa on Thursday fell to the rivals of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) chairman, Col Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, who has been in control of the town since July, a local business source told IRIN.

The Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Dr. Ghanim Alnajjar, has called on local leaders, civil society organizations, and the international community to work together to address serious human rights problems throughout Somalia, and advocated for the establishment of national and regional Independent Human Rights Commissions.

The authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland have issued orders banning two local correspondents from reporting to the BBC's Somali service, a senior official in the region's commercial capital, Bosaso, told IRIN on Monday.

International aid agencies lack coordination when dealing with long-term assistance for internally displaced and returnee populations in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, says a report from the United Nations Coordination Unit/Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNCU/OCHA).

Heavy fighting has again broken out around the villages of Qayadsame and Al-Hamdulillah, near the town of Qardho, some 260 km south of Bosaso, the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, local media sources said.

The southern Somali town of Baidoa is reported to have fallen to forces loyal to Colonel Hassan Mohamed Nur Shatigudud. More than 110 people died and some 200 were injured in the battle.

Registered political parties in the self-declared republic of Somaliland have agreed on conditions necessary for holding free and fair elections in the region, IRIN reports.

Heavy fighting continued raging on Wednesday for the second consecutive day in Baidoa town between the forces of the president of the southwestern regional government of Somalia and those of his deputy chairmen in the Rahanwein Resistance Army faction.

The self-declared republic of Somaliland is to hold presidential elections in January, sources close to the Somaliland government told IRIN on Tuesday. An independent electoral commission will be established and about 10 candidates are expected to participate, the sources said.

At least 12 people have been killed, and more than 35 injured, in fighting between rival warlords in Medina, a residential area of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Witnesses say there was indiscriminate shelling of houses and many of those who died were civilians.

The U.N. Security Council tightened its 10-year-old arms embargo on Somalia on Monday, saying the flow of weapons was undermining efforts to stabilize the deeply splintered northeastern African nation.

Humanitarian agencies have expressed concern at the plight of Somali refugees camped in the northeastern Kenyan town of Mandera who, they say, were forcibly returned by police to Somalia; and called on the government and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to provide better protection.

Humanitarian agencies have expressed concern at the plight of Somali refugees camped in the northeastern Kenyan town of Mandera who, they say, were forcibly returned by police to Somalia. The temporary camp, known as Border Point 1, hosted some 3,000 refugees before the police arrived but was now empty, a humanitarian worker told IRIN on Thursday.

A group of campaigners against HIV/AIDS in Somalia, called AIDSOM, last week held the country's first ever public awareness demonstration in the coastal town of Marka, south of Mogadishu. "We did not experience any harassment and were mostly welcomed by the local population", said AIDSOM head Abdullahi Jama Hassan. However, he acknowledged that in some places the campaigners were forced to leave.

The United Nations refugee agency has announced more than 230 refugees are en route from Djibouti to Somalia under a voluntary repatriation program. Many of the refugees have lived outside their country for at least 10 years.

Tension is rising in the disputed Sool region of the self-declared republic of Somaliland as forces of Somaliland and those of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland deploy in the area, a local journalist told IRIN on Monday.

Supermodel Waris Dirie was a five-year-old child of the Somali desert when an old woman held her down and circumcised her with a rusty blade, sewing up her wounds with catgut and thorns. Now the internationally-renowned beauty whose face has graced countless magazines has turned her back on her lucrative career to campaign against the centuries-old practice of female genital mutilation which has left her scarred for life.

A failure to enforce a 10-year-old U.N. arms embargo on Somalia is undermining regional efforts to bring a measure of stability to the deeply divided African nation, U.N. experts said last Thursday.