I was very impressed with Khalid Boularouz at the WC. Top defender in the making

^^Police do not take such incidents seriously. As long they get their ends come 1st of the month.

Today i took my sunglasses off while making wudu at a mosque and forgot them as i was rushing (late for jumaca). The glasses went missing, not a good thing with a blinding sun shine! A lesson to remember?

loooooooool cimaamad gub ayaa rear Baled Xaawo loo bixin doonaa!

Somali Islamists seize key town as talks stall Militias loyal to Somalia's powerful Islamic movement expanded their control by taking over a strategic coastal town as peace talks with the country's official government stalled. The fighters peacefully seized Hobyo in the central Mudug region on Tuesday night, according to an official with Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts. "There was no fighting and the people here welcomed us," Mohamed Mohamud Jimale Agawiene, a spokesperson for the group in central Somalia, told the Associated Press by telephone. The new takeover came as peace talks in Khartoum, Sudan, between the Islamic group and the government were at a standstill. The talks were meant to start on Monday, but delegates from both sides were holed up in their hotel rooms refusing to negotiate, Sudan's official news agency reported on Tuesday. Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy. A transitional government was formed in 2004 with United Nations help in hopes of restoring order after years of lawlessness. But the government never asserted much authority. The Islamic movement -- which began in the 1990s -- seized the capital, Mogadishu, after fierce battles with secular warlords in June and now controls much of the country's south. The government controls just one town, Baidoa, 250km north-west of the capital. Osman Elmi Bokore, the deputy chairperson of the transitional Parliament, said Tuesday's takeover will "just move us apart" in negotiations. "It shows the courts do not do not respect the agreements reached with the government," he said. Central Somalia is not under the control of a particular group and has seen some inter-clan violence over the past 16 years. The Islamic group has been expanding into central Somalia since August. Sudan, which currently heads the 22-nation Arab League, has taken the lead in promoting peace talks for Somalia. The talks began in Khartoum in June when the two sides agreed on a formula for mutual recognition. A second session was held in the city on September 2 to 3 when the two sides signed an agreement to form a unified national army. The Islamic group had been reported as saying they would boycott this week's peace talks in Khartoum because of the Ethiopian troops in Somalia. Ethiopia has said several hundred of its "military trainers" are in Somalia, providing expertise to the interim government. UN officials in the country say thousands of Ethiopian soldiers are defending Baidoa. -- Sapa-AP

about time! At least now there will be another source. Sky and Fox must be very paniky

Somali UN/Humanitarian/Dev types should make a trip to Mugdisho and co-ordinate a clean-up (financed by the UN).

Its only 6 miles saxib, i'm a nomad afterall and not in need of any such luxuries gulp ps what is the Al Quds headline today?

Well i cant do without my coffee in the morning Read this

^^Ah Lamptey, the next Abide Pele they told us. Ibrahim Ba anyone?

A quick low down. Dubai is still booming, many businesses are investing here and moving people across. It is likely to peeter off (the boom that is) and many people are settling here for good. I hope to be here for good IA. Make it my ‘main’ home in addition to the two others. If you want to move here then you must think of the following: Healthcare Schools Accommodation Most companies give allowances in addition to your salary so they don’t need to worry about all the paperwork/arrangement. This is good as you can save on all and have some extra money (if you do the research before hand and know what it all costs). Ask for a fuel allowance as well. You do get a Govnt Health Card where your medical bills are subsidised. Islam Contrary to people’s perceptions are about the UAE, you do feel you are in an Islamic country (when you get out of the malls of course). The amount of charity work is very impressive. You can pay your Zakaatul Maal/Fitre while walking on the street with many causes presented for you to contribute toward. There is the Sunni Centre for Quran Memorisation, numerous Islamic/Arabic courses. Expats There are certain areas where expats (westerners & westerners of foreign origin) are the majority (usually new developments like Arabian Ranches, Meadows, Springs etc). A visit to the masjids in these areas will probably mean a single row (probably incomplete) praying. Dressing modestly is not they’re forty. Arabs Very polite but have a completely different attitude behind the wheel. Very easy to get on with and will probably take an interest in your Somali background. Roads Throw the rule book out of the window! Traffic is bad at rush hour so be careful where you reside yourself. Abu Dhabi is ok (I think). Schools There are plenty but do some research into the best school for your kids/siblings. These are usually the big 3!. American, British and French Schools of which there are plenty. Some schools have all 3 curriculums. Some have Islamic Studies as well (with the option of learning it (Islam) in Arabic instead of English). Holidays Eid al fitre Eid al adxaa National day Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) birthday Islamic new year Gregorian New Year Isra wal mircaaj Labour Law http://www.mol.gov.ae/Pages-EN/documents-en/rule-labour.HTML

^^I have decided to do the 10km road race. I took NG's advice (who was i kidding)! I will start training this wknd IA. NG, the right to offend?

^^I think he started typing when he finished reading Al Quds, Arabs do no work

Somalia: Free market wasteland by Rex Weyler After the December Tsunami had swept 3000 kilometers across the Indian Ocean, Somali fisherman Hassan Abdi discovered a large metal container in the surf north of Mogadishu. The dirt-poor people of Somalia recycle any material resource, thus Abdi and his friends hauled the three-meter container into town to cut up as scrap metal. Warned not to tamper with it, the fishermen left it outside a former government building in Mogadishu. Meanwhile, villagers along the fifteen-hundred-mile Somalia east coast discovered similar metal containers, some 2 meters in diameter and up to 4 meters long, and began salvaging them for metal. On May 10, villagers near Barawe, north of Mogadishu, opened a container with axes until the spewing contents blinded three people and poisoned several bystanders, men, women, and children. Police, traditional leaders, and a local aid agency, Daryeel Bulsho Guud (DBG), launched warnings over the radio and in print media. Journalist Mihiyadin Ali Jumale filed reports relayed to German journalist Marc Engelhardt. I learned about these events from two members of the German relief organization Diakonie Emergency Aid, and have since interviewed journalists and aid workers from Somalia. Displaced, nomadic Somalians live beyond the reach of media. In spite of the public warnings, on May 19, fishermen in Kismayo beach, 500 kilometers South of Mogadishu, attempted to open a container with axes. The container exploded, killed four people , and severely burned the skin of eight others. Toxin containers have now washed up at fifteen known sites. In addition to the deaths and burns, exposed Somalian villagers have suffered respiratory infections, mouth ulcers, abdominal hemorrhages, and skin lesions. “Somalia is a UN no-go zone,” explained Roswitha Brender from Diakonie. “For security reasons, UN operations are very limited there. We’ve been working in Somalia, but the local organization DBG, needs assistance, as we are not toxin experts.” In April, Diakonie approached UNEP Nairobi, the United Nations Environmental Monitoring Centre, which referred them to UNEP in Geneva. The German aid organization urged the UN to send a team to Somalia, including monitoring scientists, doctors, and information staff to warn the public. On June 9, UNEP met, assessed the toxin catastrophe in Somalia, but declined to send a team or investigate the source of the containers. “The UN Institutions, and the Somali Representatives are not showing any interest in learning where the toxic waste comes from,” said aid worker Jürgen Prieske from Germany. “To the contrary, they’ve said that this question ‘should not be raised’ for the time being.” Hannelore Hensle, who has worked with Diakonie in Africa and around the world for 35 years, asked Greenpeace to step in and help, but the environmental group has not yet committed to the project. Somalia is not an attractive or safe place to go unless one is doing cash business. The country is factionalized among warlords and provisional governments. Journalist Marc Engelhardt describes Somalia as “pure market-economy, without regulation. Goods are imported and exported. Telephone networks and power lines are established, as long as it promises profits. In this system, environmental concerns don’t feature at all.” Multinational resource corporations covet Somalia’s uranium, iron ore, copper, natural gas, and possible oil reserves. It appears now, that these global corporations and/or nations dump toxic and radioactive waste in Somalia’s waters, likely with pay-offs to local officials and warlords to keep quiet. The UN estimates that dumping waste off the coast of Somalia can be achieved for 1/100th of the cost in Europe or North America. As a UN no-go zone, the country provides the perpetrators with protection from scrutiny. However, the tsunami has exposed this destructive shadow of free-market globalization. This land of poverty, oppression, sweltering heat, droughts, dust storms, famine, deforestation, monsoon floods, soil erosion, and desertification, now suffers industrialism’s most deadly waste and the world’s indifference. Rex Weyler: www.rexweyler.com

Kazakstan is actually a booming place (according to Expats). Those in the oil industry will know why. Meanwhile, in Muslim capitals throughout the world I'm yet to see a poster or any trailers. I dont even know what all the fuss is about. ps isnt Kazakstan mainly a Sufi country? pps their tourism will shoot up next year!

^^thank for articulating your position

BOB, i had the choice of all the Sat games and chose Arsenal vs Everton. Liverpool are poor these days and i hate that Crouch!

WOW!!!At that age? I would'nt say hes Ronnie but rather a carbon copy of Maradona! Players who pass the ball at the right time are usually the best. What a player, good luck to him!

Baashi, if you are offered a transfer take it!

Mo Farah Race Mo Farah Interview

Why are all the contraversial Imams/Sheiks/Muftis all Egyptian???? Why do we not have Imams who are PR savy, who can speak good English and articulate their points in such a way that attracts the right attention (or even be able to spin bad publicity)?

Will SL's recognition shout be heard clearer by the Int Community if the UIC gain the upper hand in Somalia should be the question explored.

if all these forces from UICs, ONLF, OLF, Eritrea join together and effectively wage war on Ethiopia from all sides, then the Tigray regime's days are numbered and then for sure there will be new breeze in east africa Thats why they are bluffing saxib. They simply can't afford to go to war with UIC as the other groups will pick-up arms. A pandoras box is awaiting if they do.

Just another disgruntaled Somali 'journalist' who isnt getting a slice of the action!

By Guled Mohamed and Sahal Abdulle Mogadishu - Mahesh Ayra and Majdi Bashir have purchased scrap metals worth millions of dollars from a company in Mogadishu and have done so without the help of armed guards - an unusual step in one of the world's most lawless cities, now enjoying a semblance of order after 15 years of anarchy. "We have already purchased 27 metric ton of scrap metal worth over $5-million (about R37-million)," said Bashir, an Egyptian working for Kuwait-based Dana Group Centre, which includes companies dealing with construction, real estate, food and information technology. "We will bring in sugar and cement ... We have a lot of ideas and business plans." Islamists, who control Mogadishu and a swathe of the south, say they have pacified the capital since ousting warlords in June. This, they say, has lured investors from as far as China. In a country which has seen 14 attempts at effective central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator, foreign money is urgently needed to rebuild a devastated economy and dilapidated infrastructure. Once Mogadishu's streets rang with the whine of bullets and echoed to the rumble of technicals - pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons. Today, Islamist fighters quietly roam around. "We are the first foreign investors to land in Mogadishu," said Ayra, who is Indian. "We are only waiting for security assurance to come and invest here." The Islamists have re-opened Mogadishu's port and airport, where a "Let us build Somalia together" sign hangs high. Both had been closed for over a decade. The Islamists have also started issuing visas. Flights to and from Kenya and Dubai are full of curious investors and returning refugees. Passengers are sometimes forced to wait for days to get a seat on the packed planes. Residents gaze at the aircraft as they land and take off over rusted rooftops and circle over the Indian Ocean. Yang Jian Zhong came to Mogadishu to purchase rawhide, saying it is much cheaper in Somalia than Dubai, where he used to buy the product for his shoe factory in central China. He was last in Mogadishu with his Chinese partner Majin Moosa in May when the Islamists were battling US- backed warlords in several months of fighting that killed hundreds. He fled because of the violence. "We hope to get four containers (of rawhide) ... Everything is new here, it's good for business," Moosa, said on behalf of Yang, who does not speak English. "I hope this peace will come true for Somalia," he said, sipping local tea. "Somalia can develop into another Dubai. They have good weather, living is cheap and there are a lot of business opportunities." Yang called on his government, which has a strong presence in Africa, to help rebuild Somalia where millions are jobless. "I hope the Chinese government helps Somalia. Somalia can develop if peace comes. People can do a lot." Somalia has an interim government, based in the provincial town of Baidoa, but the rise of the Islamists has challenged its authority and effectively flanked the Western-backed administration on three sides. Peace talks between the two sides have taken place in Sudan, and as a fragile calm takes hold, residents hope business opportunities will flourish. "There is peace but there is no money," taxi driver Yusuf Ali said while driving on a potholed Mogadishu street. "It is becoming very hard to feed our children. We desperately need big companies to come and help restore our badly damaged roads." Bashir says Mogadishu residents had a huge appetite for work after years of fighting. He said some women and men had begun cleaning streets and clearing roads on their own initiative. "It is a sign that people are ready to work, they need money to survive ... We are ready to provide them with jobs they need." He said his company was willing to teach Somalis other things. "We are even ready to start classes for the people here and teach them how important peace is." Violence has not disappeared - a Swedish journalist and an Italian nun were shot dead in Mogadishu since the Islamist takeover - but Bashir and Ayra said they were not scared. "We look forward towards conducting healthy and fruitful business in Somalia," Bashir said. Ayra said they would return with colleagues, such as doctors and engineers. "Road infrastructure and the health care sector are the priority areas that need urgent funding," Ayra said. "Our partners will soon come to see for themselves ... opportunities are abundant here."