Gunman slays Somali constitution minister

I'm not sure how much longer I can ignore Somalia. With limited brain capacity and serious limitations on initiative (read I'm lazy), its impossible to keep up with all the conflicts. Are there still "troubles" in Northern Ireland? Damned if I know. The MSM can't mention everything either.

That said, this is very sad. The report paints Abdalla Derrow Issak as a reasonable man who wanted what was best for his country. Now he's dead.

An unknown gunman has shot and killed Somalia's constitutional and federal affairs minister in the provincial town of Baidoa, making him the first high-profile politician in the 18-month-old transitional governmment to be slain, officials and relatives said.

Abdalla Derrow Issak was shot three times as he left the mosque after Friday prayers in the temporary government base in Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu, but the gunman fled. He died as passers-by rushed him to hospital, witnesses said.

"Allah shall forgive him, Abdalla passed away after he was shot by an unidentified gunman," one of his relatives told AFP on Friday.

Somalia parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden mourned the minister as a "peace-loving" Somali and vowed that the government, which is largely regarded as weak and defenceless, will bring the criminal to justice. The motive of the killing remained unclear.

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I do know Nepal isn't peaceful.

The collective sigh of relief heard around the capital last week, as reports of possible United Nations involvement in a tenuous peace process came in, is a sign of just how much faith ordinary Nepalis place in the world body.

Ordinary citizens believe that once the U.N. gets involved, Nepal's 11-year-old Maoist problem will be resolved in favour of a peaceful democratic state. The local intelligentsia, too, holds similar beliefs. "The U.N.'s role will be to effectively manage the peace process. It will be difficult initially but we are certain that the U.N. will succeed," says Narayan Wagle, editor of the influential ‘Kantipur' newspaper.

Such faith is striking considering the U.N. is nowhere near being involved. And even if it does, its recent failures in places like Rwanda, the Balkans and Cambodia give spoilers enough to derail any such role in Nepal.

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