Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

Clashes between rival clans have left at least 20 people dead in the Mudug region of central Somalia, where sub-clans of the Hawiye tribe are battling over water and land.

The fighting occurred late on Saturday as militiamen armed with heavy machine guns engaged in a deadly exchange of fire, killing up to 20 people, mostly combatants. Ten fighters were also wounded in the clashes.

The UK's ambassador to Beijing has warned that China could face isolation internationally, should it fail to give its consent to fresh sanctions against Iran.

“It's not in China's interests to find itself isolated from permanent members of the Security Council or the E3+3. It would damage China internationally,” Sebastian Wood said on Friday.

Death toll from the latest clashes between government forces and Somali fighters has climbed to around 80 as the bloodshed continues in the violence-blighted nation.

Three days of clashes in the capital Mogadishu has also left an estimated 200 people, A Press TV correspondent reported.

Enraged crowd engaged police in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi after law enforcement agents allegedly shot dead seven taxi drivers in a Nairobi suburb.

"This is extra judicial killing that our police are engaging in. You can't shoot innocent people like that and say it was a mistake," A Press TV correspondent quoted a local resident Jason Onduso as saying on Thursday.

Two days of clashes between government forces and rebel fighters have left more than 40 civilians dead in Somali's strife-torn capital of Mogadishu.

At least 20 civilians were killed in Thursday's fighting, as Somali government forces backed by the African Union peacekeepers fought with the fighters over control of several Mogadishu districts.

A Kenyan court in the coastal city of Mombasa has sentenced eight Somalis to 20 years in prison over piracy charges.

The detained Somalis were arrested in November 2008 and were accused of attempting to hijack a Danish-registered vessel, the MV Powerful in the Gulf of Aden, and risking the lives of crews of the vessel.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says about 8,000 Nigerians have fled their homes following sectarian clashes that killed over 100 people.

"The Nigerian Red Cross Society is distributing food and water to about 5,000 displaced people (IDPs) who have taken refuge in various police stations in the area and to some 300 detainees," the organization reported in statement released on Wednesday.

Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi has said that Iran is prepared to supply Zimbabwe with crude oil and refurbish its refineries.

Mir-Kazemi made the remarks in a Tuesday meeting with Zimbabwean Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Didymus Mutasa in Tehran.

A maritime watchdog says suspected Somali pirates hijacked a Kenyan-flagged fishing boat with European and African crew last week.

"The vessel was taken hostage in waters off the Kenyan and Seychellois coasts last week" Andrew Mwangura, the head of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, said Tuesday.

Sudan says it has recaptured a strategic district from rebels in the war-torn western region of Darfur, while the rebels deny the claim.

"The Sudanese armed forces are currently in control of all of the Jebel Marra plateau," military spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad told a news conference on Monday.