The administration of the breakaway Somali republic of Puntland has ordered holders of Kenyan passports to leave within seven days. Government spokesman Ahmed Asharo told the BBC that the orders were issued after Kenya's decision not to respect Somali passports. Correspondents say the order will seriously affect aid agency workers.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is deeply concerned about reports that two journalists have been detained in separate incidents in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia, and the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Abdishakur Yusuf Ali, editor-in-chief of the independent War-Ogaal newspaper in Bossasso, Puntland, was arrested on April 21, because of an article accusing Puntland Finance Minister Abdirahman Mohamud Farole of corruption, said local journalists. Meanwhile Abdirahman Haji Dahir, a reporter for the independent Somaliland daily Haatuf, was arrested in the port city of Berbera because of an article that mentioned differences between Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin and his vice president, said local journalists.

The Somali reconciliation conference sponsored by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is scheduled to reconvene in a week's time, according to an IGAD source close to the talks. Preparations for the final phase of the talks, being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, were proceeding smoothly, said the source. "We are in the process of bringing in traditional elders from Somalia. We expect that exercise to take about a week. We will then proceed to phase three of the talks," he told IRIN.

The number of suspected cholera cases has increased in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, since the beginning of April, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) medical officer. Speaking by telephone from Mogadishu, Muhammad Fuje said between 3 April and 9 April, 489 diarrhoeal cases had been diagnosed in three of the city's hospitals, of whom nine patients had died.

About 20 percent of the children in the drought-affected northern Somali regions of Sool and Sanaag are believed to be malnourished, a study by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in February found. In its monthly review of the situation in Somalia for March, UNICEF said the results of screening some 7,457 children had shown that about 1,490 were moderately malnourished and 126 severely malnourished.

The author is a political historian and Ethiopian diplomat who was actively involved in the mediation processes in Somalia. Here he has written a comprehensive study of the disintegration of the central organs of the Somali state, which led to Somalia commonly being referred to as a 'failed state'; and the civil strife and the search for peace between 1990 and 2001.

Over a dozen faction leaders participating in the Somali peace talks in Kenya have warned the organisers that the launching of an interim charter next week could lead to the failure of the talks, claiming that unresolved issues remain. "We feel that the formal launch of the Transitional Federal Charter of Somalia... is uncalled for as the contentious article 30 (1) of the charter still stands unresolved," said a statement signed by the leaders. The "contentious article" deals with the selection of members of parliament.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, a campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been launched throughout Somalia, where an estimated 98 percent of all women have undergone the ritual. The campaign is being led by four networks of Somali women’s organisations, namely the Coalition of Grassroots Women's Organization (COGWO), IIDA Women's Development Organization (IIDA means celebrate in Somali), We Are Women Activists (WAWA) and NAGAAD (roughly translated in Somali as 'Stay Rooted'). The networks represent nearly 90 grass-roots women's groups, Maryan Abdulle Qawane of COGWO told IRIN.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the detention of Abshir Ali Gabre, news editor at the independent Radio Jawhar, who was recently held overnight on the orders of Somali faction leader Mohamed Omar Habeeb, also known as Mohamed Dere. Dere is chairman of the self-appointed Jawhar administration.

Hundreds of Somali refugees are returning home from Djibouti with the start of UNHCR repatriation convoys to north-western Somalia. This comes as aid agencies appeal for $111 million to help the war-torn country. Some 220 Somali refugees returned from Djibouti to the self-declared republic of Somaliland in the north-west last Friday with assistance from the UN refugee agency, bringing to more than 430 the number of refugees who have gone back since the middle of February.

Two main features interrupt the dusty horizon of Hargeisa, the windblown desert capital of the self-declared, but as yet unrecognized, Republic of Somaliland. The first has always been there, a set of identical twin mountains, but now there is another - competing satellite towers mounted high on the spiny brown ridges overlooking the town, that also pierce the low-slung skyline and stand testament to the city’s more recent history.

Some Somali factions participating in the Somali peace talks in Kenya have accused the conference organisers of mismanaging the proceedings and disregarding the conference rules during the latest plenary session, said a press statement issued on Tuesday. On Monday night, the plenary endorsed "by a large majority" an agreement concluded in January, according to a source at the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), under whose auspices the talks are being held. The leaders of the Somali groups meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 29 January signed what has been described as "a landmark breakthrough" agreement on a number of contentious issues that had earlier been plaguing the peace talks.

Britain said Monday it would change its anti-discrimination laws to allow for a stricter control of Somali asylum seekers, the largest group of would-be immigrants arriving yearly in the country. Home Office junior minister Beverly Hughes said the amendment to the Race Relations Act would allow immigration officers to "prioritise" the case of Somalis over travellers from other countries without being accused of unfair racial discrimination. Somalis arriving in Britain will thus be "examined more rigorously than would otherwise be the case", she said.

Extensive drought in the northern Togdheer Region of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, where about 350,000 people live, has forced schools to close, water wells to dry up and the livestock population to decline significantly, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said on Monday.

The third phase of the long drawn out Somali peace talks is set to begin next week at the Kenya College of Communications Technology, Mbagathi, with some of the sticky issues carried forward from the second phase being among those expected to play themselves out prominently. With the tricky question of power sharing and the formation of an all - inclusive government as the main agenda, Article 30 of the Somali Charter - expected to be adopted by the next government as the Constitution for a federal Somali state - is bound to be the centre of focus as some participants are still dissatisfied with the formula for the formation of the 275 member parliament and the eventual appointment of a transitional president.

The closure of a Saudi-funded charity linked to the al-Qaeda network could have a devastating impact on thousands of orphans in Somalia. The al-Haramain Islamic relief agency has run a number of orphanages in Somalia for years. The centres also provide food and medicines for other children. In Mogadishu crying children were seen in front of some of the closed centres.

Somalia took an important step towards peace this week when warring leaders agreed to set up a transitional parliament to help rule the tattered nation. The Horn of Africa country has been without central government since 1991, when President Mohammed Siad Barre was deposed. Last Thursday's agreement came after leaders of over 23 factions and Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG) resolved differences over the number of legislators who should sit in the parliament.

Mediators at the Somali peace talks say that a "breakthrough" has been achieved, with all factions agreeing to set up a new parliament. They also agreed that Somalia, which has been wracked by 13 years of fighting between rival warlords, would have a federal system of government. A group of warlords returned to the talks on Monday and agreed to the deal.

Condemning the recent murders of women and children in clan-related conflicts in southern Somalia, a senior United Nations official has called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

In a communal goat stable, children sit under a mango tree, learning to read and write. In this narrow alleyway of Mogadishu, where three or four generations of Somalis share small homes behind high white walls and dark wooden doors, education is getting a second chance. After more than a decade of anarchy, only about one in six children of primary school age attends school, according to a U.N. survey released last week. Peace talks are under way, although the men with guns have failed to reach a power-sharing agreement. Meanwhile, parents, teachers and aid agencies have managed to piece together a private education system ranging from preschool to medical school.