"The attacks are being carried out by increasingly well-coordinated Somali gangs armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, maritime officials said. Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, and remains one of the world's most violent and lawless countries."
WP: Egyptian forces kill refugees and migrants on the Sinai border
"Since the first recorded border killing in the summer of 2007, when Egyptian authorities announced a live-fire policy on the Sinai border, Egyptian security forces have shot dead at least 28 migrants as they left Egypt for Israel, the rights group Amnesty International said Thursday. Of those, the group said, 23 have been killed since January."
Gdn: peace-keeping forces in Darfur lacking equipment, adequate troops
"Unamid formally took over peacekeeping responsibilities at the beginning of this year, but only 10,000 of the agreed 26,000 troops and police have so far arrived in Sudan.
"Most people expect us to carry out the primary role of our mandate - protection of civilians, helping the humanitarian agencies. But right now that is not our priority, because for us to be able to do that we need the troops, we need the equipment ... so we are struggling," the Nigerian general said. "Now we have even turned some of our own personnel into drivers to bring in the equipment."
BBC: tax-paying pride in Freetown ghetto
"The chains that dangle around the necks of the handful of local loiterers are not the customary gangsta dog tags, but plastic holders displaying nothing less than tax receipts.
For the first time in generations, people have been flocking to pay their local council tax of 5,000 leones (about $1.5, 90 UK pence) in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown."
BBC: Kenyan IDP camp closure delayed10,000 have lived there since December displacements related to electoral violence
BBC: calls to prevent outbreak of new war in the Kivus, DRC
Gdn: power-sharing agreement reached in Zimbabwe: MDC will control police, Mugabe retains military
Gdn: profiles of Mugabe and Tsvangirai
Gdn: interactive maps are cool (here's one of Africa)
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WP: Chavez boots the US Ambassador from Venezuela, recalls Ambassador from DC, accepts Russian bombers
"Go to hell, Yankees," he said as the crowd hollered in support."
NYT: South Ossetian leader calls for independence, not to join Russian Federation
LAT: alliance in Lebanon unstable
LAT: US-backed Sunni groups targeted by Iraqi government
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Slate: the scandalous report on the corrupt Interior Dept. SV wonders why Dems (other than Bill Nelson) aren't jumping on this
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Slate: SV has resisted joining the Facebook group 'I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin.' but we're only being polite.
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