WASHINGTON — The government announced Thursday that it has charged 14 people as participants in "a deadly pipeline" to Somalia that routed money and fighters from the United States to the terrorist group al-Shabab.

Ministers drawn from the seven countries in the framework of the Horn of Africa Initiative (HOAI) have agreed to work together towards attaining sustainable peace and security in the region. This is part of recommendations made by the HOAI senior officials last year in a bid to address the common challenges facing member states.

A Somali political analyst told VOA the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional organization, is incapable of resolving the ongoing crisis in Somalia.

Concern that US military aid and support to the government of Somalia may have breached a number of international laws turns the spotlight on Washington's involvement in a country it was supposed to have left years ago.

BOSASSO, Abdullahi Aden Ali, 32, arrived in Bosasso, commercial capital of the autonomous region of Puntland, 10 years ago from southern Somalia. His aim, like that of thousands of young Somalis, was to go to Yemen and on to Saudi Arabia

With the stoicism demanded of all who hope to make money in Africa, Beauty Chama sits in her empty hair salon in a leafy town in northern Zambia's Copper Belt and looks forward to better times.

often wonder whether people see me as a radical fundamentalist and terrorist Muslim who hides an AK-47 assault rifle underneath her jean jacket. Perhaps, they see me as the poster girl for oppressed womanhood everywhere. I am not sure which of the two it is.

New York, November 26, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of four journalists who were reported kidnapped today in the port city of Bossasso in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland.