Capital turns quiet; U.S. calls meeting

Mogadishu, Somalia

Their capital unified for the first time in a decade, residents of Mogadishu walked streets free of gunmen and roadblocks to attend Friday prayers led by newly victorious Islamic militants.

Many wondered whether peace can last in the hands of radicals accused of links to al-Qaida. But the success of the Islamic Courts Union has forced the United States and other world powers to take notice, amid concerns that radical Islam could be taking hold in the Horn of Africa.

The United States said it was inviting European and African countries on short notice to a meeting in New York next week on ways to deal with gains by the Islamic militias in Somalia. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he had no information on the precise location of the meeting or the identity of the participants.

The haste with which the meeting is being convened reflected the concern in Washington about the tightening grip of the militias.

Wellington, New Zealand

Yemeni deported as security threat

A Yemeni, who U.S. officials said once lived and trained with a terrorist pilot in the Sept. 11 attacks, was deported from New Zealand, the government said today.

Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali was detained May 29 in the city of Palmerston North, where he was attending flight school, Immigration Minister David Cunliffe said in a statement.

He said Rayed Abdullah was deported to Saudi Arabia the following day because he posed a security threat. Rayed Abdullah had used "a variation of his name in applying for entry to New Zealand" and his real identity had only become known after he arrived in the country, Cunliffe said.

Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Police commander, children fatally shot

Gunmen raked a car with automatic fire Friday and killed a top police commander, his three young children and two other people in Ingushetia, a troubled Russian province neighboring Chechnya, officials said.

At least four assailants opened fire from both sides of the car that was carrying Musa Nalgiyev, chief of the OMON riot police in Ingushetia and his children, aged 4, 5 and 6, deputy regional prosecutor Dmitry Gurulyov said.

The OMON chief's driver and bodyguard also died in the gunfire.

In a second attack, gunmen in a car killed Galina Gubina, who was in charge of a program to encourage ethnic Russians to return to a village close to the border with Chechnya in Russia's south.

Most fled because of the fighting in Chechnya.

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

New Cabinet assumes office

Haiti's new Cabinet was sworn in Friday, replacing a U.S.-backed interim government that was appointed to lead the impoverished and conflict-torn nation after a 2004 revolt.

President René Préval said the 18-member Cabinet of members from six political parties was the result of a new "spirit of dialogue" and urged Haitians to work together to overcome the mistrust among Haiti's deeply divided political factions.

Christians detained after raid on church

Chinese authorities detained 28 Christians in a raid on an unauthorized church service at a private home, an overseas monitoring group said Friday.

Three members of the nondenominational Protestant congregation, including the host and the presiding minister, still were being held, the Texas-based China Aid Association said.

Some of the other Christians were released after paying $200 fines, the group said.

Frankfurt, Germany

Sausage may have been death weapon

German police have arrested a man on suspicion of murdering a woman with a sausage.

Prosecutors and police said the 50-year-old was arrested after the woman's body was discovered in an apartment in Zwickau, eastern Germany. They said she had choked on a bockwurst, a popular large German sausage.

The prosecutors said the man gave a patchy account of events, acknowledging he may have "administered" a bockwurst to the woman.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters