From Alarab Online about the current situation in Mogadishu:

Flights to and from Kenya and Dubai are full of curious investors and returning refugees. Passengers are sometimes forced to wait for days to get a seat on the packed planes...Yang Jian Zhong came to Mogadishu to purchase rawhide, saying it is much cheaper in Somalia than Dubai, where he used to buy the product for his shoe factory in central China..."Somalia can develop into another Dubai. They have good weather, living is cheap and there are a lot of business opportunities."

From Middle East Online

"The Islamists are unpredictable as they have no proper command structure," the government official said on condition of anonymity in Baidoa. "We have to expect that anything can happen."

In Burhakaba, Islamists began to block fuel shipments from the port of Mogadishu to Baidoa in a move that could cripple the town, officials and witnesses said.

"We are searching all vehicles going to Baidoa for military items, including fuel, that could be used to fight us," said Ahmed Idris, an Islamist leader in the town on the road between the capital and the government seat.

"It is not an embargo, it is a matter of security," he said.

Abdullahi Nur Daud, an oil transporter, said three of his vehicles had been stopped in Burhakaba. "There is no official decree but the Islamists will not allow us to take fuel to Baidoa, even one barrel of 200 liters," he said.

There was apparent confusion in the Islamist ranks as a top commander (Sheikh Hasan Abdullahi Turki) said he would soon attack Baidoa while the movement's supreme leader (Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys) ruled out the possibility.

Here's some very good news coming out of Somalia. Unfortunately no details were given.

Some clan elders in north Mogadishu have now set up their own court, independent of the Union of Islamic Courts.

I hope it becomes a trend.

Source

Here's an interview with a high-ranking official of the Islamic Courts who lived for a time in Canada.

And here's a story about Mogadishu and the courts.

Ahmed, like Aweys, answers each question with a smile first — a knowing one that seems to say he anticipated what would be asked. "We're very sorry to say we don't know very much about the Taliban, so cannot say if we're like them or dislike them. We just know we've changed the way it is here."

From PINR:

The difficulties that would be faced by Addis Ababa if it mounted a major military operation in Somalia were indicated by reports that senior Ethiopian military officers had been arrested for opposing a campaign against the I.C.C. Local media also reported that the Ethiopian government was making large cash payments to officers in return for pledges to attack the I.C.C.

In Somalia, Islamic Law Is Far From Uniform

Also here.

"We can be flexible," says a court leader who likes movies and music and prefers not to amputate the hands of thieves.

***

Somalianarchy.com is back! The site, created by Jeremy Sapienza of anti-state.com fame, will soon be made spam-free (or nearly so) for your reading and posting pleasure, and yours truly will be assisting in the effort as a moderator.

We're supposed to believe that Aden Hashi Ayro, the "shadowy military commander of the Islamic movement that is advancing across southern Somalia" who is "increasingly taking a public role" has never been photographed.

From News24

Mohammed Qazilbash of the relief agency, CARE, that worked in Dadaab (Kenya), said: "Sympathisers with both the Islamists and the government are returning to Somalia to join militias because they aren't engaged in positive activities here."
...
Aden Mohammed, 18, ... planned to take up arms for "whoever will bring peace" to Somalia...
...
While the exact number to have returned to fight in Somalia was unknown, young idle youths made up about a third of the population here and aid workers estimated that more than 500 had left in recent months with more poised to go.

***

And here's a curious story about the work of aid agencies in Somalia.

Somali's powerful Islamic Courts controlling most of southern Somalia have issued a warning telling all relief agencies operating in the capital Mogadishu to empty all the food they stocked in the warehouses and give it away to people in need during the holy Ramadan month.

This struck me as odd. Are the courts ungrateful? Shouldn't they be happy that the aid agencies are there at all?

Another explanation for this tension, as I have written before, is that the aid agencies might be incompetent, or even malicious--trying to disrupt local agriculture by distributing food at harvest time. The author ends the article by suggesting that this view is not uncommon.

Some people believe that it is common that relief agencies delay their aid distribution and begin at harvest time.

Fazzla has something to say to people who diss Somalia.

It's interesting that the Somali shilling is still being used, not only in Somalia but in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, which is inhabited by Somalis.

From their conversations, it is clear that most Ethiopian Somalis feel culturally and socially closer to their kin in Somalia and northern Kenya than they do to the Ethiopian highlanders.

Trade with Somalia is also much greater than trade with the rest of Ethiopia. The Somali shilling is the main currency in some areas in the region.

Here's a story about a 3-year-old livestock operation in Somalia with American participation.