SOMALIA:Somali insurgents vow more attacks during Ramadan

by Mohamed Olad Hassan
The Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Mortar shells slammed into Somalia’s capital on Wednesday as insurgents vowed to intensify attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Somalia already sees near-daily explosions of bloodshed, and thousands of Somalis — most of them civilians — have been killed since Islamic fighters began an Iraq-style insurgency in December 2006, after they were driven from power in Mogadishu and much of the south.

GEORGIA: Campaigners criticise Georgia over cluster bomb use

by Robert Evans
REUTERS

GENEVA, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Campaigners seeking a ban on cluster bombs called on Georgia on Wednesday to renounce any further use of the weapons which it said it had used against Russian forces in South Ossetia.

GERMANY:German army pays compensation for Afghan shooting

REUTERS

BERLIN, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Germany’s army has paid compensation to the family of an Afghan woman shot dead at a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan last week, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

PAKISTAN: NATO gunships attack Taliban stronghold in Pakistan tribal area

by Pir Zubair Shah and Jane Perlez
International Herald Tribune

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan:Helicopter gunships manned by NATO soldiers attacked three houses in the Pakistani region of South Waziristan on Wednesday, near a stronghold of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. At least 15 people, including women and children, were killed, residents, a Taliban commander and a provincial governor said.