Reports reaching us from the battlefield in Ogaden, where the unflinching Ogaden National Liberation Front [ONLF] forces are fighting to rid the Ogaden of colonial Ethiopian army, say that at least 9 battles occurred there last few week alone.

Senior ONLF military officers told Ogaden Online reporters that fighting has mostly been taking place at colonial army bases in the Ogaden. They added that the era when battles were fought in villages and rural areas was over.

Ogaden Online reporters operating in the Ogaden have reported that Ethiopian forces have started digging huge trenches around major towns for fear of attacks by ONLF fighters.

The News:
http://www.ogaden.co … hting-in-ogaden.html

The bandh by Maoists turned violent in two states on Thursday when the rebels attacked the house of a Congress leader in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district killing two of his relatives and blew up a railway station in Jharkand leaving one person dead.

A road bridge was also blown up and a four-wheeler used by the CISF personnel of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) torched by the Maoists in extremist-hit West Singhbhum district in Jharkand.

A three-feet rail section under Dhanbad Rail Division was also blasted, holding up several trains including a Rajdhani train.

The News:
http://economictimes … icleshow/6143999.cms

A secretive armed group engaged in the bloody separatist conflict in southern Thailand has told Al Jazeera that it will not compromise on seeking independence for the largely Muslim area.

Speaking to Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen at a location outside Thailand, a senior member of the National Revolutionary Front Co-ordinate (BRN-C) said the group’s main aim was “to fight for independence through an armed revolution”.

“Our main aim is not war but we are forced into this because without violence Siam [Thailand] will never stop discriminating against the Malay people in the south,” he said on condition of anonymity.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in the conflict since simmering tensions over rule by Buddhist-majority Thailand flared in 2004.

The News:
http://english.aljaz … 009226221399701.html

At least 6 people were killed and more others injured in north and south of Mogadishu, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Tuesday.

Heavy fighting between the Islamist clerics of Ahlu Sunna Walajama’a and Harkat al-Shabaab Mujahideen forces started between Dabka and Bakara intersections in Mogadishu, killing 4 civilians, wounding several others there.

On the other hand 5 people were killed and 16 others including several journalists were wounded in north Mogadishu as fighting and heavy shelling between both rivals continued.

The News:
http://www.shabelle. … njuries-in-mogadishu

Insurgents have attacked Nato forces in eastern Afghanistan.

Several attackers were killed in the Taliban attack on a base at an airfield outside Jalalabad, near the border with Pakistan.

Gunmen set off a car bomb and fired rocket-propelled grenades, and wounding two soldiers, Nato said.

The attack came a day after US Gen David Petraeus warned of an “industrial strength insurgency” in the country.

The News:
http://news.bbc.co.u … th_asia/10457745.stm

A subsoil endowed with riches; a metropolis with controlled development; a distinctive identity maintained by its political elite; and a secessionist heritage …The most opulent province of the country cultivates its difference without complex.

Welcome to Kamalondo, the popular residential area of Lubumbashi, Katanga`s provincial headquarters. Here, life goes on quietly, peacefully, like maize that sway in the breeze on plots of land, orderly like shacks aligned in laterite streets. Sitting in garland in the talus, young women place their odds and ends on the floor.

The News:
http://www.biyokulul … t.php?articleid=2859

The self-proclaimed state of Somaliland closed its borders Saturday as voters chose their president amid fears Islamists from neighbouring Somalia could try to disrupt the polls.

The northern territory has been more stable than Somalia since it broke away in 1991 but a message warning voters to stay home by the leader of the Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab movement drew draconian security measures.

“All our country’s forces are locking the borders. Movements and transport inside Somaliland are also forbidden except for those authorised by the national election commission (NEC),” police chief Mohamed Saqadi Dubad said.

The News:
http://somalilandpre … ognition-hopes-16624