The UN children's fund UNICEF is urging stepped-up response to humanitarian crisis facing Somalia, saying it was running out for children in the Horn of Africa nation.

The Somaliland Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Abdillahi Ismail Ali welcomed Dr. Linda Richter, Executive Director for Child, Youth, Family and Social Development, UNICEF, at Berbera International Airport.

Mogadishu: Somali livestock farmers who have converged massively on the port of Berbera after losing all their animals said that this year's drought is the worst in ten years.

HARGEISA, 10 November 2009 - Days after Saudi Arabia lifted a nine-year ban on livestock imports from Somalia, the market in Hargeisa, Somaliland, has seen a 10-fold increase in sales, according to local traders.

The government of Saudi Arabia removed an eleven-year ban on livestock imports from Somalia after fears of Rift Valley Fever were allayed, senior Somali officials said on Thursday.

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A wave of suicide car bombs hit high-profile targets in Somaliaa s breakaway regions of Somaliland and Puntland on Wednesday, killing at least 25 people and wounding many more, officials said.

Despite its lack of international recognition, the self-declared Republic of Somaliland has made progress in building a nation.

Since Somaliland unilaterally broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991, it has prided itself on its relative peace and the development of democratic institutions, but political events in recent months have rocked its stability.

The president of breakaway Somaliland called on the opposition on Sunday to show restraint after violent demonstrations killed at least three people in the capital Hargeysa.

The sailors were freed this month only to be arrested by the authorities in the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland and accused of being part of an illegal prisoner swap.

AFTER almost two decades as a failed state torn by civil war, perhaps the world should begin to admit that Somalia a ' as currently constructed a ' is beyond repair.

Hargeysa: The electoral commission in Somalia's northwestern breakaway state of Somaliland announced yesterday that a presidential election due at the end of the month had been indefinitely postponed.

Pirate-plagued Somalia took a step toward policing its own shores with the graduation of its first 500 naval recruits Tuesday.

The government of Somaliland, a key Western ally in the Horn of Africa, is being accused of cracking down on dissent before presidential elections scheduled for next month.

Somaliland: In the memory of Ali Gulaid 1945-2009 By Ahmed Arwo "Truly God commands you to give back trusts to those to whom they are due, and when you judge between people, to judge with justice.... " On 6th August 2009, we were shocked with the sudden death of a great leader, a hero who stood for justice, a defender of human rights, and fighter ...

The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for an end to an ongoing government crackdown on independent journalists in Somaliland .

Some rains have fallen in northern Somalia, but this has not stopped an exodus of drought-affected people from rural areas to urban centres in Somaliland, local officials said.

Police in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland deported a Chinese cyclist who tried to cross the restive country as part of his worldwide cycling tour, officials said on Sunday.

The dusty, potholed streets of Hargeysa in Somaliland are filled with battered cars and ambling pedestrians.