Somali MP shot dead

A member of Somalia's transitional parliament, Hassan Ahmed Elmi, has been shot dead at his home by unidentified gunmen, south-west of the capital Mogadishu.

The killing occurred in an area controlled by the warlord Musa Sudi Yalahow, one of the faction leaders who have rejected attempts at national reconciliation.

A neighbour told the Fench news agency, AFP, that Mr Elmi had been shot by two masked men in front of his wife and eight children.

The speaker of the parliament, Abdalla Derow Issak said that the attack was a pre-planned plot to undermine the interim government, but he could not point at any particular faction leader.

It would not, however, stop the present transition process, he said. Last month, unidentified gunmen shot and killed General Youssuf Talan, a peace supporter who'd been appointed to a committee to oversee demobilisation of militias in Somalia.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service