Somali school-children attend pro-government rally

More than forty-thousand Somalis, most of them school-children, have attended a rally in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to show support for the interim government.

In a speech to the crowd, the new president, Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, praised teachers for trying to carry out their jobs throughout the years of civil war.

He urged the many displaced people who have occupied most of Mogadishu's one-hundred or so public schools to move out so that teaching could resume. He said those who did not leave of their own accord would be forced out. The gathering followed the announcement of further government appointments yesterday: Mohammed Qanyareh Afrah, the most important faction leader to back the government, was made fisheries minister.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service