WHERE THE ACTION IS

Witnesses say Ethiopian and Somali government troops have clashed with al-Shabab militants in southwestern Somalia.

VOA's Somali Service reports the sides battled Tuesday in a village between the towns of Luq and Bardale. Bardale is located 60 kilometers west of Baidoa, an al-Shabab stronghold that was once the seat of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Somalia's deputy prime minister said the allied government and Ethiopian forces are headed toward Baidoa and will take the area within days.

VOA's Gabe Joselow reports from Liboi, Kenya, on the border with Somalia, where al-Shabab militants block roads, preventing food aid from being delivered.

I’m in a Kenyan military base in Liboi, Kenya, near the border with Somalia, where the Kenyan military is waging war against al-Qaida linked militant group al-Shabab.

Kenyan military officials here say, at this point, the operation would start in October. The military’s objective is mainly to pacify regions that were previously under militant control.

Mexican officials say at least 40 people were killed when a prison riot erupted Sunday in the northern part of the country.

Officials said a fight broke out in the early morning hours between prisoners and guards in the Apodoca prison, just outside the city of Monterrey. The official said authorities later regained control of the prison.

Family members of the inmates have gathered outside the prison, waiting to learn details from the incident and the status of their loved ones.

Authorities in Thailand are looking for at least two more suspects in connection with this week's explosions in Bangkok that police say were part of an assassination plot targeting Israeli diplomats.

Two Iranian men were arrested immediately after Tuesday's bomb blasts in the Thai capital of Bangkok, which left four civilians injured. A third suspect was arrested Wednesday in Malaysia at the international airport in Kuala Lumpur.

Officials in Pakistan's northwest Kurram tribal region say a suicide bomber on a motorcycle has blown himself up at a busy market, killing at least 25 people.

Authorities say the blast in the town of Parachinar, near the Afghan border, happened near a mosque in a busy market, around the time of Friday prayers. The attack wounded more than 50 people and destroyed several shops. Local reports say the bombing targeted Shi'ite Muslims.

The U.S. government is trying to shrink the market for Iranian oil to deprive Tehran of funds for its nuclear program. And Iranian consumers are feeling the effects.

As the world's third-largest exporter of crude oil, Iran is a major supplier for China, Japan and India, as well as the European Union. The United States is pushing to dry up that market because it says Iran uses oil profits to develop nuclear weapons.

U.S. senators are warning Latin American nations against deepening financial and military ties with Iran, pledging heightened U.S. vigilance of Iranian activities in the Western Hemisphere. The Senate's Foreign Relations Subcommittee took a close look Thursday at Tehran’s dealings with Latin America.

Iran’s increasingly isolated regime retains friends in Latin America, most notably Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

U.S. Democratic Senator Robert Menendez had a stern message for the region.

At least 118 inmates have escaped from a Nigerian prison, after gunmen bombed their way inside and killed a guard during a shootout.

The prison is located in the central town of Koton-Karifi, about 120 kilometers southwest of the capital, Abuja. Police say gunmen stormed into the facility Wednesday night.

A map showing Kogi state in Nigeria, where more than 100 inmates escaped from prison
VOA
A map showing Kogi state in Nigeria, where more than 100 inmates escaped from prison

Thousands of Somalis are fleeing a town near Mogadishu, ahead of expected fighting between African Union forces and the militant group al-Shabab.

Elasha Biyaha is located about 30 kilometers west of the capital, and is home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Mogadishu residents who fled the city in 2007 and 2008, as al-Shabab battled Ethiopian troops in the city.

Witnesses tell VOA that many people are now heading back to Mogadishu amid fears that AU troops are about to attack al-Shabab forces in Elasha Biyaha and in nearby Afgoye.