Blast in Somali capital kills at least 65: Report

A truck bomb killed at least 65 people at government buildings in the heart of Somalia's capital on Today, an ambulance worker said, and al Shabaab insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack.

Witnesses said there was a loud blast at a compound housing four government ministries in the K4 (Kilometer 4) area of the capital Mogadishu, where students had gathered on Today to take exams.

"We have carried 65 dead bodies and 50 injured people," ambulance coordinator Ali Muse told Reuters. "Some are still lying there. Most of the people have burns."

A Reuters reporter said he had seen nine bodies at the compound, which is in an area of the capital under the control of government forces and African Union peacekeeping troops.

He said scores of people with burns were walking to a nearby hospital and police were trying to evacuate more students trapped inside the damaged buildings.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels had threatened to carry out attacks on government installations after pulling most of their fighters out of Mogadishu in early August.

"Al Shabaab carried out that attack," a spokesman for the insurgents told Reuters. "Our target was the ministries."

Police said a truck had exploded at the gate.

A second Reuters reporter nearby saw a government pick-up truck leaving the scene with two bodies covered in the back and another five people with bloodied faces. He said police were shooting into the air to disperse crowds.

Muse said it looked as though the truck had been packed with petrol and explosives. He said students, soldiers and civilians were among the dead.

First prize for a child in Somalia: An AK-47

A typical prize for a children's contest might be a backpack, a lunchbox or maybe some toys.

Over the weekend, a Somali radio station run by the Shabab, the most powerful Islamist militant group in the war-ravaged country, held an awards ceremony to honor children who were experts at Shabab trivia and at reciting the Koran. The prizes? Fully automatic assault rifles and live hand grenades.

The contest itself was held during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, and featured questions that the Shabab seemed to think every child should know, like which war was Sheik Timajilic (a famous Shabab warrior) killed in?

Without a functioning central government, Somalia has some of the lowest schooling rates in the world, and many Somali children are more familiar with rifles than rulers. Contestants in the Shabab quiz included children from all across Shabab-controlled areas of Somalia, most of the southern third of the country. The children competed live on air from the many radio stations nationwide that the Shabab control.

On Sunday, the awards were handed out at a ceremony held at the Andalus radio station in Elasha Biyaha, a small town near Mogadishu, the capital. (Andalus was the part of Spain seized by the Arabs in the Middle Ages.) The first- and second-place winners won AK-47 assault rifles, some money and Islamic books. The third-place winner was given two hand grenades. The contestants were 10 to 17 years old.

It was not clear how exactly the sponsors determined the winners - or the choice of prizes. But at the awards ceremony, Sheik Muktar Robow Abu Monsur, who is widely considered a moderate Shabab leader, proudly said, "Children should use one hand for education and the other for a gun to defend Islam," according to Somali accounts of the event.

The Shabab and other militant Islamist groups in Somalia have become famous for their zeal in enforcing their strict interpretation of Islamic purity. Last year, the Shabab outlawed school bells in a southern Somalia town after deciding that they sounded too much like church bells. The Shabab have also banned bras, gold teeth, dancing and soccer, deeming them un-Islamic, and barred many Western aid groups, even though Somalia is suffering from a famine and tens of thousands of people have already starved to death.

Another militant Somali group, Hizbul Islam, ordered radio stations to stop playing music, which forced broadcasters to eliminate even the faintest suggestion of harmonious sounds from their daily programming. Some stations substituted the musical introductions to news broadcasts with the sounds of gunshots, engine roars, car horns and animal grunts.

Somalia has subsisted without a functioning central government for two decades. The country is now fragmented into various zones of loose control, with Islamist groups, clan militias, regional administrations and a very weak, internationally supported central government battling one another.

Somalia famine spreads 'beyond reach of aid'

Famine has spread to a sixth area of Somalia and tens of thousands of people have died as a result of severe food shortages, the United Nations has said.

More than half of Somalia's entire population faces a severe food shortage, and the world body has now officially extended the famine zone.

In Mogadishu, there are now half a million refugees and there are warnings from the UN that the famine could spread to the entire south of the country by the end of the year.

The UN says it needs at least $1bn, but one leading charity says the public is being mislead into believing that money can solve the crisis.

Medicine Sans Frontiere, Doctors Without Borders, wants international aid agencies to admit that reaching some of the worst affected victims of famine may not be possible.

The French-based charity has criticised aid agencies and parts of the media for glossing over the realities of the situation.

The World Food Programme, which is providing most of Somalia's food, says lives can be saved, but admits there are millions of people it cannot reach.