Somalia Wants Peacekeepers

Somalia's new president asked the United Nations Security Council on Friday to send peacekeeping troops to the chaotic nation. While not stipulating how many troops he would like to have, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who hasn't yet been recognized by the world body as the official president of Somalia, asked the African Union for between 15,000 and 20,000 soldiers last month. The Council, in Kenya for an unusual, out-of-New York session, was tepid on the proposal and said it would first like to see if Somalians were committed to their new government. The last Somali government recognized by the UN was that of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre who was ousted in 1991. Since then the country has been divided into fiefdoms and fought over by rival warlords. The current Somali government, including a 275-member transitional parliament, have their headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, because it isn't safe enough to govern from within Somalia. It hopes to return to Somalia by the end of the year. (5:50 p.m. CET)

Chancellor's Dog Begins Modelling Career

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's wife, Doris Schroeder-Koepf, had a problem. She couldn't find toys that were both "aesthetically pleasing" and robust enough for the Schroeder family mutt. So she decided to develop them herself. And in the process, she developed an entire line of dog products from beds to shampoo to chew-toys to leashes that will be on sale in a German drugstore chain Rossmanns as of December. The mutt, a one-and-a-half-year-old border collie named Holly, has become the poster child for the new product line. The Schroeder cat, Schnurri, is not pleased, say sources from within the Schroeder household. (5:41 p.m. CET)

Muslims Hit German Streets in Peace March

German politicians and editorialists have been quietly wondering if the country's 3 million-strong Muslim community would, at some point, take a strong stance against the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh at the hands of an Islam fundamentalist. In neighboring Holland, mosques have been attacked and, in retaliation, Christian institutions have also been victimized. This week, the violence hit Germany, where extremists on Thursday morning threw a Molotov cocktail at a mosque in the southern German state of Baden Wuerttemberg. On Sunday, in what is expected to be a rally with more than 30,000 people in Cologne, Germany's Muslim community is going to provide their answer to the violence. They are gathering under the motto: "Together for Peace and Against Terror." The event will also pull together some awfully strange bedfellows including Claudia Roth, who heads the national Green Party and Bavarian Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein of the Christian Social Union, best known for his conservative thinking. The rainbow of politicians will be joined by the full spectrum of German religious diversity -- with members of Jewish and Christian faiths joining their Muslim brethren. Some Muslim groups, however, are complaining that they were left out of the planning by the organizers and will not attend. (5:15 p.m. CET)

Apple Opens Doors on Regent Street

After opening 98 of 'em in the United States and Japan, Apple Computer finally brought one of its stylish flagship stores to Europe on Friday. The Apple Store, filled with Macintosh computers and iPods of various colors, opened on London's tony Regent Street. The company hasn't announced any dates yet for Continental European stores, but they are expected to follow soon. (4:58 p.m. CET)

Peace in Sudan?

The 21-year-long civil war that has torn apart Sudan and left millions dead may, finally, be coming to an end. Both sides presented a peace plan to the United Nations Security Council on Friday in which they agreed to stop fighting by the end of the year. The Council then passed a resolution to support the peace -- specifically mentioning the urgency of stopping violence against civilians in Darfur -- and vaguely threatening to inflict sanctions if peace is not achieved. The problem? According to aid agency Oxfam, the resolution is flimsy and does nothing to stop violence directly or assist victims in immediate need. For instance, the group said on Thursday its workers could not help 200,000 people in Darfur because the area was too dangerous. The end-of-year deadline is the fourth deadline the two sides have set for the end of hostilities since 2003 -- but the first they have officially presented to the United Nations. The war began in 1983 when the government in southern Sudan decided to introduce the Shariah (orthodox Muslim law) in the country. (2:45 p.m. CET)

Apemen in Spain: Two Tales

Tale One: Out of Barcelona? The "Missing Link" may have been discovered. Researchers in Spain have found a 13 million-year-old skeleton near Barcelona that they believe could be the long-sought link connecting humans and apes. The structure of the skeleton's torso led researchers to believe that it was a skilled climber but walked even more upright than a chimpanzee. The skull, too, is quite similar to that of humans, says the two man team made up of Salvador Moya-Sola of Spain and Meike Koehler of Germany. The two men consciously avoided the loaded term "Missing Link," but if they are right the discovery could repudiate the standard assumption that humans became human in Africa alone. The findings were published in the current edition of Science magazine.

Tale Two: Out of Madrid? What started as a friendly soccer match between the national teams of England and Spain on Wednesday evening in Madrid is quickly turning into an international incident. During the match, thousands of Spanish fans screamed and made monkey noises whenever black players from the English team touched the ball and repeatedly sang "If you are not f***ing black, jump up and down." Such primal behavior has led scientists to question if these men, in fact, are not the missing link... Similar racism was meted out to black players during a U-21 match on Wednesday. The incidents have prompted government officials from both Spain and England, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday, to condemn the abuse. Soccer's world body, FIFA, is also conducting an investigation. Punishments could range from large fines to a closure of the stadium for international soccer matches. (2:08 P.m. CET)

No More Fox Hunting

Well it's about time. After what seems like years of discussing, arguing and posturing, Britain on Thursday finally decided that chasing foxes with horses and dogs and shooting them for a thrill should be banned. The fox hunt is considered a British tradition and has been around since 1660. As such, many are loathe to lose it. Hundreds took to London's streets on Thursday evening to demonstrate in favor of firing on foxes. The so-called Countryside Alliance is challenging the legitimacy of the ban. (1:10 p.m. CET)

"I'm Not a Porn Star Anymore!"

The Bambi Awards, held Thursday evening in Hamburg, are pretty far down on the entertainment-awards food chain. But they do, somehow, manage to attract a few big names. Tom Hanks was there. Elton John came. Donatella Versace made an appearance. And speaking of big, former German chancellor Helmut Kohl also showed up. But the key moment of the evening belonged to actress Sibel Kekilli, lead actress in the award-winning film "Head On," which won this year's Berlin International Film Festival. Kekilli, who won the "Shooting Star Award," was a porn star prior to her mainstream success -- and two German tabloids have never let her forget it. On Thursday night she tearfully appealed to Bild and the Express to stop the newspaper persecution. "What you do," said a tearful Kekilli in her acceptance speech, "is media rape. You don't have to love me, but finally have some respect for the fact that I have begun a new life!" (12 p.m CET)

Iraq Update

Fallujah was mostly quiet on Friday as three of the city's five bridges were reopened to civilian traffic and American forces consolidated their control over the city. On Thursday, US troops discovered what is believed to be the headquarters of resistance leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as well as a number of bomb-making "factories."

On Thursday, a militant Islamist group released an announcement on the Internet warning of violence during Iraqi elections, currently planned for January 27. "The mujahhedeen will carry out heavy attacks on polling places because they are the polling places of the infidel," wrote the group Ansar al-Sunnah. The group has been involved in a number of kidnappings and terror attacks in Iraq.

The aid group World Vision announced on Friday that it too would discontinue all work in Iraq due to the worsening security situation. Following Doctors Without Borders, CARE, and the European Union, World Vision becomes the fourth major aid group to leave Iraq since the beginning of November. And not without reason. In October, the head of its Iraq operations was murdered in Mossul and in September, two World Vision aid workers from Italy, famously known as the "two Simonas," were kidnapped but later released. (11:10 a.m. CET)

Things You Need to Know about Russia

1: Concern about Russia's plans, announced on Wednesday, to develop a new generation of super-atomic weapons is growing. The head of the foreign relations committee in the German parliament, Volker Ruehe said on Friday in the Bild newspaper that there is no reason for Russia to build up their nuclear arsenal and that the only threat facing Russia is terrorism, "which can't be combated with atomic weapons. I find it extremely unpleasant that Russia is arming," said Ruehe. The German government, however, joined the US in calling the development "unsurprising."

2: A Russian physicist is threatened with 20 years of hard labor in a Siberian labor camp for developing a laboratory to test the effects of space on satellites -- for the Chinese. He is accused of high treason. An additional scientist was sentenced to 15 years hard labor in April for his work with the British consulting firm Alternative Futures. Both scientists are considered spies by the Russian government. Observers say that in both cases, irregularities in the investigations and trials point to a heavy-handed state attempting to prevent Russian scientists from sharing their research abroad.

3: A majority stake in the Russian oil company Yukos will be auctioned off in December, it was announced on Friday. The company -- taken over by the Russian state in 2003 amid charges of tax-evasion -- has become a symbol of growing state control in Russia as Putin tries to reclaim Kremlin influence over the strategically important energy sector. The Yukos sell-off comes as a result of a court order. (10 a.m. CET)

Job Security for Editorialists

The term "leading culture" is back. In 2000 and 2001, German papers spent months debating whether it was OK to talk about a dominant culture in Germany, which, by definition, meant that other cultures in the country were secondary. The general consensus at the time was that the term excluded Germany's minorities and recalled a German past when other cultures were marginalized to the point of -- well -- annihilation. On Thursday, the conservative Christian Democrats revived the term in the context of the current debate on how to adequately integrate Germany's Muslim population. The party (along with their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union) is demanding that Germany's Muslims recognize "the constitutional state and the free democratic leading culture in Germany including an identifiable effort to learn the German language and German cultural convictions." Let the debate begin -- again. (Thursday, 5:55 p.m. CET)

Ex-Fascist Fini New Italian Foreign Minister

Italian politician Gianfranco Fini's rehabilitation is now complete. The former Neo-Fascist, who, in 2002, retracted his 1994 statement that Benito Mussolini was the 20th century's greatest statesman, was appointed as Italy's foreign minister on Thursday. Fini is head of the formerly far-right National Alliance party and is largely credited with having transformed the party, and himself, from nationalist to moderate conservative. It wasn't easy and involved being pelted by eggs during a 1999 visit to Auschwitz and a long wait for an official visit to Israel, which he made in 2003. His condemnation of Italy's 1938 anti-Jewish laws during that visit, however, resulted in ever-more respect on the world stage. He replaces Franco Frattini, who was chosen to replace the controversial Rocco Buttiglione as Italy's new European Commissioner. (Thursday, 5:25 p.m. CET)

Signs the End is Near

A port city on the east coast of New Zealand is giving new meaning to the term "swept off your feet." In a phenomenon scientists are labeling a "slow earthquake," the city of Gisborne has been moving eastward at nearly two millimeters a day since the end of October. It's the second time this has happened in the last two years and only the third time in New Zealand's history, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said. The movement is caused by shifting between two tectonic plates about 20 kilometers under water. Geophysicist Laura Wallace said horizontal land movement of about 30 millimeters a year is routinely seen in earthquake prone New Zealand. "But to see that amount of movement in two weeks is extraordinary," she said. (Thursday, 5:15 p.m. CET)

The Science Behind Big Butts

Two American scientists have a new take on what caused apes to become human: jogging. That's right. Prehistoric fitness training. Forget Jane Fonda and aerobics. Running is the sport that most shaped humanity -- literally. "Running turned us into humans," said Dennis Bramble from the University of Salt Lake City and one of the authors of the study published in the current edition of the science magazine Nature. A love for running (or was it just a taste for fast moving animals?) caused humans to stand upright and undergo 26 physical changes, including developing springy Achilles tendons and stout leg-joints, hairlessness and a tendency to sweat, write Bramble and Daniel Lieberman, of Harvard. It also may account for a not so attractive human feature: the prominent buttocks. Lieberman measured the activity of the gluteus maximus muscle in volunteers during a walk and a jog. "When they walk their glutes barely fire up," he said. "But when they run it goes like billy-o." (Thursday, 4:40 p.m. CET)

Mosque Attacked in Germany