ensure it delivers to the people of Somalia. It is critical that this is done, and done timely,” said Mohammed Ali Faum, the African Union’s special envoy to the talks. Sweden is organising a conference in Stockholm on Oct. 29 where representatives of the African Union, Arab League and European Union member states will look at how best to support the government, although money will not be discussed.

Contraband, drugs, guns

Yusuf, whose first words as president were an appeal for foreign aid, is expected to want to make rapid, eye-catching improvements to life for ordinary Somalis to gain their trust. But there are no functioning ministries to begin delivering the public services. Anarchy and violence has seeped into all corners of society. Tax goes only to warlords, who buy weapons in defiance of a U.N. arms embargo and have their pick of 240 bush airstrips to trade an array of contraband, guns and hard drugs. In Mogadishu, adults missing limbs hobble down every street, while sufferers of an array of ailments weaken and die untreated in the plastic and thatch huts of the internally displaced. Offshore, foreign ships fish or dump toxic waste at will. Mogadishu’s airport and sea port have been shut since 1995. Without its own army and police force, at least in the short-term, the government will have only one weapon—talking. “The only available instrument immediately for the government to establish authority on the ground is through reconciliation, through agreement,” said one diplomat.

Police release suspect in British girl’s murder

LONDON - British police said on Monday they had released without charge a person arrested in connection with the “sickening” murder of a 14-year-old girl shot dead as she walked home from a funfair. Danielle Beccan died after being struck by a bullet fired from a passing car in the St Ann’s area of Nottingham, central England, in the early hours of Saturday. Nottinghamshire Police announced they had made an arrest on Sunday but a spokeswoman said on Monday “the person arrested in connection with the inquiry has now been released without charge”. Beccan, who lived in the area where she was shot, had spent Friday evening at Nottingham’s annual Goose Fair and was walking home with a group of friends when a car pulled up beside them and fired several shots. Police have not yet established a motive for the killing, raising the possibility the shooting was a random attack or a case of mistaken identity. They have appealed for any witnesses to come forward, especially with information about a gold-coloured car with blacked-out windows. Superintendent David Colbeck said detectives were ”particularly interested in a group of about 30 young people who were 200 to 300 yards away from Danielle’s group”. “Those people may have seen the car or the people in the car,” Colbeck told BBC TV. He added that police wanted to “emphasise that Danielle is not part of any kind of drug or gang culture. She’s just an innocent young girl going home from a night out at the fair.” Nottingham has seen a spate of gun crimes in recent years, with shootings blamed mainly on drug gangs. Police promised any witnesses who might be scared to come forward would be given police protection.

 A highly visible police presence was being put into St Ann’s to help allay fears and Fish said armed officers could be put on patrol on the streets if necessary. Assistant chief constable Sue Fish told a news conference on Sunday that retribution may be sought because of “the sickening nature and appalling nature of this crime”. “The last thing we need, that the family needs, is further tragedy to compound the tragedy of Danielle’s death.”

Two UN peacekeepers shot, wounded in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Two peacekeepers with the United Nations forces in Haiti were shot and injured during joint operations with the Haitian police, UN authorities said on Sunday. A soldier from Brazil was shot in the foot during a shoot-out with supporters of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide in the impoverished Bel-air neighborhood of Port-Au-Prince on Saturday, said Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, the head of the UN peacekeeping mission. A Haitian police officer was also injured in the incident, Kongo-Doudou said. And a peacekeeper from a company of 450 Argentine marines attached to the 6,700-strong UN stabilization force in Haiti was shot in the arm while helping clear roadblocks together with Haitian police overnight in the northern city of Gonaives, officials said. The marine was rushed to a field hospital. Officials said his life was not in danger. Protesters had blocked a major road to Gonaives in an attempt to disrupt a visit by interim President Boniface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. Latortue and special UN representative Juan Gabriel of Chile announced on October 5 joint police-UN patrols to deal with rampant violence. Haiti is also suffering in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Jeanne, which ravaged Gonaives three weeks ago, killing more than 1,500. Flooding left tens of thousands homeless and completely dependent on international aid. Aristide was driven out of Haiti on February 29 amid an armed uprising.