• Tension Along The Turkey-Iraq Border
• Somali Prime Minister Resigns
• Nigeria Raises Penalties For Gas Flaring
• Local Elections in Colombia
• Contractor Targeted by Anti-Abortion Group

Tension Along The Turkey-Iraq Border
The situation along the Iraqi border with Turkey remains very tense. Some 100,000 Turkish troops have been deployed to the border region, along with tanks, combat helicopters, fighter jets, and heavy artillery. The Turkish military carried out limited airstrikes in the Kurdish region of its own territory over the weekend. Iraq's Foreign Minister has warned of disastrous consequences should Turkey launch a full-scale invasion into northern Iraq. Turkish officials will reportedly meet with President Bush next Monday to discuss the situation.

Somali Prime Minister Resigns
Somali Prime Minister Ali Gedi submitted his resignation today after days of speculation and amidst some of the worst violence Mogadishu has seen in weeks. Abdurrahman Warsameh reports.

Soon after his arrival from Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Ali Gedi went directly to meet with the president in the southern Somali town of Baidoa. Gedi then announced his decision before the transitional parliament: (audio) "I have made a compromise in the interest of the country and people of Somalia and resigned from the post of Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government." Gedi said that he wanted to put behind his past differences with the president and open a new chapter for Somalia. He called on his supporters to work with the next Prime Minister. It is not yet clear who president Abdullahi Yusuf will nominate to fill the post, but the current Interior Minister and a former President are both seen as likely choices. Both men are from the dominant Hawiye clan. Public differences between the president and prime minister Gedi have been growing for the past month. Parliament passed a motion last week to put Gedi's government up for a confidence vote, but his resignation now makes the procedure unnecessary. For FSRN, I am Abdurrahman Warsameh in Mogadishu.

Nigeria Raises Penalties For Gas Flaring
The Nigerian government has raised the penalty for oil companies flaring gas by more than a hundred thousand percent. Sam Olukoya has the story.

Oil companies operating in Nigeria flare the highest quantity of gas in the world. As of January 2008, the penalty for gas flaring will be a hundred dollars per million standard cubic feet of gas flared. Currently the penalty is just a few cents. The flared gas is a by product of oil exploitation. The oil companies say they have to flare the gas because they lack the infrastructure to utilize it. The government says the increase is part of new measures aimed at stopping gas flaring and to ensure strict compliance with a January 2008 deadline given to the oil companies. Environmental groups like the Friends of the Earth say the large quantity of gas flares in Nigeria contain more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources in Sub-Saharan Africa combined. For Free Speech Radio News, this is Sam Olukoya in Lagos.

Local Elections in Colombia
Opposition and independent parties won significant victories in local elections across Colombia yesterday. Laura del Castillo has the story.

In the capital city of Bogotá, Samuel Moreno, the mayoral candidate for the Alternative Democratic Pole – the country's biggest leftist opposition party – won at the polls with 44 percent of the vote. Right-wing President Alvaro Uribe told citizens not to vote for candidates who he claims are supported by the FARC guerrillas, in an allusion to Moreno. Several weeks ago, a pro-FARC website reproduced an article supportive of Moreno, although Moreno himself has no connection to the guerrillas. Uribe's statement on the eve of the election was seen by many as illegal interference. Anti-Uribe and independent candidates won key mayoral and governors races across Colombia. In Medellín, Alonso Salazar, an independent former journalist took the mayor's race, as did Judith Pinedo in Cartagena, a feminist critic of that city's pro-Uribe mayor and traditional parties. And the left held on to power in Nariño, one of the areas most affected by crop fumigation under the US-sponsored Plan Colombia anti-drug program. For FSRN, I'm Laura Del Castillo in Bogota.

Contractor Targeted by Anti-Abortion Group
Anti-Abortion activists targeted the home of a construction executive near Denver yesterday over a contract to renovate a Planned Parenthood facility. Maeve Conran reports.

About 45 protesters picketed the home of a construction executive in Lakewood, a suburb of Denver, on Sunday. The protesters targeted the residence of the senior vice president of the Weitz Company's Rocky Mountain office, the firm that is renovating a Planned Parenthood facility in Stapleton, Denver. Though the protest was peaceful, the activists held placards showing pictures of dismembered fetuses and signs comparing abortion to the Holocaust. Sunday's action follows a similar protest at the headquarters of the Weitz Company in Denver last week. Both protests were organized by the anti-abortion group "Keep Peace in Stapleton". Most anti-abortion protesters target clinics themselves, however, there has been a trend toward targeting 3rd parties with ties to the clinics. Anti-abortion activists delayed the construction of a Planned Parenthood in Austin, Texas 4 years ago when a builder pulled out of the project due to protests. Gary Meggison, whose home was targeted by the protesters on Sunday, told the Rocky Mountain News that his firm has no plans to abandon the project. For FSRN, this is Maeve Conran in Boulder, Colorado.