World briefs 8/7/06

Mediator helps Somali leaders reach consensus

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Aided by an Ethiopian mediator, the leaders of Somalia's weak, U.N.-backed government have resolved their differences over how to deal with an increasingly strong Islamic militia that controls much of the south, officials said Sunday. Somalia's transitional government was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help the Horn of Africa country emerge from 16 years of anarchy and violence. It has been unable to assert authority beyond the city of Baidoa, 150 miles from the capital, Mogadishu.

Half of U.S. still believes Saddam had WMDs

Half of America apparently still believes Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in 2003, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq. People tend to become "independent of reality" in these circumstances, says opinion analyst Steven Kull. The reality in this case is that after a 16-month, $900-million-plus investigation, the U.S. weapons hunters known as the Iraq Survey Group declared that Iraq had dismantled its chemical, biological and nuclear arms programs in 1991 under U.N. oversight.

Truck bomb wounds U.S. soldier in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A British soldier was fatally shot Sunday as NATO-led troops went after Taliban insurgents in a southern mountain range, and a U.S. soldier suffered minor injuries in the suicide truck bombing of a military convoy in a neighboring province, officials said. Officials said British and Afghan forces had used air power and ground troops to kill 17 Taliban fighters.

-- From wire reports