Crisis

[Extreme]

A South Korean national identified as Kim Yong lies wounded at a hospital in Garowe in the breakway Somalia state of Puntland. A South Korean was shot and wounded Thursday during a botched kidnapping in Somalia's northern breakaway state of Puntland. "A group of heavily armed men wanted to kidnap him and he was shot after the plan aborted," said Ahmed Abdi, a local journalist in Garowe, the capital of Puntland. A Puntland police officer speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity said the attackers fled the scene after failing to abduct the South Korean national.







Meanwhile an injured man rests on a pavement following heavy artilery shells outside Bakara market in Mogadishu. The African Union said on Thursday that a pact between Somalia's government and some opposition figures was a very significant step, but fighting in the southern port of Kismayu dented hopes of a breakthrough. Most of the turmoil has plagued the bombed-out capital Mogadishu, where at least six people died on Thursday in mortar duels between government forces and the insurgents.







At the same time,













At the Olympics, Samia Yusuf Omar of Somalia reacts after a heat of the women's 200-meter during the athletics competitions in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing.