Somali president bends to rebel demand for sharia law

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said Saturday he will give in to a rebel demand that he impose Islamic law, or sharia, in an effort to halt fighting between Somali forces and Islamic insurgents. However, Ahmed told a news conference he won't agree to a strict interpretation of the law, which forbids girls from attending school, requires veils for women and beards for men, and bans music and television.

The question is will this actually bring stability to the region? I do not believe it will because conflict arose from the Islamic Court in the first place.

Ahmed, who was elected January 31, said he would ask the AU contingent to leave once there is a solid political solution to the conflict. I believe that there needs to be more done than just the AU. A bigger international prescence.

More than 40,000 Somalis have returned to abandoned neighborhoods in Mogadishu over the past six weeks, despite some of the heaviest fighting in months, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday.They are part of the more than a million residents who have been displaced by fighting in Somalia, including 100,000 who fled to neighboring countries last year alone, according to the United Nations.