41.   A Libyan diplomat has denied reports that Libya is supplying Somali faction leader Hussein Aidid with weapons.

42.   A key participant in a meeting of Somali faction leaders rebuked two other top leaders for skipping talks intended to discuss national reconciliation.

43.   A national reconciliation conference scheduled for the end of the week is likely to be postponed for the third time, a faction leader said Wednesday.

44.   A number of faction leaders, including Aidid, who control large militias in Somalia, refused to attend the process.

45.   A Somali faction leader accused rival clansmen of amassing troops outside the southern port of Kismayo in preparation for another attack.

46.   A key Somali faction leader announced Sunday that his group has agreed to improve its relationship with the United Nations.

47.   A top Somali faction leader on Thursday promised to release four U.N. workers once his men are granted safe passage to escort them to the airport.

48.   Abdulkadir Mohamed Mohamud, an aide to faction leader Musa Sude Yalahow, claimed he had the nine foreigners.

49.   A third faction leader, Ali Mahdi Mohammed, who controls northern Mogadishu, had accepted the proposal for joint leadership in principle.

50.   A Somali faction leader has agreed to lift a ban on European Union representative Sigurd Illing from entering south Mogadishu, an Italian envoy said Sunday.