U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated America's first ambassador to Somalia since 1991, when ties soured as rival warlords took over the African nation.

Katherine Dhanani, a long-time diplomat with deep experience of African affairs, will have to be confirmed by the Senate for the role in Somalia, where extremists have targeted government officials in a bloody campaign.

Two Norwegians accused of fighting with Islamic State (IS) extremists appeared before an Oslo court Tuesday charged with aiding a "terrorist organization," in Norway's first ever trial of suspected jihadists.

Djibril Bashir and Valon Avdylim -- of Somali and Albanian origin, respectively -- are accused of having fought with the IS group in Syria.

U.S. homeland security chief Jeh Johnson warned shoppers in one of America's biggest malls to be on their guard Sunday after an Islamic militant group posted a video calling for attacks on western malls.

The warning comes as the U.S. and other nations are increasingly jittery about the threat of "lone wolf" attacks carried out by radicalized people in their home country.

Mohammed Adan's four school-age children are the latest victims of new international banking regulations aimed at terrorists, but hitting ordinary Somalis hard.

Adan's brother lives in the United States where he runs a small business and sends money home to Somalia to pay school fees. Now new rules imposed this month to stop money laundering and terrorist financing mean all U.S. transfers to Somalia are blocked.

Somalia's Al-Qaida-linked Shebab insurgents killed at least 25 people in an attack on a popular hotel in the capital Mogadishu where government ministers and officials were holding Friday prayers.

Twin explosions followed by heavy gunfire were heard from the upmarket Central Hotel, close to the presidential palace, with the Islamist gunmen reportedly blasting their way into the fortified building before storming the complex.

A Somali trafficker who raped and attacked migrants he had led through the desert to Libya to make the perilous crossing to Italy has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by an Italian court, media reported.

Mouhamud Elmi Muhidin, 34, was identified by several survivors of a boat wreck near the Italian island of Lampedusa in October 2013 in which 366 migrants died, the reports said Friday.

At least 16 people have been killed and 14 others wounded in clashes between Somali government troops and a Sufi militia, witnesses and local elders said Tuesday.

The clashes appeared to be part of a local power struggle sparked by politicians meeting in Dhusamareb, in the north-central Galgadud region, aimed at forging a regional government.

Somali lawmakers approved a new cabinet on Monday, hours after Shebab insurgents assassinated a colleague as he made his way to parliament.

The killing in the capital Mogadishu is the latest in a string of assassinations of politicians in the war-torn east African country.

The Kenyan government was back under pressure Sunday over its alleged failure to deal with worsening insecurity following the execution-style killing of a prominent MP in the city center.

George Muchai, a member of Kenya's governing Jubilee coalition and well-known trade unionist, was returning home in the early hours of Saturday after a night out in a restaurant when he was shot dead along with his driver and two bodyguards by masked men with assault rifles.

Somalia on Friday confirmed the death of Shebab commander Yusuf Dheeq in a U.S. drone strike south of Mogadishu last week.

"The killing of terrorist leaders through precision, low risk strikes such as this one, increases the opportunities for bringing peace and stability back to Somalia," the government said in a statement.