A Finnish court on Friday handed suspended jail terms to three men and one woman for financing Somalia's Al-Qaida-linked Shebab rebels, in the Nordic country's first terrorism funding trial.

The court said the four sent around 3,000 euros ($3,700) between 2008 and 2011 to the group, which has been staging a bloody insurgency to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government and has staged attacks in neighboring Kenya as well.

A naturalized American was jailed for 15 years in Miami on Wednesday for conspiring to provide thousands of dollars to al-Qaida and its affiliates in Syria and Somalia, U.S. justice officials said.

Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed, 31, admitted to the court in July that he conspired to provide money and recruits to al-Qaida, the Al-Nusra Front in Syria and the Shebab in Somalia, a Justice Department statement said.

Somalia's president on Wednesday appointed a new prime minister, 11 days after the war-torn nation's previous premier was ousted amid bitter infighting.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said he had appointed political heavyweight Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, 54, who becomes the first person to hold the post twice.

Kenyan proposals to boost security laws risk returning the country to a "police state", rights groups said Sunday, but the government says they are vital to the nation's protection.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement that, if passed, the "far-reaching" amendments to security laws being debated in parliament would "limit the rights of arrested and accused people, and restrict freedoms of expression and assembly."

At least seven women have been killed in "barbaric" attacks in Somalia after Shebab insurgents beheaded a soldier's wife, prompting revenge executions of women close to the Islamists, elders said Thursday.

The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab earlier this week snatched two women -- a soldier's wife and a chef for the government troops -- before chopping the heads off both, elders in the southwestern Tiyeglow district told Agence France Presse.

A group of Somali refugees have become the first to cross back into their country from Kenya with United Nations support in more than two decades, aid workers said Tuesday.

The returns were voluntary, although they come amid tough security crackdowns by Kenyan forces on refugees as well as the halving of vital food rations due to U.N. funding shortfalls.

More than three million people in war-torn Somalia -- 20 percent more than last year -- need urgent help because of malnutrition, war and other crises, the U.N. said Monday.

The warning came three years after more than 250,000 people died of hunger in the troubled east African country.

Somalia's prime minister, who has been at odds with the president for months, on Saturday lost a vote of confidence in parliament, amid warnings that the power struggles and political turmoil could damage efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation.

Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed received support from only 80 lawmakers, while 153 backed a motion to oust him. Ahmed has for months been at loggerheads with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, prompting international backers to warn that the infighting was putting at risk the fragile gains made in the war-scarred nation and with the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels still carrying out regular attacks.

The toll from a twin bomb attack in the central Somali town of Baidoa has risen to 15, police said on Saturday, as the president decried what he called a desperate strike.

At least nine people were killed Friday in a twin bomb attack in the central Somali town of Baidoa, police said, the latest in a string of attacks.

Two of those killed were journalists and three others were among the scores wounded, colleagues said.