Int'l community hails united peace efforts

The international community hailed on Tuesday efforts by local Somali elders and business people to mediate for a peaceful solution in the troubled region of central Somalia.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has nominated a career diplomat to be the first US ambassador to Somalia in nearly 25 years, filling a post that has been vacant since the Horn of Africa country collapsed into chaos in 1991, forcing the closure of the US embassy.

Obama on Tuesday tapped Foreign Service veteran Katherine Simonds Dhanani for the job, which will be based in neighboring Kenya until security conditions permit the embassy in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to reopen, the US State Department said.