MIRINDIMO

Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed came to prominence as one of the leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled most of southern Somalia for six months in 2006.
He was always seen as the moderate face of the UIC and was elected by MPs after agreeing a peace deal with the Western-backed government.
A former schoolteacher, he started to stand up to the warlords who had fought for control of Mogadishu since 1991, when one of his 12-year-old pupils was abducted. Born on 25 July 1964 in the Middle Shabelle region, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is from the Hawiye clan (Abgal branch) - one of Somalia's four main clans, which dominate in the capital.
He studied at Libyan and Sudanese universities in the mid-1980s. Mr Ahmed returned home to Jowhar in 2002, at a time when Abdulkassim Salad Hassan's government was trying to establish control of Mogadishu.
He worked against Mr Hassan with Mohamed Dhere, a warlord and his fellow clansman, who was then in charge of Jowhar. Mr Ahmed became chairman of the regional court in Jowhar, but the alliance with the warlord did not last and in 2003 he fled for Mogadishu.
Turning-point
Mr Ahmed started teaching geography, Arabic and religious studies at the city's Jubba Secondary School. That same year one of his pupils was snatched - amid a wave of abductions in Mogadishu - and the gang responsible demanded a ransom from the 12-year-old boy's parents.
President Ahmed - who speaks English as well as Arabic and Somali - says he is prepared to discuss any political or religious issues with insurgents still fighting in Somalia.