ister, Ali Mohamed GEDI, and
a 90-member cabinet. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has
been deeply divided since just after its creation and until late
December 2006 controlled only the town of Baidoa. In June 2006, a
loose coalition of clerics, business leaders, and Islamic court
militias ? known as the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) ?
defeated powerful Mogadishu warlords and took control of the
capital. The Courts continued to expand, spreading their influence
throughout much of southern Somalia and threatening to overthrow the
TFG in Baidoa. Ethiopian and TFG forces ? concerned over suspected
links between some SCIC factions and al-Qa?ida ? in late December
2006 drove the SCIC from power, but the joint forces continue to
fight remnants of SCIC militia in the southwestern corner of Somalia
near the Kenyan border. The TFG, backed by Ethiopian forces, in late
December 2006 moved into Mogadishu, but continues to struggle to
exert control over the capital and to prevent the reemergence of
warlord rule that typified Mogadishu before the rise of the SCIC.

South Africa
After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in
1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found
their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold
(1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the
subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British
encroachments, but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902). The
resulting Union of South Africa operated under a policy of apartheid
- the separate development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to
apartheid politically and ushered in black majority rule.

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
The islands, which have
large bird and seal populations, lie approximately 1,000 km east of
the Falkland Islands and have been under British administration
since 1908 - except for a brief period in 1982 when Argentina
occupied them. Grytviken, on South Georgia, was a 19th and early
20th century whaling station. Famed explorer Ernest SHACKLETON
stopped there in 1914 en route to his ill-fated attempt to cross
Antarctica on foot. He returned some 20 months later with a few
companions in a small boat and arranged a successful rescue for the
rest of his crew, stranded off the Antarctic Peninsula. He died in
1922 on a subsequent expedition and is buried in Grytviken.