Today's news

--> Kenya: While the political bickering continued in Kenya, so did the violence on Friday, with young men in gangs from opposing ethnic groups killing each other in the streets with machetes and bows and arrows.

Nakuru, one of the biggest towns in the troubled Rift Valley, seems to be the new hot zone. Witnesses said the trouble there started late Thursday when mobs of Kikuyus, the ethnic group of Kenya’s president, mobilized to avenge attacks suffered at the hands of other ethnic groups.

Witnesses said Kikuyu gangs built roadblocks to stop police officers from entering certain neighborhoods and then burned homes and businesses belonging to two other groups, Luos and Kalenjins. Those groups mobilized their young men to confront the attackers, and the result was a citywide melee with hundreds of homes burned, dozens of shops destroyed and as many as 10 people killed.

--> Italy: Italy’s government finally fell Thursday, after Prime Minister Romano Prodi lost a confidence vote that made it clear that Italy’s leaders know they face a deep political and economic crisis but are venomously divided over how to solve it.After the vote, which Mr. Prodi lost 161 to 156, he submitted his resignation, ending his 20 turbulent months in office and the 61st government here since World War II.

--> Iraq: Iraq is sending troops for a "decisive" battle with al Qaeda in Iraq militants in Mosul -- one of the cities where the fighters remain strong -- Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Friday.

Extra police and soldiers are being deployed to the northern city to strip al Qaeda in Iraq of its sanctuaries and "incubators" there, Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf said.

Iraqi and U.S. forces have tackled the militants elsewhere in Iraq, but both admit it will be a hard fight in Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province hit by a massive blast Wednesday that killed 34 people.

Al-Maliki said the attack, which was followed the next day by the assassination of the province's police chief while inspecting the damage, drove him to order the crackdown.

"This heinous crime committed against our people and sons in Nineveh hurt us but also gave us a push to expedite the activation of the operations command," he said in Karbala.