Somali lawmakers threw punches and wrestled on the floor after Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi survived a crucial vote of no confidence which could have signalled the collapse of his government.
Armed police entered parliament to drag the brawling members of parliament apart and escort Gedi out in chaotic scenes after he garnered 88 votes to his opponents' 126 -- short of the two-thirds majority they needed to censure him.
Defeat would have sparked the dissolution of the interim government's executive, already in disarray over the threat from an Islamist movement that has taken the capital Mogadishu and a large part of southern Somalia.
"It was a good exercise for democracy. I'm sure very soon the government will put itself in order," Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Mahamud Hurreh told Reuters after the vote in an old grain warehouse converted into Somalia's temporary parliament.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1106092006
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