DJIBOUTI (AP) — The U.N. says Somalia's president has chosen the son of a former Somali leader to be prime minister.
Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke is expected to be formally appointed Saturday. Sharmarke's father was a popular leader who was assassinated in 1969.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed made the announcement Friday in Djibouti.
Ahmed was chairman of the Islamic Courts Union that ran Mogadishu for six months in 2006 before Ethiopian soldiers drove them from power. His election raises hopes that he will bring many of Somalia's Islamic factions into a more inclusive government.
Somalia's Western-backed government wields little control. An Islamic insurgent group called al-Shabab, which says it doesn't recognize the government, has taken over most of Somalia.
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