World News from the BBC.

A town in central Somalia has been captured by Islamic militants of Al-Shabab. At least 10 people were killed during fighting for the town to Dhusamareb. It had been held by Ahlu-Sunnah, a group that follows a Sufi form of Islam which is rejected by Al-Shabab.

Pirates have hijacked two more ships off the Somali coast, bringing to four the number of vessels seized this week. The latest targets were an Indonesia-owned chemical tanker heading for India, and a British-flagged cargo ship carrying cars from Singapore to Saudi Arabia. The European Union's anti-piracy task force said the car transporter was well outside the area patrolled by its warships.

The son of the late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri has urged the Iranian authorities to reach a compromise with the opposition to avoid what he called catastrophic consequences.Speaking by phone from his home in Qom, Saeed Montazeri said Iran’s rulers should come to their senses and take the path of national reconciliation. His statement echoed that of the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi who urged the government on Friday to calm the situation by accepting people’s rights to peaceful protest and introducing reforms.

And Sweden is issuing licenses to permit wolf hunting for the first time since the 1960s. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has decided that 27 wolves can be shot between now and mid-February. James Rodgers reports.