MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP):

Islamic leaders in Moga-dishu gave a woman 11 lashes for selling cannabis yesterday, the first female to receive such punishment since the fundamentalist rulers took over the capital in June.

The woman, who throughout the beating insisted she was innocent, was flogged alongside five other men at the Yassin Square in Mogadishu in front of several hundred people. The small bundle of cannabis, worth around US$1 (euro0.80) on the streets in the capital, was burned before the crowd.

"The reason we punished them was that we want to stop people selling and using drugs," said a local security official, Sheik Omar Hussein. "We believe as Islamists that people should stay away from drugs."