A notorious criminal gang exchanged gunfire with police and put up blazing roadblocks Monday, threatening to spread violence nationwide unless authorities free their leader in an unsettling new danger for Kenya’s bloody post-election crisis.
The upheaval started before dawn and killed at least four people as members of the outlawed Mungiki gang protested the death of their imprisoned leader’s wife, who authorities said was found beheaded last week. They burned buildings and derailed a train in the capital.
“This is lawlessness and sheer madness,“ Joseph Kanyiri, a district commissioner in Nairobi, told the Associated Press.
He said the fighting was gang-related and not connected to the flawed Dec. 27 presidential election that set off weeks of bloodshed among rival factions and tribes, tarnishing Kenya’s reputation for stability in an African region that includes war-ravaged Somalia and Sudan.
The outbreak comes at a precarious time for Kenya, which just got a power-sharing government that was formed under international pressure hoping to end fighting that killed more than 1,000 people after the disputed election.

East Timor’s president says there is evidence that ``external elements’’ were supporting the rebels who tried to assassinate him in February.
However, Jose Ramos-Horta has not identified the elements he says are trying to destabilize his country and plunge it into civil war.
His comments were made in an interview with CNN. They come as an Australian newspaper reported on Tuesday that Timorese rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was involved in 47 telephone calls to and from Australia in the hours before the Feb. 11 attack on Ramos-Horta.
Ramos-Horta has been recovering in Australia since the assassination attempt and plans to return to East Timor this week.
Investigators are focusing their inquiries on the calls Reinado and his men made soon before and after the attacks, Fairfax reports, and are seeking Australia’s help in tracing the calls.
In an interview with CNN, Ramos Horta said it was vital for East Timor to get to the bottom of the attacks in order “to heal from them“.

The file photo shows Forza italia party leader Silvio Berlusconi, gesturing during a rally at St. Giovanni square in Rome.

Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi has scored a decisive victory in Italy’s parliamentary elections, setting the colorful billionaire and staunch US ally on course for his third stint as premier.
The victory in Italy’s election Sunday and Monday marks a remarkable return to power for the 71-year-old Berlusconi, avenging his loss two years ago at the hand of the center-left, AP reproted.
“I’m moved, I feel a great responsibility,“ Berlusconi said Monday evening in a phone call to RAI public television. The media mogul remained out of sight, taking in the results at his villa outside Milan and, according to Italian news agencies, having a private dinner with key aides.
The victory attests to his political longevity--so much so that the German mass-circulation Bild on Monday compared him to the immortal character in the movies.
This was Berlusconi’s fifth consecutive national campaign since 1994, when he stepped into politics from his media empire, currently estimated at US$9.4 billion. He has fended off challenges to his leadership by his conservative allies, survived conflict of interests accusations and criminal trials.
During his last term he served a record-setting five years, until his 2006 defeat. During that term, Berlusconi made notable international gaffes and unpopular decisions, such as sending 3,000 troops to Iraq over the protests of thousands of Italians in the streets. The contingent has since been withdrawn.
This time he has ruled out sending new troops to Iraq, but his friendship with the United States is not in doubt.
Berlusconi once said that he agreed with the United States regardless of Washington’s position. He calls US President George W. Bush a friend, and his return to power is likely to make relations with Washington warmer, no matter who becomes the next American president.
The outgoing government of Premier Romano Prodi has had a colder relation with Washington, and Prodi never went to the White House, even though he has met with Bush in Rome and at international summits.
Berlusconi has also affirmed that he is one of Israel’s closest friends in Europe.
On Monday, he said he would make the first foreign visit of his third term to Israel, to mark the Mideast country’s 60th anniversary. It would be, he said, a show of support for Berlusconi won strong victories in both houses of parliament, despite a strong final sprint by his main rival, Walter Veltroni.
Berlusconi has no easy task ahead of him. A laundry list of problems await, from cleaning piles of trash off the streets of Naples, which he has indicated will be his top priority, to improving an economy that has underperformed the rest of the euro zone for years.
Berlusconi will also need to make structural reforms that economists say are needed, such as streamlining the decision-making progress, and cut the costs associated with politics. A reform of the much-maligned current election law is also on the agenda.