Mogadishu car bombings kill 18 people
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Two car-bomb blasts in Somalia’s capital killed at least 18 people on Friday and shattered a monthslong period of calm in Mogadishu, which is often the target of attacks by the al-Shabab extremist group.
The explosions came a day after Somalia’s interior minister warned of an explosives-laden vehicle somewhere in the capital.
The first blast occurred near the country’s intelligence headquarters, police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said. He said the second occurred near the parliament’s headquarters, where the vehicle had tried to speed through a checkpoint before security forces engaged with the gunmen suspected of trying to attack the presidential palace.
The Aamin Ambulance service ferried 18 bodies and another 20 injured people after the blasts, director Abdirahman Abdulqadir said.
Somalia-based al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack via its radio arm, Andalus.
Philippines critical of U.S. threat rating
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s top aide has summoned the U.S. ambassador to discuss a global threat assessment by American intelligence agencies that mentioned Duterte along with dangers facing democracy in Burma, Cambodia and Thailand.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said Friday that Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea discussed the U.S. intelligence community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment report with U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim on Thursday.
Medialdea also asked U.S.-based Philippine diplomats to explain to Washington steps taken by Duterte to promote economic development and ensure public security while “respecting at all times the rule of law,” Roque said.
The U.S. Embassy said the discussion “focused on the references to the Philippines in the report, including clarifying that the information about the Philippines had been previously reported by media sources.”
The U.S. report says “autocratic tendencies” are expected to deepen in some governments in Southeast Asia and mentioned that Duterte has suggested he could suspend the constitution, declare a “revolutionary government” and impose nationwide martial law.
U.N. details S. Sudan rights abuses
JUBA, South Sudan — The latest report on human-rights abuses in South Sudan’s five-year civil war, released on Friday by a United Nations commission, includes many horrific witness accounts, as the team collects evidence in the hopes of one day finding justice.
“I did not expect to be confronted with so much ritual humiliation and degradation deliberately done for multiple reasons. The suffering and cruelty was worse than anyone could have imagined,” said Andrew Clapham, a commission member and international law professor.
The new U.N. report is an account of gang rapes, castrations, ethnic violence and other abuses, based on 230 witness statements and other materials.
One South Sudanese woman told the commission that her 12-year-old son was forced to have sex with his grandmother to stay alive, the report says.
The findings, with “sufficient evidence” against both President Salva Kiir’s government forces and rebels, identify more than 40 senior military officials, including three state governors, “who may bear individual responsibility for war crimes.”
Trump Jr. changes India speech topic
NEW DELHI — Donald Trump Jr. backed off a planned speech on regional affairs Friday, opting instead for a “fireside chat” on pressures of work and family amid questions over possible conflicts on a trip to promote Trump properties.
Trump Jr. arrived in India earlier this week for a contractually obligated trip to promote his family’s branded real estate projects, but controversy seemed to dog the president’s eldest son at every turn.
Critics wondered why he was giving a foreign policy speech on a private-business trip, and slammed a high-profile advertisement campaign offering conversation and dinner with Trump real estate buyers as influence peddling.
After the speech subject was hastily switched Friday, Trump Jr. sat before a projected image of a fireplace and spoke of his father’s stressful job, his sister Ivanka and the potential for India’s real estate market.
Trump, 40, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said the family decided to stop pursuing new deals in India after his father was elected president — a business decision he described as “unfortunate.”
A Section on 02/24/2018