Somali vote tensions lead to gunfire
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Gunfire rang out in Somalia's capital on Sunday between soldiers loyal to the government and others angry at the country's leader as tensions spiked over President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed's extended stay in power.
The gunfire heard across much of the city highlighted earlier warnings that the election standoff could increase instability in the nation. The estimated hundreds of mutinous soldiers, still in uniform, took up key positions in northern Mogadishu as some residents hid.
Somalia's homeland security minister, Hassan Hundubey Jimale, expressed condolences to all victims but didn't say how many people had been killed or wounded. He accused "some people who are not interested in the security of their people" of launching an attack in Mogadishu and said security forces had repulsed them.
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The president faces growing opposition in Somalia and abroad after the lower house of parliament approved a two-year extension of his mandate.
Somalia's election, meant for early February, has been delayed amid disputes between the federal government and the states of Puntland and Jubbaland along with the opposition.
The soldiers were believed to have entered the city from military bases outside Mogadishu. Most of them belong to the clan of former presidents Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Both have vowed to forcefully dislodge the president if he does not return to negotiations over the election delay or resign.
Turkey condemns genocide declaration
ISTANBUL -- Turkey's foreign ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador in Ankara to protest the U.S. decision to mark the deportation and killing of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal met with David Satterfield late Saturday to express Ankara's strong condemnation. "The statement does not have legal ground in terms of international law and has hurt the Turkish people," the ministry said.
On Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden followed through on a campaign promise to recognize the events that began in 1915 and killed an estimated 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians as genocide. The statement was carefully crafted to say the deportations, massacres and death marches took place in the Ottoman Empire.
The White House proclamation immediately prompted statements of condemnation from Turkish officials, although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has yet to address the issue.
Turkey rejects the use of the word, saying both Turks and Armenians were killed in the World War I-era fighting, and it has called for a joint history commission to investigate. For years, American presidents have avoided using "genocide" to describe what Armenians call Meds Yeghern, or the Great Crime.
Morocco decries rebel leader's care
RABAT, Morocco -- Morocco's Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned the Spanish ambassador Sunday to convey the government's "regret" over Spain's decision to receive the leader of a regional group fighting Morocco for independence.
Spanish officials revealed last week that Brahim Ghali, 73, is hospitalized in Spain for treatment of covid-19. Ghali heads the Polisario Front, which has long fought for the independence from Morocco of Western Sahara.
The Moroccan foreign ministry said Spain's stance is "inconsistent with the spirit of partnership and good neighborliness."
The diplomatic tension between Rabat and Madrid comes as Spain seeks Morocco's cooperation in stemming the flow of migrants across the sea to Spanish territory. The Spanish government is also seeking to deepen economic ties with Africa.
An official from Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week that Ghali had been taken in "for strictly humanitarian reasons."
French protest ruling in woman's death
PARIS -- Protesters in Paris and other French cities on Sunday denounced a ruling by France's highest court that the killer of a Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, was not criminally responsible and therefore could not go on trial.
Thousands of people filled Trocadero Plaza in Paris, in front of the Eiffel Tower, answering a call by Jewish associations and groups fighting antisemitism who say that justice has not been done. Other protests took place in Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and elsewhere.
Halimi, a 65-year-old Jewish woman, died in 2017 after being pushed out of the window of her Paris apartment by her neighbor, Kobili Traore. Traore admitted pushing her.
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The ruling from the Court of Cassation, issued this month, said there was enough evidence to show the act had antisemitic motives. But the court said a person who committed a crime while in a "delirious state" cannot be sent to trial -- even if that state was caused by the habitual use of illegal drugs. Traore used to smoke heavy quantities of cannabis.
Under French law, people cannot be held criminally responsible for actions committed while fully losing their judgment or self-control due to a psychiatric disorder. Traore has been in a psychiatric hospital since Halimi's death.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
