TRUCK BOMB KILLS 20 IN SOMALIA
A huge explosion from a truck bomb killed 20 people in Somalia’s capital, police said Saturday, as shaken residents called it the most powerful blast they’d heard in years.
The explosion appeared to target a hotel on a busy road in Hodan district and at least 15 people were injured, police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said. Security forces had been trailing the truck after it raised suspicions, he said.
Police said people were trapped in the rubble of the Safari Hotel, which was largely destroyed in the explosion. The hotel is close to Somalia’s foreign ministry. Rescue workers were at the scene.
The Somalia-based extremist group al-shabab recently stepped up attacks on army bases across south and central Somalia. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday’s blast, al-shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu with bombings.
Four killed in Ivory Coast plane crash. » A
ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST cargo plane chartered by the French military crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on its approach to the international airport in Abidjan, killing four crew members from Moldova and injuring six others from Moldova and France, officials said Saturday.
Ten people were aboard the plane arriving from the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso, Lt. Issa Sakho, commander of the military fire brigade, said.
Catalonian separatists begin to feud. SPAIN» Catalonia’s
BARCELONA, separatist movement is at risk of breaking apart over deepening infighting about the right strategy to culminate the long-held desire for the prosperous region to secede from Spain and become an independent state.
Diehard separatists are pushing for a definitive declaration of independence in the next few days. Moderates still hope to open negotiations with Spanish authorities who insist the disputed referendum on which such a declaration would be based was illegal.
The fault lines widened on Saturday, when the far-left CUP party demanded an unambiguous affirmation of Catalan independence from regional president Carles Puigdemont by the Monday deadline given by Spain’s central government.
If Puigdemont does not comply, CUP spokeswoman Nuria Gibert said the party will threaten to withdraw its support for his ruling coalition in Catalonia’s regional parliament. Such a move would likely bring down Puigdemont’s government and force elections.
“Until there is (a declaration of independence), we don’t see any sense in continuing normal parliamentary activity,” Gibert said.
Britain, Ireland brace for Ophelia. LONDON» Hurricane Ophelia strengthened as it bears down on Ireland, threatening everything from farms to a golf course owned by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ophelia turned into a “rare” category 3 hurricane, the sixth major hurricane of the 2017 season, 220 miles south of the Azores, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
It is the most eastern category 3 Atlantic hurricane on record, according to the U.K.’S Met Office.
The system is moving northeast at 25 mph with top winds of 115 mph, according to the NHC. It is expected to start weakening Saturday night or Sunday.
“Ophelia is still expected to remain a powerful cyclone with hurricane force winds for the next couple of days as it approaches Ireland,” the NHC said.
Lack of monks closes German monastery. A Cistercian monastery that’s existed for almost 900 years in what is now western Germany is closing down for good, due to a shortage of monks.
The Himmerod Abbey, founded in 1134 by the French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, had just six resident monks before the closure that was decided this week, down from about 30 monks in the 1970s.