In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Somali leader escapes bomb attacks

MOGADISHU - Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf escaped unharmed yesterday when suspected Islamist insurgents hit his presidential compound in Mogadishu with mortar bombs for a second day, one of his aides said.

Witnesses said the shelling wounded at least five people.

Mr Yusuf's interim government and its Ethiopian military allies are battling gunmen loyal to an Islamist movement that ruled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006 before being ousted by the allied forces. - (Reuters)

Armenian PM vows to win poll

YEREVAN - Armenian prime minister Serzh Sarksyan appeared confident of victory ahead of tomorrow's presidential election, telling tens of thousands of his supporters yesterday his rivals were unable to deliver on their campaign pledges.

The 53-year-old premier is supported by President Robert Kocharyan.

Both are credited with ensuring fast economic growth and raising living standards in the tiny Caucasus nation, which has tense relations with neighbouring Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Opinion polls give Mr Sarksyan more than 50 per cent of voter support. - (Reuters)

One dead in Nepal ethnic protests

KATHMANDU - One person was killed and several others injured yesterday as police and ethnic Madheshi protesters clashed in southwest Nepal, police said.

It was the first death since Madheshi groups began a strike last week over a broad range of issues, including regional autonomy.

The violence took place in Nepalgunj, 320km southwest of Kathmandu, as a thousand-strong crowd tried to set fire to government offices. - (Reuters)

Rights group in appeal to Riyadh

RIYADH - New York-based Human Rights Watch has called on Saudi Arabia to prevent the execution of an Arab woman convicted of "witchcraft" in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

"The religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih and the judges who tried her . . . never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence against absurd charges that have no basis in law," the group said in a statement sent to Reuters over the weekend. An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that the illiterate woman could not be executed because she had retracted a confession allegedly made after weeks of beatings. But a lower court subsequently said she should be executed. - (Reuters)

Palestinian killed in Beirut clashes

BEIRUT - A Palestinian man was shot dead during clashes between anti-Syrian Lebanese government supporters and Palestinians close to Hizbullah in Beirut yesterday, security sources said.

They said fighting with sticks and stones had broken out between the two sides over political posters in the Sabra area of Beirut. Shots were fired and a Palestinian was wounded. He later died in hospital. - (Reuters)

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times