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"The president was at the palace when several mortars landed near the house. The president is safe," said spokesman Hussein Mohamud Hubsired.
The attack took place hours after Yusuf, 73, arrived in the coastal capital from a trip abroad for medical treatment.
The interim government and its Ethiopian allies are battling gunmen loyal to an Islamic movement that ruled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006 before being ousted by the allied forces.
Meanwhile, a local human rights group reported that nearly 292 civilians were killed and 385 wounded last month in fighting in Mogadishu. The Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization obtains its figures from medical institutions.
HONG KONG
Bank Chief Quits Cabinet
David Li, the Hong Kong banker and lawmaker who is paying $8.1 million to settle a U.S. probe into alleged insider trading, resigned from the city's Executive Council.
Li, chief executive of the Bank of East Asia, "regretted that the matter had caused public concern and thus wished to resign," Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said in a statement posted Saturday on the government's Web site.
The announcement follows pressure on Li to quit after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 5 said he and three others would pay a combined $24 million in fines after an investigation into share trading during News Corp.'s takeover of Dow Jones. Li, who also represents Hong Kong's banking industry in its parliament, agreed to pay the fine without admitting or denying wrongdoing, the Bank of East Asia said Feb. 6.
INDONESIA
2 Bird Flu Deaths Confirmed
A 3-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, the Health Ministry said Saturday, making its second announcement of a bird flu death in one day.
The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia's death toll from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu to 105.
The latest victim was from the capital, Jakarta, Elshinta radio reported. Earlier, the ministry announced that a 16-year-old Indonesian youth from Central Java province had died of bird flu last week.
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Afghan Winter Death Toll Exceeds 900
The death toll from Afghanistan's harshest winter in recent memory has hit 926, an official with the national disaster management commission said, adding that the count could rise as access to remote areas improves with the thawing of snow.
Woman Killed at Egyptian-Israeli Border
Egyptian border guards shot and killed an Eritrean woman and arrested her two daughters south of Aouja after they tried to cross illegally into Israel, security officials said. Mervat Mer Hatover, 37, and her daughters, ages 8 and 10, were among a group of Africans who paid human traffickers to help them cross into Israel, a security official said. On Jan. 30, two people from Ivory Coast were fatally shot in similar circumstances.
Maoists Attack Police Facilities in India
Hundreds of Maoist rebels stormed six police compounds in eastern India in coordinated attacks Friday night, killing 13 police personnel and one civilian, a police official said. The attacks -- on four police stations, one training academy and an armory -- were scattered across the Nayagarh district, about 750 miles southeast of the capital, New Delhi.
From News Services
