World in brief: Somalia’s president to quit Monday, official says
Somalia’s president will resign today to try to end government infighting before the country’s Ethiopian allies leave, a senior ally said Sunday in the latest in a series of conflicting statements on the leader’s future.
President Abdullahi Yusuf will address a special session of the country’s parliament to announce his retirement from politics, said Abdirashid Sed, a confidant of Yusuf and the most senior figure to comment so far on the president’s plans.
“He decided to step down because he does not want to be seen as an obstacle to peace in Somalia,” Sed told the Associated Press. “He wants to give a chance to the younger generation.”
Bangkok, Thailand
Protesters ring Thai Parliament
Thousands of supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra surrounded Thailand’s Parliament today, daring lawmakers to pass through their ranks to deliver a speech outlining the new government’s key policies.
With only a handful of opposition lawmakers entering the building, the morning opening of the legislature was postponed.
“If they (lawmakers) want to go in, they have to walk through us, including the prime minister,” one of the protest leaders, Chatuporn Prompan, told reporters outside the Parliament compound where demonstrators spent the night.
The demonstration sparked fears of renewed political turbulence, which paralyzed the previous government for months and climaxed with an eight-day seizure of Bangkok’s airports. But the earlier protesters had been part of an anti-Thaksin alliance.
The current protest group – which calls itself the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship – is trying to pressure the government to dissolve the legislature and call snap general elections.
Airdrie, Scotland
Woman found alive in trunk of car
Scottish police said Sunday they arrested a 35-year-old man in connection with the abduction of a nurse who was found tied up in the trunk of her car – where she may have been held for as long as 10 days.
Magdeline Makola had been reported missing after she failed to show up for work at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Dec. 18. Police said she was last seen Dec. 15. Officers found her Friday in the trunk of her car. She was bound, in her nightwear and suffering from dehydration and hypothermia.
They found her in the Scottish town of Airdrie where they had been looking because they had tracked transactions made on her bank card to the area.
Officers patrolling Airdrie’s streets in search of Makola heard cries coming from the red Vauxhall and broke into the car to free her.
Chief Inspector Tommy Tague of Lothian and Borders Police said Saturday that Makola, in stable condition at an area hospital, was “extremely traumatized” by her ordeal.