Police stop attack on hotel in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia – A Somali police official says al-Shabab gunmen forced their way into a hotel in the Somali capital, exchanging fire with hotel guards before government security forces ended the attack. Five militants and at least nine civilians were reportedly killed.
Capt. Mohamed Hussein says a suicide bomber rammed his car into the SYL hotel’s entrance in Mogadishu on Friday night and blew it up, allowing gunmen to materialize and fight their way past hotel guards at the first security barrier.
Four gunmen and the suicide bomber were killed, he said, adding that the attackers did not get past the last security checkpoint. In addition, he says at least nine bodies of civilians could be seen outside the hotel.
The Islamic extremist group Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.
Japan’s population drops by nearly 1M
TOKYO – Japan’s latest census confirmed the hard reality long ago signaled by shuttered shops and abandoned villages across the country: the population is shrinking.
Japan’s population stood at 127.1 million last fall, down 0.7 percent from 128.1 million in 2010, according to results of the 2015 census, released Friday. The 947,000 decline in the population in the last five years was the first since the once-every-five-years count started in 1920.
The government has drawn up urgent measures to counter the falling birth rate.
Associated Press
