News in Brief

Somali president survives killing bid
Afp, Mogadishu

 
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud escaped unhurt yesterday from an ambush on his heavily armoured convoy claimed by al-Qaeda linked Islamists, the latest attack targeting the internationally backed leader.
Shebab gunmen claimed to have ambushed the convoy as it travelled to the port of Merka south of the capital and boasted of destroying vehicles with rocket-propelled grenades. But officials said that the attack had failed and all in the presidential entourage were safe.

'Mandela's discharge shows progress'
BBC Online

 
Nelson Mandela's discharge from hospital after nearly three months of treatment shows he has made "progress", South Africa's president said yesterday.
Jacob Zuma said South Africans were "very happy" that the anti-apartheid hero, 95, had returned home on Sunday. His home in Johannesburg's Houghton suburb has been "reconfigured" so that he continues to receives intensive care, the presidency has said.

Argentina's Menem back on court
Afp, Buenos

 
Argentina's ex-president Carlos Menem was back in court for a new trial Monday, this time for allegedly falsifying his personal tax returns, the Supreme Court announced.
Menem, 83, who was president from 1989-1999 and is still a senator, was in court with his daughter Zulema. Prosecutors maintain in this case that he was derelict in his duties as a public official and dishonest about his returns. On June 13 Menem was sentenced to seven years in prison for organizing contraband arms shipments to Croatia and Ecuador during his tenure.

Top Chinese official sacked for graft
Afp, Beijing

 
Top Chinese economic official Jiang Jiemin has been sacked as head of the body overseeing state-owned companies for "suspected serious disciplinary violations", the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday as the country's leaders step up a campaign against graft.
Jiang was the first member of the Communist Party's current 205-person Central Committee to face investigation, state-run media said.