40 Die as Bomb Explodes near Somali President’s Motorcade

40 people were killed Friday after a bomb exploded near President Abdullahi Yusuf’s motorcade in the country’s capital, Mogadishu. Eyewitnesses say the President’s security agents opened fire in the panic that ensued, further contributing to the death toll. It is not clear whether Yusuf himself was in the convoy, whose occupants escaped unscathed. The attack came a day before the start of talks to reconcile President Yusuf and his estranged Prime Minister, Nur Hassan Hussein.[PE]