WORLD BRIEFS

SOMALIA: Bomb kills 8 in market

A roadside blast rocked a vegetable market in Baidoa, the third-largest city, killing eight people and wounding 15, witnesses and a police official said Monday. Police said one suspect was arrested. Baidoa was a major base for al-Shabab militants until Ethiopian troops and Somali soldiers seized the key town in February. A blast last week in Mogadishu ripped through the national theater, killing 10 people and wounding many more.

NIGERIA: Fatal shootings in northeast

Gunmen suspected of being members of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram have killed four people, including a 6-year-old girl, in recent attacks in the northeast, authorities said Monday. In Potiskum, gunmen opened fire on a policeman and his family, killing his 6-year-old daughter, Yobe State police spokesman Toyin Gbadegeshin said. Early Monday, gunmen killed three people when they attacked a police station, a church and a bank in the border town of Dikwa in the northeast. Joint Security Task Force spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said a local politician, a police officer and civilian and three gunmen were killed in that attack.

MALI: Junta leader flexes power

The head of the military junta made clear Monday that he would have a powerful say over how the country is run in the weeks ahead, and does not want foreign forces helping to reclaim the north from rebels who have declared independence. In televised comments, Capt. Amadou Sanogo said he is asking Mali's partners for equipment and logistical help. The West African regional bloc as ECOWAS has been preparing a force of up to 3,000 soldiers to be deployed in Mali to help win back the regions under rebel control. His comments come just days after Sanogo signed an agreement with ECOWAS that is supposed to return Mali to constitutional rule, and a new civilian president is due to be sworn in this week.