Blast kills 19, 3 ministers

A suicide bomber killed at least 19 people including three Somali government ministers yesterday at a graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, witnesses and officials said. It was the worst attack in the lawless Horn of Africa nation since June, when hardline al Shabaab rebels killed the security minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide bombing at a hotel in the town of Baladwayne.

(China Daily 12/04/2009 page12)