MOGADISHU: A prominent Somali journalist who was a staunch critic of extremist group Al-Shabab was killed by a suicide bomber as he left a restaurant in the capital Mogadishu Saturday, officials and colleagues said.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the blast, which officials said killed Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, the director of government-owned Radio Mogadishu.
The attack wounded two other people, a director at Somali National Television named as Sharmarke Mohamed Warsame and a driver.
“May God bless my brother Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, he was a brave man the nation lost,” Somalia’s deputy information minister Abdirahman Yusuf Omar said in a statement.
Government official Ismael Mukhtar Omar, also a colleague of the dead man, told AFP that police had confirmed that the blast had been caused by a suicide bomber.
“He came out of the restaurant and went into his car with a colleague after they had dinner and the suicide bomber ran onto the car window and detonated himself,” said another colleague Ali Mohamed.
Al-Shabab, which has been waging a violent insurgency against the country’s fragile government since 2007, claimed responsiblity for the attack in a statement, saying its fighters had long pursued the journalist.
Guled, also known as Abdiaziz Afrika, was well known for his interviews with Al-Shabab suspects detained by the Somali security forces, and his programs attracted large audiences inside and outside the country.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, says Somalia remains Africa’s most dangerous country for media personnel with more than 50 killed since 2010.
The Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab controlled the capital until 2011 when it was pushed out by African Union troops, but it still holds territory in the countryside and launches frequent attacks against government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.
Prominent journalist killed in Mogadishu suicide bombing
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Prominent journalist killed in Mogadishu suicide bombing
- The attack wounded two other people, a director at Somali National Television named as Sharmarke Mohamed Warsame and a driver
Apple, Google offer app store changes under new UK rules
LONDON: Apple and Google have pledged changes to ensure fairness in their app stores, the UK competition watchdog said Tuesday, describing it as “first steps” under its tougher regulation of technology giants.
The Competition and Markets Authority placed the two companies under “strategic market status” last year, giving it powers to impose stricter rules on their mobile platforms.
Apple and Google have submitted packages of commitments to improve fairness and transparency in their app stores, which the CMA is now consulting market participants on.
The proposals cover data collection, how apps are reviewed and ranked and improved access to their mobile operating systems.
They aim to prevent Apple and Google from giving priority to their own apps and to ensure businesses receive fairer terms for delivering apps to customers, including better access to tools to compete with services like the Apple digital wallet.
“These are important first steps while we continue to work on a broad range of additional measures to improve Apple and Google’s app store services in the UK,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.
The commitments mark the first changes proposed by US tech giants in response to the UK’s digital markets regulation, which came into force last year.
The UK framework is similar to a tech competition law from the European Union, the Digital Markets Act, which carries the potential for hefty financial penalties.
“The commitments announced today allow Apple to continue advancing important privacy and security innovations for users and great opportunities for developers,” an Apple spokesperson said.
The CMA in October found that Apple and Google held an “effective duopoly,” with around 90 to 100 percent of UK mobile services running on their platforms.
A Google spokesperson said existing practices in its Play online store are “fair, objective and transparent.”
“We welcome the opportunity to resolve the CMA’s concerns collaboratively,” they added.
The changes are set to take effect in April, subject to the outcome of a market consultation.
