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BBC News with Jerry Smit

A suicide bomber driving a car has targeted a military base in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Reports say at least 8 soldiers died when the car laden with the explosives was driven into the gate of the base near Mogadishu stadium and exploded. Fifteen soldiers were injured in the blast. The Islamic military group Al-Shabab claimed to carry out the attack. It frequently targets civilian and military targets in central and southern Somalia.

Public anger over Tuesday’s massive explosion in Beirut shows no sign of abating, with large anti-government protest planned in the city later today. The march which will also commemorate the victims will go from the port areas to Martyrs’ Square.

The United Nations and President Emmanuel Macron of France will co-host a Lebanon donors’ conference on Sunday. The organizers hoped to secure pledges of humanitarian aid from President Trump and other leaders and European institutions.

Hong Kong’s government has called US sanctions on 11 senior officials in the territory shameless and despicable. The sanctions will freeze the US assets of those targeted, who include the territory’s leader Carrie Lam and Beijing’s senior official there Luo Huining. Mr. Luo quipped he didn’t have any assets abroad to freeze and offered to send President Trump 100 dollars to impound.

On the eve of a crucial presidential election, the prosecutor general office in Belarus has asked the Telecommunication Ministry to find a way of blocking the website of an independent vote counting service. Protests across Belarus ahead of Sunday’s vote have rattled the veteran president Alexander Lukashenko.

And anti-government demonstrators in Bulgaria have re-erected barricades in the city in the Capital Sofia, less than a day after police dismantled them.

BBC news.