Mortars fired at Somalia’s Parliament missed the building but hit a police unit inside the compound as well as a residential neighborhood, killing at least seven people. Somali pirates have seized a German ship transporting grain in the Gulf of Aden; all 17 crew members are unharmed. Two European aid workers taken hostage by gunmen in Somalia earlier this week said yesterday they were unharmed. The kidnappers increased their ransom demand to $4 million.
