Army Thwarts Attempted Coup

The army foiled a coup attempt in troubled Comoros, an island nation off the east coast of Africa, and a former Cabinet minister was arrested soon afterward, officials said. Shots rang out in the north of the capital, Moroni, soldiers rushed to reinforce government offices, and telephone lines were briefly cut, but no casualties were reported. Officials said they thought the attempted coup had been led by two sons of the islands’ first president, Ahmed Abdallah, who was himself assassinated in a 1989 coup. They said one of the sons, former Agriculture Minister Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah, had been arrested. There was no word on the whereabouts of the other son.