World Notes

The capital city of Mogadishu resembled a charnel house last week after victorious rebels drove President Mohammed Siad Barre into exile, ending 21 years of dictatorial rule. Dogs devoured hundreds of corpses in the streets < following a month-long campaign that killed more than 5,000 civilians and forced tens of thousands to flee. Starving survivors had only fetid river water to drink, and looters reduced shattered buildings to empty shells.

Barre fled the city in a tank minutes before the insurgents stormed the presidential palace. He reportedly escaped into neighboring Kenya, where authorities said they would grant him temporary asylum.

Prospects for the new government in Mogadishu seemed bleak. The coalition of rebels, which represents three Somali clans that have feuded for centuries, named hotel owner Ali Mahdi Mohammed, 52, interim President until elections could be held. But Mahdi's party, the United Somali Congress, grew angry at his appointment by a clique of elders and attacked the action as "hasty" and "unnatural." The tenuous troika could swiftly come unglued.