Colin Dwyer

Updated at 4:57 p.m. ET

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who for more than a decade and a half helmed a country through historic upheaval, died Friday at age 87. The German leader's political party, the Christian Democratic Union, confirmed Kohl's death on Twitter.

"We are in sorrow," the party tweeted.

In a statement, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush mourned the death of his colleague and close ally, who first led West Germany and then oversaw its reunification with Communist East Germany.

Somali soldiers reclaimed the blasted and bloody remains of a popular pizza joint early Thursday, ending a nightlong siege that left at least 31 people dead in the country's capital, according to local police. News reports quoted Capt. Mohamed Hussein as saying all five of the gunmen were killed.

The militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack on Pizza House and the adjacent Posh Hotel in Mogadishu.

Updated at 3:26 p.m. ET

A gunman opened fire at a UPS facility in San Francisco on Wednesday morning, killing three people and later dying of a self-inflicted wound, police say. The shooting, which unfolded on the eastern edge of the city's Mission District, began at around 9 a.m. local time, just as the workday was getting underway.

Authorities said the gunman was wearing a UPS uniform. Company spokesman Kyle Peterson tells NPR that the shooter was a current UPS employee.

Two other employees were injured in the shooting, Peterson says.

When Leo Varadkar assumed power in Ireland on Wednesday, he blazed a trail of firsts: At 38 years old, the biracial son of an Indian immigrant father and Irish mother became the country's youngest-ever taoiseach, or prime minister.

He also became the first openly gay man elected to lead the Republic of Ireland, where homosexuality was illegal until just 24 years ago.