Democratic Loss

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — Army officers staged a coup in Mauritania on Wednesday and detained the president and prime minister, overthrowing the first government to be freely elected in the desert country in more than 20 years. The coup in Africa's newest oil producer took place after the president and prime minister fired the country's top four military officials. A brief announcement read over state television said the new "state council" will be led by presidential guard chief Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who also helped lead a 2005 coup. It gave no other details. President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was being held by renegade soldiers at the presidential palace in Nouakchott, according to presidential spokesman Abdoulaye Mamadouba. Soldiers also detained Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef, he said.