- Days of rival government factional fighting havepummeled the Upper Nile region of South Sudan and heavy fighting has ravaged the state capital of Malakal.
- Al-Shabaab shot dead a senior Somali military officer in Mogadishu on Thursday.
- The possibility of a third-term run for Burundi’s president threatens to undermine the peace deal in place since the civil war a decade ago.
- Security forces and anti-government protesters clashedin Guinea, leaving one dead.
- The Islamic State released a new video last weekend showing the beheadings of 21 Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
- The plight of North African and Middle Eastern migrantsrisking their lives to make it to European soil by boat has been highlighted by the fatal capsizing of a boat over the weekend, killing a suspected 750 people. As a result, EU leaders are tripling funding for search and rescue missions and the UN is pleading with wealthy nations to take their share of refugees.
- The UN says the Islamic State has 225,000 Syrians undersiege in Deir Ez Zor.
- Saudi airstrikes resumed in Yemen only hours after Saudi Arabia declared a halt to their campaign.
- Accounts of airstrikes stream into social media from Yemeni survivors.
- A New York Times interactive breaks down the basics of the conflict in Yemen.
- Arms race in the Middle East fuels further and further conflict.
- Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was apparently seriously injured in a March airstrike and continues to recover.
- Baghdadi’s acting replacement is a former physics teacher – an Iraqi named Abu Alaa Afri.
- Der Spiegel published the results of an extensive investigation into the Islamic State’s origin and organization, revealing the heavy hand of ex-Baathists from Saddam Hussein’s government.
- An American drone strike in Pakistan accidentally killedtwo hostages – American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto. The same strike also killed an American member of Al Qaeda – Ahmed Farouq. A separate strike killed another American – Al Qaeda propagandist Adam Gadahn.
- The White House has since acknowledged that the targets of those strikes were not individuals (a signature strike), but rather Al Qaeda compounds.
- The Taliban announced their spring offensive.
- In an apparent bid to match the Islamic State brutality for brutality, the Taliban is targeting Hazaras in a serious of kidnappings and beheadings.
- A suicide bombing in Jalalabad on Saturday killed 35 people. The Islamic State initially took the credit, but now it appears they were not actually behind it.
- RetroReports’ Anatomy of an Interrogation tells the story of an Afghan farmer and the CIA contractor who served prison time for the torture-related death, the only person associated with the agency ever to do so. (Phenomenal piece of reporting.)
- The Pentagon can’t account for $1.3 billion in Afghan reconstruction aid.
- A new documentary chronicles the late Richard Holbrooke’s frustrations and collisions with the White House and military leadership over how to proceed in Afghanistan.
- Scientists used a secret replica of Iran’s nuclear facility constructed in Tennessee to answer diplomats’ technical queries during nuclear negotiations.
- As we reach the 100 year anniversary of the Armenian genocide, Turkey struggles with the politics of its genocide denial. As do its Western allies.
- Here, The Guardian collected firsthand stories of survival from Armenians.
- The State Department says that Russia is building uptroops on the Ukrainian border as well as building up air defense systems inside eastern Ukraine.
- Shelling is a “constant” occurrence in the city of Mariupol.
- A Texan fights alongside the separatists in Donetsk.
- Court hearings over whether or not to jail Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have been postponed until May.
- A new exhibition in Moscow recreates tableaus of the war in Ukraine, a potent emotional tool in the information war.
- The European Union charged Russian energy company Gazprom with market abuse, a serious move against the energy giant.
- Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov gave his men shoot-to-kill orders if they see security forces from other parts of the country encroaching on their territory.
- China is sounding the alarm on North Korean nuclear capabilities.
- The US reached a nuclear energy cooperation pact with South Korea.
- Mexican police captured the leader of the Juarez Cartel.
- France says it has foiled five attacks since Charlie Hebdo.
- BuzzFeed has compiled an ongoing list of American citizens charged with trying to join or support the Islamic State.
- The role of FBI informants in the corralling of would-be Islamic State fighters and supporters is questioned.
- New Pentagon cybersecurity strategy lays out for the first time US plans to incorporate cyberwarfare into military planning.
- A new bill in Congress would require the Defense Department to disclose documents related to troop exposures to toxic substances.
- The Pentagon rushes to resettle Guantánamo inmates before Congress can freeze transfers.
- Is silence following the Senate torture report de facto amnesty for those who committed those acts?
- David Petraeus was sentenced to two years probation and a $100,000 fine for leaking classified information to Paula Broadwell.
- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial began its sentencing phase.
Hiba's curmudgeonly musings about books, politics & other trifles.
Die Denkende Nachteule.
