8th May, 2015

275 more women and children were rescued from Boko Haram last weekend.
Central Nigerian communities have accused government troops of killing civilians
Two Tanzanian UN peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the government is battling Ugandan rebels.
There will be a formal investigation of the allegations that French peacekeeping troops abused children in the Central African Republic.
A tribunal has also ordered the UN to lift the suspension of the whistleblower who disclosed the alleged abuses.
Burundi’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, says the third term that has sparked so much protest would be his last.
Nearly 40,000 people have fled the crisis in Burundi.
Secretary of State John Kerry made a surprise visit to Somalia Tuesday – the first secretary of state ever to travel there.
Somalia has banned the media from using the name Al-Shabaab.
The Egyptian army freed a group of Ethiopians who had been kidnapped in Libya.
A weekend protest in Tel Aviv by thousands of Ethiopian-israelis over police harassment turned into a violent confrontation with the police.
According to an Israeli activist group, the Israeli military operated under a “policy of indiscriminate fire” last summer in Gaza – publishing soldiers’ testimonials about the “permissive” rules of engagement.
US training of Syrian rebels has started in Jordan.
With Hezbollah’s help, the Syrian army has retaken areas along the border with Lebanon.
Rustom Ghazeleh, a top intelligence official under Assad, is rumored to be dead, and with him an incalculable load of secrets.
Human rights observers say a US airstrike in Aleppokilled 52 civilians.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi in Yemen have used American-supplied cluster munitions in their war. (While cluster munitions are banned in most countries around the globe, they are not banned by the US, Saudi Arabia or Yemen.)
Yemen’s ambassador to the UN has asked for a ground intervention.
Yemeni fighters trained in the Gulf are said to havejoined local militias in Aden in the fight against the Houthi.
Yemeni rebels fired rockets and mortars into Saudi Arabia, killing 2.
Al Qaeda senior operative Nasr bin-Ali al-Ansi was killedin a US drone strike in Yemen last month.
Oxford researcher Elizabeth Kendall talks about why Al-Qaeda has had so much success in Yemen.
Zaid Al-Ali describes the devastation of Tikrit after the Islamic State’s occupation of the Iraqi city.
2.2 million Iraqis have been displaced by the Islamic State.
Behind Russia’s missile sales to Iran is a complicateddance with the West and with Israel that mixes the politics of war in Ukraine with the politics of the Iranian nuclear deal.
Iran has arrested prominent rights activist Narges Mohammadi.Anger turned to violence in the Iranian provincial capital of Mahabad after protests over the death of a chambermaid turned into riots and arson.
The Taliban says it’s open to peace talks with the Afghan government if the US leaves entirely.
Commercial flights have been cancelled to the besieged city of Kunduz.
US military personnel have added to the heavy burden of corruption in Afghanistan – over 100 service members have committed $50 million dollars worth of criminal activity.
A resolution seems on its way over India and Bangladesh’s long-running border dispute.
NATO has started anti-submarine exercises in the North Sea.
Fears over Russia are playing a part in Poland’s electoral politics.
On Wednesday, five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and twelve wounded in fighting in the east. Separatists appear to be readying a new offensive.
Meduza interviews Russian dissident-in-exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Putin’s plans to modernize the Russian military have to be scaled back due a flagging economy. Also, Russia’s hyped new tank to end all tanks broke down in the middle of parade rehearsal.
Armenia’s foreign minister has criticized Turkey over its genocide denial.
Four people were arrested in Germany for founding a right-wing extremist group and plotting to attack mosques and people seeking asylum.
French Parliament approved a bill which, if passed by the Senate, could grant wide authority for domestic spying.
Canada is similarly poised to pass new anti-terror legislation that would give CSIS expanded and intrusive authority.
A Draw Muhammed contest in Texas was targeted by two gunmen who were killed by a police officer.
A federal appeals court ruled the NSA’s now-infamous bulk telephone metadata collection illegal.
There’s bad news for privacy advocates, too, though: a circuit court overturned last year’s ruling that it violated the Fourth Amendment for police to track cell phone location data without a warrant.
Esquire Classics republished Osama bin Laden’s last interview with an American journalist. The story, by John Miller, originally ran in February of 1999.
Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell says that intelligence agencies completely fumbled their assessments of Al Qaeda after the Arab Spring – misjudging the group’s ability to take advantage of the political situation.
Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford is the president’s pick to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
American support for drone strikes is sinking after the deaths of two hostages.
28-year-old Omar Khadr, who was imprisoned in Guantánamo at age 15, walked free on bail from Canadian prison yesterday.
The remains of war dead from World War II are still being unearthed across Europe – Der Spiegel profiles a man who reburies Germany’s dead.

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