- 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.
Hiba's curmudgeonly musings about books, politics & other trifles.
Die Denkende Nachteule.
