- Burundian general Adolphe Nshimirimana, considered the regime’s number two, was assassinated in the capital Bujumbura on Sunday.
- Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, a Burundian human rights activist involved in opposition to Pierre Nkurunziza’s presidency survived an assassination attempt this week.
- The role Burundi’s troops play in peacekeeping efforts in Somalia hamper the African Union’s ability to deal with the country’s political crisis.
- Nighttime has become terrifying in Bujumbura.
- Boko Haram fighters killed nine people and kidnapped others in attacks on Cameroonian villages along the border with Nigeria.
- Nigerian troops freed 178 Boko Haram captives.
- A UN peacekeeper was killed in clashes in the Central African Republic’s capital city, Bangui.
- Warring South Sudanese factions led by Salva Kiir and his former deputy/current nemesis Riek Machar resumed peace talks Thursday.
- The Ivory Coast set the date for presidential elections at the end of October.
- An attack near the city of Timbuktu left ten Malian soldiers dead. It was laterclaimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
- British police say there are strong links between the terror attack at Tunisia’s Bardo Museum and the more recent one at the beach in Sousse.
- Efforts to stabilize Libya after the civil war show the limits of American abilities and weakness of Libyan institutions.
- Clashes after last week’s extremist arson attack that left a Palestinian toddler dead led to another death – Palestinian teen Laith Khaldi was shot in the chest by Israeli forces near a checkpoint and later died of his wounds.
- A suicide bomber detonated at a mosque in Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border Thursday, killing more than a dozen.
- Loyalists retook the al-Anad military base in Yemen.
- Emirati troops have joined in the fight against the Houthis.
- A French woman abducted in Yemen in February has been freed.
- An aid worker for Doctors Without Borders recounts “horror after horror” in Yemen.
- Shiite militias with terrible human rights records battle the Islamic State in Iraq.
- A minibus bombing in the Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad currently known as Sadr City killed seven.
- The US has transferred custody of Umm Sayyaf, an Iraqi detained during a raid in the fight against the Islamic State, to the Kurds.
- The Islamic State tightens its online security measures.
- Human rights monitors say that bombings under the US-led coalition have led toat least 459 civilian deaths in 52 specific airstrikes. Only two non-combatant deaths have officially been acknowledged.
- The first of US-trained Syrian fighters is believed to have been killed in combat.
- The US expanded economic sanctions on Syria.
- Civilian casualties in Afghanistan are at their highest since 2009.
- A massive truck bomb in Kabul this morning (Friday) killed eight people and injured as many as 400 others.
- The new Taliban leadership is allied with Al Qaeda.
- Reports that Jalaluddin Haqqani has also been dead for awhile have been denied. A letter attributed to him has been released endorsing the new Taliban leadership.
- A suspected US drone strike killed four militants in Datta Khel, North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.
- Two soldiers and a suspected rebel were killed in a convoy ambush in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
- Four Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the lead-up to new talks over the ceasefire.
- Cossacks face reprisals in the form of mysterious ambushes in eastern Ukraine.
- The US imposed new sanctions on Russia.
- Former Russian army commander Vladimir Chirkin is facing up to 7 and half years in prison for bribery.
- Spiegel interviews Mikhail Gorbachev.
- How the fall of the Soviet Union altered the world’s forests.
- An archaeological museum in Crimea proves to be a battleground over history, identity and “Russianness.”
- Optimism and skepticism in the long slog towards peace in Colombia.
- Violence against the press escalates in Mexico.
- The murder rate has skyrocketed in El Salvador after a truce between gangs and the government broke down earlier this year.
- Two women are currently making their way through the third and final swamp phase of Army Ranger School.
- Radical preacher Anjem Choudary has been charged in Britain under the 2000 Terrorism Act for supporting the Islamic State.
- Japan is marking the 70th anniversary of the American bombings of Hiroshima (August 6th) and Nagasaki (August 9th) – which combined killed more than 200,000 people.
- Eyewitness testimonies describe the bombs’ horror and the experience of surviving.
- The bureaucracy of the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- How the Japanese press reported the destruction of the atomic bomb.
- The story of the Times reporter who witnessed the lead-up to the bombing.
Hiba's curmudgeonly musings about books, politics & other trifles.
Die Denkende Nachteule.
Hiba's curmudgeonly musings about books, politics & other trifles. 