23rd October 2015

Gaddafi’s legacy continues to haunt Libya years after his death.
Libya’s parliament rejected the UN’s proposal for a unity government.
For Benghazi’s residents, the 2012 attack that has caused so much political fallout in the US was a benchmark in the city’s slide into chaos.
Former Guantánamo inmate Younis Abdurrahman Chekkouri faces a hearing in Morocco to determine his fate.
Mali’s jihadist groups are using poached elephant tusks to finance their militancy.
A pair of bomb blasts this Friday morning during pre-dawn prayers at a mosque in northern Nigeria have killed at least 18 people.
Nigerian soldiers and some self-defense fighters have claimed they killed 150 Boko Haram militants and rescued 36 captives in an assault earlier this week.
Eight villagers were killed Thursday in a Boko Haram raid in Cameroon.
Four were killed in demonstrations in the Republic of Congo after police cracked down on a protest against President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s bid to continue his three decades of power. The opposition leader says forces of the presidential guard are surrounding his house, detaining him.
The leader of Burkina Faso’s failed coup, General Gilbert Diendéré, has beencharged with crimes against humanity.
Security forces in Guinea killed three people in the lead-up to elections this month, says Amnesty International.
Turkey’s politics become more polarized in the wake of the Ankara bombings.
Digging into the anger and frustrations have led to the latest flare up between Israelis and Palestinians, which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said is in danger of “spinning out of control.”
One of the many issues at stake is the continued evictions of Arab families from Jerusalem.
The UN is pushing for a resolution to end the violence.
Israeli PM Netanyahu caused a stir with his claim that a Palestinian mufti pressured Hitler into committing genocide. (Germany has reminded him that they alone bear the culpability for the Holocaust.)
A top Hamas leader was arrested by Israeli troops in an overnight raid in Ramallah.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Moscow to meet with Putin.
Starting this Friday, Russia is holding talks in Vienna with the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey over Syria.
Saudi Arabia, already engaged in Yemen, weights its options for countermoves in Syria.
Iran and its proxy forces are pushing to retake Aleppo on behalf of Assad. 35,000 have been displaced by the Syrian regime’s Aleppo offensive.
US-backed rebels are itching to move against the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa.
Footage from a Russian drone shows the extraordinary damage inflicted on the city of Damascus by years of war.
The US and Russia have signed a deal taking steps to avoid air conflict over Syria.
A US hostage rescue mission in Iraq freed 70 hostages of the Islamic State. One US servicemember died in the battle, however – the first American combat death in Iraq since 2011.
Hostilities are increasing between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The Gulf-backed forces fighting the Houthi in Yemen have little in common with one another, but are united in their desire to battle the Shi’ite group on increasingly sectarian terms.
Yemen’s exiled government agreed to peace talks with the Houthi.
Newly-elected Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has withdrawn Canada’s fighter jets from the air campaign against the Islamic State.
The Islamic State makes $50 million a month selling crude oil.
Militias are gaining power in Iraq.
The Iraqi push to recapture Baiji has met with significant successes.
Three mass graves were found in Baiji after the city was retaken Tuesday.
Inside Iran’s Revolutionary courts.
The Taliban have overrun more districts in Afghanistan. The conflict is especiallytesting Afghanistan’s special forces.
Kunduz picks up the pieces after the Taliban’s short-lived takeover.
Better, closer ties between Kabul and Washington have limited the political fallout from the American strike on the hospital in Kunduz.
With the Iran deal negotiated, the US may turn its attentions to curbing Pakistan’s nuclear growth.
The US will sell 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.
More than 3,000 refugees have drowned crossing the Mediterranean, trying to reach Europe. The task of identifying their bodies is grim and difficult.
17 European nations signed a terrorism prevention pact.
NATO began its largest military exercises in more than a decade, a show of force in the Mediterranean with Russia in mind.
Armenia’s heightened tensions with Azerbaijan this year have Armeniansrethinking the nature of their security relationship with Russia.
Russia will station a military unit in the Arctic by 2018.
Brian Whitmore of RFE/RL says that Russia is establishing a zone of control in post-Soviet states using corruption as a tool of statecraft.
The International Criminal Court will investigate the possibility of war crimes committed on both sides of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists have both begun pulling weaponry and equipment back from the front lines in Donetsk.
Ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych is suing Kiev from Russia for violating his human rights “repeatedly.”
Kosovo moves further toward accession to the EU. It also is moving toward membership in UNESCO – which Serbia is very unhappy about.
The US and China face a potential showdown over US naval operations in the South China Sea, near seven artificial islands China has constructed to establish its territorial claim.
Fmr. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appearance in front of the House Benghazi Committee lasted 11 whole hours and did not reveal much in the way of new information.
The UN Security Council is facing criticism for failing to do its job and keep peace.
President Obama made good on his promise to veto the defense budget.
My Brother’s Bomber is a three part Frontline series reported by Ken Dornstein – a journalist whose brother died in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

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