International Travel News

News Watch

June 2016 issue | Appears on page 21

Zika invades Caribbean

The Caribbean island-nation of St. Lucia confirmed two autochthonous (native, vector-borne transmission) cases of zika virus on April 7, the first cases discovered that were contracted on the island. Zika is now endemic in 34 countries and territories in the Americas and the Caribbean.

In the greater area, as of press time, only Canada, the US, the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Anguilla, St. Kitts & Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, Belize, Peru, Chile and...

June 2016 issue | Appears on page 63

Current warnings for June 2016

As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 38 destinations: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, El Salvador, Eritrea, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Kenya, North Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela...

May 2016 issue | Appears on page 0

Jakarta cab driver protests

Thousands of taxi drivers took to the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, on March 25 to protest ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Grab, blocking traffic on main roads in the city for hours. Drivers at some locations became violent, attacking other taxi drivers for not joining their protests. The protesting taxi drivers were joined by bus and bajaj (motorcycle taxi) drivers in calling for ride-sharing to be banned.

May 2016 issue | Appears on page 15

Terror attacks in Brussels

Suicide bombers targeted Belgium’s Brussels Airport (BRU) and the Brussels metro on March 22, killing at least 32 people, including four Americans, and injuring over 300 more. The Islamist militant group Daesh (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Three men entered the airport with bombs in their baggage. Two of the bombs were detonated, killing the bombers, while the third bomb was abandoned, with the police detonating it later.

One of the deceased...

May 2016 issue | Appears on page 15

Lahore Easter bombing

A suicide bomber targeted a group of Christians celebrating Easter at a children’s playground in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 27, killing 76 people and injuring at least 300 others. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Taliban, an Islamist militant and political group, claimed responsibility for the attack. Despite the group’s claim that they specifically were targeting Christians, the majority of the dead were identified as Muslim.

Lahore is the capital...

May 2016 issue | Appears on page 15

Terror attacks in Turkey

A suicide car bomber targeted a busy commercial hub in Turkey’s capital city, Ankara, on March 13, killing 37 people.

Turkish security authorities blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist political group, for the attack and responded with air and military strikes against Kurdish positions in the southeast of Turkey and in Syria. The PKK has denied any involvement.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a militant Kurdish separatist group that was...

May 2016 issue | Appears on page 15

Daesh in Iraq and Syria

A suicide bomber targeted a soccer match in the city of Iskandarya, Iraq, 30 miles south of Baghdad, on March 25, killing at least 25 people and wounding about 60 others. The Islamist militant group Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack.

Daesh effectively controls large tracts of land in Iraq and Syria. However, since December 2015, Daesh has lost around 22% of the land it had captured. On March 24-25, Syrian armed forces retook the ancient city of Palmyra and the nearby...

May 2016 issue | Appears on page 16

Attack in Côte d’Ivoire

Six men armed with automatic rifles and grenades attacked a popular tourist beach in Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire, on March 14, killing 18 people, including at least six tourists, French, German and Macedonian, and three Ivorian soldiers. Three gunmen were also killed.

The Islamist militant group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack, making it the first incidence of Islamist terrorism in Côte d’Ivoire. AQIM also claimed...