News Watch

In the city of Joso, Japan, north of Tokyo, the Kinugawa River overflowed its banks on Sept. 10, causing massive flooding and landslides, killing at least eight people and forcing more than 90,000 people to evacuate the area.

The city of New Delhi, INDIA, is suffering from its worst outbreak of dengue fever in five years. As of press time, more than 3,800 cases had been confirmed in 2015 and 17 people had died.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne virus, and symptoms include fever, headaches, joint pain and rash. Rarely, the possibly lethal dengue hemorrhagic fever may occur, additionally causing abdominal pain, vomiting and internal bleeding.

Officials have blamed poor drainage of standing water for...

CONTINUE READING »

Taliban forces began assaulting Kunduz, a city of 300,000 people in northern Afghanistan, on Sept. 28, taking control of large portions of the city on Sept. 29-30. During the fighting, at least 40 people were killed and more than 300 were injured, most of them civilians.

Taliban fighters attempted to take the Kunduz airport from NATO forces on Sept. 29 but were rebuffed by American air strikes. On Sept. 30, Taliban fighters took the Bala Hissar fortress, a strategic hilltop army...

CONTINUE READING »

In Tajikistan, gunmen loyal to ousted Deputy Defense Minister General Abduhalim Nazarzoda attacked police forces in the city of Vahdat, near the capital, Dushanbe, on Sept. 4, killing nine police officers. During the attack, 13 of the gunmen were killed. On Sept. 16, government forces killed General Nazarzoda along with 11 of his men.

Nazarzoda was the leader of an Islamic rebel group during the 5-year civil war in Tajikistan, which ended in 1997 when rebel leaders were incorporated...

CONTINUE READING »

Members of the Presidential Guard loyal to ousted president Blaise Compaoré briefly held the acting president and prime minister of Burkina Faso hostage on Sept. 17 after the interim government suggested that the Guard be disbanded and that allies of the former president be restricted from running for office in the October elections. The Guard killed at least 10 civilians in the capital, Ouagadougou, who were protesting the Presidential Guards’ attempted coup.

The Guard ended the coup...

CONTINUE READING »

Palestinian protesters entered Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and the al-Aqsa Mosque on Sept. 13 due to concerns among Palestinians that Israeli police might force open the al-Aqsa Mosque to Jewish worshipers during Rosh Hashanah (one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar). 

Palestinians armed with rocks and fire-bombs barricaded themselves in the mosque and used them against Israeli police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Both Palestinian aid organizations and Israeli...

CONTINUE READING »

As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 39 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, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey,...

CONTINUE READING »

Of the large numbers of migrants overwhelming many European countries in 2015, many are escaping wars and violence in Africa and the Middle East. The greatest numbers of asylum seekers are fleeing from Syria, but many are emigrating from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Nigeria and Somalia.

In 2015, Frontex, the European Union’s border service, detected more than 340,000 migrants crossing into Europe through August, with many more undetected. Within that same period in 2014, the number was...

CONTINUE READING »