Timeline 2015 October - December Return to home2015 Oct 1,
The Pentagon launched talks with the Russian military to discuss
ways to avoid mishaps in Syria between planes from the US-led
coalition and Moscow.
2015 Oct 1, In Oregon Chris
Harper Mercer (26), armed with multiple guns, walked into a morning
writing class at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg and opened
fire. 9 people were killed and seven others wounded. Mercer killed
himself in a shootout with police.
(AP, 10/2/15)(SSFC, 10/4/15, p.A16)
2015 Oct 1, In Virginia Alfredo
Prieto (49), a twice-condemned serial killer, was executed by lethal
injection with drugs received from Texas.
(SFC, 10/2/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 1, Experian said in
its statement that on September 15 it "discovered an unauthorized
party accessed T-Mobile data housed in an Experian server."
T-Mobile's chief executive expressed outrage over a breach at a
credit monitoring service that exposed private data from 15 million
customers of the mobile carrier.
2015 Oct 1, Afghan troops
recaptured the center of the strategic northern city of Kunduz amid
fierce clashes with Taliban militants, three days after losing the
provincial capital in a humbling defeat for Kabul and its US allies.
150 Taliban were reported killed and 90 wounded in the overnight
offensive. The insurgents looted banks and seized military equipment
during their three-day occupation.
2015 Oct 1, Hurricane Joaquin
ripped off roofs, uprooted trees and unleashed heavy flooding as the
Category 4 storm hurled torrents of rain across the eastern and
central Bahamas. The El Faro cargo ship went missing with 33 people
aboard. On Oct 5 the Coast Guard said the US cargo ship had sunk and
one body was found.
(AP, 10/2/15)(SFC, 10/3/15, p.A2)(AP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 1, Bulgaria said it
has told the European Commission that it will ban growing crops with
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under a rule that allows
European Union countries to opt out of GMO cultivation.
2015 Oct 1, German police said
some 200 Syrian and Afghan refugees clashed in a crowded refugee
center in Hamburg overnight, leaving four people injured in the
third such riot this week.
2015 Oct 1, In Guatemala a
massive landslide killed at least 253 people with 374 remained
missing in Santa Catarina Pinula.
(Reuters, 10/3/15)(Reuters, 10/4/15)(AP, 10/9/15)
2015 Oct 1, India, the world's
third-largest carbon polluter, filed its climate action plan to the
Germany-based UN climate secretariat.
2015 Oct 1, Iran said its death
toll from the Saudi hajj disaster has nearly doubled to 464 pilgrims
2015 Oct 1, In Iraq and Syria
the US-led coalition conducted 28 air strikes on Islamic State
2015 Oct 1, Israel-based Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries said it will acquire Mexican company
Representaciones e Investigaciones Medicas (Rimsa) for $2.3 billion
to strengthen its presence in the second-largest market in Latin
2015 Oct 1, In the West Bank a
drive-by shooting by suspected Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish
settler couple driving home with their children near the Palestinian
village of Beit Furik.
2015 Oct 1, Italy said it has
told the European Commission that it will ban growing crops with
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under a rule that allows
European Union countries to opt out of GMO cultivation.
2015 Oct 1, The foreign
minister and the people of the Marshall Islands were honored for
taking legal action against the nuclear powers for failing to honor
disarmament obligations. Tony de Brum and the people of the Pacific
island group shared the honorary portion of the 2015 Right
Livelihood Award, sometimes referred to as the "alternative Nobel."
This year's 3-million-kronor ($358,500) cash award was shared by
Canada's Sheila Watt-Cloutier, for her supports to Inuit causes;
Uganda's Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, for her struggle for sexual
minorities' rights; and Italian surgeon Gino Strada, for providing
medical assistance to victims of war.
2015 Oct 1, In southeastern
Niger an alleged Boko Haram attack on a village killed two of the
2015 Oct 1, In northeastern
Nigeria 4 suicide bombers killed at least 10 people in Maiduguri
late today. The army blamed Islamic extremists for the attack and
for trying to poison water sources. In a separate incident five
people were killed earlier in the day by suspected Boko Haram
militants in Kirchinga.
2015 Oct 1, Pakistan's military
said its air force has carried out "precise" airstrikes targeting
the Taliban in the North Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan
border, killing 25 militants.
2015 Oct 1, In the southern
Philippines a powerful bomb hidden in a parked motorcycle taxi
exploded and hit the passing convoy of a vice mayor, killing 4
people and wounding at least six others in Basilan province.
2015 Oct 1, The Polish
government was reported to have organized the nation's first
shopping receipt lottery aimed at boosting budget income from sales
taxes. Deputy Finance Minister Izabela Leszczyna said the lottery is
intended to encourage shoppers to ask for receipts from sellers,
leading to less evasion on sales tax.
2015 Oct 1, Russia launched its
Progress M-29M cargo spacecraft from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to the
Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 10/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 1, In Saudi Arabia
hundreds of people were still unaccounted, a week after a hajj
stampede killed at least 769 people. A tally of death tolls from 23
countries, mostly from official sources, put the number at more than
2015 Oct 1, In South Africa
King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo of Nelson Mandela's Thembu ethnic group
was sentenced to 12 years in jail for torching homes, beating people
and kidnapping a family in a supposed attempt to discipline them.
The Supreme Court of Appeal was ruling on an appeal by Dalindyebo
against his 2009 conviction and sentencing to a 15-year jail term.
2015 Oct 1, Sri Lanka said it
would heed a UN resolution urging it to establish a credible
judicial process, including foreign judges and prosecutors, to
investigate alleged war crimes during its conflict with Tamil rebels
that ended in 2009.
2015 Oct 1, In Switzerland
American adventurer Johnny Strange (23) died in a wing-suit crash in
(SFC, 10/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 1, Two Lebanese
sources said hundreds of Iranian troops had reached Syria in the
past 10 days with weapons to mount a major ground offensive. Russian
jets struck targets near the cities of Hama and Homs in western
Syria on the second day of their surprise air campaign. The area
where it struck is held by a rival insurgent alliance, which unlike
Islamic State is supported by US allies including Arab states and
2015 Oct 1, In Turkey prominent
anti-government journalist Ahmet Hakan was attacked early today
outside his home in Istanbul, raising fears over the security of
media figures who taken a critical line against President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. Police reportedly detained all four suspects after a
2015 Oct 1, In Turkey 12 people
were killed in Ankara when a bus ploughed into commuters waiting at
a bus stop.
2015 Oct 1, The UN refugee
agency said it expects 700,000 migrants and refugees to reach Europe
via the Mediterranean this year and projected at least the same
amount again in 2016.
2015 Oct 1, Loyalist Yemeni
troops and Gulf Arab forces seized the Bab al-Mandab Strait
connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden from Houthi fighters.
2015 Oct 2, A report released
by the Alaska Department of Labor showed that about 7,500 more
people moved out of the state than arrived in fiscal year 2014.
2015 Oct 2, Oklahoma’s highest
criminal court agreed to halt all executions after the state’s
prison system received the wrong drug for a lethal injection this
(SFC, 10/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 2, In eastern
Afghanistan a US Air Force C-130J military transport plane crashed
overnight at Jalalabad air field, killing 6 American airmen and 5
civilians on the aircraft.
2015 Oct 2, In Australia an
Iran-born teenager (15) of Iraqi-Kurdish background shot a New South
Wales police finance worker with a handgun at close range as the man
left work in the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The teen then
fired at responding officers, who shot and killed him.
2015 Oct 2, Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff announced a major government reshuffle, axing eight
ministries in a cost-cutting measure that analysts say also aims to
protect the embattled leader from impeachment threats.
2015 Oct 2, Colombia’s
President Juan Manuel Santos congratulated his armed forces for
killing cocaine warlord Victor Navarro (36), aka Megateo, for whom
the US had been offering a $5 million bounty. Megateo had been first
reported killed in August.
(AP, 10/2/15)(AFP, 10/2/15)
2015 Oct 2, The head of Egypt's
Cairo University said a recent decision to ban female staff from
wearing the full face veil aims to put an end to student complaints
of "poor communication" in class.
2015 Oct 2, In eastern
Indonesia a passenger plane carrying 10 people was reported missing
on a domestic flight. The DHC-6 Twin Otter plane lost contact 11
minutes after taking off in good weather from Masamba in South
Sulawesi province. On October 5 wreckage of the plane was reported
(AP, 10/2/15)(AP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 2, The leaders of
France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine met in Paris to consolidate a
fragile peace in Ukraine. The Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said monitors have spotted a Russian
mobile TOS-1 'Buratino' weapons system in rebel-held Ukraine this
(AFP, 10/2/15)(Reuters, 10/2/15)
2015 Oct 2, Iran's state TV is
reported that Royal Dutch Shell and France's Total will be the first
foreign companies to be allowed to operate gasoline stations inside
2015 Oct 2, In Iraq and Syria
the US-led coalition targeted Islamic State insurgents in 27 air
2015 Oct 2, In Ireland Brian
Friel (86), Tony Award-winning playwright, died. He created "Dancing
at Lughnasa" (1990) and more than 30 other plays.
(AP, 10/2/15)(Econ, 10/17/15, p.98)
2015 Oct 2, In Mexico masked
protesters clashed with riot police in Mexico City after thousands
of people marched to commemorate the 47th anniversary of a student
2015 Oct 2, In Nigeria multiple
bombs detonated in two satellite towns of Abuja, killing at least 18
2015 Oct 2, Nigeria's former
oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was arrested in London. She was
minister from 2010 until May 2015 under former president Goodluck
Jonathan The National Crime Agency (NCA) said its International
Corruption Unit had arrested five people across London on suspicion
of bribery and corruption offences.
2015 Oct 2, Pakistan took its
long-running dispute with neighboring India to the UN as the
country's UN Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi presented three dossiers to
Sec.-Gen. Ban Ki-moon's office alleging Indian involvement in
fomenting unrest in Pakistan.
2015 Oct 2, Portugal’s Justice
Ministry approved the first three of more than 200 applications it
has received so far granting citizenship rights to the descendants
of Jews it persecuted five centuries ago.
2015 Oct 2, Russia bombed Syria
for a third day, mainly hitting areas held by rival insurgent groups
rather than the Islamic State fighters it said it was targeting. The
US-led coalition called on the Russians to halt strikes on targets
other than Islamic State. Russia said it had bombed the Islamic
State stronghold of Raqa for the first time.
(Reuters, 10/2/15)(AFP, 10/2/15)
2015 Oct 2, Spain granted
citizenship to 4,302 people whose Jewish ancestors fled after being
told in 1492 to convert to Catholicism or go into exile ahead of the
2015 Oct 2, Spain's National
Court said it has convicted and sentenced 11 members of a
recruitment network that sent militants to carry out attacks for
al-Qaida-linked groups fighting in Syria. The cell's leaders, Karim
Abdesalam Mohamed and Ismail Abdelaftif were sentenced to 12 years
while the rest each received 10-year sentences.
2015 Oct 2, In Syria Islamic
State attacked government-held areas in the eastern city of Deir
al-Zor and an air base south of the city.
2015 Oct 2, Turkish security
forces killed more than 10 suspected Kurdish militants amid
intensifying clashes in the country's southeast, while 44 people
were arrested in Istanbul on suspicion of links with the rebels.
Suspected militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) abducted
two Turkish soldiers on a highway between the Tunceli and Erzincan
(Reuters, 10/2/15)(AFP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 2, The UN backed a
Saudi-led resolution to support Yemen in setting up a national
inquiry into human rights violations.
2015 Oct 3, California’s Gov.
Jerry Brown signed legislation intended to reduce racial profiling
by police officers.
(SSFC, 10/4/15, p.A14)
2015 Oct 3, In San Francisco
Audrey Carey (23), a Canadian backpaker, was found dead in Golden
Gate Park. She had suffered trauma to her body and was fatally shot.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.D2)
2015 Oct 3, In Afghanistan a US
airstrike hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in the city
of Kunduz, killing at least 22 people in what the US military called
possible "collateral damage" in the battle to oust Taliban
insurgents. On Oct 25 Doctors Without Borders raised the death toll
to 30. On Nov 23 Gen. John Campbell called the airstrike a tragic
mistake and said several service members have been suspended from
duty following an internal investigation. On March 22, 2016, US Army
Gen. John Nicholson, the new commander of US and NATO forces in
Afghanistan, apologized to the people of Kunduz for the deadly
attack that killed 42 people.
(Reuters, 10/3/15)(AP, 10/4/15)(AFP,
10/2515)(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 3, In Bangladesh Kunio
Hoshi (65), a Japanese citizen born in Bangladesh, was attacked by
unidentified assailants in Kownia in Rangpur district. The Islamic
State claimed responsibility. Police detained four people in
connection with the shooting. On Dec 7 Masud Rana, believed to be a
member of Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, confessed that he fatally
shot the Japanese agriculture researcher. On August 8, 2016 a court
issued warrants for the arrest of four more suspected members of a
banned group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
(Reuters, 10/3/15)(AP, 12/8/15)(Reuters, 8/7/16)
2015 Oct 3, In Burundi at least
a dozen civilians were killed in clashes between police and
anti-government protesters in Bujumbura.
2015 Oct 3, In Egypt 2 were
shot dead in the bastion of the Islamic State group in the Sinai
2015 Oct 3, In Iraq suicide car
bomb attacks targeting two mainly Shi'ite Muslim districts of
Baghdad killed at least 18 people.
2015 Oct 3, In Iraq and Syria
the United States and its allies carried out 16 air strikes against
Islamic State militants.
2015 Oct 3, Mali's government
said it exchanged 30 separatist rebels last week for the release of
16 soldiers, a move that shows progress after violence in August
threatened to disrupt a peace accord.
2015 Oct 3, Ten Palestinians
were wounded by Israeli fire in the West Bank during a raid by
troops hunting the murderers of a Jewish settler couple. A senior
Hamas official called on Palestinians to take up arms to "defend"
the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem after a rise in Jewish
visitors to the flashpoint site.
2015 Oct 3, Russian jets hit
Islamic State targets and other rebel groups in Syria, on a fourth
day of air strikes by Moscow in support of President Bashar al-Assad
which have dramatically escalated foreign intervention in Syria.
Russia said its air strikes have sown "panic", forcing some 600
"militants" to abandon their positions and head to Europe.
(Reuters, 10/3/15)(AFP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 3, In South Africa
hundreds of people demonstrated in Johannesburg in defense of
rhinos, elephants and lions against poaching and to demand
authorities take more radical action.
2015 Oct 3, South Sudanese
rebels said government troops had attacked their positions over the
last three days, casting further doubt on a fragile peace agreement
in the world's youngest country. A military official said 52
soldiers and rebels have been killed over the last week in fighting
in the contested state of Unity.
(Reuters, 10/3/15)(AP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 3, Spanish police said
eight garges in Madrid were uinder investigation for charging
custormers up to $225 to remove diesel particulate filters. The
shops allegedly provided custormers with mechanical and software
services to to cheat emissions checks.
(SSFC, 10/4/15, p.A3)
2015 Oct 3, In Ukraine warring
sides began withdrawing tanks and smaller weapons from a buffer zone
in the war-torn east.
2015 Oct 3, Citizens of the
United Arab Emirates went to polls to fill the elected seats on a
government advisory body. Despite a broadening of the franchise some
citizens were still denied the vote.
2015 Oct 3, The Vatican
dismissed a gay priest from his Holy See job on the eve of a major
Church meeting for a highly public coming out that challenged the
Roman Catholic teaching that homosexual acts are a sin. Monsignor
Krzysztof Charamsa, a Polish theologian, had worked at the
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's doctrinal
arm, since 2003.
2015 Oct 4, In South Carolina
floodwaters swamped Columbia after a rainstorm dumped over a foot of
rain overnight. By October 7 the number of weather-related deaths in
the Carolinas rose to at least 17.
(SFC, 10/5/15, p.A7)(SFC, 10/7/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 4, In Britain tens of
thousands of anti-austerity protesters rallied as PM David Cameron's
governing Conservative Party opened its annual conference in
2015 Oct 4, In China Typhoon
Mujigae made landfall near Zhanjiang, Guangdong province. It left a
trail of destruction and flooding and prompting authorities to issue
their highest "red alert" emergency response. At least 9 people were
(Reuters, 10/4/15)(AP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 4, Dubai ruler Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched a new foundation to
consolidate a range of existing charitable and human development
initiatives that aims to support more than $270 million in projects
2015 Oct 4, The European
Commission said nineteen EU member states have requested opt-outs
for all or part of their territory from cultivation of a Monsanto
genetically-modified crop, which is authorized to be grown in the
2015 Oct 4, French authorities
said violent storms and flooding along the chic French Riviera
overnight have killed at least 16 people and left another five
2015 Oct 4, In Guatemala Juan
Carlos Monzon Rojas, the alleged leader of a customs corruption
scandal that has rocked the government, turned himself into
2015 Oct 4, The US-led
coalition targeted Islamic State with 13 airstrikes in Iraq and
eight in Syria.
2015 Oct 4, Israel barred
Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City as tensions mounted following
attacks that killed 2 Israelis and wounded a child. The Palestinian
Red Crescent said clashes with Israeli security forces and Jewish
settlers have left 77 Palestinians wounded from both live rounds and
rubber bullets over the past 24 hours. Israeli troops shot dead an
18-year-old Palestinian during clashes in Tulkarem in the West Bank.
(AFP, 10/4/15)(AFP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 4, Kyrgyzstan went to
the polls for a hotly-contested parliamentary vote.
2015 Oct 4, Malaysian
authorities ordered most of the country's schools shut for two days
because of possible health risks posed by the thick haze from
Indonesian forest fires.
2015 Oct 4, Morocco and Spain
arrested 10 people suspected of recruiting fighters for Islamic
State in Syria and Iraq.
2015 Oct 4, Thousands of
Myanmar's nationalist monks and their supporters prayed, clapped and
held speeches at a large rally in Yangon, in a show of growing clout
of radical Buddhists ahead of a Nov. 8 election.
2015 Oct 4, In Niger suspected
Boko Haram militants killed 3 civilians and a soldier in a double
suicide attack in the southeastern region of Diffa.
2015 Oct 4, The Pakistani
Taliban released a video showing the hanging of Bashir Ahmad Khan, a
military intelligence officer, in retaliation for recent executions
of militants by Pakistan.
2015 Oct 4, Portugal voted in
an election seen as a test of four years of austerity. PM Pedro
Passos Coelho’s center-right coalition won the election but lost its
(AFP, 10/4/15)(AP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 4, In western Syria
air strikes by suspected Russian jets hit targets around the town of
Talbiseh. One resident said at least 5 bodies had been recovered
from the western part of the town. Russian planes also struck in
Homs and Hama provinces.
2015 Oct 4, Syrian activists
said that Islamic State militants have destroyed the Arch of
Triumph, a nearly 2,000-year-old arch in the ancient city of
2015 Oct 4, Turkish warplanes
struck Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and
eastern Turkey overnight, in a new air operation against the
2015 Oct 4, Pope Francis
reaffirmed Catholic opposition to gay marriage as he opened a
three-week gathering of bishops.
2015 Oct 4, Yemeni security
officials said fierce battles were ongoing between pro-government
fighters clashing with Shiite Houthi rebels and allied military
units along Yemen's Red Sea coast. Medical officials in nearby Taiz
said at least 14 dead bodies from Houthi forces arrived from the
2015 Oct 5, Pres. Obama
declared new marine sanctuaries off of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan and
the tidal waters of Maryland.
(SFC, 10/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 5, The Justice
Department and five US states finalized a settlement of more than
$20 billion arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico. An agreement was first announced in July.
2015 Oct 5, California’s Gov.
Jerry Brown signed a bill giving the state’s terminally ill people
the right to be prescribed a lethal dose of drugs.
(SFC, 10/6/15, p.A1)
2015 Oct 5, In Marin County,
Ca., Steve Carter (67), tantric massage therapist, was shot and
killed while hiking in the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve northwest
of Fairfax. On October 7 police in Portland, Oregon, arrested
Morrison Haze Lampley (23), Sean Michael Angold (24) and Lila Scott
Allgood (18) after they tracked the victim’s car using GPS
technology. The trio were later linked to the death of Canadian
backpacker Audrey Carey (23), whose body was found on Oct 3 in San
Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 10/8/15, p.A6)(SFC, 10/15/15, p.D2)
2015 Oct 5, Grace Lee Boggs
(100), long-time human rights activist, died in Detroit, Michigan.
Her books included “Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth
Century" (1974), co-written with her husband, and her memoir “Living
for Change" (1998).
(SFC, 10/7/15, p.D8)
2015 Oct 5, Twelve Pacific rim
countries sealed the deal on creating the world's largest free trade
area (TPP), delivering President Barack Obama a major policy
triumph. The Trans-Pacific Partnership included Australia, Brunei,
Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru,
Singapore, the US and Vietnam.
2015 Oct 5, In Bangladesh
Baptist pastor Luke Sarker had his throat slashed in the town of
Iswardi. On Oct 12 police said they had arrested five members of the
outlawed Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) group for the
2015 Oct 5, Belarusian
independent media outlets accused the government of blocking their
websites less than a week before presidential elections.
2015 Oct 5, Britain’s
Chancellor George Osborne set out ambitious plans to devolve power
to local councils and upgrade the country’s infrastructure.
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.57)
2015 Oct 5, Chile said that it
is protecting more than 200,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean
near Easter Island from commercial fishing and oil and gas
(SFC, 10/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 5, In Congo DRC 5
civilians were reportedly killed in a UN helicopter attack against
rebel fighters. The MONUSCO raids were targeted at the Nduma Defense
of Congo group, blamed for setting villages on fire in the region in
2015 Oct 5, In Congo DRC
poachers killed 3 rangers and one military colonel who were part of
a 10-man patrol that tracked the satellite collar of a killed
elephant to the poacher’s camp in Garamba National Park. The
anti-poaching patrol was outnumbered and forced to disperse.
(SFC, 10/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 5, Air France
executives fled an angry mob after having their shirts ripped off by
striking workers. Seven people were hurt, including a security guard
who was knocked unconscious. The company has proposed job cuts,
believed to involve 300 pilots, 900 air hostesses and stewards, and
1,700 ground staff.
2015 Oct 5, Ghana's judicial
service said seven high court judges have been suspended following
corruption allegations by a journalist.
2015 Oct 5, Indian PM Narendra
Modi said Germany will provide India more than 2 billion euros
($2.25 billion) for developing a clean energy corridor and solar
projects following talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
2015 Oct 5, In Iraq and Syria
the United States and its allies carried out 24 air strikes on
Islamic State targets.
2015 Oct 5, In Kashmir 4 Indian
army soldiers and three suspected rebels were killed in separate
clashes in the disputed Himalayan region.
2015 Oct 5, The Red Crescent
said the bodies of 85 migrants have been found washed up on the
coast of Libya, a major departure point for the sea crossing to
2015 Oct 5, Irish-born William
Campbell (85) and Japan's Satoshi Omura (80) won half of the Nobel
Prize for Medicine for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which
has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river
blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis. China's Tu
Youyou (84) was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering
artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths.
2015 Oct 5, Poland's PM Ewa
Kopacz said she does not consider nuclear energy a priority and is
instead focused on strengthening the coal mining industry.
2015 Oct 5, In Portugal Sabrina
De Sousa, a former CIA operative convicted of the kidnapping of an
Egyptian cleric as part of the extraordinary renditions program, was
detained and awaited a decision on whether she will be turned over
to Italy to serve a six-year sentence. De Sousa was among 26
Americans, mostly CIA agents, convicted in absentia over the of
kidnapping of Milan cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu
Omar, in broad daylight from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003.
2015 Oct 5, In an online
statement dozens of Islamist Saudi Arabian clerics called on Arab
and Muslim countries to "give all moral, material, political and
military" support to what they term a jihad, or holy war, against
Syria's government and its Iranian and Russian backers.
2015 Oct 5, In Sweden Henning
Mankell (67), internationally renowned crime writer, died in
Goteborg. His books about the gloomy, soul-searching police
inspector Kurt Wallander enticed readers around the world. His work
included some 50 novels and numerous plays.
2015 Oct 5, More than 40 Syrian
insurgent groups vowed to attack Russian forces in retaliation for
Moscow's air campaign in a show of unity among the usually
fragmented rebels against what they called the "occupiers" of Syria.
2015 Oct 5, In Tanzania a group
of around 20 miners were in a pit when a shaft they were working on
collapsed. 14 escaped as the shaft collapsed leaving six trapped.
One man died over the 41 days. Five men were rescued on Nov 15.
2015 Oct 5, UNESCO's
director-general condemned the destruction of the Arch of Triumph in
the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra by Islamic State jihadists,
saying "extremists are terrified by history and culture".
2015 Oct 6, US authorities
charged John Ashe, a former president of the UN General Assembly,
billionaire Macau real estate developer Ng Lap Seng (68) and four
others, for engaging in a wide-ranging corruption scheme. John Ashe,
the UN ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda, was the UN president in
2015 Oct 6, California Gov.
Jerry Brown singed SB358, a bill known as the Fair Pay Act. It
closed loopholes in existing antidiscrimination statutes and barred
employers from paying women less than men when they do substantially
(SFC, 10/7/15, p.A1)
2015 Oct 6, Kevin Corcoran
(1949), Disney child actor, died in Burbank. He played Moochie in
the “Spin and Marty" seriels on the “Mickey Mouse Club" and Arliss
Coates in the move “Old Yeller" (1957).
(SFC, 10/9/15, p.D2)
2015 Oct 6, Whitman McGowan
(64), SF poet, died of brain cancer.
(SSFC, 10/11/15, p.C9)
2015 Oct 6, In Kentucky Spc.
Kevin J. Rodriguez was shot and killed during a blank-firing
training exercise at Fort Campbell.
(SFC, 7/21/16, p.A6)
2015 Oct 6, Texas executed
convicted killer Juan Martin Garcia (35) for the 1998 shooting and
robbery of Hugo Solano, a Christian missionary who had just moved
with his family from Mexico. The robbery netted $8.
(SFC, 10/7/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 6, The Nobel Prize in
physics was awarded to Japanese researcher Takaaki Kajita and
Canadian Arthur McDonald for discovering that tiny particles called
neutrinos change identities as they whiz through the universe,
proving that they have mass.
2015 Oct 6, A strain of Shiga
toxin-producing E. coli, linked to Costco chicken salads, began
sickening 19 people in seven US states. It was believed to be more
life-threatening than a later E. coli outbreak at northwestern
(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A10)
2015 Oct 6, In Afghanistan
acting Kunduz Gov. Hamdullah Danishi said Taliban fighters on
motorbikes have carried out hit-and-run attacks on Afghan forces
trying to clear Kunduz city of insurgents. In Kabul at least 3
Taliban fighters were killed and seven policemen wounded in a
10-hour gun battle that began a day earlier.
2015 Oct 6, Belarussian
President Alexander Lukashenko said his country did not need a
Russian military base.
2015 Oct 6, In Chad Boko Haram
Islamists attacked government soldiers, killing 11 and wounding 13.
The army said 37 Boko Haram fighters died in the fighting.
(AP, 10/6/15) (SFC, 10/8/15,
2015 Oct 6, Human Rights Watch
said top security and ruling party officials in the Democratic
Republic of Congo appear to have "hired thugs" to attack peaceful
demonstrators last month in Kinshasa.
2015 Oct 6, Europe's top court
ruled that data stored on US servers is potentially unsafe because
of government spying, a blow to companies such as Facebook that
might need to change the way they handle private data from the
region. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) struck down the
“safe-harbor" privacy pact between the European Union and America.
It was originally signed in 2000 to bridge cultural and political
differences regarding online privacy.
(AP, 10/6/15)(Econ, 10/10/15, p.61)
2015 Oct 6, The European
Union's 28 finance ministers agreed to share details of tax deals
their countries reach with big multinational companies. The rule
would be enacted across the 28 member states by the start of 2017.
2015 Oct 6, Arpad Goncz (93),
Hungary's first democratically-elected president (1990-2000 and
widely-respected former dissident, died.
2015 Oct 6, In Iraq and Syria
the United States and its allies staged 23 air strikes on Islamic
State forces in the latest daily round of attacks on the militant
2015 Oct 6, Israel demolished
the houses of two Palestinians involved in attacks last year,
reverting to a controversial measure it claims is a deterrent.
2015 Oct 6, Myanmar’s army
began clashing with the Shan State Army-North, one of the ethnic
armed groups that did not sign an Oct 15 ceasefire deal. 37 clashes
took place b October 19 with 7 SSA-N members killed. The army
suffered an unspecified number of casualties.
2015 Oct 6, In Myanmar Bao
Zhuoxuan (16), also known as Bao Mengmeng, and two men helping him
were taken away by local police from a guest house in a border town.
The son of a rights lawyer detained in China's sweeping crackdown on
civil society disappeared after trying to escape to the United
States. Zhuoxuan was later reported to be under 24-hour police
surveillance at his grandparents' house in Inner Mongolia.
(AP, 10/10/15)(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 6, Nigeria reported
the arrest of Atlantic Energy chairman Olajide Omokore on corruption
and money laundering charges, as part of a widening graft
investigation in Africa's biggest petroleum producer that has also
netted former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.
2015 Oct 6, The Philippine
Coast Guard spotted a body, debris and an oil slick in the high seas
about 400 km west of Laoag. The yacht Europa carrying two Britons,
an American, a Canadian and a Filipino disappeared while sailing in
waters that were lashed by a storm last week.
2015 Oct 6, Russian strikes in
Syria targeted the main weapons depots of Liwa Suqour al-Jabal,
US-trained rebel group, in western Aleppo province and completely
2015 Oct 6, A Spanish judge
withdrew the passport of former International Monetary Fund head
Rodrigo Rato, who is under investigation for tax evasion, money
laundering and concealing assets.
2015 Oct 6, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said Russian strikes at Palmyra killed
15 Islamic State fighters and destroyed 20 vehicles and three
weapons depots. Another 4 Islamic State fighters were reported
killed near Raqqa. The Observatory said Russian jets carried out at
least 34 air strikes in the last 24 hours. Russia’s defense ministry
dismissed reports that its planes had launched air strikes against
2015 Oct 6, The UN refugee
agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM)
said more than 114,000 people have fled war-torn Yemen, and the
figure could reach at least 200,000 by the end of 2016.
2015 Oct 6, In Yemen
unidentified assailants fired missiles at an Aden hotel housing
Yemeni officials and at a Gulf military base in Aden. An unknown
number of people were killed or injured in the attack. The Islamic
State in Yemen claimed coordinated suicide bombings targeting the
Yemeni government and the Arab military coalition in the southern
city of Aden that killed 15 Arab and Yemeni troops.
2015 Oct 6, In Yemen an evening
suicide bombing outside a mosque in the insurgent-held capital of
Sanaa killed 7 people.
2015 Oct 7, The US Treasury
Dept. announced that former Honduras VP Jaime Rosenthal, his son
Yani and nephew Yankel had been designated under the Kingpin Act. US
prosecutors accused them of laundering money for Central American
(SFC, 1/4/16, p.A2)
2015 Oct 7, In Australia four
people were arrested over the terror-linked murder of a police
employee after coordinated raids by more than 200 officers on
properties across Sydney.
2015 Oct 7, Belgian trade
unions mobilized about 100,000 workers for the second time in a year
to protest the free-market regulations and austerity measures that
the center-right government has been pushing through during its
first year in office.
2015 Oct 7, A British court
jailed former Bishop Peter Ball (83) for 32 months after he pleaded
guilty to indecently assaulting teenagers in a case that has
prompted accusations of a cover-up. Eighteen victims said they had
been targeted by Ball at his home in Litlington, East Sussex.
2015 Oct 7, A Chinese Navy
destroyer, a Chinese frigate and a Chinese supply vessel sailed into
Poland's navy port of Gdynia on the first such visit ever.
2015 Oct 7, Czech police said
they have seized an unusually large amount of powerful illegal
explosives and further dangerous substances and arrested four people
who allegedly wanted to sell them on the black market.
2015 Oct 7, In Estonia a small,
anti-immigrant opposition party called for a referendum to make sure
the tiny Baltic country doesn't increase the number of refugees
(550) it has agreed to take in.
2015 Oct 7, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir suspected rebels gunned down police
sub-inspector Mohammed Altaf, known for his successful
2015 Oct 7, Iran’s Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei banned any further negotiations with America.
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.45)
2015 Oct 7, Iraqi officials
said government forces have retaken several areas north and west of
Ramadi as efforts to close in on the Anbar provincial capital seized
by jihadists in May intensified.
2015 Oct 7, Kurds said Islamic
State fighters fired mortar rounds containing mustard agent at
peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq during clashes in August.
2015 Oct 7, Mexican authorities
in Toluca arrested drug capo Jesus Areli Navarrete Castelan wanted
by the United States on cocaine trafficking allegations.
2015 Oct 7, In northeastern
Nigeria at least 40 people were killed in two separate suicide bomb
attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in Damaturu, Yobe state
and in Gubio town, Borno state. An overnight attack at a military
camp in Yobe state was repulsed with at least 100 insurgents
(AFP, 10/7/15)(SFC, 10/8/15,
2015 Oct 7, A Palestinian woman
(18) stabbed an Israeli near a contested shrine in Jerusalem, and
was then shot and wounded by the injured man. A suspected
Palestinian militant stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier,
snatched his gun and was then shot dead by special forces. PM
Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a visit to Germany because of the
precarious security situation. Men thought to be undercover Israeli
policemen who had infiltrated a group of Palestinian stone throwers
shot and wounded three of them, one seriously, in the West Bank.
2015 Oct 7, Russia and Syria
carried out what appeared to be the first major coordinated assaults
on Syrian insurgents. Moscow said its warships fired 26 missiles at
them from the Caspian Sea, a sign of its new military reach. In Hama
province at least 13 regime forces were killed in clashes that also
killed 11 rebel fighters.
(AP, 10/7/15) (Reuters,
2015 Oct 7, In Somalia Islamic
extremist rebels killed two men including the president's nephew in
a drive-by shooting in Mogadishu.
2015 Oct 7, Sweden's Tomas
Lindahl, Paul Modrich of the United States and Aziz Sancar, a
Turkish-American, won the 2015 Nobel Chemistry Prize for work on how
cells repair damaged DNA.
2015 Oct 7, In Tanzania Yang
Feng Clan (66), a Chinese woman, was charged in Dar es Salaam
alongside two Tanzanians with smuggling 1.9 tons of ivory between
Jan. 1, 2000 and May 22, 2014.
2015 Oct 7, Turkish officials
said police have seized material allegedly used by Islamic State
militants to produce coins for the group and arrested six foreign
nationals in Gaziantep city.
2015 Oct 7, Yemen's Houthi
group and the party of the former president have accepted a peace
plan brokered by the United Nations in talks in Oman, paving the way
for resuming negotiations to end months of conflict in the country.
2015 Oct 7, In Yemen a
suspected Saudi-led air strike killed at least 28 people at a
wedding in the rebel-held town of Sanban, Dhamar province. Abdullah
al-Sanabani (15), a child prodigy who once dreamed of leading a
Yemeni space program, faced the loss of his leg and fingers
following the air strike which left him badly burned.
(AFP, 10/8/15)(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 7, A Zimbabwean
wildlife official said five people are in police custody and being
questioned over the killing of 11 elephants poisoned by cyanide at
Hwange National Park in the west of the country.
2015 Oct 8, The California
Coastal Commission approved a $100 million expansion of the tanks at
Sea World in San Diego used to hold killer whales, but it banned
breeding of the captive orcas that would live in them.
(SFC, 10/10/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 8, SF Bay Area
researchers released promising results that showed the drug
ocrelizumab to be effective in reducing symptoms for progressive
(SFC, 10/9/15, p.A1)
2015 Oct 8, In Louisiana at
least 3 people were killed and two were seriously injured in an
explosion at a natural gas plant in Gibson.
2015 Oct 8, Paul Prudhomme
(75), king of Cajun cooking, died in New Orleans.
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.86)
2015 Oct 8, In Missouri a
series of church fires began in the St. Louis area. Over the next
two weeks six area churches were set on fire.
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.A11)
2015 Oct 8, Belarusian writer
Svetlana Alexievich (b.1948) won the Nobel Prize in literature for
works that chronicled the great tragedies of the Soviet Union and
those that followed in the wake of its 1991 collapse. Her work
included "Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War"
(1989), “Enchanted with Death" (1993) and "Voices from Chernobyl:
Chronicle of the Future" (1997).
2015 Oct 8, Burkina Faso
authorities arrested Achille Tapsoba, the deputy of deposed leader
Blaise Compaore's party, as part of a probe into a failed bid to
overthrow the interim government.
2015 Oct 8, Colombia's Supreme
Court ordered a Roman Catholic diocese to pay $220,000 to the
families of two children molested by a priest. It would be the first
time the church has paid a financial penalty in Colombia for abuse
committed by one of its priests. Father Luis Enrique Duque was
serving time for abusing two boys aged 7 and 8 in 2007 in a town
northwest of Bogota.
2015 Oct 8, In the Czech Rep. a
Prague court convicted Qatari royal family member Hamad bin Abdallah
bin Thani Al Thani of sexually abusing minors and sentenced him to
11 months and eight days in prison. Czech authorities reopened the
trial in 2009 after Qatar failed to prosecute him and issued an
international arrest warrant for him in 2011.
2015 Oct 8, European Union
governments agreed to step up deportations of illegal immigrants and
discussed creating a border guard force among measures to cope with
a surge in refugees from Syria's civil war.
2015 Oct 8, In France trash
piled up on Paris streets because of a garbage collectors' strike.
Workers occupied a city building amid frustration over spending cuts
across the French economy.
2015 Oct 8, In Iraq 27 people
were killed when mortars landed in the provincial capital of Baquba.
2015 Oct 8, In Iraq protesters
hurled stones and scuffled with riot police in the second largest
city in the Kurdish north, in the most intense show of discontent
since an economic crisis hit the region. The economic crisis began
in early 2014 when Baghdad slashed funds to the region, and has been
exacerbated by the conflict with Islamic State and a drop in oil
prices that has pushed the region to the verge of bankruptcy.
2015 Oct 8, In Israel an Arab
attacker stabbed four Israelis with a screwdriver before a soldier
shot and killed him amid fresh violence that prompted PM Netanyahu
to bar Cabinet ministers and lawmakers from the Al-Aqsa mosque, a
sensitive Jerusalem holy site at the heart of the latest tensions.
Altogether seven Israelis were stabbed in four separate incidents
across the country.
(AP, 10/8/15) (Reuters,
2015 Oct 8, In Italy Ignazio
Marino (60) stepped down as mayor of Rome over a scandal centered on
20,000 euros ($22,600) of restaurant bills settled with a city hall
credit card over the course of his 28 months in office.
2015 Oct 8, In Kosovo
opposition lawmakers disrupted Parliament's session, using tear gas
and whistles to protest the government's recent EU-sponsored deal
with Serbia giving the country's Serb-majority areas greater powers.
2015 Oct 8, In Pakistan
paramilitary troops in Karachi arrested a prominent politician,
fueling jitters about a showdown between the powerful Muttahida
Qaumi Movement (MQM) party and the military-run Rangers.
2015 Oct 8, In the Philippines
Elizabeth Ramsey (84), a popular Filipino singer, comedian and
actress who entertained crowds with racy gags and a raspy voice,
2015 Oct 8, Syrian troops and
allied militia backed by a fresh wave of Russian air strikes and
cruise missiles fired from warships attacked rebel forces as the
government extended a major offensive to recapture territory in the
west of the country. Insurgents shot down a helicopter in Hama
province. Iranian Gen. Hossein Hamedani of the elite Revolutionary
Guard Corps was killed late today near Aleppo.
(Reuters, 10/8/15)(Reuters, 10/9/15)
2015 Oct 8, Turkey appealed to
its NATO allies to shore up missile defenses in the country aimed at
shooting down Syrian rockets, as Germany said again that it will
withdraw its Patriot batteries and the United States was set to do
2015 Oct 8, In southeastern
Turkey a child was killed and three others wounded in the town of
Silvan after munitions they found and were playing with on the
2015 Oct 9, A US judge approved
a deal between conservationists and Montana officials to restrict
road-building and logging in roughly 22,000 acres (8,900 hectares)
of state forest lands that make up core habitat for federally
2015 Oct 9, In Arizona an
overnight confrontation between two groups of students escalated
into gunfire when Steven Jones (18), a freshman at Northern Arizona
University, killed one person and wounded three others.
2015 Oct 9, In Texas a student
was killed and another person was wounded during a shooting outside
a Texas Southern University student-housing complex. Police detained
two men for questioning.
2015 Oct 9, It was reported
that some 30 people in America are victims each day of gun violence
and that an additional 60 people per day kill themselves with guns.
(SFC, 10/9/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 9, In Afghanistan 3
civilians were killed and four wounded after they were caught in the
crossfire of a Taliban attack on troops south of Kabul.
2015 Oct 9, Geoffrey Howe (88),
former British Treasury chief (1979-1983) and a prominent figure in
Margaret Thatcher's government, died at his home in Warwickshire. He
helped bring about her downfall after they parted ways over policy
2015 Oct 9, Yeonmi Park (22), a
North Korean defector who was trafficked and raped at the age of 13
after fleeing to China, promoted her new book: “In Order To Live: A
North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom" to the Women in the World
summit in London.
2015 Oct 9, In Burkina Faso 3
police officers were killed after some 50 armed men attacked a
police station in Samoroguan, near the border with Mali.
2015 Oct 9, In Burundi unknown
gunmen killed Pascal Nshirimana, the son-in-law of prominent human
rights activist Pierre Clave Mbonimpa, who openly opposed President
Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial bid for a third term in office.
2015 Oct 9, In Canada the
Carbon Engineering company, with global plans to pull carbon from
thin air to make fuel while tackling climate change, opened a pilot
plant in Squamish, British Columbia.
2015 Oct 9, In eastern China a
gas explosion in a coal mine killed 2 miners and left eight others
trapped in Shangrao county, Jiangxi province.
2015 Oct 9, In Congo DRC a new
airline was launched in a bid to revolutionize air transport within
the vast country where flights are currently operated only by the UN
and small carriers blacklisted by the EU.
2015 Oct 9, France launched a
new air strike overnight in Syria against an Islamic State training
camp and said further strikes will follow.
2015 Oct 9, In Guinea
pre-election violence killed at least 3 people and injured some 50.
At least 33 people were injured in the fighting between Cellou
Dalein Diallo's Union for the Democratic Forces of Guinea party and
President Alpha Conde's Rally of the Guinean People-Rainbow Party
2015 Oct 9, In Hong Kong more
than a thousand students and staff staged a rally at the University
of Hong Kong (HKU), the second demonstration in a week to protest
against what they say is interference by Beijing in academic
2015 Oct 9, India said it had
lodged a protest with authorities in Riyadh after Kasthuri
Munirathinam (55), a maid from Tamil Nadu, allegedly had her hand
chopped off by her Saudi employer for complaining about her work
2015 Oct 9, Israeli troops shot
dead 5 Palestinians in protests in Gaza. In southern Israel a Jewish
man stabbed and wounded four Arabs in Dimona in an apparent reprisal
attack for Palestinian violence. Hours later, a 14-year-old Jewish
boy was stabbed and wounded by a Palestinian in the Old City of
Jerusalem. A woman believed to be Palestinian tried to stab a guard
at a bus station in north Israel, and a Palestinian stabbed a
policeman near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. The policeman's
attacker was shot dead.
2015 Oct 9, Malaysia's central
bank said a debt-laden state investment fund violated foreign
exchange rules and must repatriate $1.83 billion it used abroad.
2015 Oct 9, In central Mali
suspected members of the Macina Liberation Movement attacked
Douna-Pene village, killing local official Timote Kodio in front of
2015 Oct 9, In Syria Islamic
State fighters seized villages close to the city of Aleppo from
rival insurgents. The Russian defense ministry said air strikes on
rebel positions in the north had killed 300 anti-Assad insurgents in
nearly 70 sorties over the last day.
2015 Oct 9, Tunisia's National
Dialogue Quartet won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping build
democracy in the birthplace of the Arab Spring, an example of
peaceful transition in a region otherwise struggling with violence
2015 Oct 9, The UN Security
Council authorized European naval operations to seize and dispose of
vessels operated by human traffickers in the high seas off Libya.
2015 Oct 9, Yemeni security
officials said pro-government forces have driven Shiite rebels from
the strategic seaside town of Dhubab after three days of heavy
clashes that killed nearly 100 fighters. Warplanes from the
Saudi-led coalition raided positions of the Iran-backed Shiite
insurgents in the west of Marib province.
(AP, 10/9/15)(AFP, 10/9/15)
2015 Oct 10, In Australia
hundreds of protesters faced off with left-wing opponents in a
standoff over plans to build a mosque in the rural town of Bendigo,
2015 Oct 10, In Chad 37 people
were killed in a triple bombing targeting a market and refugee camp
in the village of Baga Sola. Security sources blamed Nigeria's Boko
Haram Islamist group.
(Reuters, 10/10/15)(AFP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 10, China vowed to
continue building in disputed reefs of the South China Sea.
2015 Oct 10, In eastern China a
liquefied gas container exploded in a restaurant, causing a fire and
killing 17 people in Wuhu city, Anhui province.
2015 Oct 10, Tens of thousands
of supporters of Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso took to
the streets of the capital Brazzaville to back his controversial bid
to change the constitution in order to remain in power.
2015 Oct 10, Egypt signed a
deal with France to buy two Mistral warships originally ordered by
Russia as French PM Manuel Valls began an Arab tour.
2015 Oct 10, In Germany
hundreds of thousands of people marched in Berlin in protest against
a planned free trade deal between Europe and the United States that
they say is anti-democratic and will lower food safety, labor and
2015 Oct 10, Iran conducted a
medium-range ballistic missle test that was capable of delivering a
nuclear weapon. The US soon accused Iran of violating a UN Security
Council resolution adopted on June 9, 2010.
(SFC, 10/17/15, p.A3)
2015 Oct 10, In Iraq a series
of attacks around Baghdad killed 8 people and wounded nearly two
2015 Oct 10, In Iraq thousands
of people took to the streets of several towns in the Kurdistan
region, urging its long-time president Massud Barzani to step down.
2015 Oct 10, In Ireland 9
people, including an infant, died in a fire at a Dublin mobile home
camp for native Gypsies.
2015 Oct 10, Israeli security
forces shot dead 2 Palestinians aged 12 and 15 in protests along
Gaza's border fence. The Palestinian Prisoner Club said Israeli
security forces have arrested approximately 400 Palestinians since
the October 1 outbreak of violence in the occupied West Bank and
annexed east Jerusalem. A Palestinian teen stabbed two Jews before
being shot dead by police by the Damascus Gate in east Jerusalem.
Hours later Palestinian Kafr A (19) stabbed two police officers at
the same location before being shot dead by security forces.
(Reuters, 10/10/15)(AFP, 10/10/15)
2015 Oct 10, A Nigerian Air
Force fighter jet on a bombing mission against Boko Haram crashed in
a windstorm in the country's northeast, killing the pilot.
2015 Oct 10, North Korea marked
the 70th anniversary of its ruling Workers' Party with a massive
military parade overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, who said his country
was ready to fight any war waged by the United States.
2015 Oct 10, Russia said it had
stepped up its bombing campaign against Islamic State militants in
Syria, while local observers said several of the air strikes had hit
areas in western Syria where the hardline group has little presence.
2015 Oct 10, In South Korea
Iranian director Hadi Mohaghegh's "Immortal" and "Walnut Tree" from
Kazakhstan's Yerlan Nurmukhambetov were named the winners of the New
Currents award for first- and second-time filmmakers at the 20th
Busan International Film Festival.
2015 Oct 10, Spanish police
said they have broken up a human trafficking ring and arrested 89
Chinese and Pakistani citizens who were alleged members.
2015 Oct 10, Sudanese President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir formally reopened talks with rebel and
opposition groups but only one significant opposition party showed
up, and he urged them to halt a boycott on dialogue in return for a
2015 Oct 10, In Turkey as many
as 128 people were killed when two suspected suicide bombers hit a
rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists outside Ankara's main
train station, in the deadliest attack of its kind on Turkish soil.
On Oct 16 authorities raised the toll to 102. Hours after the
bombing, the PKK ordered its fighters to halt operations in Turkey
unless they faced attack. Turkey targeted the Islamic State in
investigations of the bombing.
(AP, 10/11/15)(Reuters, 10/11/15)(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 10, In Yemen Al-Qaeda
claimed to have killed 4 men suspected of practicing witchcraft and
sorcery in an area controlled by the jihadists.
2015 Oct 11, In New York state
two teenage brothers were beaten by family and Word of Life church
members in New Hartford to get them to confess their sins. Lucas
Leonard (19) died of his injuries and Christorpher (17) was
hospitalized. The borther’s parents were later charged with
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 11, In Tennessee
off-duty Memphis police officer Terence Olridge (31) died after
being shot multiple times while responding to a call about a
shooting at a home in the suburb of Cordova. A male suspect was
taken in custody.
(SFC, 10/12/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 11, Mobile Internet
sites faced a new threat as millions download ad-blockers to their
phones and tablets, removing pesky adverts but potentially wiping
out billions of dollars in advertising revenue.
2015 Oct 11, In Afghanistan an
explosion targeted a NATO military convoy in Kabul, wounding three
2015 Oct 11, Belarus held
presidential elections. Authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko
faced no serious competition and was expected easily to win a fifth
term. Lukashenko won 83.5 percent of the vote.
(AP, 10/11/15)(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 11, In northern
Cameroon twin blasts by female suicide bombers killed at least 9
people in Kangaleri village.
2015 Oct 11, Guineans flocked
to the polls to choose their president, shrugging off deadly
pre-election violence. Incumbent President Alpha Conde was tipped to
win a second term. Guinea's main opposition party alleged widespread
fraud in the country's presidential vote. On Oct 17 the electoral
commission said President Alpha Conde won re-election with around 58
percent of votes cast.
(AFP, 10/11/15)(AP, 10/12/15)(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 11, India said that
the Maldives leader has committed to an "India first" policy in
talks with its external affairs minister.
2015 Oct 11, In western
Indonesia a helicopter carrying five people went missing shortly
after takeoff from Samosir island in Toba Lake. On Oct 13 a survivor
was found floating on plants in Toba Lake and told rescuers the four
other people on board also survived by jumping before the craft hit
(AP, 10/12/15)(AP, 10/13/15)
2015 Oct 11, Iran said
Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian (39), who has been detained
in Iran for more than a year, has been convicted on charges
including espionage. The ruling was eligible for appeal within 20
2015 Oct 11, Iran state media
reported the successful test fire of a new guided long-range
ballistic surface-to-surface missile. It was the first such a test
since Iran and world powers reach a historical nuclear deal.
2015 Oct 11, Iraqi air forces
reportedly bombed the convoy of the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
while he was heading to Karabla to attend a meeting with Daesh
commanders. Several senior figures from Islamic State were killed in
the air strike. A coalition led by the United States conducted 18
air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq.
(Reuters, 10/11/15)(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 11, An Israeli air
strike in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire killed a
pregnant woman and her toddler. Palestinian Ahmed Sharake (13) was
killed during clashes in Ramallah.
(AFP, 10/11/15)(AFP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 11, Thousands of
Lebanese rallied at the presidential palace outside Beirut in a show
of support for Christian politician Michel Aoun, pressing their
demand for him to fill the presidency vacant for over a year.
2015 Oct 11, Libya's rival
parliament and government rejected a UN-proposed peace deal
installing a national unity government.
2015 Oct 11, Nepal's parliament
elected Communist party leader Khadga Prasad Oli (63) as the new
prime minister, thrusting him into the center of daunting
(AP, 10/11/15)(SFC, 10/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 11, Pakistanis began
voting in a closely contested by-election seen as a referendum on PM
Nawaz Sharif's rule.
2015 Oct 11, Russian President
Vladimir Putin met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed
al-Nahyan to discuss security in the Middle East and the conflict in
2015 Oct 11, Russian police
arrested several terror suspects some of whom were said to have been
trained by the Islamic State. A device with eleven pounds of
explosives was found in a Moscow apartment.
(SFC, 10/13/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 11, Russian war planes
pounded Syrian rebels unaffiliated with Islamic State, helping
Moscow's ally Bashar al-Assad reclaim territory and dealing a fresh
setback to the strategy of Washington and its allies. A senior
Hezbollah commander was killed in the battle while fighting on the
Syrian government's behalf.
2015 Oct 11, South Africa said
it plans to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC). The
government faced criticism for ignoring a court order to arrest
Sudan's president earlier this year.
2015 Oct 11, In Thailand an
angry crowd hurled homemade fire bombs and torched vehicles at a
police station overnight on the resort island of Phuket to protest
the deaths of two young men who died in a motorcycle crash while
being chased by police.
2015 Oct 11, Thousands of
people took to the streets of Ankara to denounce the government of
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after it said 95 people were killed
in twin suspected suicide bombings on a peace rally a day earlier.
Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), one of the
groups that called the peace rally, issued a statement claiming the
actual toll was far higher at 128, giving the names of 120 victims.
2 Turkish soldiers were reported killed during clashes with PKK
militants in the Senkaya district of Erzurum province. The Turkish
army said it killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a series of air
strikes on the group's bases in northern Iraq as well as
southeastern Diyarbakir province.
2015 Oct 12, In Kansas City,
Mo., 2 firefighters were killed after a wall from a burning building
collapsed on them.
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A12)
2015 Oct 12, Dell and
investment firm Silver Lake confirmed that they would acquire EMC
Corp. for about $67 billion.
(SFC, 10/13/15, p.D1)
2015 Oct 12, In Afghanistan
fighting intensified around the city of Ghazni, as Taliban militants
threatened to seize a second provincial capital after briefly
occupying Kunduz in the north last month. Toorpakai Olfat, local UN
staffer, was shot and killed by two gunmen on a motorbike as she was
on her way to work in Kandahar.
2015 Oct 12, An Albanian court
acquitted Ardian Fullani, a former governor of the country's central
bank, of charges of abuse of office over the theft of millions of
dollars from bank reserves.
2015 Oct 12, Princeton Prof.
Angus Deaton (69), a British-born economist, won the 2015 economics
Nobel Prize for his work on consumption, poverty and welfare that
has helped governments to improve policy through tools such as
household surveys and tax changes.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)(SFC, 10/13/15, p.A2)(Econ,
2015 Oct 12, In China Jiang
Jiemin, who earlier led the country's biggest petroleum company, and
a deputy party chief in populous Sichuan province were convicted of
corruption and sentenced to 16 and 13 years in prison, respectively.
2015 Oct 12, Chinese
authorities announced the arrests of 16 suspected members of a
smuggling ring and the seizure of hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of
ivory along with rhino horns and bear paws.
2015 Oct 12, The EU demanded
the "immediate" halt of Russian air strikes against moderate Syrian
rebel groups and warned a lasting peace was impossible under
Moscow-backed President Bashar al-Assad.
2015 Oct 12, In Finland Iraqi
asylum seekers rallied in central Helsinki and signed a petition
against plans to negotiate a deal with Baghdad that could lead to
their deportation, arguing that their country should not be
2015 Oct 12, In France police
arrested several Air France workers at their homes as investigators
tracked down protesters who hounded executives from a meeting about
mass job cuts last week and tore the clothes of two fleeing
2015 Oct 12, In Israel a
Palestinian identified as Mustafa al-Khatib (18) attacked a
policeman with a knife at an entrance to Jerusalem's Old City and
was shot dead by security forces. A female attacker stabbed an
Israeli policeman near the force's headquarters in Jerusalem and was
shot and wounded by the victim. Two "terrorists" stabbed two
Israelis in the east Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Zeev, with one
attacker -- reported to be 16 years old -- killed and the other shot
and seriously wounded.
2015 Oct 12, A Kurdish militia
that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria with help from US-led
air strikes has joined forces with Arab groups in an alliance
announced on that may be a prelude to an attack on the jihadists'
base of operations in Raqqa.
2015 Oct 12, In the Philippines
gunmen killed a town mayor and wounded his vice mayor and at least
three other companions in an ambush while they were traveling in a
van in a far-flung southern region.
2015 Oct 12, Russia’s Gazprom
resumed gas supplies to Ukraine after receiving prepayment of $234
million from Kiev, assuaging European fears about a new energy
crisis ahead of the winter heating season.
2015 Oct 12, Syrian army and
allied forces supported by Russian warplanes made further advances
as they pressed an offensive against insurgents, in the fiercest
clashes for nearly a week. Two Iranian senior Revolutionary Guards
officers were killed fighting Islamic State. Pro-government forces
including the Lebanese group Hezbollah captured the southern part of
Kafr Nabuda. At least 25 government fighters were killed.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)(Reuters, 10/13/15)(Reuters,
2015 Oct 12, In Turkey hundreds
of people marched through Istanbul and Ankara to condemn the
slaughter by suicide bombers at a weekend peace rally.
2015 Oct 13, Hillary Clinton
emerged unscathed from the Democratic Party's first presidential
debate, giving her renewed momentum as she gears for a showdown with
Republicans over the 2012 Benghazi attack.
2015 Oct 13, The United States
and its allies carried out 18 air strikes on Islamic State targets
in Iraq and Syria.
2015 Oct 13, The American Civil
Liberties Union sued two former Air Force psychologists who designed
a CIA program that used harsh interrogation techniques to elicit
intelligence from suspected terrorists, saying the pair endorsed and
taught torture tactics under the guise of science. 10 months earlier
the release of a damning Senate report said that the interrogation
techniques had inflicted pain on al-Qaida prisoners far beyond the
legal limits and did not yield lifesaving intelligence.
2015 Oct 13, In Florida a Pipe
Cherokee 180 crashed into the Mar-Mak Colony Club killing the pilot
and one person on the ground in Palm Beach County.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 13, Barbara
Byrd-Bennett (66), the former head of Chicago Public Schools,
pleaded guilty to her role in a scheme to steer $23 million in
no-bid contracts to education firms for $2.3 million in bribes and
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 13, In Wisconsin a
Milwaukee state court jury ordered Badger Guns to pay $5.73 million
after the store was found liable for negligence in the 2009 shooting
of two local police officers.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A14)
2015 Oct 13, Planned Parenthood
decided that to stop accepting compensation for tis fetal tissue
program in an effort to deflect antiabortion activists’ allegations
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.D1)
2015 Oct 13, Playboy
Enterprises announced that it would stop publishing full nudity
pictures as of March 2016.
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.29)
2015 Oct 13, The Afghan Taliban
said they were pulling back in the northern city of Kunduz in order
to protect civilians, but fighting continued elsewhere in the
country with government troops battling to reopen the main highway
south of the capital Kabul.
2015 Oct 13, In Argentina Diana
Sacayan (40), a prominent transgender activist, was found tied up
and stabbed to death in Buenos Aires. This was the third violent
transgender death in the country in the past month.
2015 Oct 13, In central Bosnia
4 miners were killed and two injured early today when a platform
holding up the roof caved in on them in a mine.
2015 Oct 13, The British
government pulled out of 5.9 million-pound ($9 million) deal to sell
prison expertise to Saudi Arabia that had drawn opposition from
rights groups and senior politicians.
2015 Oct 13, British-based
brewer SABMiller accepted in principle an improved takeover bid
worth 69 billion pounds ($106 billion) from Anheuser Busch InBev to
create a company that would control nearly a third of the global
market and threaten to dominate the US by bringing together
Budweiser and Miller Genuine Draft. The new company is expected to
be based in Belgium.
2015 Oct 13, In Burundi 9
civilians, including a staff member of the International
Organization for Migration (IOM), were shot to death reportedly at
close range. 2 police officers also died during exchanges of heavy
gunfire in Bujumbura.
2015 Oct 13, A Chinese court
sentenced Wang Yongchun, a former senior executive of China National
Petroleum Corp., to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of
corruption. A court in central China jailed Guo Yongxiang, a former
senior provincial official, for 20 years after finding him guilty of
(AP, 10/13/15)(Reuters, 10/13/15)
2015 Oct 13, European lawmakers
rejected a proposal that would have allowed countries to restrict or
ban the use of imported GM crops that have secured EU approval.
2015 Oct 13, France and Saudi
Arabia announced signed deals worth 10 billion euros, the latest
example of the deepening alliance between the two nations.
2015 Oct 13, Germany said it
has extended controls along its borders until the end of October as
refugees continue to stream in.
2015 Oct 13, German auto giant
Volkswagen announced it would slash one billion euros off its annual
investment budget and push ahead with its drive to develop electric
cars in the wake of the diesel pollution scandal.
2015 Oct 13, Iran's
conservative-dominated parliament passed a bill approving its
nuclear deal with world powers, signaling victory for the government
over hardline opponents.
2015 Oct 13, Authorities in the
French Caribbean island of Martinique said they have seized 1,180
pounds (535 kg) of cocaine destined for Europe. Martinique
authorities have seized more than 8 tons (7 metric tons) of drugs so
far this year.
2015 Oct 13, The Italian Senate
approved sweeping constitutional reform that would turn the Senate
into a 100-member house of regional and municipal representatives
with the power to question, but not veto, legislation. It will be
put to a referendum in 2016.
(Econ, 10/17/15, p.58)
2015 Oct 13, Italian finance
police arrested Mario Mantovani, a high-ranking politician in the
Lombardy regional government, for corruption just before he was due
to attend a conference promoting legality in the public
2015 Oct 13, Jamaican author
Marlon James won the Man Booker Prize for "A Brief History of Seven
Killings", a re-telling of the attempted assassination of musician
2015 Oct 13, The Dutch Safety
Board concluded that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over
eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made Buk missile in its final report on
the crash in July 2014 that killed all 298 people on board, most of
2015 Oct 13, In northeastern
Nigeria three bombs exploded within minutes in Maiduguri killing at
least 7 people.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 13, Amnesty Int’l.
opened an office in Nigeria promising to investigate allegations of
abuses from oil pollution and forced evictions to charges of
military killings of civilians in the fight against Boko Haram
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 13, Pakistani police
arrested three police officers after a woman set herself on fire a
day earlier and accused them on her deathbed of gang raping her near
Multan. Also in Multan a man (42) died after setting himself on fire
to protest the demolition of his home.
2015 Oct 13, Pakistani
authorities hanged 9 convicts, including four brothers. The
executions brought the nationwide total to 255 since December, when
Pakistan lifted the moratorium on the death penalty.
2015 Oct 13, Palestinian men
armed with knives and a gun killed at least 3 people and wounded
several others in a string of attacks in Jerusalem and near Tel Aviv
on a "Day of Rage" declared by Palestinian groups.
2015 Oct 13, Russia said its
air force hit 86 "terrorist" targets in Syria in the past 24 hours.
2015 Oct 13, South African coal
mineworkers ended a 10-day strike after reaching a pay agreement
2015 Oct 13, Insurgents in
Syria deployed more men and weapons, including significant
quantities of anti-tank missiles, to resist ground attacks by the
Syrian army and its allies, backed by Russian air strikes.
2015 Oct 13, Turkish security
forces killed ten Kurdish militants during ground and air operations
in southeastern Turkey, days after the insurgents called a
2015 Oct 13, A Ukrainian
soldier was killed and two were injured in eastern Ukraine in
violation of a month-long ceasefire between government and rebel
2015 Oct 13, In Yemen
airstrikes from a Saudi-led coalition targeting Shiite rebels killed
8 rebel fighters in a renewed attempt to cut their supply lines to
2015 Oct 14, US President
Barack Obama informed Congress that he will deploy up to 300
military personnel to Cameroon for intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance operations against militant Boko Haram insurgents.
2015 Oct 14, The United States
and its allies conducted 25 air strikes on Islamic State forces in
Iraq and Syria.
2015 Oct 14, Texas executed
Licho Escamilla (33) for the 2001 fatal shooting of Dallas police
officer Christopher Kevin James. This was the state’s 12 execution
this year and the 24th in the US.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 14, Afghan police said
Taliban insurgents overran two checkpoints in southern Helmand
province and killed 29 border police officers.
2015 Oct 14, Benin's
long-ruling former president Mathieu Kerekou (b.1933) died, leading
to a week of national mourning for the Marxist who seized power in a
1972 coup but later set off a new wave of African democracy.
2015 Oct 14, Bulgaria denied
access to its airspace to a Russian plane carrying humanitarian aid
for Syria, as Moscow failed to file an application on time.
2015 Oct 14, Researchers
reported that 47 fossilized human teeth found in China’s Hunan
province dated back to at least 80,000 years. Earlier fossils from
southern Asia were only about 45,000 years old.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 14, Ethiopia called
for $556 million in int’l. assistance to help feed 8.2 million
people after erratic rains devastated crop yields.
(SFC, 10/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 14, The EU parliament
lifted immunity for Bela Kovacs, a member of Hungary's far-right
Jobbik party. Hungarian prosecutors suspected him of spying on EU
institutions for Russia. Covert contacts between Kovacs and Russian
intelligence officers were first detected in 2010.
2015 Oct 14, In India villagers
fled after an attack on a truck loaded with five cows and 10 bulls
in Sarahan, a village in Himachal Pradesh state. Five occupants of
the truck hid in the forest until police found them and took them to
the hospital, where one of them died. The survivors were arrested
for alleged animal cruelty.
2015 Oct 14, In Indonesia 2
endangered Sumatran elephants were found dead in Aceh province and
were believed to have been poisoned a few days earlier.
2015 Oct 14, In Iran a senior
council of clerics and officials approved implementing the landmark
nuclear deal with world powers, sealing the final required step in
the process despite hard-liners' efforts to derail it.
2015 Oct 14, Israel started
setting up roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem
and deploying soldiers across the country to combat a wave of
Palestinian knife attacks. A "terrorist" attempted to stab a
security guard at an entrance to Jerusalem's Old City but was shot
before harming anyone.
(Reuters, 10/14/15)(AFP, 10/14/15)
2015 Oct 14, Maldives Pres.
Abdulla Yameen fired his defense minister with immediate effect, the
latest move in a defense shake-up following an explosion targeting
2015 Oct 14, In central
Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up at the election office of
a ruling party lawmaker, killing 7 people and wounding nine others
in Taunsa city.
2015 Oct 14, Peru’s defense
minister announced an investigation into possible drug-related
military corruption following a report that the armed forces were
turning a blind eye to daily drug flights to Bolivia.
(SFC, 10/16/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 14, Puerto Rican
authorities said they've charged 38 people in a scheme that let
people pay bribes to get licenses or evade fines. The charges
covered acts that began more than a year ago at seven DMV centers
across the island.
2015 Oct 14, In South Africa
several thousand demonstrators marched through Johannesburg to
protest against government corruption as public anger builds over
the weakening economy.
2015 Oct 14, In Sweden
Cambodian activist Phymean Noun was awarded the $50,000 World's
Children's Prize for helping children who live in garbage dumps in
Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. Another $50,000 was evenly split
between the winners of the World's Children's Honorary Award: Javier
Stauring of the Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles who works with
jailed children, and India's Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash
Satyarthi who fights against child slavery and for children's right
2015 Oct 14, In Syria Islamic
State militants battled rival insurgent groups north of the city of
Aleppo, where officials say the Syrian army is preparing an
offensive of its own backed by Iranian soldiers and Russian jets.
Russia said its jets hit 40 Islamic State targets in new strikes in
Syria over the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 10/14/15)(AFP, 10/14/15)
2015 Oct 14, In southern Yemen
thousands called for secession at a demonstration in Aden.
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.47)
2015 Oct 14, Zimbabwe officials
said rangers in Hwange National Park have discovered the carcasses
of 26 elephants at two locations, dead of cyanide poisoning along
with 14 other elephants who were found last week.
2015 Oct 15, President Barack
Obama said he will slow the pace of withdrawing US troops from
Afghanistan, prolonging the 14-year US engagement there and
effectively handing off the task of pulling out to his successor.
2015 Oct 15, US authorities
reported that Malaysia authorities have arrested Ardit Ferizi, a
Kosovo citizen, for providing sensitive information on more than a
thousand US service members to the Islamic State group.
2015 Oct 15, A coalition led by
the United States conducted three air strikes against Islamic State
in Syria and bombarded the militant group with 21 strikes in Iraq.
2015 Oct 15, US federal agents
ended a crackdown on synthetic drug manufacturers. Several hundred
people were reported arrested in more than 20 states over the last
(SFC, 10/16/15, p.A12)
2015 Oct 15, In southern
California a storm produced mud flows that impacted nearly eight
miles of Highway 58 in Kern County. Some motorists were stranded
overnight as nearly 200 vehicles became trapped.
(SSFC, 10/18/15, p.A10)
2015 Oct 15, Fan Hui, a
professional with the Chinese Go Association, lost to Google
DeepMind’s AlphaGo in the final game of the five game match. The
startling performance of AlphaGo wasn’t revealed until a paper
detailing the feat was published in the science journal Nature, on
January 27, 2016. AlphaGo, developed by British AI research company
DeepMind, was acquired by Google in 2014.
(http://tinyurl.com/gvs8krj)(Econ, 1/30/15, p.72)
2015 Oct 15, In China the Hurun
Report said the number of mainland Chinese billionaires has risen
this year by 242 to 596, surpassing the 537 billionaires of the
(SFC, 10/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 15, China announced a
one-year ban on the import of ivory hunting trophies from Africa.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.44)
2015 Oct 15, Croatia legalized
the use of marijuana for medical purposes for patients with
illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or AIDS.
2015 Oct 15, Cyprus decried an
undersea pipeline carrying fresh water from Turkey to the breakaway
Turkish Cypriot north, saying it aims to further cement Ankara's
grip on the ethnically-divided island.
2015 Oct 15, The Egyptian pound
weakened by 10 piasters to 7.93 per dollar after the central bank
reduced its price in an auction by the same amount to 7.83 per
2015 Oct 15, Egypt, Japan,
Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay were elected to the UN Security Council
during an uncontested vote for the non-permanent seats.
2015 Oct 15, The European Court
of Human Rights ruled Switzerland had violated Turkish politician
Dogu Perincek's right to freedom of speech by convicting him for
denying that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915
amounted to genocide.
2015 Oct 15, German auto giant
Volkswagen said it will recall a total of 8.5 million diesel
vehicles Europe-wide that are equipped with sophisticated software
enabling their engines to cheat pollution tests.
2015 Oct 15, Seven migrants, 4
of them children, drowned near the Greek island of Lesbos after
their boat collided with a Greek rescue vessel.
2015 Oct 15, Hong Kong police
charged seven officers with assaulting activist Ken Tsang, whose
videotaped beating stirred outrage among city residents at the
height of pro-democracy protests last year.
2015 Oct 15, The Hungarian
government announced that it has completed its construction of a
fence alongside its southern border with Croatia, to stem the
massive daily influx of migrants. The government said it would
decide on a date to completely seal the border in the coming days.
2015 Oct 15, Iraqi forces
battled the Islamic State jihadist group on separate fronts, ramping
up operations to retake Baiji and Ramadi.
2015 Oct 15, Torrential rain
and storms battered southern and central Italy for a second day,
leading to the deaths of at least four people and reviving a
controversy over environmental neglect in the country.
2015 Oct 15, Kosovo opposition
lawmakers angry at recent deals with Serbia and Montenegro set off
tear gas canisters in Parliament, forcing the suspension of the
2015 Oct 15, Macedonian police
arrested seven people suspected of providing logistical support to
an armed group that clashed with police last May, leaving 18 people
dead and 37 wounded.
2015 Oct 15, Moldova’s
parliament lifted the immunity of former PM Vlad Filat (2009-2013).
Filat was then detained in parliament over the theft of $1 billion
from the banking system, a crime that has led thousands to camp out
in the capital in protest.
(Reuters, 10/15/15)(SFC, 10/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 15, Myanmar’s
government signed a cease-fire agreement with eight armed ethnic
groups. The two largest groups, the Kachin and Wa, with tens of
thousands of soldiers, did not sign the agreement.
(SFC, 10/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 15, Poland signed a
landmark $636 million deal to build the first EU gas pipeline to
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, reducing their uneasy reliance on
Russian supplies. Construction is set to begin next year on the GIPL
(Gas Interconnection Poland-Lithuania) pipeline.
2015 Oct 15, Scottish
prosecutors said that Scottish and US investigators have identified
two Libyan suspects believed to have been involved in the 1988
Lockerbie airline bombing which killed 270 people.
2015 Oct 15, In South Sudan a
consortium of civic and aid groups said violence against civilians
is continuing despite a peace agreement. They said at least 1,000
civilians have been killed between April and September and that
1,300 women and girls were abducted in Unity state.
(SFC, 10/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 15, In Spain thousands
waving Catalan independence flags rallied in support of regional
acting President Artur Mas who was being questioned at a Barcelona
court for holding a symbolic referendum on secession.
2015 Oct 15, Sri Lanka's
government pledged to quickly process hundreds of ethnic Tamils who
have been detained without charges for years on suspicion of links
to former Tamil Tiger rebels.
2015 Oct 15, Syrian troops and
their allies, backed by Russian jets, attacked rebel-held towns
north of the city of Homs, targeting a long-held and strategic
enclave of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad. A resident of
Teir Malla said at least 25 people were killed including, Rawad al
Aksah, a commander of insurgent group Liwaa
2015 Oct 15, In Syria Abdul
Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al-Charekh, a Saudi better known as Sanafi
al-Nasr, was killed in a US airstrike near the northern town of
Dana, along with another Saudi and a Moroccan member of al-Qaida's
local affiliate, known as the Nusra Front.
(AP, 10/17/15)(Reuters, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 15, Turkey demanded
that the European Union start easing restrictions next year on Turks
traveling to the European Union if it wants full cooperation to stem
the flow of Syrian refugees.
2015 Oct 15, Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro said he is raising the country's minimum
wage by 30%, effective Nov 1, to help workers being clobbered by
inflation economists say is likely the highest in the world.
2015 Oct 16, The US Interior
Department announced it is canceling future oil lease sales and will
not extend current leases in Arctic waters off Alaska's northern
2015 Oct 16, A US jury ordered
Apple Inc to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison's patent
licensing arm more than $234 million in damages for incorporating
its microchip technology into some of the company's iPhones and
iPads without permission. Apple had faced up to $862 million in
damages after a US jury found the iPhone maker used technology owned
by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm without
2015 Oct 16, California
regulators closed 33 more oil company wells that had injected
wastewater into potentially drinkable aquifers protected by federal
(SFC, 10/17/15, p.A1)
2015 Oct 16, Hawaii Gov. David
Ige declared a state of emergency to accelerate efforts to provide
housing and other services to the homeless.
2015 Oct 16, Irwin Schiff (87),
America’s loudest tax protester, died. Schiff had stopped paying his
federal income taxes from 1974 on the chief ground that it was
unconstitutional. His books included the New York Times bestseller
“How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes" (1982).
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.86)
2015 Oct 16, China hosted
Southeast Asian defense ministers in an effort to burnish its
reputation in a region wary of its territorial ambitions.
2015 Oct 16, Officials from
China and a domestic consortium signed an agreement to build the
first high-speed rail line in Indonesia. The deal was estimated at
2015 Oct 16, The UN said a
measles outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo's copper-mining
southeast has killed 428 people and infected about 30,000 since the
start of the year.
2015 Oct 16, In France
executives of ten of the world's largest oil and gas companies
decided not to take a common position on the price of carbon because
of differences among the groups' members.
2015 Oct 16, German newsweekly
Der Spiegel reported that Germany's winning bid for the 2006 World
Cup was aided by bribes paid to FIFA executive committee members.
2015 Oct 16, Four migrants, the
oldest of them a young woman of 16, drowned and three other people
were missing after their rubber boat capsized off the Aegean island
of Kalymnos late today.
2015 Oct 16, The World Health
Organization says there were two new cases of Ebola in Guinea this
week, ending two consecutive weeks in West Africa when no cases of
the devastating disease were reported.
2015 Oct 16, Hungary said it
will close down its border with Croatia, where it has built a
razor-wire fence, to the free flow of migrants at midnight. Croatia
said it has a plan to manage the flow of migrants agreed with
Slovenia that it will start implementing when Hungary seals off the
(AP, 10/16/15)(Reuters, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 16, In India a cooking
gas cylinder blast killed at least 8 people in a small hotel in
2015 Oct 16, In India a
two-and-a-half-year-old girl was abducted from a religious event in
west Delhi by two men and raped before being dumped in a park near
her home. In a separate incident on the other side of the city, a
five-year-old was lured to a neighbor's house and raped by three
men. Police the next day arrested three men for raping the
5-year-old. On Oct 18 police arrested two teenagers for allegedly
raping the toddler in New Delhi.
(AFP, 10/17/15)(AP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 16, Iraqi forces
defused booby traps and hunted down holdout jihadists in the
strategic Baiji area as part of their biggest advance against the
Islamic State group in months.
2015 Oct 16, Italian police
reported finding more than 20 tons of hashish with an estimated
street value of 200 million euros ($230 million) hidden in the hull
of a cargo ship. They spent more than 18 days searching before
finally finding the drugs. The ship's captain and nine crew members,
all Syrian, were arrested.
2015 Oct 16, Lebanese militant
group Hezbollah fired rockets and mortars at what it said were
Islamic State fighters near the Syrian border, killing 5 of them.
2015 Oct 16, Tripoli's
government named the two new Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie
bombing investigation as Abdullah al-Senussi, the former spy chief
of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a second man, Mohammed Abu
2015 Oct 16, Mexican soldiers
detained Angel Eduardo Prado Rodriguez, alias "Ciclon 7," before
dawn without a shot fired in the northern border city of Matamoros.
2015 Oct 16, Mexican
authorities said fugitive drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman
eluded an operation to recapture him in recent days, injuring his
leg and face. Recent raids have reportedly occurred in Durango and
2015 Oct 16, In Nigeria 4 women
suicide bombers blew themselves up when challenged by soldiers as
they tried to enter Maiduguri, killing at least 18 people and
themselves. The attack came just hours after two bombs exploded near
a mosque, killing at least 30 people.
2015 Oct 16, Palestinians set
fire to a Jewish shrine in the occupied West Bank, believed to house
the tomb of Joseph. An attacker disguised as a journalist stabbed an
Israeli soldier. Violence also broke out in the Gaza Strip when
Palestinians approached the border fence with Israel. Two
Palestinians died after being shot by the Israeli military in the
(Reuters, 10/16/15)(AFP, 10/16/15)(SFC, 10/17/15,
2015 Oct 16, The Russian
parliament voted to sanction an arrest in absentia of Ilya
Ponomarev, the sole lawmaker who voted against the annexation of
Crimea last year. Ponomarev, who is currently in the United States,
is suspected of embezzlement related to his work for a state-funded
technological foundation. He said the motion is a politically
motivated attempt to kick him out of parliament.
2015 Oct 16, In Saudi Arabia a
suspect with an automatic weapon opened fire at a Shiite meeting
hall in Qatif city, Eastern Province, killing 5 people and wounding
nine more. A group calling itself Islamic State-Bahrain Province
said one of its "soldiers", Shughaa al-Dosari, attacked a Shiite
infidel temple with an automatic weapon.
2015 Oct 16, Switzerland's
attorney general said authorities have charged four Iraqi men with
planning attacks and helping Islamic State smuggle followers into
Europe. Three of the men have been in custody since their arrest in
2015 Oct 16, In Syria Denis
Cuspert, also known by his artist name Deso Dogg, was killed in a US
air strike. He used to rap in Berlin and was one of the most famous
Western fighters for the IS extremist group.
2015 Oct 16, Turkey shot down a
drone in an incident highlighting the dangers of multiple air combat
operations over Syria. Russian warplanes hit areas in support of the
Syrian army's offensive south of Aleppo, around 35 km (20 miles)
from the Turkish border.
2015 Oct 16, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked World Food Day with a visit to
the Milan Expo World's Fair, which is focused on food security and
2015 Oct 16, UN experts said
the Islamic State group is paying supporters up to $10,000 for each
person that they recruit to wage jihad in Syria and Iraq.
2015 Oct 16, A court in central
Vietnam sentenced seven people to up to life in prison for
defrauding families of Vietnam War soldiers by moving unidentified
war dead into fake graves and claiming to have found their kin.
2015 Oct 16, In Yemen an
Emirati officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in the southern
port city of Aden, the sixth assassination of pro-government troop
leaders and officials in recent weeks. Shiite Houthi rebels drove
pro-government troops out of southern Bayda province following two
months of heavy fighting.
(AP, 10/17/15)(SFC, 10/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 17, The US-led
coalition conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and
five in Syria, according to the task force organizing the military
2015 Oct 17, In Florida a
shooting at the ZombieCon gathering in Fort Myers left one person
dead and five others injured.
(SFC, 10/19/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 17, Addyi, the first
drug to boost sexual desire in women, became available from Sprout
(SFC, 10/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 17, In Argentina a
magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the northwest, leaving at least one
person dead and damaging homes in the Salta region.
2015 Oct 17, Australia
announced plans to legalize the growing of cannabis for medicinal
purposes, saying those suffering debilitating illnesses deserved
access to the most effective treatments.
2015 Oct 17, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo leaders of the Twa and Luba ethnic groups signed
an agreement intended to end a conflict which has killed hundreds
and displaced tens of thousands.
2015 Oct 17, Hungary said it
will temporarily reinstate border controls on its frontier with
Slovenia, after his government sealed off its border with Croatia
overnight to stem the flow of migrants. Migrants streaming across
the Balkans reached Slovenia, diverted overnight by the closure of
Hungary’s border with Croatia.
2015 Oct 17, In southern India
at least 15 people headed for a wedding were killed when a mini-bus
they were riding collided with another bus as they were traveling to
Malakonda town in Andhra Pradesh state.
2015 Oct 17, Indonesian
officials said 182 ethnic Rohingya have fled their encampment in
Aceh province. Officials suspected they may have been persuaded by
human traffickers to flee.
2015 Oct 17, Iran reported that
2 people were killed in a shooting attack on Shiite worshippers
marking Ashura, in the town of Dezful in Khuzestan province.
2015 Oct 17, Iraqi forces
pressed their biggest offensive in months to resume their
long-stalled northward advance and disrupt jihadist lines.
2015 Oct 17, Nigeria said Brig.
Gen. Enitan Ransome Kuti has been dismissed from the army and jailed
for losing a major battle in which Boko Haram Islamic extremists
killed hundreds of civilians at the Jan. 2 battle for Baga.
2015 Oct 17, Four Palestinians
were shot dead and a fifth was wounded in attacks on Israelis in
east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
2015 Oct 17, Portugal’s former
Socialist PM Jose Socrates left home as a free man for the first
time in 10 months after a court lifted a house arrest.
2015 Oct 17, In Romania three
journalists were detained on suspicion of extorting money from
public figures in exchange for not writing negative articles about
2015 Oct 17, Russia said its
air force has made 36 sorties, hitting 49 Islamic State targets in
Syria in the last 24 hours.
2015 Oct 17, It was reported
that hundreds of South Korean scholars have declared they are
boycotting the writing of state-issued history textbooks out of
concern that that they will teach distorted views on the country's
2015 Oct 17, Spanish police
said they have arrested 81 persons on suspicion of sexually abusing
minors and sharing child pornography on the Internet.
2015 Oct 17, In northern Spain
thousands took to the streets of San Sebastian to call for the
release of Arnaldo Otegi (57), the jailed head of the Basque
independence Sortu party.
2015 Oct 17, Syrian troops
backed by Hezbollah and Iranian fighters made advances in their
offensive to retake territory around the northern city of Aleppo
from insurgents and jihadist fighters.
2015 Oct 17, Taiwan's ruling
party on named chairman Eric Chu to run for the island's top spot in
coming national elections, replacing an existing pick in a move
aimed at avoiding a trouncing by an opposition it fears could derail
warming ties with China.
2015 Oct 17, Turkey said 3
soldiers and 28 Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes
and clashes over the past two days in the predominantly Kurdish
2015 Oct 17, The Turkish
coastguard said 12 migrants thought to be from Syria and
Afghanistan, including four children and a baby, drowned off the
coast of Turkey as they tried to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.
2015 Oct 17, In Turkey a
British woman working for a London-based media charity who was
heading to Iraq was found dead at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. Jackie
Sutton (50) was reportedly found hanged in the toilets. There were
no signs of foul play.
(AFP, 10/19/15)(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 17, The Ukrainian
excursion boat Ivolga capsized in the Black Sea, killing 14 people.
It was carrying twice as many passengers as allowed and was knocked
over by a big wave.
2015 Oct 17, Venezuela
announced that its state-owned oil company will buy a 25 percent
stake in West Indies Oil Co. and that it will establish a regional
bank with the Antigua and Barbuda government to fund a new resort.
2015 Oct 18, President Barack
Obama ordered the US government to take steps towards lifting
sanctions on Iran, in accordance with the historic nuclear deal
struck between six world powers and Tehran.
2015 Oct 18, A US-led coalition
conducted 17 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and also
targeted the militant group in Syria with a single strike near
2015 Oct 18, Eddie Murphy was
honored as the winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at
the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
(SFC, 10/19/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 18, In California the
Mariscos San Juan No. 3 restaurant in downtown San Jose closed
following reports of an outbreak of bacterial illness due to
shigella. By Oct 23 some 141 people were reported sickened from the
extremely contagious pathogen.
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.D2)(SFC, 10/24/15, p.C2)
2015 Oct 18, In Florida black
drummer Corey Jones was shot and killed near his broken down vehicle
by police Officer Nouman Raja on I-95 in Palm Beach Gardens. Raja
was fired on Nov 11 and charged with attempted murder and
manslaughter on June 1, 2016.
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.A10)(SFC, 11/13/15, p.A7)(SFC,
2015 Oct 18, In northwestern
Afghanistan the Taliban captured the Ghormach district of Faryab
province. The insurgents detained the district police chief, who was
wounded, along with 13 other police.
2015 Oct 18, Egyptians trickled
in to polling stations to elect a new parliament that will tighten
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's grip on power after he crushed all
opposition since ousting his Islamist predecessor.
2015 Oct 18, France's finance
minister said police made the country's biggest drug seizure in two
years when they found 7.1 tons of hashish in Paris' chic 16th
2015 Oct 18, The Greek
coastguard said 5 people, including a baby and two children, drowned
early today and one was missing in two separate incidents of
migrants trying to reach Greece from nearby Turkey.
2015 Oct 18, Guyana's
government said it is implementing a ban on polystyrene foam
products that it says pose a threat to health and the environment
effective Jan 1.
2015 Oct 18, In Indonesia 7
hikers died after being caught in a forest fire on Java island. The
fire was believed to be caused by a bonfire started by hikers.
2015 Oct 18, The Iraqi
judiciary said it had issued an arrest warrant against Trade
Minister Malas Abdulkarim al-Kasnazani and his brother on corruption
2015 Oct 18, Israel rejected a
proposal to send international observers to a flashpoint holy site
in a bid to calm unrest. At least four Israeli cities, including Tel
Aviv, temporarily banned Arab laborers from working in their schools
as they struggle to calm public fears fueled by the worst surge of
Palestinian street attacks in years. An attacker, who police said
was a Bedouin citizen of Israel, entered the heavily guarded station
armed with a pistol and shot dead a soldier before snatching his
rifle and opening fire on the crowd, wounding nine people.
Police shot the assailant dead. Eritrean migrant Mila Abtum died
after he was shot by a security guard and kicked by an angry Israeli
crowd that mistook him for a gunman.
(AFP, 10/18/15)(Reuters, 10/18/15)(Reuters,
2015 Oct 18, The Italian navy
said 8 bodies have been recovered from a rubber boat carrying
migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean.
2015 Oct 18, In the Philippines
Typhoon Koppu, aka Typhoon Lando, blew ashore into northeastern
Aurora province early today. It forced more than 65,000 villagers
from their homes and left at least 54 dead.
(AP, 10/19/15)(AP, 10/21/15)(SSFC, 10/25/15,
2015 Oct 18, Buses packed with
migrants backed up on Serbia’s border with Croatia, their passage to
western Europe slowed by a new diversion through Slovenia, which
vowed to limit the influx.
2015 Oct 18, In Syria warplanes
believed to be Russian targeted mourners in al-Ghanto village who
were burying people killed a day earlier, killing four civilians.
2015 Oct 18, Swiss voters
finished casting ballots to elect their parliament. The
anti-immigration Swiss People's Party collected 29.4% of the vote.
The Social Democrats were a distant second, virtually unchanged at
18.8%. The pro-business Free Democrats increased by 1.3 percentage
points to 16.4%. Turnout was 48.4%.
(AP, 10/18/15)(AP, 10/19/15)
2015 Oct 18, Tibetans
around the world voted in the first round of elections to choose a
2015 Oct 18, Turkish police
arrested around 50 foreign nationals in Istanbul early today in a
sweep targeting jihadists of the Islamic State group suspected of
involvement in last weekend's Ankara suicide bombings.
2015 Oct 18, In Turkey 2
soldiers were killed when rebels set off a remote-controlled mine
targeting an army vehicle in the eastern province of Tunceli.
Security officials said 4 government soldiers and about 20 Kurdish
rebels have been killed in several days of clashes in the
mountainous Daglica region.
2015 Oct 18, The parents of
French saint Therese of Lisieux -- dubbed "The Little Flower" --
were raised to sainthood, in a move Pope Francis hopes will
underscore the importance of the family. Louis (d.1894) and Zelie
Martin (d.1887) had nine children, four of whom died at a young age,
while the other five all became nuns.
2015 Oct 19, US-led forces
conducted 15 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq, eight of
them near the contested Sinjar area, and two air strikes in Syria.
2015 Oct 19, A US federal judge
in San Francisco ruled that Congressional action prohibits federal
drug enforcers from shutting medical marijuana dispensaries that
comply with state law.
(SFC, 10/20/15, p.A1)
2015 Oct 19, Djordje Ristanic,
a Bosnian Serb civilian official during the 1992-95 war, was
indicted of war crimes against hundreds of Bosnian Muslims and
2015 Oct 19, British citizen
Stephen Port (40) was charged in London with drugging and murdering
four young men he met on gay websites. The deaths took place between
June 2014 and last month.
2015 Oct 19, Canada held
elections. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau rode a late surge to a
stunning majority election victory. The Liberals seized a
Parliamentary majority, a turn in political fortunes that smashed
the record for the number of seats gained from one election to the
2015 Oct 19, Chinese President
Xi Jinping began a four-day state visit to Britain as part of a push
to increase trade ties between the two countries.
2015 Oct 19, Croatia opened its
border with Serbia for migrants and thousands rushed across. Some
5,000 migrants reached Slovenia from Croatia, with another 1,200 on
their way by train.
(AP, 10/19/15)(Reuters, 10/19/15)
2015 Oct 19, Egyptians largely
stayed away from parliamentary elections for a second day,
highlighting growing disillusionment since the army seized power in
2015 Oct 19, A general strike
and curfew shut Indian-controlled Kashmir following the death of a
Muslim teenager attacked by a Hindu mob over rumors of cows being
slaughtered. Zahid Rasool and another truck driver had been set
ablaze by a mob after their vehicle stopped in the Hindu-dominated
Udhampur neighborhood. Rasool died a day earlier from burns suffered
in the attack.
2015 Oct 19, Lawyers said
Ireland has agreed to pay the Romanian Gypsy parents of a blond boy
60,000 euros ($68,000) in compensation after conceding that police
in 2013 employed prejudicial racial profiling when seizing the
2015 Oct 19, In Lebanon 8
people were killed and many wounded when the army targeted militant
positions along the eastern border with war-torn Syria.
2015 Oct 19, NATO held a launch
ceremony for its biggest military exercise in 13 years, mobilizing
36,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen from more than 30 countries to
test the alliance's ability to respond to new security threats.
Trapani, Sicily, will serve as the center for the exercise that
begins Oct 21 and runs through early November.
2015 Oct 19, Gunmen kidnapped
two Lithuanian and two Ukrainian sailors off southern Nigeria. The
ship, flagged in the Comoro Islands, was attacked near Port
2015 Oct 19, Oslo, Norway,
officials said cars will be banned from the city center by 2019 to
help reduce pollution.
2015 Oct 19, In South Africa
chanting protesters, including medical students with stethoscopes
around their necks, demonstrated against planned increases in
tuition fees at a number of top universities.
2015 Oct 19, In South Africa
footage from closed circuit television showed police firing at the
man from close range as he lay on the ground in Krugersdorp, a town
west of Johannesburg. On Nov 2 four police officers were arrested on
2015 Oct 19, Syrian government
forces advanced under the cover of Russian airstrikes toward an air
base besieged by the Islamic State group in the north. Rebels
battling the Syrian army and its allies near Aleppo said they had
received new supplies of US-made anti-tank missiles from states
opposed to President Bashar al-Assad since the start of a major
government offensive last week. The commander of the Nour al Din
al-Zinki Brigades was killed in fighting south of Aleppo.
(AP, 10/19/15)(Reuters, 10/19/15)(Reuters,
2015 Oct 19, In Syria Russian
jets hit an Islamic State training camp and command post of Al-Qaeda
affiliate Al-Nusra Front as they bombed 49 targets in the latest
wave of strikes. Russian air strikes in Latakia province killed
rebel commander Basil Zamo and 4 other fighters from First Coastal
Division, a group armed by Pres. Bashar al-Assad's foreign enemies.
A further 15 civilians were killed in the air strike in Jabal Akrad.
At least 3 Russians fighting alongside Syrian government forces were
killed and several more wounded when a shell hit their position in
(AFP, 10/19/15)(Reuters, 10/20/15)
2015 Oct 19, Turkey’s PM Ahmet
Davutoglu confirmed that one of the suicide bombers in the Oct 10
attack in Ankara had been officially identified through DNA testing.
2015 Oct 19, Yemen said it has
accepted an invitation from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to for
talks with Shiite rebels at the end of this month to discuss the
implementation of a UN resolution that calls for the end of the
2015 Oct 20, The United States
imposed sanctions on Torek Agha, a Taliban leader and fundraiser,
who it said helped plan military attacks in Afghanistan, authorize
the assassination of Afghan government leaders and raise millions of
dollars for the Taliban.
2015 Oct 20, The US and Russia
signed an agreement designed to minimize the risk of collisions and
other dangers as both countries carry out air strikes in Syria.
(SFC, 10/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 20, A coalition led by
the United States conducted 14 air strikes against Islamic State
militants in Iraq.
2015 Oct 20, In New Mexico
Lilly Garcia (4) was shot and killed in a road-rage incident on an
Albuquerque freeway. Suspect Tony Torrez (32) was arrested the next
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 20, In NYC Tyrone
Howard (30) stole a bike and fatally shot Guyana-born Officer
Randolph Holder (33) in the head after a chase. Police said Howard
has been arrested 28 times since age 13 and had a history of
(AP, 10/22/15)(SFC, 10/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 20, Cory Wells
(b.1941), a founding member of the vocal trio behind the rock group
Three Dog Night, died in Dunkirk, NY. Some two dozen top hits by the
group included “Joy to the World" (1971).
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.D8)
2015 Oct 20, Afghan officials
said First VP Abdul Rashid Dostum has been tapped to lead a mission
to retake the Ghormach district in Faryab province, captured over
the weekend by the Taliban.
(SFC, 10/21/15, p.A3)
2015 Oct 20, Azerbaijan police
arrested seven former national security officials on suspicion of
exceeding their authority and illegal interference in businesses,
days after Azeri President Ilham Aliyev fired his national security
2015 Oct 20, Manufacturer Tata
Steel announced 1,200 job cuts in the UK, underscoring the damage
caused by cheap Chinese imports.
2015 Oct 20, China sold its
first sovereign bond in London, worth over $3 billion.
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.53)
2015 Oct 20, Authorities in the
Republic of Congo banned demonstrations in the country after the
opposition called a protest over the president's bid to extend his
three-decade stay in power. At least 3 people were shot dead during
anti-government protests in Brazzaville. A 4th person was killed a
day earlier in in Pointe-Noire.
(Reuters, 10/20/15)(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 20, In India Uber taxi
driver Shiv Kumar Yadav was convicted of raping a young female
passenger in the capital last Dec 5. Uber was banned from operating
in New Delhi in the aftermath of the attack.
2015 Oct 20, Iraqi government
troops, teamed up with paramilitary forces, drove Islamic State
militants out of Beiji, a key oil refinery town north of Baghdad.
About a dozen Iraqis were reported killed and 30 wounded in the
fight over the last 72 hours.
2015 Oct 20, Israeli fire
killed Palestinian Ahmed al-Serhi (27) during clashes on the Gaza
Strip border. An Israeli soldier and a civilian were injured after a
Palestinian attempted to ram his car into a group of pedestrians in
the West Bank, then exited with a knife and was shot dead.
2015 Oct 20, The Democratic
Unionist Party, the major Protestant party in Northern Ireland's
unity government, announced it will resume its power-sharing
positions following publication of an expert report into the Irish
Republican Army that found the outlawed group still exists in the
shadows but is broadly committed to peace.
2015 Oct 20, Korean families,
separated by the Korean War, began to reunite at the Diamond
Mountain resort in North Korea.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A4)(SSFC, 10/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 20, In Lesotho the
wife of a Danish man, who was caught in South Africa last month with
21 pieces of female genitalia in his freezer, was killed outside her
home in the Maseru. The wife was allegedly one of his victims.
2015 Oct 20, In southern Mexico
flooding from two days of heavy rains prompted the governor of
Quintana Roo state to declare an emergency in seven municipalities
on the Yucatan Peninsula.
2015 Oct 20, In Romania
policeman Bogdan Gigina died after driving his motorbike into a hole
while easing a route in Bucharest for Interior Minister Gabriel
2015 Oct 20, Russia's defense
ministry said its planes had flown 55 sorties and struck 60 Islamist
militant targets in Syria in the last 24 hours.
2015 Oct 20, Amnesty
International said a terrorism tribunal in Saudi Arabia, which was
elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2013, has sentenced two
political activists to decade-long prison terms for establishing the
Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA).
2015 Oct 20, Slovenia deployed
the army to guard its border as thousands of migrants streamed into
the tiny country from the south, and said it may resort to "physical
barriers" like neighboring Hungary if the number of arrivals
continued to grow. At least 12,100 migrants were currently in
Serbia. At least 2,500 migrants were stranded in no man's land
between Croatia and Serbia overnight in cold temperatures.
2015 Oct 20, In South Africa
disgraced Paralympian Oscar Pistorius spent his first day out of
jail at his uncle's home in Pretoria where he will serve the rest of
his sentence under house arrest for killing his girlfriend.
2015 Oct 20, In southern Sweden
arsonists attacked asylum seekers' housing in the small town of
Munkedal, the latest in a wave of attacks as migrant numbers, and
tensions, rise. Since the start of the year, 15 arson attacks
throughout the country have targeted refugee reception centers and
apartments, reducing some to cinders.
2015 Oct 20, In Syria 13 people
including medical staff were reportedly killed in Russian air
strikes against a field hospital in the northwestern province of
Idlib that was run by the Syrian-American Medical Society. Russia
later called the reports fake.
2015 Oct 20, Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad flew to Moscow to thank Russia's Vladimir Putin
personally for his military support, in a surprise visit that
underlined how Russia has become a major player in the Middle East.
2015 Oct 21, VP Joe Biden said
he would not seek the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A7)
2015 Oct 21, The US-led
coalition fighting Islamic State targeted the militant group with 22
air strikes in Syria and Iraq.
2015 Oct 21, It was reported
that Ohio is delaying executions until at least 2017 while prison
officials try to secure supplies of hard-to-obtain lethal injection
(SFC, 10/21/15, p.A9)
2015 Oct 21, US Marine Corps
pilot Maj. Taj Sareen was killed when his F/A-18 Hornet crashed on
farmland after taking off from a US Air Force (USAF) base in eastern
(Reuters, 10/21/15)(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 21, Ferrari, an
Italy-based car company owned by Fiat Chrysler, went public with a
10% stake on the NYSE and closed up almost 6% at $55.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.C5)(Econ, 10/17/15, p.69)
2015 Oct 21, Western Digital, a
maker of hard drives, said it is buying SanDisk, a flash-memory chip
maker, in a cash and stock deal valued at about $19 billion.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.C3)
2015 Oct 21, YouTube announced
a monthly subscription service, starting at $10, for YouTube Red,
allowing users to play videos without ads, offline and in the
background while using other apps.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.C1)
2015 Oct 21, The Bahraini Court
of Appeals confirmed the conviction of political activist Zainab
al-Khawaja (32) and reduced her sentence from three to one year in
prison for ripping up a photo of the king in court in 2014. Her
family told Amnesty Int’l. that she intended to keep her infant son
with her in prison if forced to serve her sentence.
2015 Oct 21, Brazil's
opposition filed a new impeachment petition against President Dilma
Rousseff, accusing her of illegal accounting practices.
2015 Oct 21, China’s Communist
Party Central Committee officially banned golf for its 88 million
Communist Party members. Also banned was excessive eating and
drinking and having improper sexual relations.
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.A3)(Econ, 10/31/15, p.44)
2015 Oct 21, PM David Cameron
said Britain and China have signed deals worth around 40 billion
pounds ($62 billion), during a state visit by Chinese President Xi
Jinping. Britain sanctioned a $9.3 billion investment by a Chinese
state power company in a nuclear power plant being built at Hinkley
Point by EDF, a French company.
(Reuters, 10/21/15)(Econ, 10/24/15, p.53)
2015 Oct 21, British police
arrested Shao Jiang (47), a survivor of the Tiananmen Square
crackdown and raided his home, after he stepped out in front of
Chinese President Xi Jinping's motorcade.
2015 Oct 21, In Cameroon 8
villagers in the village of Doulo were killed and nine injured in a
raid by Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram that was followed by a
gun battle between militants and security forces.
2015 Oct 21, More than 100
migrants crowded into two boats landed at a British airbase on the
Mediterranean island of Cyprus, bringing the crisis that has rocked
much of Europe to British sovereign soil.
2015 Oct 21, In eastern China
an explosion at a chemical factory killed 9 people and injured two
2015 Oct 21, The European Union
demanded that Starbucks and Fiat repay up to 30 million euros ($34
million) each in back taxes.
2015 Oct 21, Refugees from
Asian wars crossed into Slovenia from Croatia as border closures
elsewhere forced them to find new routes to rich European countries
and concern grew over the plight of those stranded in wet, freezing
2015 Oct 21, Guam authorities
arrested Lourdes Fernandez Blas (44), a Department of Revenue and
Taxation employee, suspected of taking bribes while on the job. Two
other suspects in the case, Kupwo Kelep Kerwin (30) and Ringko
Sammurai (39), were also arrested and all three were released.
2015 Oct 21, Police in northern
India arrested four men over allegations that they burnt alive two
low-caste children. An officials said the incident was a family feud
and not related to caste violence.
2015 Oct 21, Iran’s Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the country’s nuclear deal
with world powers but said Tehran should not give up core elements
of its atomic program until allegations of past military dimensions
had been settled.
2015 Oct 21, An Israeli female
soldier (19) was wounded in a stabbing near a West Bank settlement
while the attacker was shot dead. Hours later five Israeli soldiers
were run over by a Palestinian driver in the West Bank. A Jewish
Israeli man (28) was shot and killed in a scuffle with Israeli
soldiers who suspected he was a Palestinian attacker. Two alleged
Palestinian attackers attempted to board a bus carrying children
west of Jerusalem, and stabbed an Israeli before being shot.
(AFP, 10/21/15)(AP, 10/22/15)(AFP,
10/22/15)(SSFC, 10/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 21, Japanese Buddhist
monk Kogen Kamahori (41) finished a grueling nine-day ritual without
eating, drinking, or sleeping as he chanted sutras 100,000 times at
2015 Oct 21, Japan-based Toyota
Motor Corp. said it is recalling 6.5 million vehicles worldwide for
a defective power window switch that can overheat, melt and lead to
2015 Oct 21, Mexican police
announced the capture of six people believed responsible for the
July 11 prison break by Joaquin Guzman.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 21, Mexican
authorities discovered an elaborate, rail equipped drug tunnel that
ran from Tijuana to well into San Diego. They seized about ten tons
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.D4)
2015 Oct 21, In northern Syria
a new administration was formed for a majority Sunni-Arab town
controlled by Syrian Kurds, expanding the ethnic group's
semi-autonomous administration. A local leadership council including
representatives of Tel Abyad's Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen and Armenian
communities declared it part of the system of autonomous
self-government established by the Kurds.
(AP, 10/21/15)(Reuters, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 21, Two Niger soldiers
were killed in a suicide attack by a group of suspected Boko Haram
militants in the southeastern region of Diffa.
2015 Oct 21, In the Philippines
2 Chinese diplomats were killed and the consul-general was wounded
by a Chinese attacker armed with a pistol during a birthday
celebration at a restaurant.
2015 Oct 21, Russia said its
jets have hit 83 targets in Syria over the past 24 hours.
2015 Oct 21, In Singapore
Pastor Kong Hee of the City Harvest Church was convicted along with
five other church officials on charges related to the misuse of $36
million to promote the career of Kong’s wife, Ho Yeow, a singer also
known as Sun Ho.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 21, South African riot
police fired stun grenades at hundreds of protesting students who
stormed the parliament precinct in Cape Town to try to disrupt the
reading of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's interim budget.
2015 Oct 21, Swiss-based Credit
Suisse said it plans to cut at least 3,400 jobs over three years in
Britain and Switzerland and raise billions in a new share offering
after its net profit fell 24 percent in the third quarter.
2015 Oct 21, in Tanzania
attackers overnight tried to hack the genitals off a man with
albinism. Presidential and parliamentary polls due Oct 25 have been
marked by fears of a spike in albino murders, with rights groups
warning that some politicians may also be seeking lucky charms or
2015 Oct 21, The UN's cultural
body approved a resolution from a group of Arab states criticizing
Israel for failing to protect heritage sites and rebuild regions
destroyed by war.
2015 Oct 21, In Yemen at least
22 civilians were killed and several others wounded as rockets
allegedly fired by rebels crashed into the city of Taez.
2015 Oct 22, Pres. Obama met
with Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif at the White House to talk of
strengthening ties and possible financial assistance to Islamabad.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A3)
2015 Oct 22, The United States
and its allies carried out 16 air strikes against Islamic State
militants in Iraq and Syria.
2015 Oct 22, US safety
regulators said 8 people have died and 98 people have been injured
by exploding air bag inflators made by Takata Corp. About 23.4
million Takata driver and passenger air bag inflators have been
recalled on 19.2 million US vehicles sold by 12 auto and truck
2015 Oct 22, The US FCC capped
cost on phone calls from prison inmates to go into effect in early
(SFC, 10/23/15, p.A10)
2015 Oct 22, The Watts Bar
plant in Tennessee became the first new nuclear facility to be
licensed in America in 20 years.
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.58)
2015 Oct 22, Taliban fighters
fled to the banks of the Amu River, one of the longest in Central
Asia, deserting motorbikes and using fishing boats to reach the
island on the border between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan after
fleeing army troops led by the Afghan VP General Abdul Rashid
2015 Oct 22, Egyptian
authorities arrested businessman Hassan Malik, a senior leader and
financier of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. More than 200 lawyers
were reported to be behind bars for defending the government's
(AP, 10/23/15)(Reuters, 10/22/15)
2015 Oct 22, French Pres.
Francois Hollande arrived in Athens for a two-day visit, as Greece
seeks help from European rescue lenders for relief on its massive
2015 Oct 22, Amnesty
International said security forces in Guinea have shot two unarmed
people in the back and beat another person to death in the lead up
to elections this month.
2015 Oct 22, In northern Iraq
the US military freed a number of Kurdish captives in a rescue
mission in the vicinity of Hawija. US Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler
(39) was killed in the operation.
(AP, 10/22/15)(AP, 10/23/15)
2015 Oct 22, Masayoshi Son
(58), the Japanese founder and CEO of SoftBank, proposed that the
artifical intelligence will exceed the human kind by about 2055 in
an event call the Singularity.
(Econ, 11/14/15, p.64)
2015 Oct 22, In Kyrgyzstan
shooting broke out on the outskirts of Bishkek between police and a
man believed to be one of the Islamist militants who escaped from a
local prison this month. police believed Altynbek Itibayev, who has
been convicted for murder and faces more charges, including those of
terrorism, had barricaded himself inside a small building with
another unidentified men.
2015 Oct 22, In southwest
Pakistan a powerful bomb at a Shiite mosque killed 10 people and
wounded several others in the district of Sibi.
2015 Oct 22, The Russian
defense ministry said its planes had flown 53 sorties and struck 72
militant targets in Syria in the last 24 hours.
2015 Oct 22, Slovenia's
Constitutional Court gave the go-ahead for a referendum that could
overturn a law allowing same-sex marriages.
2015 Oct 22, It was reported
that more than 12,000 migrants have crossed into Slovenia in the
last 24 hours and thousands more were expected.
2015 Oct 22, In South Sudan
government troops killed about 50 people by stuffing them into a
shipping container in baking heat in Unity state. This was only made
public on Jan 31, 2016. On March 11, 2016, Amnesty International
said the deliberate suffocating of over 60 men and boys stuffed into
a baking hot shipping container in South Sudan is a war crime.
(AFP, 2/1/16)(AFP, 3/11/16)
2015 Oct 22, A Spanish
helicopter ditched about 280 nautical miles (520 km / 320 miles)
from its destination on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, having
set off from Mauritania. All three crew members were missing.
2015 Oct 22, In Sweden a
teacher and student died and another teacher and student were badly
injured in an attack by a knife-wielding masked man in the town of
Trollhattan. Attacker Anton Lundin Pettersson (21) died after being
shot by police, who later confirmed racial motivations. Wounded
teacher Nazir Amso (42) died on Dec 3.
(AP, 10/22/15)(AFP, 10/23/15)(AP, 12/4/15)
2015 Oct 22, In Sweden a
teacher and student died and another teacher and student were badly
injured in an attack by a knife-wielding masked man in the town of
Trollhattan. The attacker died after being shot by police.
2015 Oct 22, Southern
Thailand was hit by the most severe haze ever from forest fires in
Indonesia, forcing all schools in a province to close and disrupting
flights in a popular tourist area.
2015 Oct 22, UN human rights
chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein accused the Czech Republic of committing
systematic human rights violations by detaining refugees for up to
90 days and strip-searching them for money to pay for their own
2015 Oct 22, In Vanuatu 14
members of parliament were sent to prison on charges of graft.
Earlier this month Marcellino Pipite, the speaker of parliament, had
pardoned himself and 13 others while acting as head of state as
Pres. Baldwin Lonsdale traveled abroad. Londsdale rescinded the
pardons on his return.
(SFC, 12/11/15, p.37)
2015 Oct 22, In Yemen forces
loyal to Pres. Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi killed at least 20 Houthi
militia fighters in heavy clashes in Taiz.
2015 Oct 22, Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe was awarded China's alternative to the Nobel
Peace Prize for what the prize committee called his inspired
national leadership and service to pan-Africanism. Mugabe received
only 36 of 76 votes, but was awarded the prize following a meeting
of the committee's 13-member review board.
2015 Oct 23, The United States,
Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia met in Vienna to explore a political
solution to the Syrian civil war despite the basic US-Russian
disagreement over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's fate.
2015 Oct 23, The United States
and its allies carried out 21 air strikes against Islamic State
militants in Iraq.
2015 Oct 23, US FDA authorities
said they have confiscated shipments of the lethal-injection
chemical sodium thiopental that Arizona and Texas tried to bring in
from abroad, saying such imports are illegal.
(SFC, 10/24/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 23, TalkTalk, a
British telephone and broadband provider, said it has been hit by a
"significant and sustained" cyber-attack and that the personal data
of millions of Britons could be at risk after.
2015 Oct 23, In northern
Cameroon Boko Haram Islamists seized control of Kerawa, a town in on
the border with Nigeria. An unspecified number of civilians were
killed in the assault.
2015 Oct 23, Quebec province
officials said eight Canadian police officers, suspected of sexually
assaulting and beating aboriginal women, have been put on leave or
transferred to administrative duty.
2015 Oct 23, Chinese President
Xi Jinping has ended his state visit to Britain after being greeted
by hundreds of enthusiastic and well-organized well-wishers in the
northwest England city of Manchester.
2015 Oct 23, China cut interest
rates to support stuttering growth and announced that it was setting
banks free in theory to offer depositors whatever interest they
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.69)
2015 Oct 23, Croatia and Serbia
agreed to increase the flow of asylum-seekers over their border
after thousands were forced to spend a muddy night out in the open
in near-freezing temperatures.
2015 Oct 23, In France at least
43 people on a bus carrying elderly day-trippers were killed early
today when the bus hit a truck head-on and caught fire near
Puisseguin in the Gironde region.
2015 Oct 23, Germany defended a
decision to allow the export of tanks and artillery to Qatar, saying
it was confident the arms would not be used in a war in Yemen
between government supporters and the Iran-allied Houthis.
2015 Oct 23, German authorities
arrested an Iranian man on suspicion he was spying for Tehran.
Maysam P. (31) was accused of spying since December 2013 for Iran on
the opposition group known as the People's Mujahedin of Iran, or
2015 Oct 23, India accused
Pakistan of a cease-fire violation in Kashmir in which one Indian
civilian was killed and another was wounded.
2015 Oct 23, In Indonesia a law
that makes gay sex punishable by public caning took effect in
conservative Aceh province.
2015 Oct 23, Japan and
Turkmenistan signed deals worth over $18 billion on a package of
projects in the energy-rich central Asian nation, which has become
an important supplier of natural gas to China.
2015 Oct 23, In Mexico
Hurricane Patricia, a Category 5 storm, crashed into western Mexico
with rain and winds of up to 165 mph (266 kph). The hurricane was
downgraded to a tropical storm and then a depression as it moved
northeast in Zacatecas the following morning.
(Reuters, 10/24/15)(AFP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 23, Niger was ordered
to pay compensation to the family of former president Ibrahim Bare
Mainassara, who was killed by members of the presidential guard in a
1999 coup. Five judges sitting at the ECOWAS Court of Justice said
Niamey should pay a total of 435 million CFA francs (663,000 euros,
$750,000) to Mainassara's widow, five children and 11 brothers and
2015 Oct 23, In northeastern
Nigeria 42 people were killed and 11 wounded in bomb attacks at
mosques in Maiduguri, Borno state, and in Yola, Adamawa state.
(Reuters, 10/23/15)(AP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 23, In southern
Pakistan a suicide bomber targeted a Shiite religious procession,
killing at least 18 people and wounding 40 others in Jacobabad,
2015 Oct 23, A Peruvian
prosecutor said Lt. Wilmer Eduardo Delgado Ruiz (35), arrested for
allegedly letting small planes ferry cocaine unhindered from the
world's No. 1 coca-producing valley, was getting bribes of $10,000 a
planeload that he apparently shared with his superiors.
2015 Oct 23, Philippine
aviation authorities said haze from Indonesian forest fires has
spread to the southern and central Philippines, disrupting air
traffic and prompting warnings for residents to wear face masks.
2015 Oct 23, Portugal's
parliament elected Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues as Socialist speaker of
the house. Leftist parties used their majority in the new parliament
to block the incoming center-right government's candidate.
2015 Oct 23, In South Africa
thousands of university students protesting planned tuition hikes
flocked to the country's main government complex, with some setting
fires and throwing stones as police responded with stun grenades,
tear gas and a water cannon. Pres. Zuma met with student leaders and
university managers. His office later announced that there would be
no fee increase for university students in 2016.
2015 Oct 23, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said Russian air strikes in Syria have
killed at least 446 people, more than a third of them civilians,
since they began end-September.
2015 Oct 23, In Thailand police
Major Prakrom Warunprapa, charged under a controversial royal
defamation law, died in custody after "hanging" himself in his cell.
He was accused of embezzling money by falsely claiming links to the
(AFP, 10/24/15)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.42)
2015 Oct 23, In Ukraine
pro-Russian insurgents in eastern separatist Donetsk region said
they have banned Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and UN agencies.
2015 Oct 23, Yemeni security
officials said heavy fighting between pro-government forces and the
Shiite Houthi rebels besieging the western city of Taiz killed 71
people in the past two days.
2015 Oct 24, The United States
and Saudi Arabia agreed to increase support to Syria's moderate
opposition while seeking a political resolution of the four-year
conflict as Secretary of State John Kerry met with King Salman.
2015 Oct 24, The US-led
coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria carried
out 22 air strikes.
2015 Oct 24, In Connecticut
Mozaffar Khazaee (61), a former Pratt & Whitney engineer, was
sentenced to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay a
$50,000 fine for trying to send hundreds of sensitive US military
documents to Iran as he tried to get teaching jobs at state-run
2015 Oct 24, Maureen O’Hara
(b.1920), Irish-born film star, died at her home in Boise, Idaho.
Her many films included “How Green Was My Valley" (1941), “Miracle
on 34th Street “ (1947), “The Quiet Man" (1952) and “The Parent
(SSFC, 10/25/15, p.D13)
2015 Oct 24, In Oklahoma 4
people were killed and dozens more injured after Adacia Avery
Chambers (25), suspected of driving under the influence, crashed
into a crowd attending an Oklahoma State University homecoming
parade in Stillwater.
(AP, 10/2515)(AFP, 10/2515)
2015 Oct 24, Afghan security
forces retook control of the Ghormach district in the northwestern
province of Faryab after it was overrun by the Taliban several days
2015 Oct 24, In Bangladesh
unidentified attackers hurled home-made bombs as thousands of Shiite
Muslims gathered for a religious procession in Dhaka before dawn
injuring more than 100 other people. 2 people were killed.
Authorities immediately arrested two suspects and recovered two
(AP, 10/24/15)(Econ, 11/7/15, p.36)
2015 Oct 24, In Egypt gunmen in
North Sinai shot dead Mostafa Abdel Rahman, a candidate for
ultraconservative Salafist Al-Nur party which is seen as
pro-government. A first lieutenant and two soldiers were killed in
an explosion which targeted a police armored vehicle in the northern
Sinai city of el-Arish.
(AFP, 10/24/15)(AP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 24, French pilots
Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos arrived in France after escaping from
the Dominican Republic, where they were convicted and sentenced to
20 years in prison for bringing drugs into the country by private
plane. They denied the charges. Two other Frenchmen who were also
convicted in connection with the same case remained in the Dominican
2015 Oct 24, It was reported
that Greece this week averaged 9,600 migrants arriving per day.
(SFC, 10/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 24, Indonesian
officials said warships have been put on standby to evacuate people
affected by acrid haze from forest fires which has killed at least
10 and caused respiratory illnesses in half a million.
2015 Oct 24, In Iraq huge
crowds of black-clad Shiite faithful massed in Karbala, crying and
beating their chests to commemorate Ashura, the 7th century killing
of the prophet's grandson.
2015 Oct 24, In Jordan US
Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas met In Amman, and voiced hope they might find a way to ease
the Israel-Palestinian tensions but offered no details. Kerry will
also met King Abdullah of Jordan, who is custodian of the al-Aqsa
mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City.
2015 Oct 24, Hundreds of S.
Koreans crossed the border to North Korea for the last set of
reunions this year. In the first round of reunions earlier in the
week, about 390 South Koreans traveled to the resort to meet with
180 North Korean relatives.
2015 Oct 24, In Lebanon tens of
thousands of Hezbollah supporters marched through the Shi'ite
southern suburbs of Beirut chanting "Death to the Saud family" as
their leader railed against Sunni-led Saudi Arabia in a sign of
deepening hostility towards the US-allied kingdom.
2015 Oct 24, In Libya the
bodies of 27 people, thought to be migrants, were discovered on
beaches at Zliten. Another 13 were found along the shores of Tripoli
and the nearby town of Khoms.
(AP, 10/2515)(SSFC, 10/25/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 24, Maldives VP Ahmed
Adeeb was arrested in connection with the Sep 28 explosion aboard
the president's boat that authorities have called an assassination
attempt. Adeeb will be charged with high treason. Three soldiers,
including a former member of Adeeb's security detail and a member of
the army's bomb squad, were also arrested in connection with the
blast. Authorities also arrested a Sri Lankan man believed to be a
sniper who was targeting President Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
(AP, 10/24/15)(AP, 11/7/15)
2015 Oct 24, A Nigerian court
nullified the election of the governor of the oil-rich Rivers state
on the grounds of irregularities and ordered a fresh vote within 90
days. Governor Nyesom Wike, of former president Goodluck Jonathan's
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had been declared winner of the
2015 Oct 24, In northeastern
Nigeria 4 women suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing one
other person and wounding 10, when civilian guards prevented them
from entering the city of Maiduguri.
2015 Oct 24, A Palestinian was
shot dead after he tried to stab an Israeli security guard at the
Jalameh border crossing.
2015 Oct 24, The Russian
defense ministry said its planes had flown 934 sorties and destroyed
819 militant targets in Syria since the start of its operation there
on Sept. 30.
2015 Oct 24, Slovenian
officials staggered to cope and tempers flared at an overcrowded
refugee center as thousands more asylum-seekers poured into the tiny
Alpine nation. Slovenian police estimated some 13,000 people had
entered the country in the last 24 hours.
2015 Oct 24, Humanitarian
organizations monitoring civilian casualties in South Sudan said 80
civilians, including 57 children, were killed in just one county in
war-torn Unity state between October 4 and 22.
2015 Oct 24, Syrian troops
backed by Russian air strikes battled Islamic State group fighters
in a bid to restore a key supply line to Aleppo. The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said at least 28 IS fighters and 21
troops and militia have been killed in the battle for the road that
leads to the government-held sector of Aleppo.
2015 Oct 24, In Syria Vadim
Kostenko (19) a Russian soldier, reportedly hanged himself at a base
on the Syrian coast because of problems in his personal life. At his
funeral his father said there were no signs on the body to support
the official account.
2015 Oct 24, Venezuela media
reported that Franklin Nieves, the state prosecutor who helped lead
charges against opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, has fled the
country and accused the socialist government of pressing him to use
false evidence to unfairly condemn Lopez.
2015 Oct 25, A US-led coalition
conducted 15 air strikes against Islamic state in Iraq.
2015 Oct 25, Florida called an
early end to the state’s black bear hunt saying 298 bears were taken
nearing the set limit.
(SFC, 10/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 25, Argentina held
presidential elections. Mauricio Macri dealt a major blow to the
ruling Front for Victory in the first round, winning 34.3 percent of
the vote, slightly less than Daniel Scioli of the ruling party at
(AP, 10/2515)(Reuters, 10/2615)
2015 Oct 25, Former British PM
Tony Blair acknowledged the 2003 invasion of Iraq played a part in
the rise of the Islamic State militant group, and apologized for
some mistakes in planning the war.
2015 Oct 25, In Canada 5
Britons were killed when a Canadian whale-watching boat carrying 27
passengers sank off the coast of British Columbia. An Australian man
remained missing and the rest were rescued.
(Reuters, 10/2615)(SFC, 10/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 25, China said it will
provide Nepal with 1.3 million liters (340,000 gallons) of gasoline
to help it cope with severe fuel shortages as a result of restricted
supplies from neighboring India.
2015 Oct 25, Colombians went to
the polls to elect provincial governors and hundreds of local
officials who will have a crucial role in implementing any peace
agreement reached with leftist FARC rebels.
2015 Oct 25, The Republic of
Congo voted on whether to amend the constitution to enable one of
Africa's longest-serving leaders, President Denis Sassou Nguesso, to
seek a third term, extending his 31-year grip on power. More than 92
percent of voters supported the change and turnout stood at 72
(AFP, 10/2515)(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 25, Central and
eastern European leaders met in Brussels to draw up a common
approach to dealing with the thousands of migrants streaming into
the EU every day from the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan.
The leaders committed to bolster the borders of Greece as it
struggles to cope with the wave of refugees from Syria and beyond
who cross over through Turkey.
(Reuters, 10/2515)(AP, 10/2615)
2015 Oct 25, It was reported
that carbon nanotubes have been found in the lung fluid of asthmatic
children living in Paris. The nanomaterial has only recently been
used to manufacture items such as bicycle parts, sporting goods and
(SSFC, 10/25/15, p.D16)
2015 Oct 25, At least three
migrants, two children and a woman, drowned when their boat sank off
the Greek island of Lesbos.
2015 Oct 25, Guatemala held
runoff elections. Comedian Jimmy Morales faced former first lady
Sandra Torres, a businesswoman and longtime political operative.
Morales (46) won after officials results showed him winning about
68% of the vote.
(AP, 10/2515)(SFC, 10/27/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 25, Haitians began
voting for a new president with a choice of 54 candidates. Jude
Celestin, of the Lapeh party, garnered 25 percent of the vote,
according to results. He will face ruling party candidate Jovenel
Moise, the frontrunner at 32 percent, in a December 27 runoff.
(AFP, 10/2515)(AFP, 11/6/15)
2015 Oct 25, Indonesian police
on Bali arrested Rajendra Nikalje, one of India's most wanted
gangsters, sought in more than two dozen murder cases. On Nov 5 he
was deported to India after being on Interpol's most-wanted list for
(Reuters, 10/2615)(AP, 11/5/15)
2015 Oct 25, In Indonesia 17
people were killed in a fire that raced through a karaoke bar early
today on Sulawesi island. 71 others were hospitalized for smoke
2015 Oct 25, Ivory Coast voters
headed to the polls as the West African nation held its first
presidential election since a disputed vote five years ago triggered
violence in which more than 3,000 people died. Alassane Ouattara won
a landslide victory.
(AP, 10/2515)(AFP, 10/28/15)
2015 Oct 25, Kenya's military
says it has destroyed a base in Somalia operated by the Islamic
extremist rebels of al-Shabab and killed 15 of its fighters in a
2015 Oct 25, In Pakistan
gunfire and shelling by Indian border guards killed three civilians
near Sialkot, a city in the eastern Punjab province. Another 14
people were wounded. India said Pakistan fired first.
2015 Oct 25, A Palestinian
woman was shot dead while trying to knife Israeli border police and
two Israelis were wounded in attempted stabbings as PM Benjamin
Netanyahu agreed to install more security cameras at the flashpoint
Al-Aqsa mosque compound in a bid to defuse tensions.
2015 Oct 25, Poland held
parliamentary elections. The conservative Law and Justice (PiS)
party under party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski won 235 seats in the
460-seat lower house and a majority in the Senate, sweeping the
economically liberal pro-EU center-right Civic Platform from office.
No party left of center won a seat. Beata Szydlo will serve as prime
(Reuters, 10/2615)(AP, 10/27/15)(SFC, 10/29/15,
p.A2)(Econ, 10/31/15, p.51)
2015 Oct 25, Romania's
President Klaus Iohannis demanded that the prime minister and
interior minister address public anger over the on-duty death of a
police motorcyclist on Oct 20. Hundreds of protesters took to the
streets of Bucharest calling for the resignation of Interior
Minister Gabriel Oprea.
2015 Oct 25, Direct flights
between Russia and Ukraine stopped as a result of continuing
tensions over Russia's annexation of Crimea and backing of
separatists in eastern Ukraine.
2015 Oct 25, Tanzania and
Zanzibar held general elections. Ruling party candidate, Works
Minister John Magufuli (55), battled former PM Edward Lowassa (62),
who defected to the opposition earlier this year after being
rejected as the ruling party's candidate. On Oct 29 the National
Electoral Commission said John Magufuli won the presidential
elections with over 58 percent of votes, but the opposition said the
vote was rigged and also claimed victory.
(AP, 10/2515)(AFP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 25, In western
Thailand 8 people were killed and over 20 injured when a bus
carrying workers back from a holiday weekend crashed in Kanchanaburi
2015 Oct 25, Turkish military
shot at Kurdish forces deployed in the town of Tal Abyad, Syria,
using mostly machine guns. There were no casualties in the shooting
and the Kurdish forces didn't return fire.
2015 Oct 25, Ukrainians voted
in local elections that were seen as a test of the strength of
President Petro Poroshenko's government and of the oligarchs
accustomed to running regions of the country. The Mariupol vote was
pushed back to next month "due to the improper preparation of
(AP, 10/2515)(AFP, 10/2515)
2015 Oct 25, Pope Francis
closed a contentious bishops' meeting on family issues calling for a
more open-hearted, compassionate Church rooted in people's lives and
not a programmatic, arid one that fears changes and challenges.
2015 Oct 25, In Yemen about 30
Islamic militants stormed a supermarket in Aden, firing into the air
and taking hostages.
2015 Oct 26, Pres. Barack Obama
and John Boehner, the outgoing Speaker of the House, struck a deal
to suspend the debt ceiling.
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.25)
2015 Oct 26, The Mississippi
state flag was taken down from the Univ. of Mississippi after
student leaders, faculty and staff called for its removal because of
its prominent Confederate emblem.
(SFC, 10/27/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 26, In Afghanistan 2
security guards working for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights
Commission were killed in the eastern city of Jalalabad when a
roadside bomb blew up as their vehicle passed.
2015 Oct 26, A major earthquake
struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing at least 135 people in
Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan and sending shock waves as
far as New Delhi. The death toll from the 7.5 magnitude quake soon
reached 390 with 272 killed in Pakistan and 121 in Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 10/2615)(AP, 10/29/15)
2015 Oct 26, The Belgian branch
of the controversial Church of Scientology went on trial facing a
possible ban for fraud and extortion, charges it claims are meant to
blacken its reputation.
2015 Oct 26, In Burundi gunmen
hurled grenades and battled with police in a series of deadly
clashes, the latest violence since the controversial re-election of
President Pierre Nkurunziza. Police killed a "madman" who tried to
attack officers with a machete in Bujumbura. Over the next 24 hours
more than a dozen people were killed in clashes between security
forces and citizens.
(AFP, 10/27/15)(Reuters, 10/28/15)
2015 Oct 26, In Colombia a
rebel National Liberation Army (ELN) ambush on poll workers killed
12 members of the security forces in the Andean highlands. Two
soldiers remained missing.
(AP, 10/27/15)(SFC, 10/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 26, Croatian police
said that more than 13,000 migrants arrived from Serbia in the past
24 hours, while Slovenian police reported nearly 10,000 arrivals
from Croatia in the same period.
2015 Oct 26, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed 7 people, including 2 police, in an attack on a
Shi'ite Muslim procession in a northern Baghdad neighborhood.
2015 Oct 26, In Jordan two
containers filled with fireworks exploded at a customs storage area
in Amman, killing 5 people and wounding 10, several critically.
2015 Oct 26, Lebanese
authorities detained Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin
Abdulaziz and four others at Beirut international airport after
finding two tons of drugs aboard a private jet bound for the Gulf
kingdom. On Nov 2 the Saudi prince and nine others were charged with
(Reuters, 10/2615)(AFP, 11/2/15)
2015 Oct 26, In northern Mali
UN peacekeepers began lifting a security zone they imposed around
the town of Kidal because fears of an attack have diminished after
rival clans signed a peace deal earlier this month.
2015 Oct 26, Mali’s military
said 3 civilians died when their vehicle hit a landmine, and that
two UN peacekeepers who went to the rescue were wounded when a
second mine exploded at Tessalit in the region of Kidal.
2015 Oct 26, It was reported
that Burger King has opened its first store in sparsely populated
Mongolia, joining companies from Pizza Hut to Porsche in
anticipating an economic boom from the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold
2015 Oct 26, MTN Nigeria said
it has been fined $5.2 billion for failing to disconnect 5.1 million
unregistered cellphone subscribers. The $5.2 billion is at least two
average years' profit for MTN Nigeria, by far the MTN Group's most
2015 Oct 26, Palestinian
teenager Saed al-Atrash (19) tried to stab an Israeli soldier in the
southern West Bank city of Hebron and was shot dead.
2015 Oct 26, The Russian
defense ministry said its planes had flown 164 sorties and struck
285 Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra militant targets in Syria in
the last three days.
2015 Oct 26, In Saudi Arabia a
blast struck the mosque belonging to the Ismaili Shiite minority in
Najran after sunset, killing one person and wounding several others.
The bomber was identified that next day as Saudi citizen Saad Saeed
Saad al-Harthy (34).
2015 Oct 26, Rebels in South
Sudan seized UN barges they suspected were transporting weapons for
government troops. 28 UN peacekeepers were freed on Oct 29, but 12
contractors were kept hostage. On Nov 1 the UN sent helicopters to
pick up the South Sudanese workers, and recovered the barge, but not
the 55,000 liters of fuel it was carrying.
(AP, 10/29/15)(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A4)(Reuters,
2015 Oct 26, Spain’s PM Mariano
Rajoy signed a decree formally dissolving parliament and calling for
general elections on Dec 20.
(SFC, 10/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 26, In Syria the
Islamic State group killed 3 of its captives in the ancient city of
Palmyra by tying them to Roman-era columns at the site, then blowing
the structures up with explosives.
2015 Oct 26, Two Turkish
policemen and 7 Islamic State suspects were killed in a shootout in
the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. About 15 suspected militants
were detained and the government labeled the raid as an important
blow to an IS cell.
(AFP, 10/2615)(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 26, Ukraine's
pro-Russian insurgents said they had expelled two ceasefire monitors
from the separatist Lugansk region last week. The Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) denied the report. One
soldier was killed when government positions came under fire from
the direction of the Donetsk airport.
(AFP, 10/2615)(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 26, Pope Francis
called for a fresh start for Roma and Sinti communities, telling
traveler families from around the world they could break free of
prejudice by not falling into crime. The Sinti are a traditionally
itinerant ethnic group that has been present in Italy for centuries.
2015 Oct 26, The World Health
Organization said hot dogs, bacon, cold cuts and other processed
meats raise the risk of colon, stomach and other cancers, and red
meat probably contributes to the disease, throwing its considerable
authority behind what many doctors have been warning for years.
2015 Oct 26, In Yemen a
suspected al Qaeda suicide bomber killed two militiamen at a
checkpoint in the southern city of Aden.
2015 Oct 26, Yemeni residents
reported that a coalition air strike killed Haradh hospital director
Yasser Wathab and two people he was traveling with in a car in the
northwestern province of Hajja. Several shells fired from
Houthi-held north Yemen over the border into the Saudi city of
Najran killed 2 foreign residents and wounded a Saudi citizen. A
hospital in north Yemen run by medical aid group Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) was bombed in a Saudi-led air strike, wrecking the
facility and lightly wounding two staff members.
2015 Oct 26, In Zanzibar Maalim
Seif Hamad of the Civic United Front party announced he had won the
Zanzibar presidential election, saying he had ousted his rival, Ali
Mohamed Shein of Tanzania's ruling party. Although part of Tanzania,
Zanzibar is run by a semi-autonomous government with its own
2015 Oct 27, The United States
defied China by sending a warship close to artificial islands the
rising Asian power is building in disputed waters, prompting Beijing
furiously to denounce what it called a threat to its sovereignty.
2015 Oct 27, The United States
and its allies carried out 14 air strikes against Islamic State in
2015 Oct 27, Walgreens Boots
Alliance Inc. agreed to acquire Rite Aid Corp. for $9.42 billion in
cash. Including debt the deal was valued at $17.2 billion.
(SFC, 10/28/15, p.C4)
2015 Oct 27, The Taliban
encouraged aid groups to help victims of the massive earthquake in
northern Afghanistan and Pakistan as rescuers struggled to form a
clear picture of the damage caused by the disaster as the death toll
2015 Oct 27, Congolese
opposition leaders called for "civil disobedience" to pressure the
government into withdrawing a planned constitutional amendment
enabling President Denis Sassou Nguesso to extend his three-decade
2015 Oct 27, Egyptians voted in
run-off elections for more than 200 parliamentary seats in which no
clear winner emerged in the first round of polls, with candidates
loyal to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi widely expected to dominate.
2015 Oct 27, In Indonesia 12
miners were buried under a landslide while digging illegally at a
state-run gold mine on the main island of Java.
2015 Oct 27, American-Israeli
educator Richard Lakin (76), wounded in a Palestinian stabbing and
shooting attack on a Jerusalem bus on Oct 13, died of his injuries.
His death raised to 11 the number of Israelis killed in Palestinian
2015 Oct 27, Kosovo took a step
towards possible European Union membership, signing a trade and
political pact with Brussels less than a decade after unilaterally
declaring independence from Serbia.
2015 Oct 27, In Libya a
helicopter with 23 people on board crashed near Tripoli but the
cause was unclear.
2015 Oct 27, The Maldives
adopted new anti-terror legislation. Opposition politicians claimed
one purpose of it was to intimidate government critics.
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.40)
2015 Oct 27, Nigerian troops
freed 338 people, almost all of them women and children, held by
Boko Haram Islamists near the group's Sambisa forest stronghold.
Troops killed 30 suspected jihadists and seized a cache of arms and
ammunition in the area.
2015 Oct 27, Nigeria's state
oil firm NNPC started auctioning annual crude grades on live
television and vowed to cut contract holders by a third as part of a
drive to boost transparency at an institution hit by corruption.
2015 Oct 27, Qatar's emir,
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, approved a new law overseeing the
sponsorship system, which currently only allows workers to leave the
country with the approval of their employer, as well as rules that
allow workers to switch jobs. Rights groups the next day dismissed
as a "sham" the long-awaited reforms.
2015 Oct 27, In Spain Catalan
separatists launched their so-called roadmap for independence,
offering a declaration in the regional parliament to split from
Spain, which PM Mariano Rajoy has vowed to block.
2015 Oct 27, The Syrian
presidency said political initiatives could not work in Syria before
terrorism had been wiped out, sticking by its long-held position on
how to end the war after its Russian allies called for new
2015 Oct 27, Turkish
authorities took over the management of 22 companies including
newspapers and TV stations linked to a US-based cleric and
arch-enemy of President Tayyip Erdogan, intensifying a crackdown
days ahead of an election. Police used tear gas to disperse hundreds
of people protesting against the government's move to seize control
of Koza-Ipek Holding.
(Reuters, 10/27/15)(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 27, The UN said more
than 700,000 refugees and migrants have reached Europe's
Mediterranean shores so far this year, amid the continent's worst
migration crisis since World War II.
2015 Oct 27, In Vietnam a court
in Hanoi sentenced six executives of a state-owned railway
corporation to up to 12 years in prison after convicting them of
corruption involving a Japan-funded railway project.
2015 Oct 28, Former House
speaker Dennis Hastert (73), once second in line to the US
presidency, pleaded guilty to making illegal bank transactions,
allegedly for hush-money payouts.
2015 Oct 28, In Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents overran the district capital of Darqand in Takhar
province, one of the northern provinces hit by a powerful earthquake
2015 Oct 28, African Union
investigators discovered mass graves in South Sudan and found
evidence of horrific crimes, including forced cannibalism, according
to a long-awaited report. Investigators found that the conflict
began on Dec. 15, 2013, as a skirmish broke out between Dinka and
Nuer soldiers of the presidential guard following political tension
between Kiir and Machar, who had been fired as Kiir's deputy the
2015 Oct 28, Australia’s Troy
Resources Limited said it plans to open a large gold mine in
upcoming weeks at the mine in the Puruni region in western Guyana.
2015 Oct 28, Austria said it
would build a fence along its border with fellow EU state Slovenia
to "control" the migrant influx, in what would be the first barrier
between two members of the passport-free Schengen zone.
2015 Oct 28, Colombian
President Juan Manuel Santos offered to declare a bilateral
ceasefire with the FARC guerrillas from January 1, which would mark
a major breakthrough in peace talks.
2015 Oct 28, Germany's Interior
Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the rising number of Afghan asylum
seekers was "unacceptable", as he urged young citizens of the south
Asian nation to stay at home and rebuild their homeland.
2015 Oct 28, At least 29 people
died and 274 people were rescued when a wooden boat they were on
literally fell apart in rough seas off the Greek island of Lesbos.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)(SFC, 10/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 28, An Indonesian
minister said the death toll from acrid haze blanketing parts of the
country has climbed to 19.
2015 Oct 28, Iran said Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and three of his deputies will attend
multilateral talks on Oct 29 in Vienna aimed at resolving the
conflict in Syria. Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, the European Union and
France also said they would attend the talks.
2015 Oct 28, The United States
and its allies conducted 13 air strikes against Islamic State
militants in Iraq.
2015 Oct 28, An Italian court
rejected Tunisia's extradition request for Abdelmajid Touil, a
Moroccan arrested on suspicion of involvement in a deadly museum
attack, because he risks the death penalty.
2015 Oct 28, Nepal's parliament
elected communist lawmaker Bidhya Bhandari as the country's first
2015 Oct 29, At The Hague an
int’l. tribunal ruled that it can take on a case between China and
the Philippines over disputed territory in the South China Sea.
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 28, In southeastern
Niger suspected Boko Haram militants killed at least 14 people in an
overnight attack on the village of Ala in the Diffa region.
2015 Oct 28, The tiny Pacific
island nation of Palau created a vast marine sanctuary the size of
Spain, banning fishing across the bulk of its waters to preserve the
ocean for future generations.
2015 Oct 28, A Palestinian in
the occupied West Bank city of Hebron attempted to stab an Israeli
soldier and was shot dead.
2015 Oct 28, Russia said its
air force flew 71 sorties over Syria in the last two days, carrying
out 118 strikes on militant targets.
2015 Oct 28, South African
police fired stun grenades and arrested one student in clashes at
Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, as country-wide
protests for free tertiary education entered a third week.
2015 Oct 28, Tanzania's
opposition presidential candidate Edward Lowassa called for a
recount of the Oct 25 election for the presidency, citing voting
irregularities in the East African nation's tightest elections in
more than five decades. Earlier, the vote in Tanzania's
semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago was annulled after the election
commission there cited gross violations.
2015 Oct 28, In Turkey Istanbul
police used tear gas in a dawn raid on the headquarters of Koza-Ipek
Holding, a major media company linked to a government critic,
enforcing a court order to seize the business just days before
Turkey holds a national election. Riot police firing tear gas and
water cannon stormed two opposition-linked television stations and
forced them off air.
(AP, 10/28/15)(AFP, 10/28/15)
2015 Oct 28, In Yemen warplanes
from a Saudi-led alliance bombed the Iran-allied Houthi movement
throughout Yemen and dropped weapons for its allies battling the
group in the southwestern city of Taiz. Militants bombed a local
college in the southern city of Aden, following previous threats
against the school.
(Reuters, 10/28/15)(AP, 10/28/15)
2015 Oct 29, The United States
and its allies conducted 11 air strikes against Islamic State
militants in Iraq and one in Syria.
2015 Oct 29, The US Pentagon
said Ahmed Abdel Aziz (45) has been sent back to his native
Mauritania after 13 years in custody at Guantanamo. He was never
charged with a crime.
2015 Oct 29, In Central African
Republic 4 people were killed by mobs in Bangui. 3 Muslims were
attacked as they left the city's only Muslim enclave, PK5, to enter
the Christian sixth district. Witnesses said 2 of them were killed
immediately and their bodies chopped into small pieces. A third man
escaped but was then stoned to death by a crowd. A Christian was
killed later in the morning as he entered PK5.
2015 Oct 29, China’s Communist
Party said it will ease family planning restrictions to allow all
couples to have two children after decades of a strict one-child
policy, a move aimed at alleviating demographic strains on the
2015 Oct 29, The EU said it
will suspended most sanctions against Belarus for four months as of
Oct 31, citing "improving relations" after authoritarian President
Alexander Lukashenko released all remaining political prisoners.
2015 Oct 29, German police said
they have searched the homes of 13 people as part of an
international swoop on users of the mobile phone malware DroidJack,
which allows cybercriminals to assume control of Android smartphones
without users being aware.
2015 Oct 29, Berlin police
arrested a 32-year-old man suspected of abducting a 4-year-old
migrant boy after a child's body was found in his car. Mohamed
Januzi of Bosnia disappeared on Oct. 1 while waiting outside the
offices of the government program for social care with his mother
and two siblings. Police the next day said Silvio S. had confessed
during questioning to killing both Mohamed Januzi, and six-year-old
Elias from Potsdam, who went missing in July. On July 26, 2016,
Silvio S. was jailed for life.
(Reuters, 10/29/15)(AP, 10/30/15)(Reuters,
2015 Oct 29, Authorities on the
Greek island of Lesbos searched for 38 people believed still missing
after the sinking of a wooden boat carrying migrants. Greece rescued
144 refugees and recovered the bodies of 22, including 4 infants and
9 children, after their boats sank in two separate incidents in the
(AP, 10/29/15)(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Oct 29, In Iraq a barrage
of rockets hit Camp Liberty, a former US military base near Baghdad
housing an opposition Iranian refugee group (MEK). 3 Iraqi soldiers
were killed and at least 20 Iranian exiles.
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 29, Israeli security
forces shot dead 2 Palestinian assailants in Hebron in the occupied
West Bank following knife attacks on Israeli soldiers.
2015 Oct 29, Lebanese customs
officials discovered 230 kg of Captagon amphetamine pills hidden
inside tables prepared for export to the Gulf state of Qatar from
Beirut international airport.
2015 Oct 29, Moldova's
parliament backed a motion of no-confidence in the ruling
pro-European coalition, increasing political turmoil following the
fraudulent disappearance of $1 billion from the banking system. The
vote signaled an end to the short-lived government of PM Valeriu
2015 Oct 29, Prominent Moroccan
academic and rights activist Maati Monjib announced he had ended a
three-week hunger strike after the judiciary lifted a travel ban
2015 Oct 29, Four African
migrants drowned and up to 35 were missing after their boat sank in
the Mediterranean in the early hours around 40 miles (65 km) north
of the Moroccan coast.
2015 Oct 29, Myanmar police
arrested Kyaw Ko Ko (34), the leader of a student movement crushed
in March, after he spent more than six months in hiding, amid
increasing signs of a crackdown on dissent ahead of a Nov. 8
2015 Oct 29, In Russia 5 people
were killed in a night-time blast of household gas in an apartment
block in the Khabarovsk region of the country's Far East.
2015 Oct 29, Saudi blogger Raif
Badawi (31), who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in
prison for insulting Islam, was awarded the European Parliament's
prestigious Sakharov human rights prize.
2015 Oct 29, The British-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there had been 595 deaths
in Syria from Russian air strikes since September 30. Russian
warplanes renewed strikes, including in the central province of Homs
and the northwestern province of Idlib.
2015 Oct 29, Turkish media said
12 people have died and dozens have been hospitalized over the last
three days after being poisoned by bootleg alcohol. Istanbul police
detained 15 people in connection with the production and sale of the
illegally produced raki.
2015 Oct 29, In southern Turkey
Syrian activists Ibrahim Abdelqader (22) and Fares Hamadi (20),
belonging to a collective that reports on Islamic State atrocities,
were murdered by Islamic State operatives in Sanliurfa.
(AP, 10/30/15)(AP, 12/17/15)
2015 Oct 29, Ukrainian armed
forces and pro-Russian insurgents exchanged 20 prisoners in a
goodwill gesture designed to get peace talks aimed at ending the
18-month crisis back on track.
2015 Oct 29, In Ukraine a
series of blasts ripped through the military complex in
government-controlled Svatove, a town around 100 km (62 miles) from
the front line with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Luhansk
region. 2 civilians were killed and the incident was being
investigated as a "terrorist act."
2015 Oct 30, US sources said
President Barack Obama plans to deploy a small number of special
operations forces to Syria to advise moderate rebels, a step he has
long resisted to avoid getting dragged into another war in the
2015 Oct 30, Paul Ryan (45) of
Wisconsin was sworn in as the 54th speaker of the US House of
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 30, In southern
California Dr. Hsiu-Ying Tseng (45) was convicted of murder for
killing 3 patients who overdosed on painkillers.
(SSFC, 11/1/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 30, In Kentucky
fugitive Floyd Ray Cook (62) was killed near Burksville after being
confronted by state troopers and a federal marshal following a
nearly weeklong manhunt. Cook was accused of shooting and wounding a
Tennessee police officer.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 30, In New Hampshire
Owen Labrie (20) of Vermont was sentenced to a year in jail for
sexually assaulting a freshman girl (15) as part of an upperclassman
tradition at St. Paul’s School in Concord to rack up sexual
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 30, In New Mexico
Albuquerque police Officer Daniel Webster (47) died from wounds
suffered on Oct 21 after Davon Lymon opened fire and fled as he was
being handcuffed during a traffic stop.
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A6)
2015 Oct 30, In Texas storms
and suspected tornadoes left at least 2 people dead and flooded I-35
between San Antonio and Austin.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 30, Chevron Corp. said
it will layoff 6,000 to 7,000 employees worldwide because of the
sustained slump in world oil prices.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.D1)
2015 Oct 30, Coast Guard
leaders from the US, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and
Sweden signed an agreement setting up the Arctic Coast Guard Forum
dedicated to stewardship of Arctic waters.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 30, A Chinese court
ordered ConocoPhillips to pay 1.68 million yuan ($265,000) to 21
fishermen who said their livelihoods suffered from oil spills in
northern China in 2011.
2015 Oct 30, The European
Parliament narrowly adopted a nonbinding measure urging the 28 EU
members to recognize Edward Snowden as a whistleblower and int’l.
human rights defender.
(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 30, In waters off
Greece at least 27 people, more than half of them children, died
trying to reach Europe.
(SFC, 10/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Oct 30, Indian folk singer
S. Kovan was arrested on charges including sedition for writing
songs criticizing J. Jayalalitha, the chief minister of southern
Tamil Nadu state, and her government of profiting from state-run
liquor shops at the expense of the poor.
2015 Oct 30, Iran signaled it
backed a six-month transition period in Syria followed by elections
to decide Bashar al-Assad's fate, a proposal floated at peace talks
as a concession but which the president's foes rejected as a trick
to keep him in power. Multilateral talks in Vienna failed, as
expected, to reach a consensus on the future of President Bashar
(Reuters, 10/30/15)(Reuters, 11/2/15)
2015 Oct 30, Israel press
reported that the government has retroactively legalized some 800
homes in four settlements in the occupied West Bank. The decision
was taken two weeks ago.
2015 Oct 30, In northern Italy
two pilots of helicopter maker AgustaWestland were killed in an
accident during a prototype test flight.
2015 Oct 30, A Palestinian (23)
stabbed and lightly wounded an American tourist in Jerusalem. The
assailant was shot and severely wounded. In Hebron hundreds of
youths lobbed stones, firebombs and burning tires at Israeli
soldiers who hit back with tear gas and rubber bullets. In Ramallah
a Palestinian hurled a Molotov cocktail at border guards and was
shot and wounded.
2015 Oct 30, Puerto Rico's Gov.
Alejandro Garcia Padilla said he has signed an executive order
banning the use of plastic bags across the US territory effective as
2015 Oct 30, In Syria at least
47 people were killed and about 100 wounded when government forces
fired missiles into a marketplace at Douma, a town 10 miles from
2015 Oct 31, The US pledged
nearly $100 million in fresh aid to support the Syrian opposition as
Western and Arab officials gathered in Bahrain for the Manama
Dialogue security conference.
(SSFC, 11/1/15, p.A4)
2015 Oct 31, The US-led
coalition conducted nine air strikes against Islamic State targets
in Syria and 16 in Iraq. Air strikes by Turkish and US aircraft in
Syria killed more than 50 Islamic State militants and wounded around
2015 Oct 31, In Colorado police
shot down a gunman in Colorado Springs after he shot and killed 23
(SSFC, 11/1/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 31, Texas authorities
said at least six people have died in storms that lashed parts of
the state with heavy rains.
2015 Oct 31, In Bangladesh
Faysal Arefin Deepan, a publisher of slain online critic of
religious militancy Avijit Roy, was hacked to death in Dhaka hours
after similar attacks on two secular writers and another publisher
in the majority-Muslim country.
(Reuters, 10/31/15)(Econ, 11/7/15, p.36)
2015 Oct 31, Egypt's
prosecution referred to trial the editor-in-chief for Egypt's top
literary magazine and writer Ahmed Naji for publishing sexually
explicit material and allegedly violating public morals.
2015 Oct 31, Israeli security
forces shot and killed a Palestinian (18) who ran at them with a
knife in the occupied West Bank.
2015 Oct 31, It was reported
that Nigeria's army has begun posting a photographic collage of 100
wanted Boko Haram militants that features the shadowy leader whom
they claim to have killed on at least three occasions.
2015 Oct 31, In Pakistan 11
people were killed when rival political parties fired on each other
in local elections in the Khairpur district of the southern province
of Sindh, which held the polls along with the central Punjab
2015 Oct 31, In the southern
Philippines 15 people, including 6 children, died in a fire at a
market in Zamboanga city.
(AP, 10/31/15)(SSFC, 11/1/15, p.A5)
2015 Oct 31, In Romania an
overnight fire in a Bucharest nightclub killed at least 27 people
and injured 184 during a rock concert that featured fireworks used
indoors. 146 people remained in hospital from the Colectiv Club
fire. By Mar 14, 2016, the death toll rose to 64 as another victim
died from their burns.
(Reuters, 10/31/15)(Reuters, 11/3/15)(AP,
2015 Oct 31, A Russian airliner
carrying 224 passengers and crew crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula
after losing radar contact and plummeting from its cruising
altitude, killing all aboard. The Airbus A321 was operated by
Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet. Egyptian
security sources said early investigations suggested the plane
crashed due to a technical fault. A militant group affiliated to
Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for the downing of the
2015 Oct 31, South Korean
President Park Geun-hye met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to
discuss trade issues, a day before their three-way summit with
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe that aims to repair relations strained by
historical and territorial matters.
2015 Oct 31, In Taiwan tens of
thousands marched in Taipei in Asia's biggest gay pride parade, with
many hoping presidential elections next year bring to power a
pro-gay government that will legalize same-sex marriage.
2015 Oct 31, In Yemen overnight
clashes left 19 rebels and 14 Popular Resistance fighters dead in
several southern provinces as Saudi-led coalition aircraft targeted
the Iran-backed insurgents.
2015 Oct 31, In Zanzibar two
small blasts rocked streets but caused no casualties, in the latest
unrest following the annulment of polls on the semi-autonomous
2015 Oct, The US Air Force
awarded Northrop Grumman a $55 billion contract to develop and build
some 100 Long Range Strike Bombers (LRS-B).
(Econ, 1/23/16, p.22)
2015 Oct, “City Score" was
launched in Boston. It combines 24 different metrics into a single
number to indicate the city’s overall health.
(Econ, 3/26/15, SR p.11)
2015 Oct, In Cambodia two
opposition lawmakers from the Cambodia National Rescue Party were
beaten after being confronted by a pro-government mob, which was
demanding the resignation of the party's deputy leader Kem Sonkha.
2015 Oct, Chileans
discovered that for ten years they had paid over the odds for
toilet paper because of a cartel linking CMPC and a smaller rival
now owned by SCA, a Swedish company.
(Econ, 12/5/15, p.37)
2015 Oct, Li Xin, formerly a
website editor for a Chinese media group, fled to India, where he
told The Associated Press that he could no longer bear working as a
secret informant for the Chinese government. He later traveled to
Thailand and went missing on Jan 11, 2016.
2015 Oct, Trikala, a rural town
in northern Greece, began testing a driverless bus in real traffic
conditions for the first time, part of a European project to
revolutionize mass transport and wean its cities off oil dependency
over the next 30 years.
2015 Oct, In Guyana Dominic
Bernard of Britain went missing. His body was found in January,
2016, in a shallow grave in a farming village in southeastern
Guyana. Five suspects were later charged in relation to the murder.
2015 Oct, Hong Kong Gui Minhai,
the owner of the Mighty Current publishing house, reportedly
surrendered to mainland authorities. Friends suspected he was
abducted for political reasons by Chinese agents from his apartment
in Pattaya, Thailand, and smuggled into China. Minhai later said in
detention that he had surrendered 10 years after he fled China after
killing a woman while driving drunk. Three other members of the the
shop had disappeared while visiting the Chinese mainland.
(AP, 1/17/16)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.35)
2015 Oct, Iceland repaid its
debt to the IMF, which had given it a big bailout in 2008.
(Econ, 4/9/15, p.53)
2015 Oct, The IOC suspended the
Kuwaiti Olympic body on grounds of government interference in
sports. On June 23, 2016, Kuwait said it will sue the International
Olympic Committee in Switzerland for $1 billion.
2015 Oct, In South Africa
twelve men attacked two couples strolling in a Johannesburg park. 2
men were bound and thrown into a lake where they drowned. One woman
was raped and the other escaped. On Nov 9 one man (24, suspected to
be part of the group of attackers, appeared in court.
2015 Oct, Five Syrian media
activists were captured by the Islamic State group. They were later
believed to have been killed in December over their coverage of
events in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, half of which is held by
IS. On June 26, 2016, a graphic video emerged showing their killing.
2015 Oct, Turkmenistan Pres.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (58) published his poem “Forward, only
forward, my dear country Turkmenistan. In November a choir of 4,166
people inside a giant yurt broke a world record by singing the hymn.
2015 Oct, The UN’s World Food
Program was reported to be spending $1.1 million a day to feed the
hungry of South Sudan.
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.50)
2015 Nov 1, The US-led
coalition conducted 10 air strikes against Islamic State in Syria on
Sunday and 17 in Iraq.
2015 Nov 1, Fred Thompson
(b.1942), former Republican US senator from Tennessee (1994-2003),
died in Nashville. He had appeared in at least 20 motion pictures
with a notable role in television’s “Law and Order" (2002-2007).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Thompson)(SFC, 11/2/15, p.A9)
2015 Nov 1, A joint communique
by the US and five Central Asian countries declared support for
Afghanistan and its development as an independent and peaceful
2015 Nov 1, Azerbaijan voted in
parliamentary polls expected to cement President Ilham Aliyev's grip
on power and boycotted by the mainstream opposition as a sham.
Aliyev's Yeni (New) Azerbaijan party took 71 seats in the country's
125-seat parliament. Not a single election held in Azerbaijan since
Aliyev came to power in 2003 has been recognized as free and fair by
(AFP, 11/1/15)(AFP, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 1, In Chad at least 3
soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded in a series of attacks
blamed on Boko Haram Islamic militants. 14 militants were reported
(AP, 11/1/15)(AFP, 11/1/15)
2015 Nov 1, The leaders of
China, Japan and South Korea pledged to work toward greater economic
integration at their first joint meeting in over three years. China
and Japan agreed to restart mutual visits of their foreign ministers
and hold bilateral high-level economic dialogue early next year in a
meeting between Premier Li Keqiang and PM Shinzo Abe in Seoul, South
2015 Nov 1, In eastern Congo
DRC fourteen humanitarian workers were kidnapped in the Rutshuru
region in North Kivu province.
2015 Nov 1, Greek authorities
said 11 more people have drown on the dangerous crossing from Turkey
to Greece after a boat carrying nearly 30 refugees sank in heavy
seas near the eastern island of Samos. The bodies of two men, one
woman and a young boy, believed to be from refugee smuggling boats,
were found early today washed up on beaches in the Skala area of
2015 Nov 1, New Delhi, India,
introduced a toll for all trucks and commercial vehicles in an
attempt to improve air quality in the world's most polluted capital
ahead of Diwali celebrations.
2015 Nov 1, Iraq’s health
ministry said it is carrying out a major vaccination campaign to
combat a cholera outbreak that has infected more than 2,200 people.
2015 Nov 1, Israeli soldiers
shot dead a knife-wielding Palestinian who tried to stab them in the
West Bank city of Hebron.
2015 Nov 1, In Myanmar
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi addressed a huge rally on the
outskirts of Yangon, offering a message of reconciliation with
political opponents if her party sweeps the upcoming general
2015 Nov 1, Nigerian troops
drove Boko Haram extremists out of an abandoned northeastern primary
school in a shootout that killed 4 militants.
2015 Nov 1, In Pakistan a
bombing in Baluchistan province early today targeted a train bound
for Rawalpindi, where the military is headquartered. 3 passengers
were killed and seven others wounded.
2015 Nov 1, Qatar officially
opened the country's biggest workers' accommodation camp, with
enough space to house almost 70,000 laborers.
2015 Nov 1, In Somalia security
forces Mogadishu fought for several hours before clearing a hotel of
Islamist al Shabaab gunmen who had stormed the building after two
bombs ripped into it. At least 13 people were killed.
2015 Nov 1, Islamic State
fighters seized the Syrian town of Maheen in Homs province from
government forces, expanding their presence in Syria's west despite
a Russian-backed bombing campaign against them. At least 50 fighters
on the government side were killed or wounded.
2015 Nov 1, Turkey held
parliamentary elections. The AKP won 49% of the vote, consolidating
support from the right to claw back a parliamentary majority that
will bolster Pres. Tayyip Erdogan's grip on power.
(AFP, 11/1/15)(Reuters, 11/2/15)(Econ, 11/7/15,
2015 Nov 1, In Yemen Cyclone
Chapala killed one person, injured nine and seriously damaged or
destroyed at least 20 homes on the remote island of Socotra. 3 more
people were killed the next day as the cyclone headed for the
(AP, 11/1/15)(Reuters, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 2, The United States
and its allies conducted 15 air strikes against Islamic State in
Iraq and seven in Syria.
2015 Nov 2, In Chicago Tyshawn
Lee (9) was found shot dead in an alley in a South Side
neighborhood. On Nov 27 gang member Corey Morgan (27) was charged
with first degree murder. In 2016 Dwight Boone-Doty (22) was charged
with first-degree murder for helping lure the boy into an alley with
a juice box and then shooting him in the head.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A4)(SFC, 11/28/15, p.A4)(SFC,
2015 Nov 2, Albanian students
at the Univ. of Tirana threw eggs at a car carrying PM Edi Rama, to
protest against recent legislation that they say favors private over
2015 Nov 2, Australia’s PM
Malcolm Turnbull announced that Queen Elizabeth II had agreed to an
Australian Cabinet recommendation to remove knights and dames from
the Order of Australia.
(SFC, 11/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 2, In Bangladesh angry
publishers burnt books and closed their businesses, in the third day
of protests over the latest gruesome attacks on secular writers and
publishers by suspected hardline Islamists.
2015 Nov 2, British actor and
writer Colin Welland (81) died. He famously told Hollywood "the
British are coming" when he won an Academy Award for "Chariots of
Fire" in 1981.
2015 Nov 2, Burundi President
Pierre Nkurunziza gave civilians five days to surrender any illegal
weapons or face tough action by the police. 2 more bodies were
discovered in Bujumbura. 9 people have been killed in gunfights with
security forces since Oct 31.
2015 Nov 2, TransCanada asked
the United States to suspend its review of the proposed Keystone XL
pipeline in a move that might delay a decision until the US
2015 Nov 2, China and France
agreed to push for long-term monitoring of a UN accord to combat
climate change due in Paris next month by reviewing cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions every five years.
2015 Nov 2, The Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) charged in a damning
report that Turkey's election was marred by a media crackdown,
violence and other security concerns.
2015 Nov 2, A young French
fisherman was among eight people arrested on suspicion of helping
migrants cross the Channel to Britain in a high-speed inflatable
boat. The fisherman had been smuggling migrants to Britain "for
several months" on an inflatable Zodiac boat that could carry some
20 people at a time.
2015 Nov 2, Greece's islands
were left without ferry links after the country's umbrella seamen's
union launched a strike.
2015 Nov 2, Iran said it has
begun shutting down uranium enrichment centrifuges under the terms
of a deal struck with six world powers in July on limiting its
2015 Nov 2, Iraq's parliament
voted unanimously to bar the government from passing important
reforms without its approval in an effort to curb PM Haider al-Abadi
amid discontent over his leadership style.
2015 Nov 2, Israel's lawmakers
voted to impose a minimum three-year jail sentence on stone
throwers. Judges would only be able to issue suspended sentences to
stone throwers in exceptional circumstances.
2015 Nov 2, In Kashmir 2 Indian
army soldiers were reported killed by Pakistani firing along the
heavily militarized de facto border dividing Kashmir between the two
2015 Nov 2, Kosovo's Parliament
voted overwhelmingly to ratify a stabilization and association
agreement with the EU, considered a milestone for its economic
growth. The opposition boycotted the voting.
2015 Nov 2, In Kyrgyzstan four
parties jointly holding a majority in parliament agreed to establish
a coalition and back incumbent PM Temir Sariyev, a move widely
expected after the parties' success in the elections last month.
2015 Nov 2, In Lebanon 2
soldiers and six other people including two men wanted in connection
with organized crime were killed in a shootout at a nightclub north
2015 Nov 2, Nepalese police
shot at ethnic protesters who attacked a police station with
gasoline bomb and stones on the southern border, killing Ashish
Kumar Ram, an Indian man who was among the attackers.
2015 Nov 2, Northern Ireland's
assembly voted in favor of same-sex marriage for the first time --
by just one vote -- but the ruling Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
sank the motion with a constitutional veto.
2015 Nov 2, Pakistan banned all
TV and radio coverage of Islamic militant groups, including the one
suspected of carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and ordered
broadcast outlets to stop running advertisements for the groups'
2015 Nov 2, A Palestinian teen
(19) from Hebron stabbed and wounded three Israelis near Tel Aviv
before being arrested. Two of the victims were in severe condition.
A Palestinian stabbed and wounded a 70-year-old man in northern
Israel before being shot by officers.
(AP, 11/2/15)(AFP, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 2, Puerto Rican Rep.
Carlos Vargas Ferrer (44) hit a newspaper vendor after he lost
control of his car early today, then crashed into a light pole in
the San Juan suburb of Rio Piedras. The legislator soon died of his
2015 Nov 2, Romanian
prosecutors opened a criminal manslaughter investigation against the
three owners of the Bucharest nightclub.
(Reuters, 11/2/15)(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 2, Russia said its air
force flew 131 sorties and hit 237 targets in Syria in the last two
2015 Nov 2, A Russian military
court in the North Caucasus city of Rostov-on-Don jailed Gadzhi
Magomedov for 17 years for allegedly fighting with the Islamic State
group in Syria. Pres. Putin has said that up to 7,000 people from
Russia and its former Soviet neighbors may be fighting for IS and
that he does not want to see them returning to their native
countries en masse.
2015 Nov 2, Russian state-owned
arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it is preparing a contract to
supply Iran with S-300 missile systems.
2015 Nov 2, Saudi Arabia’s
local media reported that the government will raise the price of
water for non-residential consumers, a sign the government is
cutting back an expensive system of subsidies as low oil prices
strain its finances.
2015 Nov 2, Police in Sicily
arrested 22 suspected mobsters after businesses, tired of paying the
Mafia "protection" money, rebelled and contacted authorities.
2015 Nov 2, The Swiss
government said the terrorism threat has increased this year, and
police and intelligence services are now handling about 70 cases
involving "jihadi-motivated terrorism."
2015 Nov 2, Turkish airstrikes
hit shelters, underground bunkers and weapon emplacements belonging
to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in six locations in
northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the rebel
leadership is based.
2015 Nov 2, The Vatican upheld
the arrests of Spanish Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and
Italian laywoman Francesca Chaouqui. Both had served on a financial
reform commission set up by Pope Francis as part of the probe into
yet another leak of confidential information and documents.
2015 Nov 2, In Zimbabwe Sunday
Mail editor Mabasa Sasa, investigations editor Brian Chitemba and
reporter Tinashe Farawo were arrested after allegedly implicating an
unnamed top police officer and other officials in recent fatal
cyanide poisonings of more than 60 elephants by poachers.
2015 Nov 3, The United States
and its allies targeted Islamic State with 25 air strikes in Iraq
2015 Nov 3, US auto safety
regulators fined Japan’s Takata Corp. $70 million for concealing
evidence for years that its air bags are prone to explode. The
defect was linked to 8 deaths and over 100 injuries worldwide.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.C2)
2015 Nov 3, The California
Dept. of Public Health judged local Dungeness crab and rock crab,
from Oregon to the southern border of Santa Barbara County, to be
too toxic to eat just days before the Nov 7 start of the
recreational crab season. On Nov 5 the state’s Fish and Game
Commission voted to suspend the recreational Dungeness and rock crab
fishing season due to a potentially deadly neurotoxin.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A1)(SFC, 11/6/15, p.A1)
2015 Nov 3, In San Francisco
Mayor Ed Lee was easily re-elected for a 2nd full term. Voters also
approved Prop A for a $310 million fund for affordable housing and
Prop D for a high-rise district near AT&T Park.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A9, 10)
2015 Nov 3, In Kentucky
Republican businessman Matt Bevin defeated Democrat Jack Conway to
win the race for state governor.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 3, In Louisiana police
officers serving a warrant in Marksville shot and wounded Chris Few
and killed his son, Jeremy Mardis (6). Officers Derrick Stafford and
Norris Greenshouse Jr. were arrested on Nov 6 and indicted on Dec
(SFC, 11/7/15, p.A10)(SFC, 12/11/15, p.A10)
2015 Nov 3, It was reported
that Chipotle has closed down 43 of its restaurants in Oregon and
Washington states after at least 37 people were reported sickened in
an outbreak of E. coli. This was the third food-borne illness at the
chain this year.
(SFC, 11/3/15, p.D4)(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 3, Activision
Blizzard, a video game company, acquired King Digital Entertainment
for $5.9 billion in cash and stock.
(Econ, 11/7/15, p.61)
2015 Nov 3, In Bangladesh about
1,000 authors and teachers marched through the streets of Dhaka,
asserting their right to free speech days after a suspected Islamist
group attacked writers and publishers critical of religious
2015 Nov 3, A British judge
ordered a huge financial payout for Palestinian-born Janan Harb
(68), who claims she was the "secret wife" of the late King Fahd of
Saudi Arabia. Harb had told the court she secretly married the king
in 1968 when he was still a prince.
2015 Nov 3, Banking group
Standard Chartered said it is slashing 15,000 jobs worldwide and
plans to raise $5.1 billion from shareholders through a rights issue
as part of a major restructuring to shore up its financial position.
2015 Nov 3, President Xi
Jinping said that China needs at least 6.5 percent economic growth
in coming years to become "moderately prosperous." Premier Li
Keqiang told visiting French President Francois Hollande that China
has used up too much energy and too many resources in its quest for
growth, adding it has a "duty to humanity" to clean itself up.
(AP, 11/3/15)(AFP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 3, Experts said that
some fish species are close to extinction in the South China Sea due
to over-fishing fueled by a growing appetite for seafood.
2015 Nov 3, Volkswagen said it
had understated carbon dioxide emissions for 800,000 cars, widening
its scandal over cheating on US engine tests.
2015 Nov 3, Iranian media
reported that authorities have arrested three pro-reform
journalists, one of whom has been critical recently of supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They included Issa Saharkhiz, Ehsan
Mazandarani and Afarine Chitsaz.
2015 Nov 3, Iran's
semi-official news agency Fars said Col. Mostafa Ezzatollah
Soleimani, an officer with the elite Revolutionary Guard force, had
died in fighting in Syria's contested province of Aleppo.
2015 Nov 3, In Iraq Ahmad
Chalabi (71), a prominent Iraqi politician, died in Baghdad of a
heart attack. He became a Pentagon favorite when he helped convince
the Bush administration to overthrow Saddam Hussein in 2003 by
pushing false allegations of weapons of mass destruction and links
2015 Nov 3, The Israeli
military raided the Palestinian Al Hurria radio station in the West
Bank and confiscated equipment it said was being used to broadcast
calls to attack Israelis.
2015 Nov 3, In northwest Nepal
a bus packed with passengers riding both inside and on its roof
veered off a mountain road, killing 30 people and injuring 35
2015 Nov 3, South African-based
MTN Group said that the Nigerian Communications Commission is
extending its operating license to 2021 at a cost of $94.2 million
even as the company faces a multibillion-dollar fine there. Last
week, the commission fined MTN $5.2 billion for failing to
disconnect millions of unregistered cellphone subscribers.
2015 Nov 3, In northeastern
Spain a river swelled by torrential downpours overflowed its banks
inundating a nursing home and killing 4 elderly residents.
2015 Nov 3, Syrian journalist
Batoul Mokhles al-Warar was killed in a suburb of Damascus, amid
clashes and shelling between government troops and rebel fighters.
2015 Nov 3, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said it has confirmed 185 civilians
killed in Russian airstrikes in the past month. It also reported and
131 IS fighters as well as 279 rebels not connected to IS killed in
the Russian airstrikes. Air strikes by Russian warplanes on the
Islamic State-held city of Raqqa killed 42 people, including 27
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A3)(Reuters, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 3, Turkish police
detained 44 suspects including high-ranking bureaucrats and police
officers as part of a probe into supporters of a US-based cleric
accused of plotting to bring down President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
2015 Nov 3, Turkish authorities
arrested two editors of a political weekly on charges of inciting an
armed uprising against the government for suggesting on the
magazine's front page that the aftermath of Turkey's election would
mark the start of a civil war.
2015 Nov 3, Turkish security
forces backed by helicopters imposed a curfew in parts of a town in
the largely Kurdish southeast, where three people were killed in
2015 Nov 3, Yemeni security
officials said fighting between Shiite rebels and their opponents
has killed over 33 people in the past 24 hours in Taiz.
2015 Nov 3, In Yemen Chapala
was downgraded to a Category 1 cyclone as it hit the southeastern
coastline. Heavy flooding was reported in parts of Mukalla.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 4, In central
California student Faisal Mohammad (18) stabbed four people with a
hunting knife at UC Merced before he was shot to death by campus
police. The FBI later said he was inspired by the Islamic State
Group but had acted alone.
(SFC, 11/5/15, p.A9)(SFC, 11/6/15, p.D9)(SFC,
2015 Nov 4, Melissa Mathison,
screen writer and former wife (1983-2004) of Harrison Ford, died.
Her work included the scripts for “the Black Stallion" (1979) and
“E.T. the Extra Terrestrial" (1982).
(SFC, 11/6/15, p.D7)
2015 Nov 4, It was reported
that researchers from Beijing and California have found that
mealworms are able to naturally biodegrade Styrofoam that would have
otherwise sit in a landfill for more than a million years.
2015 Nov 4, Afghanistan's
president ordered a probe into the fatal stoning a week earlier of a
young woman in a Taliban-controlled area after she was accused of
adultery. The woman, identified as Rokhsana and believed to be aged
between 19 and 21, had been forced to marry and was accused of
adultery after she tried eloping with another man. The man she was
eloping with was let off with a lashing.
2015 Nov 4, Bahrain’s interior
ministry said it had arrested 47 members of a group it said had ties
to "terror elements in Iran" and was also plotting attacks.
2015 Nov 4, In Bangladesh an
attack on a checkpoint near Dhaka left one police officer dead and
another wounded. The Islamic State soonclaimed responsibility.
(SFC, 11/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 4, the Bosnian and
Serbian governments held their first joint session since their
conflict started 25 years during the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The
two governments signed cooperation agreements on finding missing
persons, telecommunications, protection of cultural heritage and
sustainable development but announced this is just a beginning of a
process of strengthening their relations.
2015 Nov 4, In Canada Justin
Trudeau (43) was sworn in as the country’s 23rd prime minister in
front of a packed crowd.
2015 Nov 4, In Egypt a suicide
bomber detonated a truck full of explosives at the main gate of a
police club in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, killing at
least 3 police and wounding 10 others in an attack claimed by the
Islamic State group.
2015 Nov 4, Finland said it has
suspended its decision-making process for Afghani asylum claims due
to an ongoing assessment of the security situation in the country.
It said it would also review EU practices and the possibility of
returning people to Afghanistan.
2015 Nov 4, France said it will
lift a ban on gay men giving blood, but only if they abstain from
sex in the months beforehand, an exclusion denounced as
discriminatory by rights groups.
2015 Nov 4, Indian police said
authorities have detained key separatist leaders and hundreds of
their supporters to prevent them from holding a protest rally during
a visit by PM Narendra Modi to Kashmir this weekend.
2015 Nov 4, In Indonesia
thousands of tourists were stranded on three islands after ash from
Mount Rinjani on Lombok Island forced the closure of airports and
blanketed villages and farmlands.
2015 Nov 4, The Maldives
declared a state of emergency for 30 days citing a threat to
2015 Nov 4, Mexico's Supreme
Court ruled that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for
recreation is legal under the right to freedom.
2015 Nov 4, In Pakistan a
factory building collapsed as a new floor was being added in an
industrial area on the outskirts of Lahore, killing at least 37
workers and injuring dozens. 103 people were rescued from the
(AP, 11/4/15)(Reuters, 11/5/15)(AP, 11/7/15)
2015 Nov 4, A Palestinian
driver ran over and injured an Israeli border policeman near the
West Bank city of Hebron and was then killed by Israeli forces.
2015 Nov 4, Romanian PM Victor
Ponta announced the resignation of his government following huge
protests in the wake of a nightclub fire that killed more than 30
people. The outgoing government approved an emergency ordinance to
raise wages for staff in the state education sector by 15 percent
(AP, 11/4/15)(Reuters, 11/4/15)
2015 Nov 4, A South Korean
government commission said that the remains of nearly 2,750 people,
believed to be Koreans who were forced to work in Japan in the WWII
era, have been found.
(SFC, 11/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 4, In South Sudan a
Russian-built Antonov-12 B turbo prop cargo plane with passengers on
board crashed after taking off from the airport in Juba, killing at
least 37 people. Officials said the plane belonged to freight and
logistics firm Allied Services Ltd. and was not authorized to carry
(Reuters, 11/4/15)(AP, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 4, Syria's army
recaptured the only road into the government-held side of Aleppo
city from Islamic State group fighters. Rebels shot down a
government MiG warplane with anti-aircraft fire in Hama province,
forcing its pilot to eject. The pilot died after his parachute
failed. Warplanes believed to be Russian carried out several air
strikes on areas of the northwest that were included in a local
ceasefire agreed by warring sides in September.
(AFP, 11/4/15)(Reuters, 11/4/15)
2015 Nov 4, In Tunisia 30
lawmakers from the ruling party suspended their membership and
threatened to resign in protest over what they called attempts by
President Beji Caid Essebsi's son to control the party.
2015 Nov 4, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a new constitution that would give
him greater powers, heightening opposition fears over authoritarian
2015 Nov 4, In Turkey 2
soldiers and 15 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were killed
fighting near the village of Daglica by the Iraqi border. A
20-year-old man was shot dead in the town of Silvan, where
authorities ordered a round-the-clock curfew in three neighborhoods
for a second successive day
2015 Nov 5, The United States
and its allies targeted Islamic State in Iraq with 14 air strikes,
and also hit the militant group with nine air strikes in Syria.
2015 Nov 5, In Arkansas a
charter bus ran off Interstate 40 and collided with a bridge,
resulting in six dead and others injured. The bus was ferrying
migrant farmworkers from Michigan to Texas as it ran off a highway
and hit an overpass.
2015 Nov 5, The San Francisco
Planning Commission approved plans for a $1 billion, 18,000 seat
arena for the Golden State Warriors in the Mission Bay neighborhood.
(SFC, 11/6/15, p.A9)
2015 Nov 5, In Oklahoma some
1,000 barrels of crude oil spilled from a rural pipeline owned by
magellan Midstream Partners.
(SFC, 11/7/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 5, In Washington DC
controversial Russian media mogul Mikhail Lesin (57), who helped
found the RT English-language television network, was found dead at
the Dupont Circle Hotel.
2015 Nov 5, Bahrain media
reported that five citizens have been convicted of conspiring with
Iran to carry out attacks inside Bahrain, sentenced to life
imprisonment and stripped of their citizenship.
2015 Nov 5, In southeastern
Brazil a mudslide erupted from a reservoir of waste at the partly
Australian-owned Samarco iron ore and minerals mine, ripping the
roofs off houses in Bento Rodrigues, Minas Gerais state. 122 homes
were buried in mud. At least 12 people were killed. Losses to
municipalities were later estimated at 1.2 billion reais ($308
million), not considering the environmental problems.
(AFP, 11/6/15)(Reuters, 11/9/15)(SFC, 11/24/15,
2015 Nov 5, In Burundi some
residents fled their neighborhood in Bujumbura after they found four
bodies on the streets, part of a wave of killings associated with
President Pierre Nkurunziza's re-election for a third term.
2015 Nov 5, Egypt opened three
tombs in the ancient city of Luxor to the public for the first time,
hoping to spur interest in tourism despite the shadow of last
weekend's airline crash in the Sinai Peninsula.
2015 Nov 5, France announced it
would deploy an aircraft carrier to boost its fight against the
Islamic State group, which has seized control of large parts of Iraq
2015 Nov 5, Greek ferries
started operating again after the seamen's union called off rolling
2015 Nov 5, Kurdish militants
scrapped a month-old ceasefire in Turkey, a day after President
Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "liquidate" them.
2015 Nov 5, In Lebanon 5 people
were killed in a suicide attack in Arsal, a town along the border
2015 Nov 5, Lithuanian police
arrested Rimantas Bekintis (57) suspected of killing three elderly
women and a social worker in a three-day stabbing spree in the rural
village of Kraziai.
2015 Nov 5, Maldives'
Parliament voted overwhelmingly to impeach VP Ahmed Adeeb and said
he will be charged with terrorism for plotting to kill the
2015 Nov 5, NATO's
secretary-general sounded the alarm over the build-up of Russian
military forces from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean and called
on the US-led alliance to come up with a response.
2015 Nov 5, Niger said its air
force has bombed a Boko Haram base in the country's southeast and
arrested more than 20 militants, in its biggest counter-attack in
2015 Nov 5, A Palestinian
attempted to stab an Israeli at a junction in the occupied West Bank
and was shot.
2015 Nov 5, Russia sent a plane
to rebel-controlled Yemen carrying what Moscow said was more than 20
tons of humanitarian aid for the conflict-torn country.
2015 Nov 5, Syrian rebels,
including jihadists, seized the last government-held town on the
main highway between second city Aleppo and the city of Hama. Air
strikes on the town on Albu Kamal on the Syrian border with Iraq
killed 49 people, at least 31 of them civilians.
(AFP, 11/5/15)(AFP, 11/7/15)
2015 Nov 5, Tanzania's new
president John Magufuli was sworn in, promising to unite the country
after a contested vote, create more jobs and drive up economic
2015 Nov 5, Thailand's junta
launched a crackdown on organized crime, its latest effort to clean
up the country and improve the image of the military government as
it struggles to get a sluggish economy on track.
2015 Nov 5, Thai authorities
said police have cracked down on a sex ring that lured underage
girls to work as prostitutes whose services were sold to
high-ranking military officers, Buddhist monks and a variety of
2015 Nov 5, Turkey, said it was
planning to soon launch a military campaign against IS. Turkey
shares an 800-km (500-mile) border with northern Syria.
2015 Nov 5, In southeastern
Turkey 18 people were killed in clashes with the military, lifting
this week's death toll to almost 40 in the mainly Kurdish area and
dampening prospects for a ceasefire.
2015 Nov 5, In Hanoi Chinese
President Xi Jinping and Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu
Trong agreed to limit their differences and maintain peace and
stability, as the two Communist neighbors attempt to repair ties
strained over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
2015 Nov 6, President Barack
Obama killed the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, declaring it would
have undercut US efforts to clinch a global climate change deal at
the center of his environmental legacy.
2015 Nov 6, US and coalition
warplanes carried out 20 air strikes against Islamic State militants
in Iraq and Syria.
2015 Nov 6, The US military
deployed six F-15C fighter jets to Turkey's southern Incirlik air
base to help defend Turkish airspace against potential intruders.
2015 Nov 6, In Kentucky police
Officer Daniel Ellis (33) died two days after he was ambushed and
shot while searching an apartment for a robbery suspect. The
attempted murder charge against Raleigh Sizemore Jr. (34) was
upgraded to murder.
(SFC, 11/7/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 6, British drugmaker
AstraZeneca said it had agreed to buy US group ZS Pharma, a
specialist in treating high potassium levels linked to kidney
2015 Nov 6, In Bulgaria a man
(28) stabbed a 15-year-old girl to death on the steps of a secondary
school in Sliven, then wounded a teacher and another man before
shooting and critically wounding himself.
2015 Nov 6, Cambodia's defense
minister said China has provided Cambodia with shoulder-fired
anti-aircraft missiles, as the two countries agreed on new military
aid to boost close ties.
2015 Nov 6, Chinese state
television reported that China and Vietnam have agreed to maintain
peace and stability in the South China Sea and not take any acts
that "complicate" the issue.
2015 Nov 6, President Juan
Manuel Santos apologized for Colombia's actions during a 1985 army
raid on the Supreme Court in which nearly 100 people were killed
after the building was taken hostage by guerrillas.
2015 Nov 6, Cuban leader Raul
Castro received a warm welcome in Mexico as President Enrique Pena
Nieto sought to end a diplomatic chill and boost business
opportunities on the island.
2015 Nov 6, Germany's
parliament voted to criminalize commercial euthanasia after
rejecting draft laws that would have made assisted suicide fully
legal in the country. German lawmakers passed a bill allowing
assisted suicide for "altruistic motives" but banning the practice
in cases where it is being conducted on a "business" basis.
(Reuters, 11/6/15)(AP, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 6, Germany's flagship
airline, Lufthansa, canceled 290 flights as cabin crew workers went
on strike at Frankfurt and Duesseldorf airports.
2015 Nov 6, Greenpeace said its
registration to operate in India has been canceled. Tamil Nadu
state, where it was registered, canceled the permit without giving
the group a hearing. India began cracking down on foreign-funded
charities last year after a government intelligence bureau report
said economic growth was hurt when the groups rallied communities
against polluting industries. On Nov 20 Greenpeace said a hold has
been put on the ban to operate.
(AP, 11/6/15)(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 6, In Iraq three
blasts in different parts of Baghdad killed at least 6 people and
2015 Nov 6, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed a female Palestinian motorist (73) who the military
said tried to run them over in the occupied West Bank. A
knife-wielding assailant wounded an Israeli civilian. The attacker
fled the scene and was being searched for. Israeli forces shot and
killed Palestinian Salame Abu Jamaa (23) during a protest east of
Khan Yunis. Back to back shootings in Hebron wounded three Israelis.
(Reuters, 11/6/15)(SFC, 11/7/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 6, Toyota said it is
investing $1 billion in a research company it's setting up in
Silicon Valley to develop artificial intelligence and robotics,
underlining the Japanese automaker's determination to lead in
futuristic cars that drive themselves and apply the technology to
other areas of daily life.
2015 Nov 6, Mexican officials
said authorities are investigating local security officials who put
at least 105 unidentified victims of violent crime in a mass grave
in central Mexico.
2015 Nov 6, A spokesman for
Russian President Vladimir Putin said all flights to Egypt will be
suspended until proper security is in place there.
2015 Nov 6, Senegal charged
five people suspected of links to Nigerian militant group Boko
Haram. The five were arrested last month in the suburbs of Dakar and
the central town of Kaolak.
2015 Nov 6, Serbian police said
they have arrested several drug and arms traffickers, as well as a
fugitive suspect in this year's clashes between police and armed
groups in Macedonia.
2015 Nov 6, A Saudi woman and a
child were killed in the border region of Najran by a shell fired
2015 Nov 6, In Somalia Mohamed
Abdullahi Hassan, a Minnesota man and lawful permanent resident of
the US but not an American citizen, surrendered to Somalia's federal
government. He had joined al-Shabab in Somalia more than seven years
2015 Nov 6, In Togo violence
broke out in Mango, some 600 km (370 miles) north of Lome, when law
enforcement officers tried to disperse an unauthorized march by a
group that opposed plans to rehabilitate several protected areas.
2015 Nov 6, Turkish Airlines
canceled flights to Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt on Friday and Saturday
nights over security concerns.
2015 Nov 6, The Green Climate
Fund (GCF), a multi-billion dollar fund set up by the United Nations
to help poor countries tackle climate change, approved its first
eight projects, a key step before a global climate summit starts on
2015 Nov 6, The UN warned that
over 90,000 people in war-torn southern Somalia have been hit by
weeks of severe flooding, almost half of them forced from their
2015 Nov 6, In southern Yemen
at least 19 people were killed in Saudi-led coalition air strikes
and clashes between pro-government forces and rebels.
2015 Nov 7, The United States
and its allies conducted 31 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Nov 7, Donald Trump spent
90 minutes in the "SNL" spotlight followed weeks of growing
anticipation, increasingly sharp criticism and mounting calls for
him to be dropped from the show. Until this evening, just eight
politicians had served as guest hosts in the NBC sketch comedy
series' 40 years.
2015 Nov 7, A British official
said Britain hopes to return all of its stranded tourists from Sharm
al-Sheikh within 10 days.
2015 Nov 7, A magnitude-6.8
earthquake struck north-central Chile, causing buildings to sway in
the capital of Santiago, but there were no immediate reports of
2015 Nov 7, China and Taiwan
must not let proponents of Taiwan's independence split them, China's
President Xi Jinping told Taiwan's president at the first meeting
between leaders of the two sides since China's civil war ended in
1949. Hundreds of angry protesters massed outside Taiwan President
Ma Ying-Jeou's office, condemning his warm exchange with China's
leader in a summit in Singapore that has fueled fears the democratic
island will be swallowed up by its giant rival.
2015 Nov 7, Estonia's flagship
airline announced its bankruptcy after the European Union ruled it
would have to pay back 85 million euros plus interest of state aid
pumped into the struggling business to keep it flying. Authorities
in Tallinn moved to absorb the shock by immediately setting up a new
carrier to take over key routes.
2015 Nov 7, Cabin crew at
Lufthansa staged a second day of strikes, forcing the German airline
to cancel some 520 short- and medium-haul flights.
2015 Nov 7, The office of
Guyana's president said it is developing a code of conduct for
public officials that would bar them from excessive gambling and
sexually harassing people and require them to report all gifts in
excess of a $50.
2015 Nov 7, In Iraq bombs in
and around Baghdad killed at least 9 people.
2015 Nov 7, In Israel Yitzhak
Navon (94), who served as Israel's fifth president (1978-1983),
died. He quit politics in 1992 and became a successful author and
2015 Nov 7, Russian Federal Air
Transport Agency said it will send 44 planes to repatriate its
nationals from two Egyptian Red Sea resorts. Around 80,000 Russians
were stranded in Egypt.
(AFP, 11/7/15)(Reuters, 11/7/15)
2015 Nov 7, In Spain thousands
of people from all over the country converged on Madrid to march
against domestic violence.
2015 Nov 7, The Islamic State
group released 37 Syrian Christians, most of them women, who were
among more than 200 people kidnapped in February. The Britain-based
Observatory said at least 23 civilians, were killed in suspected
Russian air strikes on rebel-held Douma, outside Damascus.
2015 Nov 7, In Thailand
prominent fortuneteller Suriyan Sujaritpalawong, accused of
insulting the monarchy, died of a blood infection at a military
prison where he had been detained since mid-October. He became the
second person in connection with the high-profile case to die behind
2015 Nov 7, In Togo clashes
between police and protesters over the past two days left five
2015 Nov 7, Turkmenistan media
said President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered the start of
construction on a pipeline carrying gas from the former Soviet state
to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
2015 Nov 7, In western
Venezuela a magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck about 27 km (17 miles)
from the city of Merida, knocking out power in some areas, damaging
some buildings and triggering rockfalls that killed one man.
2015 Nov 7, The World
Anti-Doping Agency said Russia had sabotaged the 2012 London Olympic
Games by running a state-sponsored doping program.
(SSFC, 11/15/15, p.A25)
2015 Nov 7, The World Health
Organization said that Ebola-ravaged Sierra Leone had beaten an
18-month outbreak that killed almost 4,000 citizens and plunged the
economy into severe recession.
2015 Nov 8, Afghan police said
Islamic State militants have killed 7 people, including 3 women, in
Zabul province. They had been abducted on Oct 1 from Rasani village
in neighboring Ghazni province. The victims were members of the
Hazara ethnic group.
2015 Nov 8, Courts in
Bangladesh sentenced six people to death for torturing and killing
two young boys earlier this year. Samiul Islam Rajon (13) died in
July after he was brutally beaten. Rakib Hawlader (12) died in
August after his former employer at a car repair shop used a nozzle
to pump air into his rectum and filled his body with air in
retaliation for quitting his job.
2015 Nov 8, Hundreds of
Bulgarian policemen, firemen and prison guards protested against
plans to slash their social benefits despite the center-right
government's pledge to withdraw the proposed cuts.
2015 Nov 8, In Burundi gunmen
at least 9 people were killed in an attack at a bar in Bujumbura
hours before police launched house-to-house searches for weapons.
Families were fleeing their homes in the capital, over fears the
government will unleash a fresh wave of bloodletting as part of a
crackdown to stamp out resistance to the president.
(AFP, 11/8/15)(SFC, 11/9/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 8, In Chad a twin
suicide bombing by women attackers in the flashpoint area of Lake
Chad killed at least 3 people and wounded 14 others.
2015 Nov 8, In China air
quality reached extremely hazardous levels in Shenyang as northern
China began to burn coal to heat homes for winter.
(SFC, 11/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 8, Croatians voted in
a general election with conservatives aspiring to return to power.
The conservative opposition won the Balkan country's first
parliamentary election since joining the European Union in 2013.
(AFP, 11/8/15)(AP, 11/9/15)
2015 Nov 8, In Egypt Ashraf Ali
Hassanein Gharabli, a top commander of a local Islamic State
affiliate, died in a firefight that erupted when police tried to
arrest him in the El-Marg district of Cairo.
2015 Nov 8, In France more than
60 environment and energy ministers tasked with inking a global pact
in December to rein in climate change, met in Paris seeking to
narrow political rifts.
2015 Nov 8, In Indonesia an
earthquake measuring 6.1 magnitude struck 107 km south of Sibolga,
2015 Nov 8, Iran announced the
appointment of its first woman ambassador since the 1979 Islamic
revolution, naming foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham to
head its embassy in Malaysia.
2015 Nov 8, In Libya two
Serbian embassy employees were abducted.
2015 Nov 8, In Mexico
unidentified assailants opened fire on an amateur soccer match on
the outskirts of the Mexican Pacific Coast resort of Acapulco,
killing 3 people.
2015 Nov 8, Myanmar held its
first free nationwide election in 25 years. Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD) was expected to win the largest share of
votes cast by an electorate of about 30 million. The NLD won enough
seats in Parliament to allow it to form Myanmar's first truly
civilian government in more than half a century.
(Reuters, 11/8/15)(Reuters, 11/9/15)(AP,
2015 Nov 8, In Nepal more than
70% of domestic flights were canceled due to fuel shortages as
members of the Madhesi ethnic community continued to block the
southern border with India in protest of the country’s new
(SFC, 11/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 8, A Palestinian
driver was shot dead after ramming his car into a bus stop near the
Jewish settlement of Tapuach in the West Bank, injuring four people.
A Palestinian woman stabbed a security guard near a West Bank
settlement and was shot by the victim.
(Reuters, 11/8/15)(AFP, 11/8/15)
2015 Nov 8, In northwestern
Syria suspected Russian air strikes killed at least 11 civilians in
two towns in Idlib province. At least 10 people were killed in
government air strikes on a town held by the Islamic State group in
Aleppo province. Another 4 people, including a child, were killed in
rebel fire on the government-held area of Aleppo city.
2015 Nov 8, Pope Francis told
followers in St. Peter's Square that the theft of documents
describing financial malfeasance inside the Holy See was a "crime"
but pledged to continue reforms of its administration.
2015 Nov 8, Yemeni medical
sources and residents said more than 50 people were killed in the
past two days in fighting pitting an Arab coalition against Houthi
fighters backed by troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah
2015 Nov 8, In Yemen another
cyclone made landfall on Socotra island. At least two people were
killed and dozens injured.
2015 Nov 9, Pres. Obama met
with Israeli PM Netanyahu at the White House. They reaffirmed their
commitment to seeking Middle East peace.
(SFC, 11/10/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 9, The US Court of
Appeals in New Orleans upheld a Texas judge’s injunction blocking
the Obama administration’s immigration initiative until legal
challenges to the program are resolved.
(SFC, 11/10/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 9, Carol Doda
(b.1937), San Francisco’s world famous topless dancer, died.
(SFC, 11/12/15, p.A1)
2015 Nov 9, Timothy R. Johnson
(53) of Georgia filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging arrest
without probable cause and malicious persecution. In 2013 he was
exonerated of the 1984 killing of Taressa Stanley for which he
served 29 years in prison.
(SFC, 11/12/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 9, The president of
the Univ. of Missouri system and the head of its flagship campus
resigned under student complaints that the 4-college system was
unresponsive to racial slurs and other slights.
(SFC, 11/10/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 9, In NYC a Chinese
collector snapped up Modigliani's "Nu Couche" or "Reclining Nude",
painted in 1917-18, for $170.4 million, setting a new world record
price at auction for the Italian artist in a bumper Christie's sale.
2015 Nov 9, Afghan officials
said rival groups of Taliban militants have clashed in the southern
province of Zabul, killing as many as 80 people in recent days.
2015 Nov 9, Austrian painter
Ernst Fuchs (85), whose works combined a love of color and texture
with clear lines, mysticism and religious themes, died.
2015 Nov 9, Chilean civil
registry workers resumed work after a 39-day nationwide strike.
2015 Nov 9, In Congo DRC around
15 youth members of UNAFEC were arrested in Lubumbashi, including
leader Kabulo Shimbe Zasou. The National Union of Federations of
Congo was one of several parties expelled from the ruling coalition
after voicing concern that President Joseph Kabila is seeking to
cling to power beyond the end of his mandate in 2016.
2015 Nov 9, In France President
Francois Hollande met with with Bolivian President Evo Morales, who
approved buying a radar system from France that will be used to
fight drug trafficking. Thales Air Systems will provide the
2015 Nov 9, French philosopher
Andre Glucksmann (78) died. He bridged the intellectual worlds of
Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault and was a towering fighter
2015 Nov 9, In Germany some
113,000 Lufthansa passengers were facing domestic and international
cancellations due to all-day walkouts at three airports staged by a
cabin crew union protesting cost cuts.
2015 Nov 9, In Jordan 2
Americans, one South African and 3 Jordanians were killed in a
shooting incident at a police training center near Amman. The
shooter was also killed.
2015 Nov 9, Myanmar's ruling
party conceded defeat in the general election as the opposition led
by democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on course for a
landslide victory that could ensure it forms the next government.
2015 Nov 9, Russia announced
that it has agreed to push on with a deal to deliver S-300 missile
systems to Iran after Moscow halted an earlier agreement due to UN
sanctions slapped on Tehran.
2015 Nov 9, Russia's Defense
Ministry said its air force flew 137 sorties and hit 448 targets in
Syria in the last three days.
2015 Nov 9, Pyotr Pavlensky,
one of Russia's most radical political performance artists, was
detained after setting fire to the main entrance to the headquarters
of the FSB security service.
2015 Nov 9, Sifiso Dabengwa,
the CEO of South Africa-based MTN Group, Africa's biggest
telecommunications company, resigned because of a $5.2 billion fine
meted out to MTN Group's Nigerian subsidiary.
2015 Nov 9, Spanish police said
they have seized more than 3,600 kg (4 tons) of hashish piled inside
four luxury SUVs discovered in a warehouse in the southwestern
Mediterranean coastal city of La Linea de la Concepcion.
2015 Nov 9, In Spain
Catalonia's regional assembly voted in favor of a resolution to
split from Spain.
2015 Nov 9, Sri Lanka's law and
order minister resigned after being accused of defending a private
security company that is under investigation for allegedly running
armories on ships.
2015 Nov 9, In Syria
pro-government gunmen captured the village of Sheikh Ahmad in Aleppo
province. The troops advanced under the cover of Russian and Syrian
2015 Nov 9, In eastern Syria
the French army bombed an oil supply center near Deir Ezzor held by
the Islamic State group, targeting part of an oil distribution
station and secondly a gas separation plant.
(AFP, 11/9/15)(AFP, 11/10/15)
2015 Nov 9, In Turkey a taxi
driver was killed and five other people, including a police officer,
were wounded when security forces clashed with Kurdish militants in
the southeastern town of Silvan.
2015 Nov 9, Turkish media
reported that anti-terrorist police have detained 38 foreigners,
including women and children, who were reportedly seeking to join
the Islamic State group in Syria. The suspects included nationals
from Iraq, Iran, Indonesia and several central Asian nations.
2015 Nov 9, The United Arab
Emirates Air Force announced a $1.27-billion deal with Swedish
defense giant Saab to purchase two surveillance planes and upgrade
2015 Nov 9, Members of the UN
cultural agency narrowly rejected Kosovo's bid for membership, in a
victory for Serbia and Russia and a blow to Kosovo's mission for
global recognition as a state.
2015 Nov 10, The United States
and its allies conducted 11 strikes against Islamic State in Syria
and 17 in Iraq.
2015 Nov 10, Federal and state
officials said they will allow solar, wind and other renewable
energy development on 400,000 acres of public lands in the
California desert, while setting aside 5 million acres for
(SFC, 11/11/15, p.A1)
2015 Nov 10, Avowed white
supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. was sentenced to death for the
April 13, 2014, fatal shootings of 3 people at Jewish sites in
(SFC, 11/11/15, p.A8)
2015 Nov 10, In Ohio a small
jet crashed into a home and then an apartment building in Akron’s
Ellet neighborhood killing all 9 people onboard.
(SFC, 11/11/15, p.A9)
2015 Nov 10, A Texas grand jury
returned sweeping indictments for all 106 cases brought before them
on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity following the
deadly shootout between biker gangs outside a Waco Twin Peaks
restaurant in May.
2015 Nov 10, Legendary New
Orleans musician and composer Allen Toussaint (b.1938) died after
suffering a heart attack following a concert in Spain. He penned
such classics as "Working in a Coal Mine" (1966) and "Lady
(AP, 11/10/15)(SFC, 11/11/15, p.A14)
2015 Nov 10, In Brazil 2
executives of the country’s second-biggest private bank were killed
in a jet crash in Goias state. The unnamed pilot and co-pilot were
2015 Nov 10, British police
arrested a former soldier for the Bloody Sunday killings in
Londonderry in 1972, part of a probe aimed at healing the wounds of
Northern Ireland's three decades of unrest.
2015 Nov 10, Congo DRC police
fired tear gas at hundreds of people armed with sticks and shovels
protesting the arrest of several youth leaders in Lubumbashi.
2015 Nov 10, Twenty Iraqis at a
Czech detention center for migrants began a hunger strike amid fears
of being sent back home. By Nov 12 the number had grown to 60.
2015 Nov 10, The EU accused
Ankara of backsliding on rule of law, rights and the media and urged
it to react swiftly, in a sensitive report on Turkey's candidacy for
the bloc that Brussels had delayed until after elections.
2015 Nov 10, In France riot
police and migrants camped near the port of Calais clashed in
overnight violence that aid workers said reflects the growing
frustration of refugees' inability to smuggle themselves aboard
trucks and trains bound for England.
2015 Nov 10, In Germany Helmut
Schmidt (96), former West German chancellor (1974-1982), died at his
home in Hamburg. He had guided West Germany through economic
turbulence and Cold War tensions, stood firm against a wave of
homegrown terrorism and became a respected elder statesman.
(AP, 11/10/15)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.94)
2015 Nov 10, Iran state media
reported that the dismantling of centrifuges in two uranium
enrichment plants has stopped, days after conservative lawmakers
complained to President Hassan Rouhani that the process was too
2015 Nov 10, In Iraq attacks in
different parts of Baghdad killed at least 10 civilians.
2015 Nov 10, Israeli security
guards shot dead a Palestinian who ran towards them with a knife
near Jerusalem's Old City, shortly after two Palestinian boys, aged
12-13, stabbed a guard on a tram nearby. One boy was seriously
wounded. Police said the other was taken into custody.
2015 Nov 10, Italy arrested 41
people after uncovering a criminal ring that charged people
thousands of euros for illegal entry to the country to work in
2015 Nov 10, Kurdish rebels
detonated a bomb on a road in southeast Turkey, wounding six
soldiers riding inside an armored military vehicle. 3 policemen were
killed when PKK militants detonated an improvised explosive device
on a road near the town of Silopi, in Sirnak province.
(AP, 11/10/15)(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 10, Dutch electronics
giant Philips announced the inking of a multi-million-euro contract
with Canada's Mackenzie Health to install and run a raft of
state-of-the-art hospital equipment over the next 18 years.
2015 Nov 10, In Nigeria police
in Port Harcourt fired shots and teargas to disperse hundreds of
pro-Biafra supporters as they marched for the release of a key
2015 Nov 10, In Portugal
antiausterity lawmakers forced the center-right government to resign
by rejecting its policy proposals at the start of what was supposed
to be a second consecutive term in office.
(SFC, 11/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 10, In Romania former
EU agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos was appointed as the new
prime minister, following the resignation last week of Victor Ponta
after mass anti-government protests sparked by a deadly nightclub
2015 Nov 10, President Vladimir
Putin said Russia will counter NATO's US-led missile defense program
by deploying new strike weapons capable of piercing the shield.
2015 Nov 10, Russia rejected
explosive accusations of doping and corruption and promised a rapid
response to avoid suspension from the 2016 Olympics due to the
scandal that threatens to spread far beyond the borders of Russia
2015 Nov 10, Slovenia outlined
plans to build "obstacles", potentially including fences, on its
border with Croatia, as it braced for a new spike in migrants bound
for northern Europe this week.
2015 Nov 10, Syrian army troops
reached the northern Kweires air base in Aleppo province, breaking a
nearly two-year siege by insurgents on the facility. At least 100
soldiers and fighters were killed in just over 24 hours of fierce
fighting as pro-government forces reached the Kweires airbase. At
least 22 people were killed in mortar fire on the coastal city of
Latakia. One person was killed and five wounded in a mortar attack
on residential areas of Damascus. Another 4 people, including a
child, were killed in government rocket fire on Douma.
(AFP, 11/10/15)(Reuters, 11/12/15)
2015 Nov 10, In the first major
commercial deal at the Dubai Airshow Airbus and Vietnamese air
carrier Vietjet announced a deal for 30 new aircraft easily worth
over $3 billion at list prices.
2015 Nov 11, The United States
announced rewards worth a total $27 million for information on six
top commanders in the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab.
2015 Nov 11, Chipotle began
reopening restaurants in Oregon and Washington states following a
recent E. coli outbreak.
(SFC, 11/12/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 11, In Afghanistan
about 10,000 people marched in Kabul to demand justice for the
Hazara Shite minority and calling on the government to do more to
ensure the nation's security or step down.
2015 Nov 11, In Afghanistan
Mullah Mansoor Dadullah was reportedly lured into a trap and killed
by members of the main Taliban group in the Khak-e-Afghan district
of southeastern Zabul province.
2015 Nov 11, In Bangladesh a
baby girl was born with two heads. Initial tests showed she only has
one set of vital organs.
2015 Nov 11, The world's top
brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev clinched a gigantic $121-billion deal
for its nearest rival SABMiller, in the third biggest takeover in
global corporate history. The combined company will be headquartered
2015 Nov 11, Chinese Internet
users spent billions of dollars in the planet's biggest online
shopping splurge, as "Singles Day" hit new heights, despite slowing
growth in the world's second-largest economy.
2015 Nov 11, Danish brewer
Carlsberg says it will slash 2,000 jobs, or about 15 percent of its
white-collar work force, after posting a 4.5 billion kronor ($650
million) loss in the third quarter.
2015 Nov 11, The European Union
backed the labelling of products from Israeli settlements, sparking
fresh tensions with a furious Israel, which said the move could harm
the peace process with the Palestinians.
2015 Nov 11, German public
radio station rbb-Inforadio reported that the country's foreign
intelligence agency spied on the FBI and U.S. arms companies, adding
to a growing list of targets among friendly nations the agency
allegedly eavesdropped on. The station claimed that the BND also
spied on the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the WHO,
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and even a German diplomat
who headed an EU observer mission to Georgia from 2008 to 2011.
2015 Nov 11, In Mexico gun
battle between Mexican soldiers and gunmen in the border city of
Reynosa resulted in the deaths of four bystanders, after a military
vehicle took a spray of gunfire and crashed into a taco stand.
2015 Nov 11, Myanmar President
Thein Sein congratulated democratic champion Aung San Suu Kyi, as
her party appeared to have trounced the ruling camp in the first
free election in 25 years and inched towards an absolute majority in
2015 Nov 11, Dozens of
Palestinians were wounded in West Bank clashes with Israeli soldiers
on the anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
2015 Nov 11, In Poland
thousands of flag-waving nationalists marched through Warsaw with an
anti-migrant message as they mark Independence Day, a holiday marred
by violence in recent years.
2015 Nov 11, Qatar reported its
first casualty in the conflict in Yemen saying that one of its
soldiers was killed fighting with a Saudi-led coalition against
Shiite rebels there.
2015 Nov 11, Russia's Defense
Ministry said its air force flew 85 sorties and hit 277 terrorist
targets in Syria in the last two days.
2015 Nov 11, Serbia's PM
Aleksandar Vucic said his country is donating 5 million euros ($5.4
million) to rejuvenate the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
2015 Nov 11, Slovenia started
erecting a razor wire fence along parts of its border with Croatia
amid heavy security.
2015 Nov 11, South African
anti-riot police fired stun grenades to disperse scores of striking
parliamentary workers demanding higher pay outside the assembly
building in Cape Town.
2015 Nov 11, Spain's government
filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court, aimed at blocking an
independence drive by the Catalan regional assembly and preserving
Spanish national unity. The Constitutional Court halted a push by
Catalan lawmakers to set a road map toward independence by 2017.
(Reuters, 11/11/15)(SFC, 11/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 11, In Switzerland the
12.03-carat “Blue Moon" diamond was auctioned in Geneva for a record
(SFC, 11/12/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 11, Syrian opposition
figures and Gulf commentators dismissed a Russian draft proposal for
a process to solve the Syrian crisis, saying Moscow's aim was to
keep President Bashar al-Assad in power and marginalize dissenting
2015 Nov 11, In Turkey a
soldier was killed in a clash with Kurdish militants in the town of
Silvan, in Diyarbakir province. PKK rebels detonated a car bomb on a
road in the town of Dargecit, Mardin province, as an armored police
vehicle was passing by. The explosion killed a road-sweeper and
wounded a police officer.
2015 Nov 11, A wooden boat
carrying dozens of migrants sank off the Turkish coast, killing 14
people including 7 children.
2015 Nov 11, Ukraine said a
soldier has been killed and five others wounded in separatist
attacks in eastern Ukraine and that a rise in violence is
threatening the region's delicate truce.
2015 Nov 11, A UN conference
agreed to dedicate part of the radio spectrum to a global flight
tracking system, to avoid a repeat of the disappearance of Malaysian
Airlines flight MH370 in March last year.
2015 Nov 12, A US attack in the
Syrian town of Raqqa reportedly killed Mohammed Emwazi, aka British
Islamic State leader "Jihadi John." The air strike resulted from a
combined effort between Britain and the United States.
2015 Nov 12, In San Francisco
police deputies from Alameda County beat Stanislav Petrov (29) with
batons in a Mission district alley following a chase from Castro
Valley where Petrov rammed two patrol cruisers in a stolen car.
Petrov suffered broken bones and serious head injuries. Deputies
were allowed to alter their original reports after they and their
attorneys viewed surveillance video of the beating. Auto theft
suspect Petrov was arrested on April 1 as police raided a SF house
in Visitacion Valley, where a man was shot dead earlier in the day.
On August 1, 2016, Petrov filed a federal lawsuit alleging violation
of his civil rights.
(SFC, 3/31/16, p.A1)(SFC, 4/2/16, p.C1)(SFC,
2015 Nov 12, In NYC two nephews
of Venezuela's first lady appeared in court charged with conspiring
to smuggle cocaine into the US. They were arrested in Haiti on Nov
10 by local police, handed over to US agents and flown the same day
to New York.
2015 Nov 12, In NYC mobster
Vincent Asaro (80) threw his hands into the air and shouted "Free,"
grinning as he walked out of a courthouse following his surprising
acquittal on charges he helped plan the legendary 1978 Lufthansa
heist retold in the hit Mafia film "Goodfellas."
2015 Nov 12, Austrian police
said 12 members of a human trafficking gang, many of whose victims
were from Afghanistan and Syria, have been arrested and
international warrants issued for another five.
2015 Nov 12, The Brazilian
government said its environmental protection agency has fined
Volkswagen $13 million over the automaker's emissions cheating
2015 Nov 12, Colombia's justice
minister said the country plans to legalize the cultivation and sale
of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Colombian courts had already
decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana for
personal use. The new rules will allow for commercial production.
2015 Nov 12, Police announced a
swoop on a European jihadist network that was allegedly planning to
kidnap diplomats and carry out attacks to try to spring its leader
out of detention in Norway. Seventeen arrest warrants were issued
and 13 people were detained in Britain, Italy and Norway.
2015 Nov 12, European Food
Safety Authority (EFSA) said glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer
in humans. It nevertheless proposed limits on the amount of residue
of the weedkiller widely used by farmers deemed safe to consume.
2015 Nov 12, Finland became the
first country in the world to give a construction license for a
permanent underground nuclear waste repository. It approved Posiva
Oy's plan to construct a spent nuclear fuel encapsulation plant and
disposal facility at the island of Olkiluoto. Up to 6,500 tons of
uranium may be deposited in the facility.
2015 Nov 12, German police
found the bodies of 8 babies in an apartment in Wallenfels, Bavaria.
A woman (45) was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of four
of her newborn babies. On July 20, 2016, the Coburg state court
sentenced the woman, whose name was not released, to 14 years in
(AFP, 11/13/15)(AP, 7/20/16)
2015 Nov 12, In Greece over
20,000 people demonstrated against fresh spending cuts in Athens,
with a brief flare-up of violence marking the first general strike
against the leftist government of Alexis Tsipras who came to power
on an anti-austerity ticket.
2015 Nov 12, Haitians angered
by a series of rapes and robberies in Port-au-Prince burned alive a
man early today they suspected of criminal connections in an upscale
suburb of the capital.
2015 Nov 12, Israeli undercover
forces raided a hospital in the West Bank, shooting dead a
Palestinian during an attempt to detain another man suspected of
carrying out a stabbing. The raid was carried out to detain Azzam
al-Shalalda (27) who was suspected of stabbing an Israeli settler
two weeks ago in the West Bank.
2015 Nov 12, Kenya's
Journalists for Justice said Kenyan forces fighting militants in
Somalia are taking cuts from charcoal and sugar smuggling, earning
themselves about $50 million a year and boosting an illegal trade
that helps fund the Islamists.
2015 Nov 12, Kurdish peshmerga
forces started clearing parts of the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar
and have established positions along an Islamic State supply route
between its two main strongholds in Iraq and Syria.
2015 Nov 12, In Lebanon a twin
suicide attack struck a Shiite suburb in southern Beirut, killing at
least 43 people and wounded over 240. The Islamic State claimed this
as its first attack in the country.
(Reuters, 11/13/15)(Econ, 12/5/15, p.49)
2015 Nov 12, The Islamic State
released a Russian-language video threatening attacks in Russia
2015 Nov 12, Sweden reinstated
border controls in a bid to gain control over the massive influx of
migrants arriving in the country, without blocking the steady flow
of asylum seekers.
2015 Nov 12, Ukraine's
parliament finally banned discrimination against gays in the
workplace during a heated session on legislation that could open the
door to visa-free travel to much of the EU in 2016.
2015 Nov 12, In southern Yemen
Saudi-led coalition air strikes and attacks by pro-government forces
killed at least 24 rebels, where the insurgents have been pushing to
regain lost ground.
2015 Nov 13, The United States
said it had designated Turkey’s prisoner Maghomed Maghomedzakirovich
Abdurakhmanov (41) a terrorist, triggering sanctions and penalties.
Turkish authorities had recently sentenced him to prison for
belonging to a terrorist organization.
2015 Nov 13, The US Treasury
Department said it has blacklisted North Korea's ambassador to
Myanmar for alleged involvement in illegal weapons trade.
2015 Nov 13, The United States
and its allies targeted Islamic State in Iraq with 20 air strikes,
and also hit the militant group with seven air strikes in Syria.
2015 Nov 13, The US Postal
Service reported a $5.1 billion loss for the just-completed 2015
fiscal cycle, a slight improvement over last year.
2015 Nov 13, US presidential
candidate Ben Carson recommended praying for rival Donald Trump
after the real-estate mogul and television personality, in a
95-minute rant in Iowa, likened him to a child molester.
2015 Nov 13, Michigan woman
Lois Janish of Flint (75) was sentenced to at least nine years in
prison for the 1998 death of her granddaughter, whose remains have
never been found. Coral Hall (14) disappeared in 1998 after using a
pay phone near a Flint tavern.
2015 Nov 13, A new lung cancer
pill from AstraZeneca , designed for patients whose disease has
worsened after treatment with other therapies, won early US
approval, in a boost for the British drugmaker.
2015 Nov 13, Austria announced
it would erect a 3.7-km (2.3-mile) metal fence along its border with
Slovenia, in a new blow to the EU's cherished open-border Schengen
2015 Nov 13, A British judge
sentenced Nathan Matthews to at least 33 years in prison for
murdering and dismembering Becky Watts (16), his teenage stepsister.
His girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, was sentenced to 17 years in prison
for her role in the killing.
2015 Nov 13, A Cambodian court
issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Sam Rainsy in
connection with an old defamation case as tension rises between Sam
Rainsy and PM Hun Sen.
2015 Nov 13, In Central African
Republic an officials said at least 22 people were killed in a
string of raids on villages this week.
2015 Nov 13, In China a torrent
of mud and rocks unleashed by heavy rains buried nearly 30 homes in
a village in Zhejiang province. 4 people were confirmed dead soon
after the landslide. The death toll from a landslide soon rose to 21
people with 16 others still missing.
2015 Nov 13, Colombia said it
plans to legalize medical marijuana in a further shift in drug
policy after suspending aerial fumigation of illicit crops. Current
law allows possession of up to 20 grams of marijuana or 20 marijuana
plants for personal use.
2015 Nov 13, In France eight
gunmen and bombers attacked restaurants, the Bataclan theater and a
sports stadium in Paris, killing 129 people in what a shaken
President Francois Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist
attack. Seven gunmen, all of whom were wearing suicide vests packed
with explosives, died in the multiple assaults. The first to be
identified was named as Ismael Omar Mostefai, a 29-year-old who
lived in the city of Chartres, southwest of Paris. Two others were
later named as Samy Amimour (28) and Brahim Abdeslam. The death toll
rose to 130 on Nov 20 as one of the wounded succumbed to injuries.
Foued Mohamed-Aggad (23) was later identified as one of three
Islamist gunmen who killed 90 people at the Bataclan.
(Reuters, 11/13/15)(Reuters 11/15/15)(AP,
11/20/15)(Reuters, 12/9/15)(Econ, 11/21/15, p.21)
2015 Nov 13, The International
Criminal Court at The Hague cut a 12-year prison term imposed on
Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga for a brutal attack on a
village, saying he would be freed in January after he had voiced
regret for his actions.
2015 Nov 13, An Indian man
threw acid at a 23-year-old Bulgarian woman after she reportedly
spurned his marriage offer in Varanasi.
2015 Nov 13, An Indonesian
court late sentenced Hong Kong drug lord Wong Chi-ping to death for
smuggling 860 kg (1,900 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine into
Indonesia earlier this year.
2015 Nov 13, Iraq's military
said its forces had advanced on three fronts to begin clearing
Islamic State militants from the western city of Ramadi. A suicide
bomber struck a Baghdad memorial service for a Shiite militia
fighter killed in battle against the Islamic State group, killing 26
(Reuters, 11/13/15)(AP, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 13, In Iraq Kurdish
peshmerga forces backed by US air strikes seized the Iraqi town of
Sinjar from Islamic State.
2015 Nov 13, In Libya a US air
strike targeted Abu Nabil al-Anbari, aka Wisam al Zubaidi, a leadr
of the local Islamic State affiliate. Pentagon officials believe
that Anbari was killed in the strike.
(SSFC, 11/15/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 13, Mali's army
arrested Alaye Bocari, a leading financial backer of an Islamist
militant group responsible for an expansion of deadly attacks in the
2015 Nov 13, Norway said its
police, who had been authorized to carry firearms for the past year
due to a heightened threat of Islamist attacks, will be unarmed
again now that the threat level has been lowered.
2015 Nov 13, A Palestinian
gunman killed an Israel father and his son near the Jewish
settlement of Otneil in the southern West Bank. In Hebron Israeli
troops shot dead a Palestinian involved in stone-throwing clashes. A
2nd Palestinian was killed in clashes near Ramallah.
(Reuters, 11/13/15)(SFC, 11/14/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 13, Poland’s Pres.
Andrzej Duda officially designated Beata Szydlo from the right-wing
Law and Justice Party as the new prime minister.
(SFC, 11/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 13, Russia said it has
banned incoming flights by Egypt's state-owned airline effective as
of Nov 14.
2015 Nov 13, Russia said its
air force flew 107 sorties and hit 289 terrorist targets in Syria on
2015 Nov 13, In South Africa
student protesters won the right to be taught in English at
Stellenbosch University, the intellectual home of Afrikaners during
2015 Nov 13, In South Korea
eight men took the government to court after spending years as
slaves on salt farms on rural islands off the southwest coast. Some
were enslaved for as many as twenty years.
(SFC, 11/14/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 13, In Suriname Romano
Meriba (31), a foster son of President Desi Bouterse, was arrested
for his alleged ties to a gang involved in a botched armed robbery
that resulted in two people being killed and five wounded.
2015 Nov 13, In Tunisia
Islamist militants beheaded a teenager in the central province of
Sidi Bouzid and sent his head to his family after accusing him of
spying for the military.
2015 Nov 13, Turkish officials
said 14 people have been killed in clashes between Kurdish rebels
and security forces days before a G-20 summit in Turkey.
2015 Nov 13, A Ukrainian
helicopter crashed in eastern Slovakia, killing 6 people.
2015 Nov 13, In Yemen A bomb
exploded during midday prayers at a mosque frequented by Houthi
supporters in the northwestern Mahwit region, killing several
worshippers and wounding others in Shibam.
2015 Nov 14, In Indiana Lonny
Jordan Hatland (20), a reserve officer with the Muncie Police
Department, was arrested for sexually and physically assaulting a
juvenile girl and coercing her into having sex with other men.
2015 Nov 14, In Baltimore, Ma.,
the number of homicides for the year reached 305.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.30)
2015 Nov 14, In Afghanistan
Helmand Governor Mirza Khan Rahimi said at least 65 Afghan soldiers
have defected to the Taliban, taking their weapons and equipment
with them and 88 have been killed in days of heavy fighting in the
2015 Nov 14, In Afghanistan a
drone strike in Nangarhar province killed 12 Taliban. The dead
included 3 Afghans and 9 foreigners. When Afghan officials refer to
foreigners they usually mean Pakistanis.
2015 Nov 14, Costa Rica said it
was giving temporary visas to a group of about 1,000 stranded,
penniless Cubans, telling them they had one week to cross the
country and continue their journey toward the United States.
2015 Nov 14, In France a
high-speed train derailed into the Marne au Rhin canal during a test
run near Strasbourg. At least 11 people were killed and 5 were
(AFP, 11/15/15)(SSFC, 11/15/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 14, The Islamic State
group claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks in Paris that
killed 127 people.
2015 Nov 14, Israeli troops
razed the West Bank homes of four Palestinians accused of attacking
Israelis, pressing ahead with a controversial policy of punitive
demolitions after weeks of deadly unrest. In Hebron 19 Palestinians
were hospitalized after being shot in clashes with Israeli security
2015 Nov 14, In South Korea
tens of thousands marched in central Seoul with diverse grievances
against the government. Police detained at least 50 people.
(SSFC, 11/15/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 14, In Spain some
10,000 personnel of the Civl Guard marched in Madrid demanding
better employment conditions and workers’ rights.
(SSFC, 11/15/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 14, Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad said that French policy had contributed to the
"spread of terrorism" that culminated in attacks claimed by the
Islamic State group which killed 128 people in Paris.
2015 Nov 14, Syria's al Qaeda
offshoot, the Nusra Front, said it had captured three Lebanese
Hezbollah fighters in northern Syria.
2015 Nov 14, Turkish security
forces killed 4 suspected IS militants near the Syrian border in the
southeastern province of Gaziantep.
2015 Nov 15, The US Pentagon
said five men who have been held for more than 13 years at the
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released and sent to the United Arab
Emirates. Their release brings the Guantanamo prison population to
2015 Nov 15, P.F. Sloan
(b.1945), singer and songwriter, died at his home in Los Angeles.
His songs included “Eve of Destruction" (1965).
2015 Nov 15, In Oakland, Ca.,
police officers shot dead Richard Perkins Jr. (39) as he carried a
toy gun. Surveillance video later showed that Perkins had complied
with police commands and never raised the pistol. On August 1, 2016,
Perkins’ family filed a federal suit against the city of Oakland.
(SFC, 8/2/16, p.C2)
2015 Nov 15, Author Stephen
Birmingham (b.1929) died at his home in New York. He authored some
30 books, almost all of which were about the super-wealthy including
“Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York" (1967).
(SFC, 11/25/15, p.D10)
2015 Nov 15, In Texas 2 bodies
were found at a campsite in Anderson County near the home of suspect
William Hudson (33). 4 more bodies were found a day later in a pond
on Hudson’s property.
(SFC, 11/16/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 15, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber targeted a convoy of foreign forces just outside
Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, killing one civilian and wounding 12
2015 Nov 15, A Bahrain court
ordered 12 Shiites to life in prison and stripped them of their
citizenship on charges of forming a terrorist group and targeting
police with explosive devices for incidents that took place in 2013
2015 Nov 15, Seven people were
detained in Belgium in connection with the Nov 13 deadly attacks in
Paris as the city entered three days of mourning for the 129 people
killed in the worst violence in France in decades.
2015 Nov 15, In Brazil ice
vendor Fabiano Machado da Silva (33) was killed by a crowd of ten
people in the Ipanema neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro.
(SFC, 11/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 15, Cynthia Payne
(82), British brothel-keeper, died.
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.82)
2015 Nov 15, In Egypt 15
Sudanese migrants, about to illegally enter Israel from the Sinai
Peninsula, were killed as they were caught up in the crossfire of a
gun battle between Egyptian security forces and Bedouin smugglers.
(AP, 11/15/15)(SFC, 11/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 15, Iran’s
semi-official Fars news agency reported that authorities have
arrested administrators of more than 20 groups on the messaging app
Telegram for spreading "immoral content", the latest detentions in a
clampdown on freedom of expression.
2015 Nov 15, Iranian police
warned that women who fail to wear the veil when driving will have
their cars impounded for a week and are likely to be fined.
2015 Nov 15, Israel’s Shin Bet
security service said a Palestinian suspect has been arrested in the
Nov 13 drive-by shooting that killed 2 Israelis.
2015 Nov 15, Israel approved
the entry of some 9,000 Ethiopians known as Falash Mura who claim
Jewish lineage, ending decades of debate on whether to allow their
immigration despite uncertainty over their right to settle in the
2015 Nov 15, Kurdish forces
said they uncovered two mass graves outside Sinjar, a northern Iraqi
town near the Syrian border that was ruled by the Islamic State
group for more than a year before the extremists were driven out
last week. The first grave uncovered contained 78 elderly women's
bodies. The second grave contained between 50 and 60 bodies of men,
women and children.
2015 Nov 15, Lebanon’s interior
minister said nine people, mostly Syrians, have been arrested over
last week's Beirut bombings that killed 44 people, an attack whose
original target was a hospital.
2015 Nov 15, Mexico said it has
extradited top drug trafficker Cesar Gastelum Serrano (47) to the
United States, where he is accused of running a network that
smuggles tons of cocaine into the US via Central America.
2015 Nov 15, Nicaragua said
thousands of Cubans forced their way into its territory from Costa
Rica, accusing its southern neighbor of "deliberately and
irresponsibly" flooding it with US-bound migrants.
2015 Nov 15, In Romania 3
handball players from the CSU Targoviste men's team died and 11 were
injured when the bus they were traveling in was hit by a truck.
2015 Nov 15, In Syria coalition
strikes destroyed 116 fuel trucks used by the jihadist group near
Albu Kamal, an IS-held town in Deir Ezzor province on the border
with Iraq. French raids hit the IS stronghold of Raqa. A coalition
strike destroyed 116 jihadists' oil trucks. 11 pro-government forces
were killed and 45 were wounded when rebels, including Islamists,
attacked them in Aleppo city. Warplanes believed to be Russian
carried out 40 air strikes, including on the ancient city of
2015 Nov 15, In Syria Abu Ali
al-Baridi, the leader of Al-Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade, a militant
Syrian faction that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
group, was killed along with two other leaders in a suicide attack
by rival jihadists of al-Nusra.
2015 Nov 15, Five Tanzanian
gold miners were rescued after spending 41 days trapped deep
underground eating cockroaches and frogs to survive. One of the
miners died during the incarceration underground following the Oct 5
2015 Nov 15, In Tunisia at
least 3 Islamist militants and a Tunisian soldier were killed in
clashes in the central Kasserine province, near the Algerian border.
2015 Nov 15, In Turkey a
suicide bomber opened fire on police and then blew himself up during
their raid on a suspect Islamic State militant hideout near the
border with Syria, injuring five police officers.
2015 Nov 15, Speaking at a G20
leaders summit in Turkey US President Barack Obama vowed to step up
efforts to eliminate Islamic State in Syria and prevent it from
carrying out attacks like those in Paris, while European leaders
urged Russia to focus its military efforts on the radical Islamists.
Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on the need for
UN-sponsored peace talks and a ceasefire to resolve years of war in
(Reuters, 11/15/15)(AFP, 11/15/15)
2015 Nov 16, US officials said
the State Department has approved the sale of thousands of smart
bombs worth a total of $1.29 billion to Saudi Arabia to help
replenish supplies used in its battle against insurgents in Yemen
and air strikes against Islamic State in Syria.
2015 Nov 16, Indiana Gov.
Michael Pence suspended the resettlement of Syrian refugees three
days after the terror attacks in Paris. As many as 30 other
Republican governors and one Democrat soon made similar moves. On
Feb 29, 2016, a federal judge ruled the Gov. Pence’s order to cut
federal funds for the resettlement of Syrian refugees in his state
was unconstitutional. On March 8 Indiana filed an appeal.
(Econ, 3/19/15, p.30)
2015 Nov 16, In Minnesota Jamar
Clark, a 24-year-old black man, died after he was shot by
Minneapolis police a day earlier. Community activists said he was
unarmed, handcuffed and shot in the head. The officers were later
identified as Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. On March 30,
2016, it was announced that the police officers would not be
(SFC, 11/18/15, p.A8)(YahooNews, 11/18/15)(SFC,
11/19/15, p.A8)(CSM, 3/31/16)
2015 Nov 16, Marriott Int’l.
Inc. agreed to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. in a
$12.2 billion deal creating the world’s largest lodging company.
(SFC, 11/17/15, p.D1)
2015 Nov 16, In Burundi three
grenades exploded in different parts of the capital following a
night of violence in which 5 people, including a policeman, were
killed. 60 injured people were treated after suffering injuries in
(AP, 11/16/15)(AP, 11/18/15)
2015 Nov 16, In Cambodia
opposition leader Sam Rainsy was stripped of his lawmaker status and
parliamentary immunity, paving the way for his arrest in connection
with a defamation case. Rainsy was on a visit to South Korea.
(SFC, 11/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 16, Egypt said its
security forces have shot dead 24 militants belonging to the
country's Islamic State affiliate in central Sinai, 70 km from the
crash site of a Russian passenger plane the group claimed it brought
2015 Nov 16, French police
raided homes of suspected Islamist militants across the country
overnight arresting 23 people. Investigators identified Abdelhamid
Abaaoud, a Belgian national living in Syria, as the possible
mastermind behind the Nov 13 attacks in Paris.
(Reuters, 11/16/15)(SFC, 11/17/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 16, Islamic State
warned in a new video that countries taking part in air strikes
against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened
to attack in Washington.
2015 Nov 16, Israeli forces
shot dead 2 Palestinians, ages 21 and 28, when heavy clashes erupted
during an operation to destroy the West Bank home of Muhammad Abu
Shaheen, a Palestinian who the army says fatally shot an Israeli
motorist this summer.
(AFP, 11/16/15)(SFC, 11/17/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 16, In Somalia at
least 7 people were killed and 12 others wounded when a gunfight
broke out between rival security forces as they waited for cards for
food aid just outside Mogadishu.
2015 Nov 16, Yemeni loyalists
and Saudi-led coalition forces launched an offensive to retake the
key battleground province of Taez from Iran-backed rebels. Saudi-led
airstrikes and clashes killed some 40 Shiite rebels and their allies
over the past 24 hours. 25 pro-Hadi fighters were killed in an
ambush laid for them by Houthi and Saleh forces at the Bab
al-Mandeb. 20 Houthi fighters were killed in fighting and coalition
air strikes. A family of 8 were killed in an air strike on Taiz.
(AFP, 11/16/15)(AP, 11/16/15)(Reuters, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 16, Zimbabwe media
said the government has passed new regulations ordering some 300,000
beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe's controversial land
reforms to pay annual rent and levies.
2015 Nov 17, President Barack
Obama announced that the US will hand over two ships to the
Philippine Navy to boost its maritime security capabilities, in a
bid to show the US and its allies won't be cowed by China in
disputed waters far off its coast.
2015 Nov 17, The US-led
coalition fighting Islamic State conducted 16 air strikes in Iraq
and 13 in Syria.
2015 Nov 17, House Speaker Paul
Ryan called for a pause in Syrian refugees coming to the US in the
wake of the Paris attacks and said the House will vote on the issue
2015 Nov 17, More than 100
flights were canceled at Denver International Airport early as a
powerful storm system dropped snow over the Rocky Mountains.
2015 Nov 17, It was reported
that Charles F. Feeney (84), the billionaire founder of Atlantic
Philanthropies, has donated $177 million to UCSF to create program
to address Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
(SFC, 11/17/15, p.A1)
2015 Nov 17, UCSF said
entrepreneur Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster, has donated $10
million to create research center to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes
in five years.
(SFC, 11/18/15, p.C1)
2015 Nov 17, Pennsylvania-based
Education Management Corp. agreed to pay $96 million to settle
claims it illegally paid recruiters based on the number of students
they enrolled. Five states had participated in four lawsuits.
(SFC, 11/18/15, p.A12)
2015 Nov 17, In Washington
state 3 people were killed and about 360,000 homes and businesses in
the Seattle-area were without power as a storm packing powerful
winds downed trees and triggered mudslides.
(Reuters, 11/18/15)(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A8)
2015 Nov 17, Bosnian
authorities arrested a police commissioner, a lawyer and a third
Muslim Bosnian suspected of having committed crimes against Bosnian
Serb civilians during the 1992-95 war.
2015 Nov 17, Finance minister
George Osborne said British spies are building elite cyber offensive
forces to strike at Islamic State fighters, hackers and hostile
2015 Nov 17, A British couple
was found guilty of keeping a Nigerian immigrant enslaved for more
than two decades, forcing him to work for no pay and threatening him
with deportation if he tried to escape. Emanuel Edet (61) and Antan
Edet (58) held their victim captive from the time he was brought to
Britain when he was 14 years old.
2015 Nov 17, Chinese state
media said police have arrested 98 people connected to online
gambling networks that handled $78 billion in bets. Police in the
southern provinces of Hunan and Guangdong have shut down 12
"gambling dens" since July, but only now announced the arrests.
2015 Nov 17, Egypt said it
would take into account Russia's conclusion that a bomb brought down
a passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula on Oct 31, but its
investigation had so far found no evidence of criminal action.
2015 Nov 17, France made an
unprecedented demand that its EU allies support its military action
against the Islamic State group. EU nations unanimously backed the
French request. French police named two of the Nov 13 French
attackers as Ismael Omar Mostefai, 29, from Chartres, southwest of
Paris, and Samy Amimour, 28, from the Paris suburb of Drancy.
(AP, 11/17/15)(Reuters, 11/17/15)(AFP, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 17, France and Russia
staged air strikes on Islamic State targets in northern Syria,
punishing the group for the Nov 13 attacks in Paris and against a
Russian airliner on Oct 31 that together killed 353 people.
2015 Nov 17, German police
arrested two more people in connection with the Nov 13 Paris
attacks, bringing to seven the total number of arrests linked to the
2015 Nov 17, Greece struck a
deal with European creditors on economic measures it needs to make
to get its next batch of bailout money.
2015 Nov 17, A plastic boat
carrying migrants capsized in the eastern Aegean Sea near the Greek
island of Kos, killing at least 9 people including 4 children.
2015 Nov 17, In Greece a
magnitude 6.5 earthquake off the western coast killed 2 elderly
2015 Nov 17, An Indian army
colonel was killed by suspected militants who fired automatic rifles
from the forest in the Indian portion of Kashmir.
2015 Nov 17, Ireland celebrated
its first gay marriages, six months after voters overwhelmingly
chose to legalize the practice.
2015 Nov 17, Israel banned the
radical northern wing of the Islamic Movement, with the government
accusing it of inciting violence. The Islamic Movement was founded
in the early 1970s, with the goal of "establishing an Arab Islamic
state in Palestine.
2015 Nov 17, Japan sued its
southern region of Okinawa over local resistance to a new US
2015 Nov 17, Kosovo's
opposition used tear gas and pepper spray inside parliament and
pelted police with rocks and pink paint outside the building in
another attempt to force the government to renounce recent deals
with Serbia and Montenegro.
2015 Nov 17, Nigeria's
President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, the
country's former national security adviser, accusing him of stealing
around $2 billion received for phantom arms contracts.
2015 Nov 17, In Nigeria a
blast struck a market in the northeastern city of Yola, killing 32
people and wounding 80 others.
2015 Nov 17, In southwestern
Pakistan a train carrying 280 passengers derailed in a remote area,
killing the train driver and 11 passengers and injuring at least 57
2015 Nov 17, The Philippine
military verified reports that a Malaysian kidnap victim was
beheaded by Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines after a
large ransom demand was not paid. The militants killed Bernard Then
Ted Fen, who was abducted last May, in the jungles off Indanan town
in Sulu province.
2015 Nov 17, The Philippines
and Vietnam signed an agreement to elevate their relationship to a
strategic partnership as leaders from 21 countries and
self-governing territories gathered in Manila for the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit.
2015 Nov 17, The head of
Russia's FSB security service said a homemade explosive device
brought down a Russian passenger plane over Egypt last month.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian navy in the
Mediterranean to establish contact with its French counterparts and
(AP, 11/17/15)(AFP, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 17, A Saudi appeals
court sentenced Palestinian artist Ashraf Fayadh to execution for
apostasy related to a book of poetry and alleged illicit relations
with women in a case that dated back to 2013. In 2016 his sentence
reduced to prison time and lashes instead.
(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A9)(AP, 2/3/16)
2015 Nov 17, Severe weather
along Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast claimed three lives, including an
11-year-old child who drowned.
2015 Nov 17, In Syria
Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front said it had downed two
Russian reconnaissance drones over a military airport it controls in
2015 Nov 17, Turkish security
forces killed one suspected Islamic State (IS) militant seeking to
cross into Turkey from Syria and arrested 21 others.
2015 Nov 17, The UN refugee
agency criticized Thailand for deporting two refugees who were about
to be resettled in a third country. The US branch of Amnesty
International issued a statement on Nov 16 identifying them as Jiang
Yefei and Dong Guangping, and said they were most likely sent to
China on Nov 13.
2015 Nov 17, Yemen's exiled
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi returned to the southern port city
of Aden to rally forces loyal to him in the country's civil war and
oversee a campaign to retake the city of Taiz.
2015 Nov 18, US President
Barack Obama demanded China end artificial island building in the
hotly contested South China Sea, upping the pressure on Beijing at
the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) gathering in
2015 Nov 18, The US and Cuba
signed an agreement to join forces and protect the vast array of
fish and corals they share.
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 18, The National Book
Award for Fiction was awarded to Adam Johnson for his story
collection “Fortune Smiles." Ta-Nehisi Coates won the nonfiction
award for “Between the World and Me," an open letter to his son (15)
about race in America.
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A8)
2015 Nov 18, Musician Willie
Nelson was honored as the new recipient of the Library of Congress
Gershwin Prize for Popular song.
(SFC, 11/18/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 18, The National
Institutes of Health quietly ended the federal government’s long
history of using chimpanzees for biomedical research.
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 18, In southern
California police Officer Ricardo Galvez (29) was shot and killed
during an alleged botched robbery in Downey. On Nov 20 Abel Diaz
(16) was charged with murder. Two other arrested men awaited
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 18, Charles Cawley
(b.1940), credit-card billionaire, died in Maine. He founded MBNA
Corporation in 1982 in the basement of an empty Delaware A&P
store. MBNA went public in 1991.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Cawley)(Econ, 12/12/15, p.86)
2015 Nov 18, Texas executed
Raphael Holiday (36) for setting a fire that killed his 18-month-old
daughter and two half sister 15 years ago. This made him the 13th
convicted killer put to death by the state this year.
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 18, Albania police
said they have destroyed a large drug network in Tirana arrresting
30 people, while five people remained at large.
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 18, Australian
authorities said at least 4 people have died in bushfires raging out
of control in parts of Western Australia.
2015 Nov 18, Bangladesh's
Supreme Court upheld death sentences given to opposition leaders
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid of Jamaat-e-Islami. Both were convicted
in 2013 of war crimes during the country's 1971 independence war
2015 Nov 18, In Bosnia a man
armed with an automatic rifle killed the 2 soldiers in a betting
shop and then shot at a public bus. The suspect then fled to his
home nearby and blew himself up even before police had encircled the
2015 Nov 18, In France a woman
suicide bomber, Hasna Aitboulahcen (26), blew herself up and another
militant died when police raided an apartment in the Paris suburb of
St. Denis seeking suspects in last week's attacks in Paris. Seven
people were arrested in the operation in which nearly 5,000 bullets
were fired. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a cousin of Aitboulahcen and
the suspected Islamic State mastermind of the Paris attacks, was
identified the next day as the 2nd dead militant. On Nov 20
authorities said a 3rd body had been found at the site.
(Reuters, 11/18/15)(Reuters 11/19/15)(AP,
11/20/15)(SSFC, 11/22/15, p.A25)
2015 Nov 18, Germany said it
will send 130 more soldiers to Afghanistan in support for Afghan
forces struggling to tackle an Islamist insurgency.
2015 Nov 18, In Greece police
fired tear gas at dozens of farmers in Athens who pelted them with
oranges and tried to storm parliament during a protest against
planned tax increases.
2015 Nov 18, An international
coalition led by the United States conducted 19 air strikes against
Islamic State in Iraq, targeting the militant group near Kirkuk,
Kisik, Mosul, Ramadi and Sinjar. The coalition targeted Islamic
State in Syria with eight strikes, including four that hit tactical
units and destroyed buildings near Al Hasaka. One strike near Ar
Raqqa hit a storage facility.
2015 Nov 18, Nigeria’s
President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the arrest of Sambo Dasuki, the
former National Security Advisor, accusing him of stealing funds
through phantom arms contracts and hampering the fight against the
Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
2015 Nov 18, In Nigeria two
suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of
(SFC, 11/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 18, Russia set up a
taskforce to wipe out the "infection" of doping in track and field
as the country faces being banned from next year's Olympic
2015 Nov 18, The Russian
government said it has decided to introduce a ban on food imports
from Ukraine starting from January 1 because Kiev joined Western
sanctions over Moscow.
2015 Nov 18, Two members of the
Saudi security forces were killed in a restive eastern province
after gunmen opened fire on their vehicle. On Jan 1, 2016,
authorities said Mufeed bin Ahmed Hasan Omran has been arrested for
his alleged involvement in this and other attacks.
(Reuters, 11/18/15)(AFP, 1/1/16)
2015 Nov 18, Saudi Arabia's
Civil Defense said thunderstorms and flooding along the Red Sea
coast have claimed the lives of 12 people over the past two days.
2015 Nov 18, Spanish sea rescue
services said around 20 African migrants were missing at sea after
their boat sunk in the Atlantic Ocean around 20 miles off the coast
of Western Sahara. 22 men were rescued.
2015 Nov 18, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said French and
Russian bombardments on Raqqa have killed at least 33 Islamic State
militants over the past three days.
2015 Nov 18, The Islamic State
said in its magazine that it had killed a Chinese and a Norwegian
captive, showing what appeared to be pictures of the dead men with a
banner reading "executed."
2015 Nov 18, Physicians for
Human Rights said Syrian government attacks on hospitals in Aleppo
have devastated the frontline city's health care, with roughly 95
percent of doctors having fled, been detained or killed.
2015 Nov 18, Turkey's foreign
minister said Ankara "has plans" for a joint operation with the
United States to end the presence of Islamic State militants along
any part of its border with Syria.
2015 Nov 18, The UN nuclear
watchdog said Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium has increased
in the past three months even though Tehran is supposed to reduce it
significantly under a deal with major powers.
2015 Nov 19, The US House of
Representatives voted to ban Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering
the United States until tougher screening measures are in place.
2015 Nov 19, The US Food and
Drug Administration approved genetically modified salmon, the first
such altered animal allowed for human consumption in the United
2015 Nov 19, Square, a San
Francisco-based payment processing firm, went public in an IPO at $9
per share. Shares closed at $13.07 per share.
(SFC, 11/20/15, p.C1)
2015 Nov 19, A magnitude 4.7
earthquake struck northern Oklahoma.
2015 Nov 19, China cut interest
rates on loans by small lenders that finance the country's
entrepreneurs in a new move to shore up lackluster economic growth.
2015 Nov 19, Chinese scientists
warned of the "epidemic potential" of deadly and fast-spreading
bacteria resistant to last-line antibiotics. Prof. Jian-Hua Liu and
colleagues found a gene, called MCR-1, that makes bacteria resistant
to a class of antibiotics, known as polymyxins, used to fight
superbugs. Although currently confined to China, they said the MCR-1
bacteria were likely to spread worldwide.
2015 Nov 19, Belgian police
arrested nine people in Brussels during raids connected to last
week's deadly Paris attacks.
2015 Nov 19, Croatia,
Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia shut their borders to those not
coming from war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq,
leaving thousands of others seeking a better life in Europe stranded
at border crossings.
2015 Nov 19, In Estonia
thirty-three countries attended NATO's largest ever cyberdrill,
focusing on malware in tablets and how infected devices may
compromise data privacy for staff of the world's biggest military
2015 Nov 19, France's lower
house of parliament extended a state of emergency imposed after
attacks in Paris for three months and toughened a series of security
measures which date back to 1955.
2015 Nov 19, An international
coalition led by the United States targeted Islamic State in Iraq
with 20 air strikes. There were no strikes in Syria.
2015 Nov 19, In Israel a
knife-wielding Palestinian man fatally stabbed 2 Israeli men in a
southern Tel Aviv office building before being apprehended. 3
people, including one Israeli, one Palestinian and an American, were
killed and six wounded in a shooting and vehicle attack in the West
(AP, 11/19/15)(SFC, 11/20/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 19, In Liberia a new
case of Ebola emerged. Three members of a family had contracted the
disease in a setback for the country declared free of the disease on
(Reuters, 11/20/15)(SFC, 11/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 19, In Nigeria Boko
Haram attackers drove off with an army T-72 tank and
dozens of new camouflage uniforms. 107 soldiers
were missing in the attack.
(http://tinyurl.com/p32bwn5)(SFC, 12/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 19, Russia signed two
agreements to finance and build Egypt's first nuclear power plant,
in a ceremony attended by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
2015 Nov 19, Russian's military
blasted targets across Syria with long-range strategic bombers for a
2015 Nov 19, South Sudan's
parliament changed the constitution to boost presidential powers
amid fears violence is spreading to new areas in the country, with
seven killed on the highway to Uganda.
2015 Nov 19, Syrian warplanes
carried out airstrikes on a suburb of Damascus after talks for a
two-week truce between the government and rebels collapsed.
2015 Nov 20, Convicted spy
Jonathan Pollard was released from prison, culminating an
extraordinary espionage case that complicated American-Israeli
relations for 30 years and became a periodic bargaining chip between
2015 Nov 20, In California
regulations banning the commercial and recreational trapping of
bobcat went into effect.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 20, Officials said
that an outbreak of E. coli linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill in
Washington and Oregon has now spread to six states including
California, New York, Minnesota and Ohio.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.D1)
2015 Nov 20, British police
issued an "unreserved apology" to seven women deceived into sexual
relationships with officers on undercover assignments.
2015 Nov 20, Cambodian
officials said about 370 workers fainted at factories in the past
two days, possibly because of pesticide spraying on nearby rice
2015 Nov 20, Police in China
said they have cracked the country's biggest-ever underground
banking network, which handled illegal foreign exchange transactions
worth 410 billion yuan ($64 billion).
2015 Nov 20, Chinese
authorities announced that police have killed 28 members of a
"terrorist group" in the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region.
2015 Nov 20, In China a fire
broke out late today at a mine operated by state giant Longmay
Mining Holding Group in Heilongjiang province's Jixi city. At least
21 people died at the mine operated by northeast China's biggest
state-owned coal company.
2015 Nov 20, EU interior and
justice ministers in Brussels pledged solidarity with France in the
wake of the Paris attacks a week ago and agreed a series of new
measures on surveillance, border checks and gun control.
2015 Nov 20, The Bavarian
Interior Ministry said more than 900,000 migrants have been
registered in Germany since the beginning of the year.
2015 Nov 20, In Haiti one
person was shot dead and another was wounded by a machete blow to
the head during post-election skirmishes that erupted in
2015 Nov 20, In Iraq bomb
attacks on a Shiite mosque and elsewhere in southern Baghdad killed
at least 15 people as a top religious official urged unity among
Iraqis in the fight against the Islamic State group.
2015 Nov 20, Italian police
arrested six members of Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia as part of an
inquiry that uncovered a threat of violence against Interior
Minister Angelino Alfano.
2015 Nov 20, Malaysia deployed
extraordinary security measures around Kuala Lumpur as leaders from
18 countries arrived for the East Asian and ASEAN weekend summits.
2015 Nov 20, In Mali a least
two Islamist gunmen stormed the Raddison Blu luxury hotel in Bamako
and took 170 people hostage in the former French colony. 19 people
were killed including 6 Russians, 3 Chinese, one Israeli, one
American, one Belgian and one Malian soldier. The 2 gunmen were
killed. The al-Mourabitoun Islamic extremist group took credit for
the attack. On Nov 26 two Malians were arrested for complicity in
(AFP, 11/20/15)(Reuters 11/21/15)(SFC, 11/21/15,
p.A6)(SFC, 1/14/16, p.A2)
2015 Nov 20, In Pakistan gunmen
on motorcycles opened fire in Karachi, killing 4 members of the
security forces who were deployed outside a mosque.
2015 Nov 20, Portugal's
Parliament approved laws allowing same-sex couples to legally adopt
children and permitting lesbians to obtain medically assisted
2015 Nov 20, Russian and Syrian
warplanes carried out more than 70 strikes in eastern Deir Ezzor
province, killing at least 36 people including 10 children. Dozens
of oil tankers were destroyed. Russian Defense Minister Sergei
Shoigu said that more than 600 rebels had been eliminated as a
result of a cruise missile strike a target in Syrian Deir ez-Zour
(AFP, 11/20/15)(Reuters, 11/20/15)(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 20, A Singapore court
sentenced Kong Hee, the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest
Church, to eight years in jail for misappropriating more than $35
million in donations to support his wife's singing career. Other
sentences for five church leaders ranged from 21 months to six
2015 Nov 20, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said more than 1,300 people, around
two-thirds of them combatants, have been killed in Russian air
strikes in Syria since Moscow's aerial campaign began on September
2015 Nov 20, Turkish media
reported that authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a
record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant
drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria's
civil war. It has been repeatedly dubbed as the drug fueling Syria's
civil war since its production provides income for the warring
factions and also keeps fighters awake and energized over long
2015 Nov 20, Turkish army
warplanes carried out a new wave of air strikes on northern Iraq
hitting 23 suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
2015 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council unanimously approved a French-sponsored resolution calling
on all nations to redouble and coordinate action to prevent further
attacks by Islamic State terrorists and other extremist groups.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.S2)
2015 Nov 20, A new study was
released that estimated poverty in Venezuela has hit an all-time
high of some 73 percent of households. It was prepared by
researchers at three Venezuelan universities on the basis of surveys
with 6,000 people.
2015 Nov 20, The World Trade
Organization ruled in favor of Mexico in a trade dispute with the
US, saying Washington's requirement for "dolphin-safe" tuna labels
is unfair to Mexican fishermen.
2015 Nov 20, In Yemen Islamic
State claimed responsibility for an attack on the army in the
eastern region of Hadramawt that a security source said killed at
least 19 soldiers and 35 militants.
2015 Nov 21, The United States
and its allies conducted 16 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
and nine in Syria. The US military destroyed 283 tanker trucks used
by the militants to transport oil from producing fields in eastern
Syria to smuggling points.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)(AP, 11/23/15)
2015 Nov 21, Louisiana voters
elected Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards as governor.
(SSFC, 11/22/15, p.A12)
2015 Nov 21, A heavy fall
snowstorm hit the Midwestern United States, blanketing states from
South Dakota to Wisconsin with as much as 16 inches (40 cm) of snow.
The storm affected air travel, with 514 US flights canceled by
morning, with Chicago's O'Hare International and Midway
International airports the hardest hit.
2015 Nov 21, In Afghanistan up
to 20 ethnic Hazaras were abducted in the volatile southern province
2015 Nov 21, Belgium put the
capital Brussels on maximum security alert, shutting the metro and
warning people to avoid crowds because of a "serious and imminent"
threat of coordinated, multiple attacks by militants.
2015 Nov 21, In the Far North
region of Cameroon a suicide attack by suspected members of Nigerian
Islamist militants group Boko Haram killed at least 10 people over
the border from Nigeria. 4 teenage, female suicide bombers blew
themselves up near Fotokol killing 5 civilians including a
(Reuters, 11/21/15)(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 21, Migrants who have
been blocked at the Greek-Macedonian border for three days,
protested against being prevented from entering Macedonia after new
restrictions were imposed.
2015 Nov 21, In Iraq four
separate attacks in Baghdad killed 8 people and wounded 20.
2015 Nov 21, The Israeli
military said it shut down the El-Khalil radio station in Hebron
overnight and confiscated equipment used to broadcast calls to
2015 Nov 21, In Mexico a
burnt-out van was found in Sinaloa state with two unidentified
bodies believed to be Australian surfers Dean Lucas (33) and Adam
Coleman (33), last seen a day earlier. On Dec 4 authorities reported
the arrest of three alleged highway robbers in connection with the
suspected murders. Two other suspects were on the run.
2015 Nov 21, In northern
Myanmar a landslide near a jade mine killed at least 120 people,
most of them villagers digging for green stones in a mountain of
displaced earth in the Kachin state community of Hpakant.
(AP, 11/22/15)(AP, 11/23/15)(SFC, 11/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 21, In New Zealand 4
British and 2 Australian tourists, along with their pilot, were
killed when their helicopter crashed into Fox Glacier during bad
weather on the west coast of the South Island.
2015 Nov 21, In southern
Somalia a suspected drone late today targeted a base belonging to al
Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab insurgents, killing at least 5 fighters.
2015 Nov 21, Syrian journalist
Wasim al-Nuqari (38) was killed while covering the army's operations
against Islamic State militants in the country's central region.
2015 Nov 21, Syrian rebels
backed by Turkey and the United States seized two villages from
Islamic State (IS) jihadists close to the Turkish border after
2015 Nov 21, A Turkish official
said a Belgian man of Moroccan origin has been arrested on suspicion
of involvement in Islamic State's Nov 13 attacks in Paris that
killed 130 people. Ahmet Dahmani (26) was arrested at a luxury hotel
in the southern coastal city of Antalya after traveling from
Amsterdam on Nov 14.
2015 Nov 21, Turkish warplanes
struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant targets, part of an
air and ground offensive against the group in southeast Turkey,
where some areas have been under curfew for as long as ten days.
2015 Nov 21, An explosion in
Ukraine's Kherson region bordering Crimea cut the two working power
lines to the peninsula.
2015 Nov 21, A Vatican judge
indicted five people, including two journalists and a high-ranking
Vatican monsignor, in a scandal involving leaked documents that
informed two books alleging financial malfeasance in the Roman
Catholic church bureaucracy.
2015 Nov 22, More than 130
flights were cancelled in and out of Chicago’s O’hare Int’l. Airport
as a deep freeze set in across the Midwest.
(SFC, 11/23/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 22, In Louisiana 17
people were wounded at the Bunny Friend Playground in New Orleans
when gunfire broke out between two groups of gunmen as hundreds of
people gathered for a block party and the filming of a music video.
(SFC, 11/24/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 22, Argentina held a
run-off election. The center-right opposition coalition Cambiemos
(Let’s Change), led by candidate Mauricio Macri (56), the favored
candidate of big businesses and foreign investors, beat leftist
rival Daniel Scioli by less than three percentage points, ending
years of rule by the populist Peronist movement.
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.33)(Reuters, 11/22/15)(AFP,
2015 Nov 22, A Bahraini court
jailed for 10 years freelance photographer Sayed al-Mousawi, and
revoked his citizenship after convicting him of "terrorism." He was
convicted of having given mobile phone SIM cards to "terrorist"
demonstrators and taking photos of protests. Mousawi was arrested
"without a warrant" on February 10 last year in the Shiite town of
2015 Nov 22, Bangladesh
Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan
Mohammad Mujahid (Mojaheed), secretary general of the main Islamist
party Jamaat-e-Islami, were hanged at 12:55 a.m. at Dhaka Central
Jail. Unknown assailants opened fire on a Bangladesh television
channel's vehicle and wounded a journalist.
(AP, 11/22/15)(Reuters, 11/22/15)(Econ, 11/28/15,
2015 Nov 22, Brussels, Belgian,
was locked down for a second day with police and troops patrolling
deserted streets as authorities reviewed whether to extend a
security alert meant to prevent a repeat of the bloody Paris
2015 Nov 22, Burundi police
said at least 5 people were killed in overnight clashes. Residents
reported a battle at the president's office in the capital Bujumbura
which has been plagued by violence since a disputed presidential
2015 Nov 22, Crimea declared a
state of emergency after its main electricity lines from Ukraine
were blown up, leaving the Russian-annexed peninsula in darkness
after the second such attack in as many days.
2015 Nov 22, Egyptians voted
across 13 of the country's 27 provinces in the second phase of
elections meant to restore parliament after a more than three-year
gap, but which critics say have been undermined by widespread
(Reuters, 11/22/15)(AFP, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 22, Hong Kong voted in
district-level elections that will mark the first real test of
public sentiment since pro-democracy protests crippled parts of the
Chinese-controlled city last year.
2015 Nov 22, Iran state news
said a court has sentenced Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian
(39) to a prison term.
2015 Nov 22, An Israeli woman
(20) was stabbed to death and 3 Palestinian attackers were killed in
a series of incidents in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A
Palestinian driving a taxi attempted to ram into civilians in the
West Bank and charged at them with a knife before being shot dead.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)(AFP, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 22, In southern Nepal
police opened fire on ethnic protesters blocking the nation's main
highway, killing 2 in overnight violence that threatened to escalate
2015 Nov 22, Russian law
enforcement officers raided a hideout in the North Caucasus of armed
militants allied with the Islamic State group, killing all 11 of
them in an exchange of fire on the outskirts of Nalchik, the capital
of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic.
2015 Nov 22, In Malaysia ASEAN
nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) established a formal
community that attempts to create freer movement of trade and
capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic
output of $2.6 trillion.
2015 Nov 22, In northwestern
Pakistan unidentified gunmen killed TV journalist Hafeez Ur Rehman
(42) on the outskirts of Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in the
second such murder this month.
2015 Nov 22, UNICEF's
representative said some two million Sudanese children under five
suffer from malnutrition every year.
2015 Nov 22, In Syria a bomb
placed on a motorcycle exploded in Tel Abyad, a Kurdish-held town
along the Turkish border, killing at least 3 and wounded 20 others.
2015 Nov 22, In Taiwan a
service helicopter crashed outside of Taipei, killing both people on
2015 Nov 22, In Yemen
pro-government forces pressed their advance to recapture the
southwestern province of Taez but were slowed by landmines planted
by Shiite rebels.
2015 Nov 23, The US said it
would impose sanctions on four current and former Burundi government
officials, including the minister of public security and the leader
of a failed coup, because of violence in Burundi.
2015 Nov 23, A US-led coalition
targeted Islamic State in Iraq and Syria with 26 air strikes against
the militant group.
2015 Nov 23, Chicago Mayor Rahm
Emanuel called for calm ahead of the release of a "hideous" video
showing officer Jason Van Dyke fire 16 bullets into Laquan McDonald
(17). Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged the next day with first
2015 Nov 23, A panel of the 7th
Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled 2-1 that a Wisconsin law
requiring that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a
local hospital, is unconstitutional.
2015 Nov 23, Douglass C. North
(b.1920), Nobel Prize winner in economics (1993), died in Benzonia,
Michigan. He helped found a branch of inquiry called cliometrics,
named after the muse of history, after he and others conculded that
traditional market-oriented economics did not fully recognize that
markets are embedded in institutions and the cultural phenomena
(SFC, 11/26/15, p.D6)
2015 Nov 23, In Minnesota five
people were wounded, though none gravely, when gunmen opened fire at
the Minneapolis protest over the Nov 15 fatal police shooting of
Jamar Clark. Two suspects were arrested the next day.
(AFP, 11/24/15)(SFC, 11/25/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 23, Pfizer and
Allergan said they will join in a $160 billion deal to create the
world's largest drugmaker the biggest health care deal ever.
US-based Pfizer will reorganize in Ireland with a lower corporate
2015 Nov 23, Argentina's
President-Elect, Mauricio Macri, said he would seek Venezuela's
suspension from South America's Mercosur trade bloc because of
accusations of rights abuses committed by Pres. Maduro's socialist
2015 Nov 23, In Belgium
soldiers patrolled the streets of Brussels and police detained five
more people on the third day of a security lockdown.
2015 Nov 23, Egypt's PM Sherif
Ismail granted government workers a half-day off in a bid to boost
the low voter turnout on the final day of the second stage of
2015 Nov 23, Egyptian security
officials said 6 Sudanese migrants were killed and 17 wounded during
a gun battle between security forces and smugglers as they tried to
illegally enter Israel from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
2015 Nov 23, In northern Greece
Moroccans, Iranians and Pakistanis on the border with Macedonia
blocked rail traffic and demanded passage to western Europe,
stranded by a policy of filtering migrants in the Balkans that has
raised human rights concerns.
2015 Nov 23, Kenya's President
Uhuru Kenyatta declared corruption a national security threat and he
presented a raft of measures to fight the endemic graft.
2015 Nov 23, In Iran President
Vladimir Putin met with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Following their meeting a Kremlin official said Russia and Iran
jointly oppose "external attempts" to bring regime change in Syria.
President Vladimir Putin eased an export ban on nuclear equipment
and technology to Iran.
(AFP, 11/23/15)(Reuters, 11/23/15)
2015 Nov 23, Iran's ambassador
to Russia said that Moscow had started the procedure of supplying
Tehran with S-300 anti-missile rocket system.
2015 Nov 23, In Liberia a
teenager (15) died in the first such death since the country was
officially declared free of the virus in September. His parents had
also tested positive for the virus and were under observation in the
2015 Nov 23, In Mexico an
overnight highway traffic accident due west of Mexico City killed 20
people and injured at least 15 others.
2015 Nov 23, A Palestinian
stabbed and killed an Israeli at a petrol station in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Jerusalem two Palestinian girls
attacked and slightly wounded an elderly man with scissors before a
policeman shot them both, killing one.
2015 Nov 23, In Qatar rival
tribes from southern Libya, who have battled for control of oil
fields, signed a peace agreement. Representatives of the Tebu and
Tuareg agreed to a ceasefire and to withdraw armed forces from the
flashpoint town of Ubari.
2015 Nov 23, Russia said its
warplanes had hit 472 targets in war-torn Syria in the past two
days, including tanker trucks and oil infrastructure in territory
controlled by the Islamic State group.
2015 Nov 23, A Russian court
ordered the Church of Scientology in Moscow to be dissolved. A
church representative said the decision would be appealed.
2015 Nov 23, In South Korea a
US military helicopter crashed during a routine training mission,
killing both pilots on board.
2015 Nov 23, Syrian troops
backed by Russian airstrikes captured areas from the Islamic State
group in the central province of Homs, in the latest push since the
aerial campaign began nearly two months ago. A US official said
recent attacks with chlorine and mustard gas on the battlefield in
Syria show that the use chemical weapons in the civil war is
(AP, 11/23/15)(Reuters, 11/23/15)
2015 Nov 23, Ukraine ordered a
halt to all delivery of goods to Crimea. PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk
described the halt as temporary, but added that he had ordered the
Cabinet to prepare a draft of a "concrete" halt of goods and
services from Ukraine to Crimea.
2015 Nov 23, Pro-Ukrainian
activists prevented repairs to sabotaged power lines leading to
Crimea, keeping the Russian-annexed peninsula starved of electricity
for a second day and tensions between Moscow and Kiev high.
2015 Nov 24, President Barack
Obama recognized 17 people with the nation's highest civilian award,
the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
2015 Nov 24, Kentucky’s
outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear signed an executive order to restore the
right to vote and hold public office to thousands of nonviolent
felons who’ve seved out their sentences.
(SFC, 11/25/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 24, In NYC Abid Naseer
(29) a Pakistani former school cricket captain, was jailed for 40
years over an Al-Qaeda plot to bomb a British shopping center in
2009. He was extradited to the United States from Britain in 2013
for helping al-Qaida target attacks on the New York subway.
2015 Nov 24, A rocket from Jeff
Bezos’ Blue Origin private space company landed upright following a
test flight in West Texas.
(SFC, 11/25/15, p.C1)
2015 Nov 24, In Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents captured 16 people in Faryab province after their
helicopter made an emergency landing in territory under the
militants' control. 3 people were killed in a shootout followed.
(Reuters, 11/24/15)(AP, 11/24/15)
2015 Nov 24, In Algeria a fire
sparked by an electrical fault killed 18 African migrants, including
children, and injured 50 others at a camp housing over 650 migrants
2015 Nov 24, Brazil's
environmental assets exchange BVRio launched an app that promises to
help foreign traders and buyers of Brazilian timber make sure the
product hasn't been illegally logged.
2015 Nov 24, Canada's New
Liberal government announced its plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian
2015 Nov 24, China’s Xinhua
news agency reported that the world's largest animal cloning factory
is under construction in in the northern port of Tianjin, with plans
to churn out dogs, horses and up to a million beef cattle a year.
2015 Nov 24, Power cuts in
Crimea affected nearly 940,000 people as tensions raged between Kiev
and Moscow over the annexed peninsula and Russia threatened to cut
off gas supplies to Ukraine.
2015 Nov 24, In Egypt an
elaborate militant attack, involving a suicide car bombing and
claimed by Islamic State group, targeted a hotel in El-Arish,
killing 4 policemen, 2 judges and a civilian in the restive north of
the Sinai Peninsula.
(AP, 11/24/15)(AFP, 11/25/15)
2015 Nov 24, President Francois
Hollande of France arrived in Washington for talks with US President
Barack Obama on how to confront the threat posed by the Islamic
State group in the wake of the Paris attacks.
2015 Nov 24, A Japanese rocket
lifted off and successfully put the national space program's first
commercial satellite into orbit.
2015 Nov 24, Kenya’s President
Uhuru Kenyatta fired five government ministers embroiled in
corruption scandals in a cabinet reshuffle late today amid growing
criticism of runaway graft.
2015 Nov 24, A female Pakistani
air force pilot was killed when her trainer jet crashed near the
central town of Mianwali.
2015 Nov 24, The Philippines
asked global judges to recognize its right to exploit waters in the
South China Sea.
2015 Nov 24, A Scottish court
handed oil major Royal Dutch Shell a 22,500 pound ($33,919) fine by
for a spill of more than 200 tons of oil into the central North Sea
in August 2011.
2015 Nov 24, Int’l. experts
meeting in Singapore said more than half the world's primates,
including apes, lemurs and monkeys, are facing extinction.
2015 Nov 24, Syrian fighters
destroyed a Russian helicopter with a missile, shortly after they
forced it to make an emergency landing in a nearby government-held
area in Latakia province.
2015 Nov 24, A Tanzanian court
charged four Chinese nationals for smuggling rhino horns.
2015 Nov 24, In Tunisia a
suicide bomber attacked a presidential guard bus killing at least 12
people. Pres. Beji Caid Essebsi declard a 30-day state of emergency
and imposed on overnight curfew in the capital. A day later the
Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
(Reuters, 11/25/15)(AP, 11/25/15)(SFC, 11/25/15,
2015 Nov 24, Turkish PM Ahmet
Davutoglu unveiled a new cabinet stacked with loyal allies of
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including his son-in-law who was
named energy minister.
2015 Nov 24, Turkey shot down a
Russian warplane near the Syrian border, saying it had repeatedly
violated its air space, one of the most serious publicly
acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for
half a century. The pilot was shot dead by rebels as he parachuted
to the ground.
(Reuters, 11/24/15)(Reuters, 11/25/15)
2015 Nov 24, Vanuatu President
Baldwin Lonsdale dissolved parliament and called a snap election
after a corruption scandal destabilized the government.
2015 Nov 24, Vietnam’s National
Assembly passed a law recognizing the rights of transgenders
effective in 2017 as part of a revised civil code.
(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 25, The United States
and its allies staged 27 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and
2015 Nov 25, A new nuclear
treaty with the United States governing South Korea's commercial
nuclear activities during the next 20 years went into effect. The
treaty, which replaces a previous accord reached in 1972, opens the
possibility of South Korea gaining the ability to enrich uranium to
produce non-weapons-grade nuclear fuel depending on future
negotiations with the United States.
2015 Nov 25, Australian
officials said at least 2 people have been killed and several others
injured by huge wildfires that also destroyed homes near the
southern city of Adelaide and continue to burn out of control.
2015 Nov 25, Bangladesh police
commandos killed Al Bani, the suspected military chief of
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, a banned Islamist group, in a shootout in
2015 Nov 25, In Belgium schools
and much of the Brussels metro system reopened as the capital
started to return to normal after four days of lockdown.
2015 Nov 25, Brazilian police
arrested Senator Delcidio do Amaral, a senior ruling party senator
and a billionaire investment banker, in the intensifying probe of a
huge corruption network centered on state oil giant Petrobras.
(AFP, 11/25/15)(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 25, Gambia's President
Yahya Jammeh advocated banning female genital mutilation, giving
hope to human rights activists who are urging Gambia to adopt a law
against the practice.
2015 Nov 25, Germany said it
will send up to 650 soldiers to Mali to provide some relief to
France in its global fight against the Islamic State jihadists.
2015 Nov 25, Indian media and a
rights group accused the Assam Rifles paramilitary force of
attempting to curtail press freedom by asking newspapers in the
insurgency-hit northeastern state of Nagaland to stop publishing
statements from a banned rebel group.
2015 Nov 25, In the Indian
portion of Kashmir 3 heavily armed rebels stormed an army camp and
were killed in a fierce gunbattle with soldiers. A civilian was also
(AP, 11/25/15)(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 25, Iran's top leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the United States is using "money and
sexual attractions" to try to infiltrate the Islamic Republic.
2015 Nov 25, Pope Francis
arrived in Kenya and was received at Nairobi's airport by President
Uhuru Kenyatta on the first leg of a six-day pilgrimage that will
also take him to Uganda and the Central African Republic. Francis
urged all Kenyans to work for peace and forgiveness in order to heal
ethnic, religious and economic divisions.
2015 Nov 25, In southeastern
Niger 18 people were killed and 100 homes torched in an attack in
the dead of night by Nigeria's Boko Haram fighters in the village of
2015 Nov 25, A year's worth of
rain deluged parts of Qatar as seasonal storms moving through Saudi
Arabia flooded streets in a city northwest of the capital, Riyadh.
2015 Nov 25, A Palestinian
stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli soldier and was shot dead
by troops in the Israeli-occupied West Bank at a road junction near
a cluster of Palestinian villages and Jewish settlements.
2015 Nov 25, Romania's
Parliament approved a law that restricts what banks can reclaim from
people who default on their mortgage payments. Lawmakers passed a
law allowing banks to seize the property the loan was taken for, but
not to seize other assets or claim further payment.
2015 Nov 25, Russia accepted
its "full suspension" from world athletics over widespread doping
without requesting a hearing from the International Association of
2015 Nov 25, Russia sent an
advanced missile system to Syria to protect its jets operating there
and pledged its air force would keep flying missions near Turkish
air space, sounding a defiant note after Turkey shot down a Russian
2015 Nov 25, The surviving crew
member of a Russian warplane shot down by Turkey said the plane
received no warnings from the Turkish Air Force and did not fly over
Turkish air space. Navigator Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued by
Russian and Syrian special forces after ejecting from the plane. The
US said data showed the Russian aircraft had transited Turkish
(Reuters, 11/25/15)(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 25, Russia's natural
gas giant Gazprom said it would stop shipping fuel supplies to
Ukraine because Kiev had failed to make the required pre-payments on
2015 Nov 25, Russian forces
launched a heavy bombardment against insurgent-held areas in Syria's
Latakia province, near where a Russian warplane had been shot down
by Turkey the day before. Air strikes hit a crossing on the Syrian
side of the border with Turkey's southern province of Kilis. The
strikes reportedly hit a garage for commercial trailers, killing 3
(Reuters, 11/25/15)(AP, 11/25/15)
2015 Nov 25, Ukraine decided to
stop buying gas from Russia and closed its airspace to its giant
eastern neighbor's airlines. The Ukrainian military said another
soldier was killed in a new bout of clashes across the shattered war
zone in the past 24 hours.
2015 Nov 25, Venezuelan
opposition election candidate Luis Manuel Diaz was shot dead while
campaigning. The shooter was believed to be a member of an "armed
gang" linked to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela
2015 Nov 26, Azerbaijan said 2
policemen and 4 alleged members of the Movement for Muslim Unity
have been killed in a shootout during a raid in the village of
2015 Nov 26, In northern
Bangladesh at least five assailants opened fire on devotees during
evening prayers at a Shiite mosque, leaving one person dead and
three others wounded in Haripur village.
2015 Nov 26, Britain's
financial regulator fined Barclays bank £72 million ($109 million,
102 million euros) for failing to carry out proper checks on a vast
so-called "elephant" deal for ultra-wealthy clients.
2015 Nov 26, In southwest
Burkina Faso 22 people drowned after the minibus they were
travelling in veered off a road.
2015 Nov 26, Anastasia Lin,
Canada's outspoken Miss World contestant, said she was barred from
entering China to take part in this year's pageant and accused
Beijing of overreach in extending its campaign of censorship even to
2015 Nov 26, China said that it
planned to establish a military facility in Djibouti to resupply
navy ships serving in the area.
(SFC, 11/27/15, p.A7)
2015 Nov 26, In China Gao Yu
(71), a journalist imprisoned on a state secrets conviction, was
released for medical reasons after pleading guilty during a
closed-door appeal hearing.
2015 Nov 26, El Salvador's
Roman Catholic Church announced it has suspended a well-known
priest, saying he acknowledged sexually abusing a young girl.
Monsignor Jesus Delgado (77) was the vicar general of the
Archdiocese of San Salvador and was considered a close associate of
assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero.
2015 Nov 26, Ten European
governments signed a letter to the European Commission calling for a
summit-level debate on the Nord Stream II project, Russia's plans to
extend its gas link to Germany.
2015 Nov 26, French President
Francois Hollande arrived in Moscow for talks on Syria with Russia's
Vladimir Putin. They agreed to tighten cooperation in the fight
against the Islamic State group, although they remained at odds over
their approach toward Syrian President Bashar Assad.
(AFP, 11/26/15)(AP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 26, Germany confirmed
that it will deploy Tornado reconnaissance jets to support France in
the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria.
2015 Nov 26, Voters on the
disputed British colony of Gibraltar re-elected Fabian Picardo's
left-leaning coalition in parliamentary elections.
2015 Nov 26, Hundreds of
Algerians, Moroccans, and Pakistanis tried to storm the border
between Greece and Macedonia, tearing down part of the barbed wire
fence at the crossing and demanding to be allowed to carry on into
2015 Nov 26, Sixteen migrants
from India, Nepal and Bangladesh and their Indonesian skipper were
found stranded in Indonesia's part of Timor Island. The next day
Indonesia said Australian officials had destroyed a boat carrying
asylum seekers and then pushed them back to sea in another vessel.
2015 Nov 26, Iraq said its
forces have cut Islamic State's last supply line into the western
city of Ramadi by seizing a key bridge.
2015 Nov 26, Italian police
said they have seized almost 800 shotguns bound for Belgium from
Turkey from a truck that arrived in the northeastern port of
2015 Nov 26, In Kenya Pope
Francis held his first open-air mass in Africa with huge crowds
hailing heavy rains as "God's blessing" as they sang and danced in
2015 Nov 26, In Lebanon
AL-Manar, a Hezbollah TV station, said a joint operation by the
Lebanese militant group and Syrian security agents killed
Abdul-Salam Hendawi, also known as Abu Abdo, an Islamic State figure
suspected of involvement in Beirut's deadly bombing earlier this
2015 Nov 26, Moldovan police
said they have detained a total of 13 suspected members of a
paramilitary group allegedly planning to attack the capital and a
northern city with a majority Russian population, with the aim of
creating a new separatist republic similar to the one in eastern
2015 Nov 26, North and South
Korean officials met for talks at the border truce village of
Panmunjom after the two sides signed an agreement in which Pyongyang
expressed regret over landmine blasts near the border that wounded
two South Korean soldiers.
2015 Nov 26, Three Palestinians
were shot and killed in separate clashes with Israeli security
forces in the West Bank as Israel announced plans to strengthen a
fence near the flashpoint city of Hebron in an effort to contain a
two-month spate of violence.
(AP, 11/26/15)(SFC, 11/27/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 26, Philippine marines
killed 8 suspected sympathizers of the Islamic State group in a
clash in the southern Philippines, seizing bomb-making equipment,
assault rifles and black flags in Sultan Kudarat province.
2015 Nov 26, Russia threatened
economic retaliation against Turkey and said it was still awaiting a
reasonable explanation for the shooting down of its warplane, but
Turkey dismissed the threats as "emotional" and "unfitting".
2015 Nov 26, Russia vowed to
work "very actively" with track and field's governing body to
eradicate the doping culture that led to its blanket ban from
2015 Nov 26, In Russia 10
people on board a Mi-8 helicopter, including employees of Russia's
state oil company Rosneft, died when the aircraft crashed in the
Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia.
2015 Nov 26, A South African
court opened the way to allowing local trade in rhino horns,
alarming some conservationists who warned the ruling leaves rhinos
even more vulnerable to poachers who are slaughtering them in record
2015 Nov 26, On the South Sudan
border with Sudan a 4-year-old girl and an Ethiopian peacekeeper
were killed and three others wounded in an attack in the contested
2015 Nov 26, Syrian residents
said that Russian warplanes bombed the rebel-held town of Saraqeb,
Idlib province, along the Turkish border a day after hitting a truck
depot near a crossing between the two countries.
2015 Nov 26, Ugandan lawmakers
passed a bill that would give authorities sweeping powers to
regulate civil society, which rights groups say will "strangle"
criticism of the government, just before Pope Francis arrived on a
2015 Nov 26, It was reported
that the United Arab Emirates has secretly dispatched hundreds of
Colombian mercenaries to the conflict in Yemen. 450 Latin American
troops also included Panamanian, Salvadoran and Chilean soldiers.
(SFC, 11/26/15, p.A8)
2015 Nov 27, In Colorado Robert
Lewis Dear (57) entered a family planning clinic in Colorado Springs
and opened fire, killing 3 people, including a police officer, and
wounding nine others.
2015 Nov 27, In Louisiana
Johnny Max Mount shot and killed an employee at a Waffle House
restaurant in Biloxi after she asked him not to smoke. Mount was
quickly arrested and charged with first degree murder.
(SFC, 11/28/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 27, A Belgian judge
charged a sixth suspect, arrested a day earlier, with terrorism
offences in connection with the Nov 13 Paris attacks.
2015 Nov 27, Brazil announced
plans to sue Samarco's co-owners, BHP and Brazilian miner Vale, for
damages for 20 billion reais ($5.2 billion) over the Nov 5 bursting
of a dam in Bento Rodrigues.
2015 Nov 27, Queen Elizabeth
openeed 24th biennial Commonwealth Summit in Malta. Leaders of 53
countries -- around a quarter of the world's countries and a third
of its population, gathered to discuss global issues.
2015 Nov 27, Bulgaria's
parliament ratified an agreement with NATO ally Poland for the
repair of its ageing Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, part of a push
by the Balkan country to reduce its reliance on Russia.
2015 Nov 27, In Burundi
attackers shot at a lawmaker from the ruling party as he drove to
parliament, killing one police officer and wounding others.
2015 Nov 27, A court in
southern China sentenced Yang Maodong to six years in prison in what
his lawyer described as an unfair trial with an extra criminal
charge added at the last minute. The leading activist had organized
rallies for media freedom.
2015 Nov 27, Japan said it is
investigating nearly a dozen suspicious boats recently found
drifting off the country's coastline, some with decaying bodies
aboard. At least 11 cases involving wooden boats, some badly
damaged, with 20 bodies on board have been reported during October
and November. Korean writing was visible on the boats as well as
clothes left inside the vessels.
2015 Nov 27, In Mexico the
bodies of 8 slain men were found dumped in the Oaxaca town of
Cosolapa. All the men were from the city of Cordoba, about 30 miles
2015 Nov 27, In Nepal tens of
thousands of students held hands, waved banners and chanted slogans
in Kathmandu to protest against a border blockade that has caused
severe shortages of fuel and an increase in food prices.
2015 Nov 27, Nicaragua's
military said all clandestine airfields used by cartels to run drugs
to the United States have been destroyed and steps taken to make
sure they would not reopen.
2015 Nov 27, In Nigeria a
suicide bomber blew himself up among crowds at a Shia Muslim
procession outside the north city of Kano, killing at least 21
2015 Nov 27, Two Palestinians
rammed vehicles into Israeli soldiers in separate attacks in the
occupied West Bank and were then shot dead.
2015 Nov 27, Pirates attacked
the Cyprus-registered Szafir, a Polish-owned cargo vessel, off the
Nigerian coast and kidnapped its captain and four crew. The five
Polish seamen were reported freed on Dec 8.
(Reuters, 11/27/15)(AP, 12/8/15)
2015 Nov 27, Russia said it
would suspend its visa-free regime for Turkish nationals from
January 1 as it retaliates against Ankara for the downing of a
2015 Nov 27, Slovakia's economy
minister said his country will join forces with other Central and
Eastern members of the European Union to protest a recent deal to
expand a pipeline that delivers natural gas directly from Russia to
2015 Nov 27, A Swiss court
convicted in absentia Herve Falciani, a former French employee with
international bank HSBC, for economic espionage and sentenced him to
five years in prison. France does not extradite its own citizens and
Falciani appears unlikely to serve the sentence.
2015 Nov 27, In Syria suspected
Russian warplanes carried out several air strikes on the town of
Azaz near the Turkish border, killing an estimated 5 people
including a child. A series of airstrike on Raqqa killed at least 8
people including 5 children.
(Reuters, 11/27/15)(SFC, 11/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 27, Turkish media said
the government has "temporarily" suspended air strikes against
Islamic State targets in Syria after the downing of a Russian
warplane on the Syrian border sparked a major row with Moscow.
2015 Nov 27, In Turkey hundreds
of protesters gathered outside the Istanbul office of an opposition
newspaper, accusing the government of silencing critics and
attempting to cover-up a scandal after two journalists were jailed
on terror and espionage charges for their reports on alleged Turkish
arms smuggling to Syria.
2015 Nov 27, At least six
children drowned in two separate incidents when their boats sank off
Turkey while trying to make the risky crossing to Greece.
2015 Nov 27, Ukraine said
Russia has begun to restrict coal supplies, days after the Kremlin
threatened to punish Kiev for a power blackout of Russian-annexed
Crimea. Ukraine depends on coal to fulfil around 44 percent of its
2015 Nov 27, Pope Francis
landed in Uganda on the second leg of a landmark trip to Africa,
with choirs and dancers waiting to greet him.
2015 Nov 27, Vietnam’s National
Assembly passed a revised Penal Code. Death sentences imposed on
corrupt Vietnamese officials will now be commuted to life in prison
if they pay back at least 75 percent of the illegal money they made.
2015 Nov 27, Human Rights Watch
alleged that at least 10 air strikes carried out by a Saudi-led
coalition in Yemen broke the laws of war and killed civilians.
2015 Nov 28, The United States
and its allies conducted 19 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
and three in Syria.
2015 Nov 28, Actress Marjorie
Lord (b.1918), the TV wife (1957-1964) of Danny Thomas, died at her
home in Beverly Hills.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Lord)(SFC, 12/16/15, p.D5)
2015 Nov 28, In Afghanistan a
senior member of the election commission survived an assassination
attempt when a suicide bomber targeted his vehicle in Kabul, killing
one of his employees and wounding two others.
2015 Nov 28, In Burundi Colonel
Serges Kabanyura was wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen on
his way to Bujumbura.
2015 Nov 28, In northern
Cameroon 2 female suicide bombers detonated their explosives,
killing at least 5 people and injuring 12 others in the town of
2015 Nov 28, China’s state news
said police have busted an online gun selling operation, seizing
1,180 guns and more than 6 million bullets. Gun possession by
ordinary people is illegal in China.
2015 Nov 28, In China air
pollution in Beijing reached hazardous levels as smog engulfed large
parts of China despite efforts to clean up the foul air.
2015 Nov 28, In eastern China a
gas leak at a steel parts factory killed 5 people and left seven
others hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning in Shandong
province. 5 more people died the next day.
2015 Nov 28, Congolese police
fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who had gathered in
the eastern city of Goma to pay tribute to victims of recurrent
2015 Nov 28, In Egypt a
drive-by shooting killed 4 police near a famed historic site on the
outskirts of Cairo.
2015 Nov 28, Egypt said there
is a 90 percent chance that hidden chambers will be found within
King Tutankhamun's tomb, based on the preliminary results of a new
exploration of the 3,300-year-old mausoleum.
2015 Nov 28, In Duesseldorf,
Germany, Britain's Tyson Fury (27) was crowned the new world
heavyweight champion after a unanimous points win over Wladimir
Klitschko (39), who suffered his first defeat in eleven years.
2015 Nov 28, Iran unveiled a
new model of oil contracts aimed at attracting foreign investment
once sanctions are lifted under a landmark nuclear deal reached
earlier this year.
2015 Nov 28, In Jordan US
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said, after visiting a
camp for Syrian refugees, that the displaced should be absorbed by
Middle Eastern countries, with the international community sending
aid and "encouragement" to the host nations.
2015 Nov 28, In Kosovo some 35
thousand opposition supporters held a protest against the deals with
Serbia and Montenegro — a peaceful one in contrast to recent
disruption of parliament.
2015 Nov 28, Macedonian police
fired tear gas and stun grenades at desperate migrants stranded for
days at the Greek border and who are demanding passage to western
Europe, as soldiers began erecting a metal fence to keep them out.
2015 Nov 28, Police in the
Maldives dispersed opposition protesters for a second straight day,
using tear gas and pepper spray and arresting more than a dozen
demonstrators demanding the release of a former president and other
jailed political leaders.
2015 Nov 28, In Mali mortars
lit up the dawn sky when they were fired on a United Nations base in
the northern city of Kidal early today, killing at least 3 people.
2015 Nov 28, In Malta heads of
government from the Commonwealth family, which represents around a
third of the world's population, pledged to demand an "ambitious"
and legally-binding outcome from the world climate change summit in
Paris, which officially starts on Nov 30.
2015 Nov 28, In Niger Boko
Haram activists raided a border village, killing 4 people and
torching some 50 homes.
2015 Nov 28, The Philippines
took delivery of two Korean-made fighter jets — the country's first
supersonic combat aircraft in a decade.
2015 Nov 28, Syrian state
reported that the Syrian army has captured territory from Islamic
State east of Aleppo including several kilometers of highway linking
the city with the jihadists' de facto capital of Raqqa. One person
was killed and 30 wounded in rocket and mortar attacks on two
neighborhoods of Damascus.
(Reuters, 11/28/15)(AFP, 11/28/15)
2015 Nov 28, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed "sadness" over Turkey's downing of a
Russian warplane that has severely strained relations. Erdogan said
the climate change summit in Paris next week could be a chance to
repair relations with Moscow.
(AFP, 11/28/15)(Reuters, 11/28/15)
2015 Nov 28, In southeastern
Turkey police killed Tahir Elci, a prominent Kurdish lawyer, during
a shootout between police and militants. The pro-Kurdish HDP Party
called it a "planned assassination" and urged people to take to the
streets in protest. Police fired water cannon and tear gas to
disperse around 2,000 people marching in Istanbul's Taksim Square
after Elci was shot dead in Diyarbakir. Shortly before Elci's
killing, two police officers were shot dead after they stopped a
"suspicious vehicle" in a nearby street.
(Reuters, 11/28/15)(Reuters, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 28, In Uganda Pope
Francis honored Uganda's 19th century Christian martyrs and
encouraged its 21st century Christian youths during a day that saw
nearly a half-million Ugandans turn out to see him.
2015 Nov 28, On the southern
coast of Yemen warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition hit two small
boats allegedly carrying weapons to Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
2015 Nov 29, The United States
and its allies conducted 15 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Nov 29, Collection of
telecommunication metadata by the National Security Agency (NSA)
ended today following a halt ordered by Congress last June. The
program had begun in secret in 2001 under Pres. George W. Bush.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Freedom_Act)(SFC, 11/28/15, p.A4)
2015 Nov 29, Burkina Faso held
presidential and legislative elections. Preliminary results released
on Dec 1 gave Roch March Christian Kabore (58) an outright win.
(AP, 11/29/15)(AP, 12/1/15)
2015 Nov 29, In Burundi gunmen
in Bujumbura shot dead army Major Salvator Katihabwa and wounded the
husband of the senate's deputy speaker.
2015 Nov 29, Cameroon
reportedly ended a 3-day operation against Nigeria's Boko Haram
Islamists, killing around 100 fighters and freeing 900 hostages.
2015 Nov 29, The Central
African Republic welcomed Pope Francis as he brought a message of
peace to the divided country, visiting people displaced by months of
bloody sectarian violence and calling for unity. Interim president
Catherine Samba-Panza asked for "forgiveness" from Pope Francis for
two years of "evil" sectarian violence.
2015 Nov 29, Environmental
activist group Sea Shepherd warned Japan against resuming "research"
whaling in the Antarctic and called on the Australian government to
2015 Nov 29, French riot police
fired tear gas at climate change protesters at the Place de la
Republique in central Paris, near where climate change activists had
earlier formed a human chain.
2015 Nov 29, Tens of thousands
of people from Sydney to London joined one of the biggest days of
climate change activism, telling world leaders gathering for a
summit in Paris there is "No Planet B" in the fight against global
warming. More than 2,000 events were being held in cities including
London, Sao Paulo and New York, making it perhaps the biggest day of
climate action in history.
2015 Nov 29, In Germany clashes
broke out between hundreds of asylum seekers at a shelter in Berlin,
in the second mass brawl to erupt over the weekend in the crowded
2015 Nov 29, In Guatemala
gunfire broke out at the Canada Rehabilitation Farm, a prison
designed to hold 600 inmates, but which housed 3,092. The death toll
in the brawl rose to 16, including 3 inmates who were decapitated.
2015 Nov 29, In India hundreds
of gay rights activists danced to drum beats and held colorful
balloons as they marched in a parade in New Delhi, celebrating what
they call the diversity of gender and sexuality.
2015 Nov 29, In Moldova
thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Chisinau and
other towns demanding better governance and an end to widespread
2015 Nov 29, In Nigeria Boko
Haram destroyed a military base as soldiers fled. Self-defense
fighters prevented the insurgents from retaking Gulak town.
Extremists kidnapped dozens of girls and set ablaze hundreds of
buildings in Bam, Borno state.
(AP, 11/30/15)(SFC, 12/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 29, A Palestinian
stabbed an Israeli police officer in Jerusalem before being shot
dead by security forces.
2015 Nov 29, Russia’s National
Anti-Terrorist Committee announced that security forces had killed
the three militants in Dagestan after they refused to surrender.
2015 Nov 29, Hundreds of Saudi
women began campaigning for public office, in a first for women in
the conservative Muslim kingdom's slow reform process even as two
activists were disqualified.
2015 Nov 29, Three Saudi border
soldiers were killed after exchanging fire with "enemy elements"
trying to cross the border from Yemen to attack two watch towers.
2015 Nov 29, In northeastern
Spain a snorkeler found eight apparently human skulls, and other
bones, in shallow waters just off Els Palangrers beach.
2015 Nov 29, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes believed to have been
carried out by Russian warplanes killed at least 18 people and
wounded dozens in the insurgent held town of Ariha. Ariha Today, a
Facebook page that covers events in the town, said the airstrikes
killed 40 people and wounding more than 70.
2015 Nov 29, Turkish PM Ahmet
Davutoglu struck a deal with EU leaders to prevent migrants from
traveling to Europe in return for 3 billion euros (dollars) in cash,
a deal on visas and renewed talks on joining the 28-nation bloc.
2015 Nov 29, Turkey recovered
the body of Russian pilot Oleg Peshkov from northern Syria and
presented it to Russian diplomats, five days after shooting down his
warplane in an incident that wrecked relations between the two
2015 Nov 29, Yemeni loyalists
supported by a Saudi-led coalition battled to oust Iran-backed
rebels from a southern province where they have made gains in recent
weeks, with at least 16 reported dead.
2015 Nov 30, A coalition led by
the United States conducted 12 strikes against Islamic State in
Iraq, and hit the militant group with a single strike in Syria.
2015 Nov 30, US District Judge
Carl Barbier in New Orleans ordered Anadarko Petroleum Corp to pay a
$159.5 million civil fine reflecting its stake in the 2010 Gulf of
Mexico oil spill.
2015 Nov 30, In New York former
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (71) was convicted on charges that
he traded favors for $4 million in kickbacks.
(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A9)
2015 Nov 30, Oklahoma Governor
Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency after storms over the
weekend caused floods, coated roads with ice and left about 60,000
customers without power.
2015 Nov 30, American activist
Lori Berenson (46) was finally heading home to New York, two decades
after being found guilty of aiding leftist rebels in Peru. Her
20-year sentence lapsed on Nov 29.
2015 Nov 30, Argentina’s Pres.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner signed a decree boosting government
spending by 133 billion pesos ($13.7 billion).
(Econ, 12/12/15, p.37)
2015 Nov 30, Cameroonian troops
crossed into Nigeria and killed about 150 people near the Banki
border post according to refugees who walked for days to Adamawa’s
Fufore transit center. Cameroon’s government denied the charges.
(SFC, 12/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Nov 30, Canada-based
BlackBerry said it is exiting Pakistan rather than hand over its
customers' private messages, after the government demanded access to
encrypted data sent through company servers.
2015 Nov 30, In the Central
African Republic Pope Francis said Christians and Muslims were
"brothers" and urged them to reject hatred and violence as he
visited a mosque in Bangui, which has been ravaged by sectarian
2015 Nov 30, China and Taiwan
said they have swapped three high-level convicted spies in a sign of
goodwill linked to the first meeting ever between their presidents.
China first sent back the two Taiwanese men, Chu Kung-hsun and Hsu
Chang-kuo on Oct 13. Taiwan followed with the release of Li Zhihao.
2015 Nov 30, Beijing suffered
its worst air pollution of the year, with monitoring sites
throughout the city reporting extremely hazardous levels of
2015 Nov 30, In eastern Congo
DRC at least 13 people, including a UN peacekeeper, were killed in
an overnight attack by rebels in North Kivu province. The attack was
blamed on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
2015 Nov 30, In eastern Congo
DRC more than 20 people were missing after a government-operated
speed boat capsized on Lake Kivu.
2015 Nov 30, World leaders
arrived in Paris for UN climate change talks. Over the next two
weeks, negotiators will hammer out the strongest international
climate pact yet.
2015 Nov 30, Marcus Klingberg
(b.1918), the man considered the Soviet Union's most successful spy
in Israel before being unmasked more than 30 years ago, died in
2015 Nov 30, PM Haider al-Abadi
said that Iraq has sufficient forces to fight the Islamic State
group, after American senators called for more US troops to be
deployed to the country. A suicide bomber targeted Shiite Muslims
taking part in an annual pilgrimage in Baghdad, killing 9 people and
wounding another 21.
(AFP, 11/30/15)(AP, 11/30/15)
2015 Nov 30, In southeastern
Niger militants from the Islamist group Boko Haram killed 8 people
in an attack on a village in the Diffa region.
2015 Nov 30, In Northern
Ireland the Belfast High Court found that the country’s restrictive
abortion legislation is in breach of human rights law.
2015 Nov 30, Russia said it
will restrict imports of Turkish fruit and vegetables as part of a
package of new sanctions following the downing of a Russian warplane
by Turkey last week. Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said his country
would not apologize to Russia for shooting down the warplane and
said he hoped Russia would reconsider sanctions.
2015 Nov 30, Officials say that
more than 35,000 people were without electricity in Sweden after a
storm battered southern Scandinavia, damaging buildings, toppling
trees, canceling trains and closing bridge links between Denmark and
2015 Nov 30, In northern Syria
15 militants, 8 DFS fighters and 20 civilians were reported killed
over the last 24 hours near the border area near Azaz.
2015 Nov 30, Thai soldiers and
police detained two top leaders of the anti-government Red Shirt
movement as they prepared to visit a park celebrating past Thai
kings that is at the center of a corruption scandal linked to the
2015 Nov 30, In Thailand Andre
Cabau (39), a French drug trafficker, was arrested in Bangkok. He
was part of a notorious international network that authorities say
copied tactics from Hollywood's "Fast and Furious" films.
2015 Nov 30, Turkish
authorities rounded up some 1,300 migrants that they said were
planning to sail to Greece from hideouts near secluded Aegean
beaches and forests.
2015 Nov 30, The World Bank
launched a $500 million market-based scheme designed to help
developing countries pay for emission reductions and combat climate
2015 Nov 30, Dozens of Yemeni
Houthi fighters were reportedly killed during an assault on the
border with Saudi Arabia.
2015 Nov, In Botswana a
3-billion-year-old diamond the size of a tennis ball was unearthed
at a mine owned by Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corp. The Lesedi la Rona
diamond was set to be auctioned in London on June 29, 2016.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.A2)
2015 Nov, The Egyptian military
destroyed 20 underground tunnels this month along the border with
the Gaza Strip.
2015 Nov, In Ethiopia
demonstrations began mainly by members of the Oromo ethnic group
against a government plan to expand the limits of Addis Ababa. The
Oromo accounted for about a third of the country’s 97 million
(Econ, 3/26/15, p.58)
2015 Nov, Abu Saleh, the
Islamic State finance chief in Iraq, was killed late this month
along with two associates in a coalition air strike. The two others
were identified as Abu Mariam, an enforcer and senior leader in the
IS group's extortion networks, and Abu Waqman al-Tunis, who
coordinated the group's transfer of people, weapons and information.
2015 Nov, The number of Islamic
State fighters in Iraq and Syria was estimated at 30 to 100
thousand. Pentagon sources said coalition airstrikes have killed
20,000 IS fighters over the last 14 months. Coalition airstrikes
against the IS this month alone numbered more than 3,000.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.23)(Econ, 12/12/15, p.47)
2015 Dec 1, The United States
and its allies staged 17 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Dec 1, US Defense
Secretary Ash Carter said the United States is deploying a
specialized expeditionary targeting force to help Iraq put
additional pressure on Islamic State and be positioned to conduct
unilateral operations into Syria.
2015 Dec 1, US General Joe
Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that
approximately 43 percent of the revenue stream that ISIL derives
from oil has been affected over the past 30 days.
2015 Dec 1, Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla chan announced the birth of a baby
daughter and plans to give away 99% of the Facebook shares,
currently worth $45 billion, during their lifetimes.
(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A1)
2015 Dec 1, Chicago Mayor Rahm
Emanuel fired Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy following the
public outcry over the handling of the Oct 20, 2014, shooting of
Laquan McDonald (17).
(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A8)
2015 Dec 1, In northern
Afghanistan an explosion struck a group of children who were playing
on the outskirts of Puli Khumri, Baghlan province, killing 3 boys
and wounding 12 children, four of them critically.
2015 Dec 1, The Bank of China
appealed a decision by a New York court to fine it $50,000 a day for
withholding information about counterfeiters' bank accounts in
2015 Dec 1, Beijing grappled
with severe air pollution for a 5th straight day and ordered
hundreds of factories to shut and allowed children to skip school as
choking smog reached over 25 times safe levels.
(AFP, 12/1/15)(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A7)
2015 Dec 1, In eastern Congo
DRC fierce fighting between UN peacekeepers and Ugandan rebels
raged, after a weekend attack by the mostly Muslim group left 24
2015 Dec 1, The Cuban
government announced that it is re-imposing a hated travel permit
requirement on many doctors, requiring them to get permission to
leave the country in an attempt to counter a brain drain that it
blames on the United States.
2015 Dec 1, President Francois
Hollande said France will give African countries two billion euros
($2.1 billion) over the next four years to develop renewable energy
and replace climate-harming fossil fuels.
2015 Dec 1, The German cabinet
approved a mandate offering military assistance to back the
international fight against the Islamic State jihadist group
following the Paris attacks.
2015 Dec 1, An Indonesian
report said a faulty component and the crew's inadequate response
caused an AirAsia A320 to crash into the Java Sea last Dec 28,
killing all 162 people on board.
2015 Dec 1, In Iraq gunmen shot
and killed prominent Sunni councilman Moahmmed Khalil al-Jubouri and
his wife in the northern city of Kirkuk.
2015 Dec 1, Japan's whaling
fleet set out for the Antarctic to resume a hunt for the mammals
after a year-long hiatus.
2015 Dec 1, Police in Kenya
tear-gassed demonstrators as some 200 people marched against to the
Supreme Court and parliament to protest government corruption. 26
people were arrested.
(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 1, Kenya's sports
ministry said it will require all government payments to athletes be
made via an electronic system in a bid to stop theft by sports
2015 Dec 1, Al Qaeda's Syrian
wing freed 16 Lebanese soldiers and policemen in exchange for the
release of jailed Islamists including the ex-wife of Islamic State
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
2015 Dec 1, Nigeria’s Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said Bashir Yuguda, the
former minister of state for finance, has been arrested along with
some other people in connection with a $2 billion arms deal that is
currently being investigated.
2015 Dec 1, In Pakistan gunmen
killed 2 soldiers in the southern city of Karachi.
2015 Dec 1, Two Palestinians
attempted to stab an Israeli soldier and a pedestrian in separate
attacks near Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but both attackers
were shot dead.
2015 Dec 1, In the Philippines
three members of the second division of the Commission on Election
(Comelec) said Senator Grace Poe could not run for president in
elections in May because she fails to meet the 10-year residency
requirement. Poe's camp said it would appeal against the decision to
Comelec before elevating it to the Supreme Court.
2015 Dec 1, A Philippine court
convicted US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton of killing
Filipino Jennifer Laude last year after he discovered in a hotel
that she was a transgender woman. He was sentenced to 6-12 years in
jail and credited with time already spent in detention.
2015 Dec 1, In Singapore Tan
Seet Eng, aka Dan Tan, was re-arrested, a week after his release
from jail was ordered by a Court of Appeal. He was suspected of
running a global soccer match-fixing syndicate and said to be a
danger to public safety. Tan was previously jailed in October 2013
after Italian prosecutors accused him of coordinating a global crime
syndicate that made millions of dollars betting on rigged Italian
matches and other games around the world.
2015 Dec 1, The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights and a Syrian official said a deal has
been reached for thousands of insurgents to leave the last
opposition-held neighborhood in the city of Homs. Implementation of
the deal will begin early next week.
2015 Dec 1, NATO allies sought
to strengthen Turkey's defenses along its Syrian border after the
United States withdrew its missile defense battery for
2015 Dec 1, In Turkey 6
children died in a fire that broke out at a school teaching the
Quran in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
2015 Dec 1, In Zimbabwe China’s
President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of 10 economic
agreements, including on expanding the southern African nation's
largest thermal power plant.
2015 Dec 2, A coalition led by
the United States bombarded Islamic State in Syria with 14 air
strikes, and also hit the militant group in Iraq with 18 strikes.
2015 Dec 2, In southern
California Syed Rizwan Farook (28) and Tashfeen Malik (27) who had a
6-month-old daughter together, were killed in a shootout with
police. They had just killed 14 people and wounding 17 at the Inland
Regional Center in the city of San Bernardino, a social services
agency where Farook worked as an inspector. The attack appeared to
have been planned. After two days the FBI became involved saying
Farook had "some kind" of contact with people from the Nusra Front
and the radical Shabab group in Somalia.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 2, In San Francisco
Mario Woods (26) was shot dead by police in the Bayview district.
Investigators said he was armed with a knife and was suspected in an
earlier stabbing. At least five officers fired at him about 15
times. Part of the shooting was captured on video.
(SFC, 12/4/15, p.A1)
2015 Dec 2, In Tennessee 2 Army
pilots were killed when their helicopter crashed near Fort Campbell.
(SFC, 12/4/15, p.A8)
2015 Dec 2, Texas sued the US
government in an effort to block six Syrian refugees from resettling
in Dallas this week. On Dec 4 Texas stopped trying to block
Syrian refugees from resettling in the state.
(SFC, 12/2/15, p.A8)(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 2, John Rassias
(b.1925), former Dartmouth professor of language, died at his home
in Norwich, Vt. His language teaching method was adopted by the
Peace Corps and formalized after he began teaching at Dartmouth in
1965, as the Dartmouth Intensive Language Model.
(SFC, 12/7/15, p.C3)
2015 Dec 2, Afghan Taliban
leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was injured in a firefight following an
argument at a meeting of militant commanders in Pakistan. 4 people
were reported killed in the firefight.
2015 Dec 2, In Brazil Eduardo
Cunha, the speaker of the lower house of Congress, triggered an
impeachment process against Pres. Dilma Rousseff on grounds that she
illegally manipulated government accounts. Cunha was one of 34
sitting congressmen under investigation in the bribery scandal
centered on Petrobras.
(AFP, 12/3/15)(Econ, 12/5/15, p.36)
2015 Dec 2, Britain voted to
extend airstrikes to Syria.
2015 Dec 2, In Burundi at least
7 people were killed over the last 24 hours in gun battles and
grenade blasts with bodies found dumped on the streets.
2015 Dec 2, Chinese President
Xi Jinping held talks with South Africa's President Jacob Zuma that
were expected to focus on boosting investment and trade worth around
$20 billion dollars a year.
2015 Dec 2, China’s cabinet
announced that the country will reduce emissions of major pollutants
in the power sector by 60 percent by 2020.
2015 Dec 2, The EU and Vietnam
signed a free trade deal that removes nearly all tariffs between
Europe and one of the world's last communist states.
2015 Dec 2, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and Afghanistan's visiting President Ashraf Ghani
agreed to work jointly for stability in the South Asian country and
to reduce illegal migration.
2015 Dec 2, Iraqi PM Haider
al-Abadi said his country does not need foreign ground troops to
defeat the Islamic State group.
2015 Dec 2, Israel indicted
former senior politician Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (79) on charges that
include taking bribes and money laundering.
2015 Dec 2, Israel demolished
the home of a Palestinian who killed two officers and wounded
several others in an attack last year.
2015 Dec 2, Kuwaiti MPs called
on the government to refer 24 ex-oil officials to the public
prosecutor over a scrapped deal with US firm Dow Chemical that
resulted in a $2.2 billion fine.
2015 Dec 2, In Libya rocket
fire killed Colonel Ali al-Themen and wounded five other soldiers of
the armed forces loyal to the internationally recognized government
in the coastal city of Benghazi.
2015 Dec 2, Macedonian police
fired tear gas at hundreds of mostly Pakistani migrants who tried to
storm into the Balkan country from Greece demanding passage to
wealthier northern Europe.
2015 Dec 2, NATO invited
Montenegro to become the 29th member of the US-led military
alliance, defying Russia's warnings it would have to respond to what
it branded a threat to its security. Russia said it will end joint
projects with Montenegro if the ex-Communist country joins NATO.
(AFP, 12/2/15)(Reuters, 12/2/15)
2015 Dec 2, Pakistan hanged
four convicted militants who were sentenced to death over a Taliban
attack on an army-run school last year that killed more than 150
2015 Dec 2, Russia's defense
ministry said it had proof that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and
his family were benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from
Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq.
2015 Dec 2, Slovakia filed a
lawsuit at the European Court of Justice against a European Union
decision to redistribute 120,000 asylum seekers among member
2015 Dec 2, Spain's
Constitutional Court revoked a resolution by Catalonia's parliament
that declared the start of a secession process in the wealthy
2015 Dec 2, In Syria rebel
shelling of Damascus reportedly killed two women and wounded 26
people, including 16 students.
2015 Dec 2, The Islamic State
posted footage online of Magomed Khasiev (23) in an orange jump suit
kneeling beside a lake in Syria and confessing in Russian to spying
on Islamic State militants. Another Russian speaker, this one in
camouflage fatigues, then uses a hunting knife to hack off the
kneeling man's head.
2015 Dec 2, A Venezuelan
military helicopter landed in Guyana amid a border dispute between
the two nations. Venezuela has long claimed 40 percent of Guyana's
2015 Dec 2, In southern Yemen
Al-Qaeda fighters drove pro-government forces out of the town of
Jaar, in fighting that killed 15 people.
2015 Dec 3, An Arkansas judge
struck down a portion of the state’s law that keeps secret details
about drugs used in executions.
(SFC, 12/4/15, p.A8)
2015 Dec 3, In Minnesota Scott
Weiland (b.1967) former frontman for rock bands Stone Temple Pilots
and Velvet Revolver, was found dead on his tour bus while on tour
with his band the Wildabouts. A medical examiner later said he died
of a toxic mix of drugs that included cocaine.
(SFC, 12/4/15, p.A16)(SFC, 12/19/15, p.E2)
2015 Dec 3, In West Virginia
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship was convicted on a misdemeanor
conspiracy charge in connection with the April 5, 2010, mine
disaster that killed 29 men.
(SFC, 12/5/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 3, In southern
Afghanistan a US-Afghan military operation backed by helicopter
gunships freed more than 40 soldiers and police held captive in a
Taliban prison in Nawzad district of Helmand province.
2015 Dec 3, Australia's
parliament passed legislation to strip dual nationals of their
citizenship if they are convicted of terrorism offences or found to
have fought with banned groups overseas, despite concerns about
2015 Dec 3, Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff's party appealed to the Supreme Court to block
impeachment proceedings against her.
2015 Dec 3, Britain joined the
US-led air strikes against Islamic State in Syria.
2015 Dec 3, A Cambodian court
sentenced Yem Chrin, an unlicensed medical practitioner, to 25 years
in prison Thursday after finding him responsible for infecting more
than 100 villagers with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by reusing
2015 Dec 3, Ramzan Kadyrov, the
president of Russia's Chechnya region, said that whoever was
responsible for the beheading of a Russian man from Chechnya,
purportedly shown on an Islamic State video, will be killed.
2015 Dec 3, In China Cai
Rongsheng, former admissions officer at Renmin University in
Beijing, admitted to taking $3.6 million in bribes at a trial in
2015 Dec 3, Ecuador's Congress
voted overwhelmingly to lift presidential term limits from 2021,
triggering violent demonstrations that saw police attacked with
spears, clubs and home-made rockets.
2015 Dec 3, EU member Denmark
voted in a referendum on adopting the union's justice rules, with
the Paris terror attacks and immigration both major issues in the
campaign. 53 percent of Danish voters decided to continue a
decades-old opt-out from justice affairs in the European Union.
(AFP, 12/3/15)(AP, 12/4/15)
2015 Dec 3, Egypt's top court
ordered a retrial of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and
thirty-six co-defendants, overturning a death sentence for Islamist
2015 Dec 3, Egypt opened its
border with the Gaza Strip for the first time in months, drawing
thousands of Palestinians who crowded the Rafah border crossing in
hopes of leaving the coastal territory.
2015 Dec 3, In Greece public
and private sector workers walked off the job in the second 24-hour
general strike in a month against new austerity measures.
2015 Dec 3, Hungary said it had
filed a legal challenge to the European Union's plan to distribute
160,000 asylum-seekers among member states under a quota system.
2015 Dec 3, In southern India
the heaviest rainfall in more than 100 years has devastated swathes
of Tamil Nadu state, with thousands forced to leave their submerged
homes and schools, offices and a regional airport shut for a second
2015 Dec 3, In Indonesia two
rain-triggered landslides left 5 villagers dead and 15 others
missing on Sumatra Island.
2015 Dec 3, In Iraq millions of
Shiite Muslims, beating their heads and chests in mourning, packed
the city of Karbala for the culmination of Arbaeen, one of the
world's largest religious events.
2015 Dec 3, Israeli authorities
said they had arrested a number of alleged Jewish extremists over
the July 31 firebombing of a Palestinian home that killed a toddler
and his parents in an attack that drew international condemnation.
2015 Dec 3, Malaysia's
Parliament approved a security law that gives sweeping security
powers to a council led by the prime minister, in a move slammed by
rights groups and critics as a step toward a dictatorship.
2015 Dec 3, In Mexico Antonio
Oseguera Cervantes (57), the brother of the head of the powerful
Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, was detained while driving in
the town of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, western Jalisco state. He managed
the group's finances.
2015 Dec 3, Mongolia’s
lawmakers approved a new criminal code eliminating executions
effective September 2016. The last execution in Mongolia was in 2008
and the death penalty remained classified as a state secret. The
move made Mongolia the 105th country to abolish the death penalty in
2015 Dec 3, Pakistan refused to
allow about 30 "unverified deportees" from Greece to get off a plane
at Islamabad. 19 others whom Pakistan deemed legitimate deportees
were allowed to disembark.
2015 Dec 3, A Palestinian
stabbed and wounded an Israeli policeman near Jerusalem's Old City
before being shot dead.
2015 Dec 3, In Puerto Rico the
FBI arrested 10 government officials and businessmen charged with
bribery and extortion.
2015 Dec 3, Qatar signed the
first contracts on a mega-accommodation project which will
eventually see almost 180,000 migrant workers housed in seven
specially built "cities". All seven sites could be in operation
within two years.
2015 Dec 3, Russian Energy
Minister Alexander Novak told reporters work on Turkish Stream, a
pipeline intended to pump Russian gas into southeastern Europe via
Turkey while bypassing Ukraine, had been suspended.
2015 Dec 3, The foreign
ministers of Turkey and Russia met in Belgrade in the first
high-level bilateral talks since the downing of a Russian warplane
by Turkish jets sparked an unprecedented crisis.
2015 Dec 3, Saudi Arabia lent
its backing to a power-sharing plan that would make Suleiman
Franjieh, a family friend of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, president of
2015 Dec 3, Saudi local media
said female divorcees and widows in Saudi Arabia are set to get
their own ID cards allowing them to act independently from men.
2015 Dec 3, Citizens of
Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago, began voting in
2015 Dec 3, In South Africa
Oscar Pistorius was convicted of murder by an appeals court that
described the once-glittering story of the double-amputee Olympian
and Reeva Steenkamp, the girlfriend he killed in his home in 2013,
as a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.
2015 Dec 3, In Spain a trial of
35 members of Basque separatist parties including Batasuna, the
banned political wing of the armed ETA group, got under way after
being repeatedly postponed. The defendants stand accused of carrying
out political activities to back ETA, blamed for the deaths of 829
people in a four-decade campaign for an independent Basque homeland.
2015 Dec 3, In Spain acting
Catalon President Artur Mas said Catalonia's government will
continue its drive for independence.
2015 Dec 3, The Swiss justice
ministry (FOJ) arrested two more top FIFA officials on a request
from the US justice department. South American Football
Confederation president Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay and Alfredo
Hawit of Honduras, head of the Confederation of North, Central
American and Caribbean, were arrested at the five-star Baur au Lac
hotel in Zurich.
2015 Dec 3, It was reported
that three Tanzanian universities are offering a new course on
female genital mutilation (FGM) to train health care professionals
how to deal with victims of the harmful practice that is still
widespread although illegal.
2015 Dec 3, Turkey said it has
agreed with Azerbaijan to accelerate the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline
(TANAP), with an aim to have the gas projected completed before the
2015 Dec 3, A Turkish court
sentenced three men to life in prison over the Feb 11 murder and
attempted rape of female student Ozgecan Aslan (20.
2015 Dec 4, The Spike Lee
musical film “Chi-Raq" was released. It was about gang violence on
Chicago’s South Side. It was a contemporary take on Lysistrata, the
411BC Greek comedy by Aristophanes.
(Econ, 12/12/15, p.32)
2015 Dec 4, The United States
and its allies targeted Islamic State with 12 strikes in Iraq and 11
2015 Dec 4, The Center for
Disease Control said that seven additional people in three more
states have been sickened in an E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle.
(SFC, 12/5/15, p.D4)
2015 Dec 4, In Connecticut
Amador Medina (32) was arrested in Hartford on a charge of being a
fugitive from justice from Worcester, Massachusetts, where
authorities allege he stole the remains two months ago from a family
mausoleum that dates to 1903. Medina told police he was a Santeria
priest and wanted the human bones for religious and healing
2015 Dec 4, In Tennessee
skilled-trades workers at the Volkswagen's lone US plant voted to be
represented by the United Auto Workers, marking the union's first
victory at a foreign-owned automaker in the South.
2015 Dec 4, American actor
Robert Loggia (b.1930) died at his home in Los Angeles. His films
included “Scarface" (1983), “Prizzi’s Honor" (9185) “Lost Highway"
(1997) and “Big" (1988).
(SFC, 12/5/15, p.A11)
2015 Dec 4, In Afghanistan a
mortar attack by government troops killed at least 8 civilians and
wounded two others near a mosque in a district south of Kabul.
2015 Dec 4, In Azerbaijan 29
workers were missing after a platform in Azerbaijan’s Guneshli oil
field, operated by state energy company SOCAR, caught fire in the
Caspian Sea. 33 people were rescued. 6 bodies were soon recovered
and 23 remained missing.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(AP, 12/6/15)(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 4, British bombers
made their second round of strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria
late today, again hitting oil fields.
2015 Dec 4, Aravindan
Balakrishnan (75), a cult leader who led a secretive Maoist commune
in London, was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting his
female followers and imprisoning his own daughter for 30 years.
2015 Dec 4, Burundi police shot
dead 3 attackers and arrested three others when they foiled an
attempt to ambush and assassinate a top police officer in the
2015 Dec 4, Canada said posted
its 14th consecutive monthly trade deficit in October, as exports to
its key trading partner the United States fell.
2015 Dec 4, It was reported
that Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has signed a decree that
removes marijuana from the country's list of hard drugs.
2015 Dec 4, Chinese President
Xi Jinping, speaking at a summit of the Forum on China-Africa
Cooperation in South Africa, told African leaders his country would
pump $60 billion into development projects, cancel some debt and
boost agriculture under a three-year plan that will extend Beijing's
influence in the continent.
2015 Dec 4, Costa Rica said it
has asked Belize to accept nearly 3,000 Cuban migrants who have been
stuck at the Costa Rican border with Nicaragua for weeks.
2015 Dec 4, In Egypt a Molotov
cocktail hurled at a Cairo restaurant killed 16 people and wounded
two. The attacker was said to be a fired employee.
2015 Dec 4, The European Union
agreed on a system to share airline passenger information, paving
the way for closer scrutiny of extremists.
2015 Dec 4, Georgia stripped
former leader and reformer Mikheil Saakashvili of his citizenship as
he had acquired a Ukrainian passport to serve as governor of the
strategic Odessa region.
2015 Dec 4, Germany's lower
house of parliament approved government plans to join the military
campaign against Islamic State in Syria.
2015 Dec 4, Guatemalan
prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Brayan Jimenez, president
of the country's football federation, who is accused in a widening
bribery investigation into FIFA.
2015 Dec 4, In southern India
rains eased in the flood-hit city of Chennai, raising hopes that
rescue efforts could pick up, after the death of 18 patients at a
private hospital added to the official toll of 280 confirmed killed
in the disaster. The death toll from the flooding was later raised
to some 450.
(Reuters, 12/4/15)(Econ, 12/12/15, p.40)
2015 Dec 4, Veteran Israeli
dove Yossi Sarid (75), who championed the cause of a Palestinian
state over a political career spanning three decades, died in Tel
2015 Dec 4, In Nigeria at least
3 people were killed and six others injured in suicide attacks in
northeastern Borno state blamed on Boko Haram Islamists.
2015 Dec 4, Two Palestinians
stabbed an Israeli soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron
overnight, moderately wounding him before they were shot dead by
soldiers. A Palestinian driver ran over and injured two Israeli
soldiers in the West Bank before being shot dead.
2015 Dec 4, In Peru the former
head of the Peruvian football federation, Manuel Burga, was arrested
in the growing FIFA bribery probe.
2015 Dec 4, Philippine security
forces arrested Kadaffy Muktadil, a suspect in the kidnappings of
two Malaysian hostages last May. Malaysian Bernard Then Ted Fen was
beheaded last month. Thien Nyuk Fun was freed on Nov 8.
2015 Dec 4, Russian prosecutors
declared the US-Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the
Rule of Law (USRF) an "undesirable" organization, the fourth entity
to be banned under a controversial law targeting foreign groups
accused of political meddling in the country.
2015 Dec 4, South African
authorities issued a warrant of arrest for Oscar Pistorius (29), a
day after the Paralympic champion was convicted on appeal of
murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
2015 Dec 4, South Africa-based
MTN announced that its fine by Nigeria's communications agency had
been reduced to 674 billion naira ($3.4 billion). Spokesman Tony
Ojobo said there was a typo and the actual amount is 780 billion
naira ($3.9 billion).
2015 Dec 4, In Syria at least
35 civilians were killed and dozens wounded in a series of regime
raids on a rebel stronghold east of Damascus.
2015 Dec 4, The New York Times
decried limits on media freedom in Thailand after its local printer
refused to publish articles about the Southeast Asian country for a
2015 Dec 4, Turkish media said
authorities have rounded up in the past four days nearly 3,000
migrants planning to cross the Aegean Sea to EU member Greece.
2015 Dec 4, Turkish media said
more than 100 Turkish soldiers have been deployed to an area near
the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is under Islamic State
control, to replace a unit providing training to Iraqi troops.
2015 Dec 5, The United States
and its allies conducted 17 air strikes against Islamic State in
Iraq and 12 in Syria.
2015 Dec 5, The New York Times
published an editorial on its front page for the first time since
1920, using the rare, prominent placement to urge gun control
following the latest mass shooting in the United States.
2015 Dec 5, The Afghan Taliban
released an audio message it said was from leader Mullah Akhtar
Mansour, vehemently rejecting reports of his death in a firefight
with his own commanders as "enemy propaganda".
2015 Dec 5, A ship carrying 25
tons of radioactive waste arrived back in Australia, met by
activists who warned against the vast nation becoming a nuclear
dumping ground. Australia sent spent nuclear fuel to France for
reprocessing in the 1990s and early 2000s over four shipments, and
it has now been returned for long-term storage.
2015 Dec 5, In northern
Bangladesh unidentified attackers hurled three homemade bombs on the
premises of a Hindu temple during a drama performance early today,
injuring 10 people outside the Kantajir temple during an annual fair
in Dinajpur district.
2015 Dec 5, In Britain Storm
Desmond whipped across the country. A 90-year-old man died near a
north London Underground station after he was apparently blown
against the side of a moving bus.
2015 Dec 5, Muhaydin Mire (29)
slashed a man (56) at the east London Leytonstone metro station,
reportedly screaming "this is for Syria", in what police described
as a terrorist incident. On June 8 a British court convicted Mire, a
mentally ill taxi driver, of attempted murder.
(Reuters, 12/6/15)(AFP, 12/7/15)(AP, 6/8/16)
2015 Dec 5, In Chad four female
suicide bombers attacked the Chadian island of Koulfoua on Lake
Chad. State TV said the provisional death toll was 19 dead,
including the four kamikazes, and 130 injured.
2015 Dec 5, Chinese media
reported that Zhang Yun (56), head of the country’s 4th largest
state bank, has resigned citing personal reasons amid reports of his
involvement in a corruption investigation.
(SSFC, 12/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 5, In France
negotiators from 195 nations delivered a blueprint for a pact to
save mankind from disastrous global warming. Negotiators agreed to a
draft accord that still leaves hundreds of points of dispute for
ministers to resolve next week.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 5, Guyana's Government
Information Agency said British petroleum giant Tullow Oil PLC will
be awarded an exploration license near an offshore basin where Exxon
Mobil found large quantities of oil and gas in May.
2015 Dec 5, Iraqi President
Fouad Massoum called the deployment of several hundred Turkish
troops inside Iraq near the northern city of Mosul "a violation of
international norms and law".
2015 Dec 5, In northern Lebanon
suspected Islamist militant Mohammed Hamzeh killed himself, his wife
and his mother, when he blew himself up during an army raid on his
home in Deir Ammar.
2015 Dec 5, Lawmakers from
Libya's two rival parliaments signed a declaration of principles
aimed at ending the North African country's civil conflict.
2015 Dec 5, Malaysia's police
said that they have arrested five people, including a European
employed as a teacher, on suspicion of links with militant groups
like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The arrests were made between
Nov. 17 and Dec 1.
2015 Dec 5, Nigeria's
intelligence agency said it has arrested nine alleged Boko Haram
extremists plotting attacks on Abuja, the capital, over the festive
season. All nine were detained in the past month and had infiltrated
the capital in central Nigeria from the country's northeast.
2015 Dec 5, The main islands of
the Seychelles voted in a presidential election with incumbent James
Michel facing his first serious challenge after two terms in office.
No candidate got more than 50 percent of the votes cast. A run-off
was scheduled to be held in two weeks between incumbent President
James Michel, Leader of the ruling Lepep party, and Wavel
Ramkalawan, leader of the Seychelles National Party.
(AFP, 12/5/15)(Reuters, 12/6/15)
2015 Dec 5, Slovakia's leftist
PM Robert Fico (51) promised to protect voters from international
terrorism and unveiled a billion euro welfare plan as he launched
campaign for a third term in office.
2015 Dec 5, Thousands of South
Koreans, many wearing masks, marched in Seoul against conservative
President Park Geun-hye, who had compared masked protesters to
terrorists after clashes with police broke out at a rally last
2015 Dec 5, Syrian Turkmen
rebel fighters seized three villages from the Islamic State group
near the Turkish border in clashes over the last 24 hours that
killed 13 from the ethnic minority.
2015 Dec 5, In Turkey 3 members
of the security forces were killed in clashes with militants the
mainly Kurdish southeast.
2015 Dec 5, Yemeni President
Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi met with a UN envoy in Aden to agree on
peace talks with Shiite Houthi rebels set to begin in mid-December.
2015 Dec 5, In Yemen masked
gunmen killed prominent Judge Mohsen Alwan, who was known for
sentencing al-Qaida militants to prison in the southern port city of
2015 Dec 6, Holly Woodlawn
(69), a transgender Puerto Rican woman featured in two Andy Warhol
films, died in Los Angeles County. She was the woman described by
Lou Reed in his song “Walk on the Wild Side" (1972).
(SFC, 12/8/15, p.C3)
2015 Dec 6, In Florida an
unmanned Atlas V rocket lifted off carrying the Orbital ATK capsule
to supply astronauts at the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/7/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 6, The Texas
Legislature adopted legislation allowing guns to be carried on
university campuses. It was the 8th US state to do so.
(http://tinyurl.com/q5q9njz)(Econ, 11/7/15, p.26)
2015 Dec 6, Armenia held a
referendum on proposed constitutional changes that would give more
powers to the prime minister and parliament at the expense of the
president, who would become largely a figurehead. Armenians voted to
curb presidential powers in the disputed referendum.
(AP, 12/6/15)(AFP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 6, Authorities in
Burkina Faso said they have charged General Gilbert Diendere, who
led a failed coup in September, with complicity in the 1987
assassination of President Thomas Sankara.
2015 Dec 6, In Cambodia 6
people died after eating the barbequed carcass of a dog that had
died for unknown reasons. 4 others died on Dec 8 after drinking rice
2015 Dec 6, In western China
some 100 masked men attacked a government office, smashing vehicles
and equipment and leaving 13 people injured in a regional dispute
over farmland. The attack was part of a disagreement between
residents of Gansu province and the vast Inner Mongolia region it
borders to the north.
2015 Dec 6, France's far-right
National Front was tipped for historic gains as regional polls were
held under a state of emergency just three weeks after Islamic
extremists killed 130 people in Paris. Marine Le Pen's
anti-immigration National Front chalked up scores that reached 40
percent of the vote in several regions.
(AFP, 12/6/15)(AP, 12/7/15)
2015 Dec 6, The top security
officials from India and Pakistan held talks in Thailand's capital,
signaling a resumption of the rival countries' on-again, off-again
2015 Dec 6, In Indonesia a
commuter train slammed into a passenger minibus at a railroad
crossing in Jakarta, killing at least 18 people and seriously
injuring six others.
2015 Dec 6, The Israeli Ofer
military court near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank
sentenced Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the leftist Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a well-known
political figure, to 15 months in jail. She had been arrested in
April on a series of charges, including encouraging attacks against
Israel and violating a travel ban.
2015 Dec 6, Israel's
state-owned electric utility said Egyptian natural gas companies
will pay it compensation of $1.76 billion plus interest for halting
gas supplies in 2012.
2015 Dec 6, At least 32 Islamic
State fighters were killed and 40 more wounded in Syria's Raqqa
province, in a series of air strikes believed to be carried out by a
US-led coalition targeting the jihadists.
2015 Dec 6, Venezuelans voted
in tense elections that could see the opposition seize legislative
power from the socialist government and risk sparking violence in
the oil-rich, cash-poor nation. The opposition Democratic Unity
coalition won 112 of 167 of the National Assembly seats. The ruling
Socialists and its allies got 55 seats.
(AFP, 12/6/15)(Reuters, 12/7/15)(SFC, 12/9/15,
2015 Dec 6, In Yemen General
Jaafar Mohammed Saad, the governor of Aden, was killed by a car bomb
in the port city. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the
attack that also killed at least 6 members of Saad's entourage.
2015 Dec 7, The United States
said it has agreed with Singapore on a first deployment of the US P8
Poseidon spy plane in Singapore this month, in a fresh response to
China over its pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea.
2015 Dec 7, US Vice President
Joe Biden assured Ukraine of continuing US support and announced the
release of an additional $190 million in US aid to help support
2015 Dec 7, US presidential
candidate Donald Trump has called for a "total and complete shutdown
of Muslims entering the United States," immigrants and visitors
alike, because of what he describes as hatred among "large segments
of the Muslim population" toward Americans.
2015 Dec 7, Two Afghan men
failed to report to maintenance training with the 81st Fighter
Squadron while training with the US military at a base in south
2015 Dec 7, The County of
Hawaii said 119 residents and 17 visitors have been confirmed with
(SFC, 12/8/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 7, Lawyers hired by
the Turkish government filed a civil suit against cleric Fethullah
Gulen, a political enemy of President Tayyip Erdogan, in a US court
alleging human rights abuses. Gulen has lived in Pennsylvania since
2015 Dec 7, Thermo Fisher
Scientific, a US based life sciences company, opened a new aseptic
processing laboratory at its Molecular Biology Center of Excellence
in Vilnius, Lithuanian capital. The new laboratory will produce
Dynabeads, the magnetic beads. Coated with antibodies the magnetic
beads stimulate lymphocytes, enabling the patient's cells to fight
cancer and prevent metastasis. The company expects the new
technology will replace conventional treatment methods to treat
2015 Dec 7, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide car bombing wounded nine people, including six
policemen in the Surkh Rud district in Nangarhar province.
2015 Dec 7, In Brazil
impeachment proceedings against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
faced their first major hurdle with the formation of a special
congressional committee that will analyze the accusations against
2015 Dec 7, Beijing issued its
first-ever red alert for smog, urging schools to close and invoking
restrictions on factories and traffic that will keep half of the
city's vehicles off the roads.
2015 Dec 7, Interpol agents
arrested a Rwandan with a $5 million bounty on his head who is among
the most wanted for the 1994 genocide. Ladislas Ntaganzwa was
arrested in the eastern Congo city of Goma. Between about 14 and 18
April 1994 he is accused of substantially participating in the
planning, preparation and execution of the massacre of over 20,000
Tutsis at Cyahinda Parish.
2015 Dec 7, Germany said the
number of people registered as asylum-seekers this year hit 965,000
by the end of November.
2015 Dec 7, The German firm JAB
Holding Co. announced a $13.9 billion acquisition of Keurig Green
Mountain as part of its quest to dominate the global coffee
industry. JAB Holding is the investment arm of the Reimann family,
heirs to consumer goods company Joh. A. Benckisser GmbH.
(SFC, 12/8/15, p.D3)
2015 Dec 7, In eastern India a
speeding train rammed into an SUV at an unmanned railroad crossing,
killing all 13 people in the vehicle in Jharkhand state.
2015 Dec 7, Latvian PM Laimdota
Straujuma said that she was resigning her post after political
squabbles within her center-right ruling coalition and
dissatisfaction about her leadership.
2015 Dec 7, Al Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) released a video showing three men
purportedly confessing to spying for the Mauritanian and French
military and then one being taken out of a pick-up truck in the
desert and shot in the head. The 22-minute video shows the men
saying they had been spying in northern Mali since at least 2006.
2015 Dec 7, A Palestinian man
stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli in the West Bank city of
Hebron and was then shot dead by security forces. Genadi Kaufman
(41) died of his wounds on Dec 30.
(Reuters, 12/7/15)(AFP, 12/30/15)
2015 Dec 7, The Kremlin said is
not interested in the allegations made in a recent documentary
because they do not concern the prosecutor general, but his sons.
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his team released
an investigation and a documentary online last week, detailing what
they described as shady deals involving sons of the prosecutor
general and other senior prosecutors.
2015 Dec 7, In Russia five
people were lightly injured when a grenade exploded at a bus stop in
central Moscow. The hand grenade went off on Pokrovka Street, an
area dotted with bars and restaurants.
2015 Dec 7, In Somalia
Abdimalik Jones, an American who had been fighting with al-Shabab,
left the rebels and was arrested by Somalia's security forces in the
southern port of Barawe. Jones claimed he fled al-Shabab because of
rifts within the group.
2015 Dec 7, Syria's government
accused the US-led coalition of launching airstrikes a day earlier
on an army camp in Der el-Zour that killed 3 soldiers and wounded
13, which if confirmed would mark the first time US-led forces have
struck troops loyal to President Bashar Assad. A US military
official said the strike was from a Russian warplane.
(AP, 12/7/15)(SFC, 12/8/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 7, Syrian authorities
released 35 opposition detainees in Homs, ahead of a deal that will
lead to the departure of thousands of opposition fighters.
2015 Dec 7, Eastern Tajikistan
was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. State television said one
person was killed ten were injured.
2015 Dec 7, Thailand's military
government blocked an anti-corruption protest, detaining about three
dozen students and other activists who were headed to a park
honoring past kings that was allegedly built with money from shady
dealings involving several senior officers.
2015 Dec 7, Turkey said it
would not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a
base in northern Iraq, despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them
out within 48 hours.
2015 Dec 7, The UN appealed for
a record $20.1 billion (18.6 billion euros) to provide aid to a
surging number of people hit by conflicts and disasters around the
2015 Dec 8, The United States
and its allies staged 26 air strikes against the Islamic State
militant group in Iraq and Syria.
2015 Dec 8, John Trudell
(b.1946), American Indian activist and poet, died at his home in
Santa Clara County, Ca. In 1969 he was the spokesman for the
American Indians who had occupied Alcatraz.
(SFC, 12/10/15, p.D8)
2015 Dec 8, In Kansas Floyd
Bledsoe (39) was freed after serving more than 15 years of a life
sentence for the 1999 shooting death of his sister-in-law after his
brother confessed in suicide notes that he was the actual killer.
(SFC, 12/9/15, p.A10)
2015 Dec 8, Boston College said
the number of students complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms
after eating at Chipotle has climbed to 80. Chipotle said it thinks
the illnesses are an isolated case of norovirus.
(SFC, 12/9/15, p.A10)
2015 Dec 8, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants stormed the airport complex in
Kandahar city, triggering gunfights and explosions as a regional
conference kicked off in Pakistan with hopes of reviving peace talks
with the insurgents. More than 50 people were reported killed and
dozens more wounded in renewed and ongoing fighting between rival
Taliban factions in Shindand district near the western city of
(AFP, 12/8/15)(Reuters, 12/8/15)
2015 Dec 8, Six Afghan children
drowned after a rubber dinghy carrying migrants to Greece sank off
Turkey's Aegean coast.
2015 Dec 8, In Albania several
thousand opposition supporters scuffled with police during a protest
in central Tirana against government economic reforms that they say
have increased poverty.
2015 Dec 8, Bosnian police
arrested retiree Sakib Mahmuljin (63), a wartime Muslim army
commander, on charges of failing to prevent crimes committed by
foreign Islamic fighters against captive Bosnian Serb soldiers
during a 1992-1995 war.
2015 Dec 8, Britain's National
Crime Agency warned the average age of suspected cyber criminals has
become younger, with investigations in the past year showing that
suspects' average age dropped to just 17 compared to 24 in the
2015 Dec 8, London-based Anglo
American said it will shed 85,000 employees, 63 percent of its
workforce, in a radical restructuring meant to cope with tumbling
2015 Dec 8, Former British spy
chief Richard Barrett said Syria has become the pre-eminent global
incubator for a new generation of militants after Islamist groups
more than doubled their recruitment of foreign fighters to as much
as 31,000 over the past 18 months.
2015 Dec 8, Canadian PM Justin
Trudeau announced an inquiry into why nearly 1,200 indigenous women
have been murdered or gone missing over decades.
2015 Dec 8, Central African
Republic's exiled former president Francois Bozize, who is wanted
for helping foment deadly unrest, was barred from running for
election late this month.
2015 Dec 8, In Chile Douglas
Tompkins (72), the co-founder of The North Face and Esprit clothing
companies, died from severe hypothermia in a kayaking accident. He
had bought up large swaths of land in South America's Patagonia
region to keep them pristine.
2015 Dec 8, In China Half of
Beijing's private cars were ordered off the streets and many
construction sites and schools closed after authorities in Beijing
responded to scathing public criticism with their first-ever red
alert for pollution.
2015 Dec 8, Air France said it
will resume flights to Tehran for the first time in more than seven
years, as part of resuming European trade with Iran following a
hard-fought deal to curb its nuclear activities.
2015 Dec 8, Mahmoud Doaei, the
managing editor of the moderate Ettelaat daily, Iran's oldest
newspaper, was indicted for defying a national reporting ban on
comments and pictures of the country's reformist former president
2015 Dec 8, Iraqi security
forces recaptured a large part of the city of Ramadi from the
Islamic State group.
2015 Dec 8, Israeli troops shot
dead a Palestinian protester while they were carrying out an arrest
raid in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem.
2015 Dec 8, A boat carrying
African migrants sank apparently due to bad weather as they tried to
cross to the Canary Islands. Moroccan authorities recovered the
bodies of 11 African migrants.
2015 Dec 8, Poland's
constitutional crisis deepened, with the president indicating that
he will stick by appointments to the Constitutional Tribunal that
were declared illegal last week by that same court, the nation's
highest arbiter of the law.
2015 Dec 8, Russia said that
recent air strikes against targets in Syria included the new Kalibre
cruise missile from its Rostov-on-Don submarine in the Mediterranean
(SFC, 12/9/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 8, World Chess
Federation (FIDE) president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (53), a Russian
citizen, said he would seek $50 billion from the United States over
his addition to a blacklist for alleged ties to the Syrian regime.
Ilyumzhinov has dismissed the charge, repeatedly telling local media
he has no economic interests in Syria or Iraq.
2015 Dec 8, The Slovak
Parliament amended the constitution to give authorities more powers
to deal with terror suspects following the attacks in Paris.
2015 Dec 8, Syria said it will
export more than 700,000 tons of citrus fruits to Russia to "fill
the gap" left by Moscow's ban on Turkish agricultural products.
2015 Dec 8, The administration
in Ukraine's Kherson region said that Ukraine has restored
electricity to the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
2015 Dec 8, The United Nations
called on Jordan to allow in 12,000 Syrian refugees stranded at the
border in deteriorating humanitarian conditions and offered to help
reinforce security at registration points.
2015 Dec 8, Pope Francis
launched an extraordinary Catholic Jubilee year of mercy by opening
a "Holy Door" in the walls of St Peter's, embracing a 700-year-old
tradition as he urged his Church to reach out to the modern world.
2015 Dec 9, US President Barack
Obama welcomed Israel's Pres. Reuven Rivlin to the White House, with
both sides eager to prevent a deeper crisis between Israel and the
2015 Dec 9, The United States
announced plans to double grant funding it provides to help
developing countries adapt to climate change to around $860 million
2015 Dec 9, The United States
and its allies conducted 23 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Dec 9, Torrential rains
pummeled parts of the Pacific Northwest leaving 2 women dead in
(SFC, 12/10/15, p.A8)
2015 Dec 9, In Afghanistan 38
civilians and 12 members of Afghan security forces were killed in
fighting at the airport in Kandahar as operations ended. 11 Taliban
were also reported killed. Officials said the district of Khanishin
in Helmand province has fallen to the insurgents. 14 policemen were
killed and 11 others wounded.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)(AP, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 9, Armenia said it has
arrested Garik Marutyan (38), a former senior army officer, on
suspicion of spying for Azerbaijan and selling state secrets.
2015 Dec 9, Former Australian
PM Tony Abbott defended his comments suggesting that Western culture
is superior to that of Islam, and called for US-led assistance in
defeating the Islamic State group.
2015 Dec 9, Azerbaijani tanks
shelled positions in the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region for the
first time in more than 20 years killing one rebel soldier.
2015 Dec 9, Azerbaijan released
Leyla Yunus, head of the Baku-based Institute for Peace and
Democracy. She had been held in detention since July 2014.
2015 Dec 9, Brazil's Supreme
Court suspended impeachment proceedings against President Dilma
Rousseff until it can rule on the constitutional validity of the
opposition bid to impeach her.
2015 Dec 9, Bulgaria's Justice
Minister Hristo Ivanov resigned after parliament watered down
changes to the constitution in a vote which he said would prevent
genuine reforms to the country's graft-prone and inefficient
2015 Dec 9, In Burundi at least
7 people were killed in Bujumbura during a night of violence in
flashpoint districts where months of protests took place against
President Pierre Nkurunziza.
2015 Dec 9, China’s government
said it will pay bonuses from Jan. 1 to companies meeting coal
efficiency standards. Beijing residents stayed indoors, schools were
closed and limits on cars, factories and construction sites kept
pollution from spiking even higher.
(Reuters, 12/9/15)(AP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 9, Luzolo Bambi, a
counselor to President Joseph Kabila on graft and money laundering,
said Congo DRC loses up to $15 billion a year due to fraud, an
amount close to twice the central African country's budget.
2015 Dec 9, Anger peaked in
Kinshasa's slums as DR Congo's poor grappled with little more than
bare hands against torrential rains and flooding that have left 31
people dead and 20,000 families homeless in less than three weeks.
2015 Dec 9, French hosts of
195-nation climate rescue talks released a crucial new blueprint,
reporting important progress but some sticking points two days ahead
of the deadline for a UN deal.
2015 Dec 9, A wooden smuggling
boat carrying about 50 people sank in the eastern Aegean Sea. Greek
authorities said at least 12 people drowned, including six children,
and 12 others were missing.
2015 Dec 9, India and Pakistan
announced that they were resuming the dialogue on outstanding
issues, ending a two-year-long stalemate. A regional conference held
in Pakistan ended with calls for the resumption of Afghan peace
negotiations and an agreement by Islamabad and New Delhi to relaunch
bilateral talks that broke down in August over tensions in Kashmir.
(AP, 12/9/15)(SSFC, 12/13/15, p.A25)
2015 Dec 9, Millions of
Indonesians voted in nationwide elections for regional leaders in
the sprawling archipelago.
2015 Dec 9, Iran’s Fars news
reported that a booby trap exploded in Nikshahr, near the border
with Pakistan, killing 3 policemen and wounded an unspecified number
2015 Dec 9, It was reported
that Jamaican activist Maurice Tomlinson has filed a claim in the
country;s Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of 1864
laws that ban sex between men.
(SFC, 12/10/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 9, Japan's space
agency said its "Akatsuki" probe had successfully entered into orbit
around Venus after an initial attempt at reaching the second planet
from the sun failed five years ago.
2015 Dec 9, Kenya and Britain
signed a deal to allow British troops to continue military training
in the East African nation for five more years, ending half a decade
of protracted negotiations which tested their relations.
2015 Dec 9, Myanmar inaugurated
a new stock exchange with plans for six companies to start trading
2015 Dec 9, A Palestinian was
shot dead by security forces after wounding an Israeli soldier and a
civilian when he stabbed them in the occupied West Bank town of
2015 Dec 9, Russia said its air
force flew 82 sorties against 204 targets in Syria in the last 24
2015 Dec 9, South Africa’s
Pres. Jacob Zuma fired respected finance minister Nhlanhla Nene. He
was replaced by David van Rooyen.
(Econ, 12/12/15, p.49)
2015 Dec 9, Switzerland's main
anti-immigration party secured a second seat in the federal
government in a boost for isolationist forces as the country seeks
to redraft treaties with the European Union to include curbs on
2015 Dec 9, Syrian rebels began
evacuating the last opposition-held district in Homs, paving the way
for President Bashar al-Assad's regime to take full control of the
country's third-largest city.
2015 Dec 9, Representatives
from Syria's fragmented opposition began an unprecedented meeting
hosted by Saudi Arabia, seeking a united front for potential talks
with President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
2015 Dec 9, Tajikistan's lower
house of parliament approved a bill that strengthens President
Imomali Rakhmon's grip on power by awarding him the title of "Leader
of the Nation" with lifetime immunity from prosecution.
2015 Dec 9, Turkey said its
fighter jets carried out a new barrage of air strikes against
Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight.
2015 Dec 9, The UN said more
than 170,000 people have fled war-torn Yemen for the Horn of Africa
and the Gulf, as they appealed for $94 million in aid.
2015 Dec 10, The United States
and its allies staged 25 air strikes against the Islamic State
militant group in Iraq and Syria.
2015 Dec 10, The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Fiat Chrysler
will pay a $70 million fine to the US government for its mishandling
of 23 recalls involving 11 million vehicles.
2015 Dec 10, Nevada’s Gov.
Brian Sandoval announced plans to offer $335 million in state tax
incentives and infrastructure upgrades to an upstart, Chinese
investor-backed electric carmaker that wants to build $1 billion
production plant in a Las Vegas suburb.
2015 Dec 10, In Afghanistan a
woman detonated her explosives' vest at a checkpoint in eastern
Nangarhar province, killing her 3 children and an officer who
stopped their suspicious-looking car.
2015 Dec 10, Argentine
President Mauricio Macri was sworn in, inheriting myriad economic
problems from the often-divisive outgoing President Cristina
Fernandez. Inflation was about 25% and the budget deficit was over
6% of GDP.
(AP, 12/10/15)(Econ, 11/28/15, p.31)
2015 Dec 10, Azerbaijan said 3
of its troops have been killed in the past ten days as the conflict
in its separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh escalates.
2015 Dec 10, The Bosnian Serb
regional government said it has stopped all cooperation with the
state court, prosecution office and police because they ordered or
carried out the arrest of five Serb war crimes suspects and raided a
local police station in the Serb republic.
2015 Dec 10, Four tobacco
giants launched a High Court legal challenge against a British law
banning the use of logos or branding on packets of tobacco products
from May 2016.
2015 Dec 10, The first Canadian
government plane carrying Syrian refugees arrived in Toronto late
today where they were greeted by PM Justin Trudeau.
2015 Dec 10, The Asian
Development Bank (ADB) said it has agreed to loan China $430 million
to support government efforts to reduce coal use and tackle the
choking smog that regularly envelops the capital and other major
2015 Dec 10, In Costa Rica the
body of Sondra Lynn was discovered on a bed in a San Jose hotel. She
had organized volunteer medical missions in Central America and was
found stabbed to death. The Vida Volunteer organization identified
her as Sondra Lynn Elizondo and gave her age as 46.
2015 Dec 10, EU lawmakers
backed plans to track airline passenger names as part of efforts to
prevent a repeat of the Paris attacks.
2015 Dec 10, The European
Commission launched an "infringement case" against Hungary over its
asylum legislation, a move Budapest dismissed as an act of revenge
for its rejection of mandatory migrant quotas.
2015 Dec 10, The European
Commission said it has decided to take Poland to court over its
failure to address its poor air quality.
2015 Dec 10, Finnish police
said they have arrested two Iraqi brothers believed to have been
members of the Islamic State group in Iraq and suspected of fatally
shooting "11 unarmed and defenseless prisoners" in June 2014.
2015 Dec 10, German authorities
said five South Koreans have been arrested on suspicion of murder
following the death of a relative in an exorcism ritual attempting
to "expel a demon".
2015 Dec 10, Gabon, home to
half of Africa's endangered forest elephants, said it has impounded
more than 200 kg (440 lbs.) of ivory in what may be its largest
2015 Dec 10, Honduras
midfielder Arnold Peralta was shot to death in the city of La Ceiba.
Peralta (26) was attacked by several men as he got into his car at a
shopping center in his birth city.
2015 Dec 10, Iran’s Health
Minister Hassan Hashemi said an outbreak of H1N1 swine flu has
claimed 42 lives since mid-November.
2015 Dec 10, Iraqi security
forces have made advances on two fronts in the city of Ramadi,
clearing Islamic State militants from a key military command base
and a sprawling neighborhood on its western edge.
2015 Dec 10, A Dutch court
convicted six men of belonging to a network recruiting young Muslims
to join the Islamic State jihadist group, handing them jail terms of
up to six years.
2015 Dec 10, An Israeli
parliamentary committee said that $400,000 of gold was exported to
North Korea after a 2006 UN ban.
2015 Dec 10, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un appeared to claim his country has developed a
hydrogen bomb, a step up from the less powerful atomic bomb, but
outside experts were skeptical.
2015 Dec 10, In Saudi Arabia
opponents of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad agreed to bring
together political and armed factions in a single body in
preparation for possible peace talks with his government. Ahrar
al-Sham pulled out of opposition talks. The group had insisted the
priority should be overthrowing the regime, preserving Syria's unity
and rejecting sectarianism.
(Reuters, 12/10/15)(AFP, 12/10/15)
2015 Dec 10, South Korean
police detained Han Sang-gyun, the president of the Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions, for his alleged involvement in
organizing antigovernment protests that turned violent last month.
Sang-gyun had been holed up in a Buddhist temple for a month.
(SFC, 12/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 10, Preliminary
results said the ruling party in the eastern Caribbean islands of
St. Vincent and the Grenadines has won a narrow election victory
that gives it a fourth term in office. The Unity Labor Party led by
Ralph Gonsalves obtained a one-seat majority in the House of
2015 Dec 10, In northern Syria
the Islamic State staged attacks in the predominantly Kurdish
province of Hassakeh targeting offices of the main Kurdish militia
known as YPG. At least 26 people were reported killed.
2015 Dec 10, In Tajikistan a
Dushanbe district court sentenced a man and a woman, recruited by
the militant group Islamic State, to 10 and eight-and-a-half years
in prison respectively for planning to assassinate President Imomali
2015 Dec 10, A Turkish news
agency said authorities have begun constructing a wall along a 82-km
(50-mile) stretch of Turkey's border with Syria that is under the
control of the Islamic State group on the Syrian side.
2015 Dec 10, The Vatican said
Catholics should not try to convert Jews and should work with them
to fight anti-Semitism.
2015 Dec 10, Venezuela's
outgoing congress promoted a judge who drew international criticism
by handing down a long prison term to opposition leader Leopoldo
Lopez. Lawmakers from the ruling socialist party named Judge Susana
Barreiros as head public defender.
2015 Dec 11, The US and Cuba
announced they have struck a deal to re-established direct mail
service, which was cut in 1963.
(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 11, The United States
and its allies targeted Islamic State with 12 strikes in Iraq and
five in Syria.
2015 Dec 11, In California a
Sky Life air ambulance crashed near McFarland, Kern County, killing
all 4 people aboard.
(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 11, Several big-name
Silicon Valley figures said they have pledged $1 billion to support
a non-profit firm that would focus on the "positive human impact" of
artificial intelligence. Backers of the OpenAI research group
include Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk, Y Combinator's Sam
Altman, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and PayPal cofounder Peter
2015 Dec 11, DuPont and Dow
Chemical said they have agreed to merge. On Dec 29 DuPont CEO Ed
Breen sent a letter to employees saying that some 1,700 Delaware
jobs would be eliminated at the beginning of the new year.
(SFC, 12/12/15, p.D1)(SFC, 12/30/15, p.C1)
2015 Dec 11, It was reported
that Pep Boys agreed to be acquired by Bridgestone for $863 million
in cash after the tires and auto service company sweetened its offer
following a bid from Carl Icahn's investment firm.
2015 Dec 11, In Afghanistan
three Taliban insurgents staged a car bomb attack on a guest house
near the Spanish embassy in Kabul. 7 people were killed in addition
to the 3 attackers.
(Reuters, 12/11/15)(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A2)(AFP,
12/13/15)(SSFC, 12/13/15, p.A7)
2015 Dec 11, Jaguar Land Rover
signed a deal with the Slovak government to build a new plant for
the luxury car maker in Slovakia.
2015 Dec 11, In Burundi gunmen
stormed three military installations before dawn. At least 15 people
were killed as gunfire and explosions rocked the capital. 87 people
were reported killed in the violence.
(AP, 12/11/15)(AP, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 11, Cameroon said a
suicide bomber has killed 7 people and wounded 27 in its Far North
2015 Dec 11, Chinese e-commerce
giant Alibaba said it's buying Hong Kong's leading English-language
newspaper, the South China Morning Post, as part of a plan to create
a global platform for news about China.
2015 Dec 11, China’s business
magazine Caixin reported that police have arrested a former chief of
one of the country’s top investment banks. Xue Rongnian, who headed
Ping An Securities from 2008 to 2011, was arrested on suspicion of
insider trading in connection to two cement businesses.
2015 Dec 11, China’s Fosun
Group said Chairman Guo Guangchang (48), one of the country’s
richest men, was assisting relevent judicial organs with an
investigation. His disappearance a day earlier had forced suspension
of trading in company shares.
(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 11, In Ethiopia at
least 17 people were injured when a grenade was thrown into the main
Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa after Friday prayers.
2015 Dec 11, In France an armed
man robbed the famed Parisian jeweler Chopard, making off with gems
worth around 1 million euros ($1.1 million). The robbery took place
across the street from the Elysee palace.
2015 Dec 11, France detected a
case of the highly pathogenic H5N9 bird flu in the
Pyrenees-Atlantiques region, taking to five the number of regions
affected by the outbreak in the country's southwest.
2015 Dec 11, Gambia's President
Yahya Jammeh declared the formerly secular country an Islamic
republic in a move he said was designed to distance the West African
state further from its colonial past.
2015 Dec 11, Indian officials
investigating the death of a 30-year-old pregnant woman working at a
brick kiln in Telangana state said they had uncovered an organized
racket where hundreds of people were being trafficked and forced to
work in inhumane conditions.
2015 Dec 11, The Israeli army
killed Issa Hroug (55), a Palestinian who it said tried to ram his
car into soldiers near Hebron. Palestinian Oday Ersheid (22) was
shot dead by Israeli forces during a violent demonstration in the
flashpoint West Bank city. Army gunfire in the Gaza Strip killed a
Palestinian (38) and wounded five as Palestinians massed at the
fenced-off border with Israel.
(Reuters, 12/11/15)(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 11, A three-person
crew from the International Space Station landed safely in the snowy
steppes of Kazakhstan.
2015 Dec 11, In Kazakhstan
former PM Serik Akhmetov (2012-2014) was sentenced to 10 years in
prison, the first time a former official of such stature will serve
jail time in the country. Akhmetov (57) was found guilty on four
corruption-related charges including embezzlement and abuse of
power, in a huge case involving more than 20 defendants.
2015 Dec 11, The Mexican
government granted the first permits allowing the cultivation and
possession of marijuana for personal use.
2015 Dec 11, Romanian
prosecutors detained Prince Paul in a case of alleged real estate
fraud involving a top aide to a former prime minister and a
newspaper editor. Prosecutors also ordered businessman Remus Truica,
the former head of Cabinet of ex-Premier Adrian Nastase, be put
under house arrest.
2015 Dec 11, President Vladimir
Putin said that Russia has provided air cover, weapons and supplies
to a leading Western-backed opposition group in Syria and called for
closer coordination with the US-allied coalition.
2015 Dec 11, Russian
investigators charged ex-oil tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail
Khodorkovsky with organizing the 1998 murder of a mayor in Siberia.
Khodorkovsky, who now lives in London, has claimed that the new
probe into the mayor's murder was ordered personally by President
2015 Dec 11, Russia officially
launched its own rating agency as it seeks to counterbalance the
influence of Western agencies which have taken a pessimistic line on
the country's crisis-hit economy.
2015 Dec 11, South Africa
expelled a North Korean diplomat. He was arrested in neighboring
Mozambique in May on charges related to rhino horn smuggling.
2015 Dec 11, Spanish police
said they have seized 40 pallets made out of 1.4 tons of compressed
cocaine that was made to look like wood that arrived on a shipping
container from Colombia. Authorities arrested 12 people in Spain,
Dubai and Britain as part of the operation, including two Colombian
experts in using chemicals to process cocaine into different
2015 Dec 11, Swiss authorities
arrested two people of Syrian origin on suspicion of transporting
"explosives and toxic gases" as part of a probe into a terror
2015 Dec 11, President Tayyip
Erdogan declared he would not bow to Iraqi demands he withdraw
Turkish troops from a camp close to the Islamic State-held city of
Mosul. Baghdad said it would ask the UN Security Council to order
them to leave.
2015 Dec 11, Turkey issued
arrest warrants for US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and 66 others,
pressing President Tayyip Erdogan's campaign to root out the
influence of the former ally he accuses of trying to topple him.
2015 Dec 11, Turkey's state-run
news agency said the country's communications authority has imposed
a 150,000 Turkish Lira (US$51,000) fine on Twitter for failing to
remove content it said praised terror and incited violence.
2015 Dec 12, The Golden State
Warriors lost to the Milwaukee Bucks 108-95 ending a 24-game winning
streak for the Warriors.
(SSFC, 12/13/15, p.B1)
2015 Dec 12, In western
Argentina at least 2 people were killed when a helicopter being used
by film crew with the American television channel MTV crashed into a
2015 Dec 12, Burundi residents
awoke to find at least 39 dead bodies scattered in the streets of
Bujumbura, a day after coordinated armed assaults on three military
installations. 87 people were killed in an escalation of the
violence surrounding the disputed third term of President Pierre
(AFP, 12/12/15)(AP, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 12, China’s state
media reported that the government will loosen some restrictions on
the free movement of workers within the country, long stymied by
registration papers that limit access to critical social services.
2015 Dec 12, In Egypt a Cairo
court convicted two officers for the torture and murder of a
detained lawyer in an eastern Cairo slum. National security officers
Omar Mahmoud and Mohamed el-Anwar were sentenced in absentia to five
years in prison each for beating lawyer Karim Hamdi to death last
2015 Dec 12, French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius presented a landmark global climate accord.
The 31-page draft text creates a system for ensuring countries make
good on voluntary domestic efforts to curb emissions, and provides
billions more dollars to help poor nations cope with the transition
to a greener economy.
2015 Dec 12, In Germany riots
started this evening started after hundreds of leftwing activists
demonstrated against a rally by far-right protesters in Leipzig
earlier in the day. 69 officers have been injured and some 50 police
cars were damaged.
2015 Dec 12, In Germany Ivory
Coast footballer Steve Gohouri (34) went missing. His body found in
the Rhine river on New Year's Eve in the city of Krefeld. Gohouri
was playing this season for German fourth-tier side TSV Steinbach.
2015 Dec 12, India and Japan
signed agreements in New Delhi that could pave the way for Tokyo to
supply New Delhi with military aircraft and high-speed trains, as PM
Shinzo Abe promised to fully support India's efforts to become an
2015 Dec 12, Thousands of
Iraqis protested against Ankara's deployment of troops to a base
near the northern city of Mosul.
2015 Dec 12, In Iraq at least 6
border guards were killed when a suicide bomber drove a truck packed
with explosives into an outpost near the border with Saudi Arabia in
an attack claimed by Islamic State.
2015 Dec 12, Mozambique said
the United States will grant it $1.2 billion in aid to fund projects
in healthcare, food production and education under a five-year
agreement signed this week.
2015 Dec 12, In northern
Nigeria soldiers besieging the home of Ibraheem Zakzaky, the leader
of a Shiite movement accused of trying to assassinate Nigeria's army
chief, shot and killed at least 20 people in Zaria.
(AP, 12/13/15)(AP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 12, The first
high-level talks between North and South Korea since an August
agreement to end an armed confrontation across their border ended in
(Reuters, 12/12/15)(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 12, In Poland tens of
thousands, angered by an ongoing constitutional conflict, marched in
Warsaw. They argued that President Andrzej Duda is breaking the
constitution with the steps he is taking concerning the appointment
of new judges to the Constitutional Tribunal, the top law arbiter.
2015 Dec 12, Russian police
detained dozens of opposition activists who tried to hold a
demonstration in central Moscow on Constitution Day.
2015 Dec 12, In Russia a fire
swept through a home for people with mental illnesses, killing 23
patients and injuring another 23, many of whom were on medication or
otherwise unable to walk in Alferovka, a village in the Voronezh
2015 Dec 12, Saudi women voted
for the first time, in a tentative step towards easing sex
discrimination in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom. Women were
also allowed for the first time to stand as candidates in the polls
for municipal councils, the country's only elected public chambers.
Saudi Arabians voted 17 women into public office in municipal
(AFP, 12/12/15)(Reuters, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 12, Spanish police
arrested Hector Albeidis Arboleda Buitrago, a suspected former
combatant in the Colombian rebel force FARC, who they say carried
out more than 500 forced abortions on female guerrillas.
2015 Dec 12, In Syria a
powerful car bomb exploded near a hospital in the central city of
Homs, killing 16 people and wounding dozens. Most residents belong
to the same Alawite sect as Pres. Assad.
2015 Dec 12, Yemeni officials
said a seven-day ceasefire will start Dec 14, the day before planned
UN-sponsored peace talks in Switzerland. In southern Yemen 9 rebels
and 4 pro-government fighters were killed in clashes late today.
(Reuters, 12/12/15)(AFP, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 13, The United States
and its allies conducted 16 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Dec 13, In Fresno, Ca., 5
people died after a fire broke out in an abandoned home.
(SFC, 12/114/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 13, In Redding, Ca.,
two children were found dead at a storage locker. On Dec 21 Salinas
couple Tami Huntsman (39) and Gonzalo Curiel (17), the custodians of
the children, were charged with murder, child abuse, torture and
(SFC, 12/23/15, p.D5)
2015 Dec 13, Afghan forces
battled to hold Marjah district center in Helmand province that
Taliban insurgents have cut off as part of a months-long campaign in
which they have taken three districts and threatened the regional
2015 Dec 13, In Brazil dozens
of cities staged protests asking Congress to impeach President Dilma
2015 Dec 13, Bulgaria shut its
busy border crossing with Turkey as 14 customs officials were
detained in an anti-corruption raid.
2015 Dec 13, In the Central
African Republic 5 people were killed as heavy weapons fire and
clashes in the Muslim-majority PK-5 district of Bangui. Violence
prevented many from voting in a constitutional referendum seen as a
test of whether national elections can take place later this month.
Final results showed 93% of the citizens voting yes. Turnout was
about 38%. The referendum creates a senate, allows freedom of
worship and prohibits religious fundamentalism.
(AFP, 12/13/15)(AP, 12/13/15)(AFP, 12/14/15)(AP,
12/22/15)(SFC, 12/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 13, Ecuador said it
has signed a pact with Sweden that would allow WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange to be questioned by Swedish authorities at Ecuador's
embassy in London where he has been holed up for more than three
years since facing sexual assault charges.
2015 Dec 13, Amnesty
International said Egypt must immediately release Mazen Mohamed
Abdallah (14), who says he was sexually abused in detention by
police using a wooden stick and bring his alleged torturers to
2015 Dec 13, French voters
flocked to runoff polls in regional elections as the far-right
National Front (FN) looked for a historic win in regional elections.
Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front did not win any region.
(AFP, 12/13/15)(Reuters, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 13, Israeli military
forces shot a Palestinian girl (16) after she allegedly attempted to
stab a pedestrian in the West Bank city of Hebron. The woman was in
(AP, 12/13/15)(AFP, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 13, Western powers
called for a ceasefire in Libya to pave the way for an agreement to
form a national unity government.
2015 Dec 13, In northern
Nigeria Zeenah Ibrahim, the wife of Shiite movement leader Ibraheem
Zakzaky, was shot and killed hours after she called The Associated
Press to report that soldiers were besieging her home in Zaria. On
Aug 1, 2016, a commission of inquiry said that 348 people were
killed in Zaria in three days of clashes, December 12-14, between
Nigerian troops and Zakzaky’s Iranian-inspired Islamic Movement.
(AP, 12/14/15)(AFP, 1/15/16)(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A2)
2015 Dec 13, In Pakistan a bomb
blast killed 24 people at a crowded bazaar in a predominantly Shiite
area of the northwestern Kurram tribal region. Sectarian jihadist
group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the blast at the
Eidgah used-clothes market in Parachinar city.
(AFP, 12/13/15)(Reuters, 12/13/15)
2015 Dec 13, In Poland tens of
thousands of people marched through Warsaw to express support for
the ruling conservatives, as the country remained locked in a
constitutional crisis over the appointment of judges who could help
the government pass its legislative program.
2015 Dec 13, Russia warned
Turkey to stop staging what it called provocations against its
forces in or near Syria after one of its warships fired warning
shots at a Turkish vessel in the Aegean to avoid a collision.
2015 Dec 13, Spanish police
said they have arrested two alleged gun-runners in Barcelona on
suspicion they formed part of a gang involved in selling
high-powered weapons to Mexican drug cartels. The suspects, a
40-year-old Iranian and a 44-year-old Swiss national, were arrested
2015 Dec 13, In Syria rebels
entrenched in an eastern suburb of Damascus fired volleys of mortar
shells into Damascus. 6 civilians died in rebel fire on
government-held areas in and near Damascus. At least 45 civilians
were killed in four Eastern Ghouta towns in air strikes and rocket
fire by pro-regime forces,
(AP, 12/13/15)(Reuters, 12/13/15)(AFP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 13, In Thailand Thanet
Anantawong was arrested for sharing an infographic on Facebook
detailing alleged graft in an army-built park. Plainclothes security
officers took him by force from a hospital while he awaited an
operation. Anantawong was granted bail on Dec 18.
(Reuters, 12/14/15)(Reuters, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 13, In Yemen saudi
coalition warplanes early struck a rebel military convoy between the
strategic Taez province and Lahj, killing 7 people. 12 rebels were
killed when loyalist artillery hit two rebel vehicles near the city
of Damt. Medical and military sources said at least 44 people have
been killed in Saudi-led coalition air raids and fighting between
Yemeni loyalists and rebels ahead of a possible ceasefire.
2015 Dec 14, “Star Wars: The
Force Awakens" premiered in Los Angeles. It opened in US theaters on
Dec 17. Box office revenues crossed the billion-dollar mark in 12
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.25)(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A5)
2015 Dec 14, In Michigan the
mayor of Flint declared a state of emergency, acknowledging that
switches in the city's water sourcing have caused high lead levels
in drinking water. In October, the city switched back to the Detroit
system, but lead levels were still "well above" the acceptable
federal level in many homes.
2015 Dec 14, Lillian Vernon
(b.1927), founder of the Lillian Vernon catalog business, died in
New York. In 1987 Lillian Vernon was the first company owned by a
woman to be listed on the American Stock Exchange.
(SFC, 12/16/15, p.D8)
2015 Dec 14, In Afghanistan 8
family members, including 5 children aged from two months to five
years, were found in the eastern province of Nangahar, each shot
once in the head, apparently by three unknown men who had been
guests of the family.
2015 Dec 14, In northern
Argentina 43 police officers died and several more were injured when
their bus drove off a bridge, plunging into a dry riverbed.
(AFP, 12/14/15)(SFC, 12/14/15, p.A3)
2015 Dec 14, Cameroon security
forces armed with guns and arrows killed two young women wearing
explosive vests in the northern town of Kolofata, the second raid
there in days by suspected Boko Haram militants from neighboring
2015 Dec 14, In the Central
African Republic Maouloud Moussa, a spokesman and chief lieutenant
for rebel leader Noureddine Adam, proclaimed the Republic of Logone
in the town of Kaga-Bandoro. Adam, one of the main leaders of the
Seleka rebel coalition, used intimidation in areas under his control
to block voting on a crucial Dec 13 constitutional referendum. On
Dec 22 Noureddine Adam dropped his opposition to the holding of
(Reuters, 12/15/15)(Reuters, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 14, In the Central
African Republic Maouloud Moussa, a spokesman and chief lieutenant
for rebel leader Noureddine Adam, proclaimed the Republic of Logone
in the town of Kaga-Bandoro. Adam, one of the main leaders of the
Seleka rebel coalition, used intimidation in areas under his control
to block voting on a crucial Dec 13 constitutional referendum.
2015 Dec 14, The Colombian
government and leftist FARC rebels said they have reached a deal on
reparations for war victims and could be near a pact on the terms of
confinement for ex-combatants who would be tried in special
tribunals once a definitive peace agreement is reached.
2015 Dec 14, Ales Vesely (80),
a Czech artist known for his monumental sculptures, was found dead
in his Prague apartment.
2015 Dec 14, The Paris Club of
creditor nations, led by France, announced a deal under which
creditors will cancel $8.5 billion in overdue interest payments in
exchange for a promise by Cuba to pay off $2.6 billion of the
original debt over the next 18 years.
(SFC, 12/114/15, p.A3)
2015 Dec 14, In Iraq gunmen in
Kirkuk shot dead a senior employee of the state-run North Oil
Company (NOC), the third company official to be killed in the past
2015 Dec 14, Israeli-American
violinist Itzhak Perlman was awarded this year's Genesis Prize, the
"Jewish Nobel," for his accomplishments as a musician, teacher and
advocate for the disabled, organizers of the $1 million prize.
2015 Dec 14, Israel detained
Mohammad Abu Sakha (23), a Palestinian circus performer and teacher.
Three months later he was still detained without trial.
2015 Dec 14, In Italy police in
Rome said they had seized 3,500 fake Vatican parchments that were
being sold to unsuspecting pilgrims taking part in Pope Francis'
Holy Year celebrations.
2015 Dec 14, Kosovo’s
opposition lawmakers released tear gas in parliament as they once
again tried to pressure the government into renouncing deals with
Serbia and Montenegro.
2015 Dec 14, Libyan news
agencies said the Islamic State jihadist group has executed a woman
for "witchcraft" and a man accused of spying in its Libyan
2015 Dec 14, Mexican
authorities said illegal taps drilled into government pipelines by
fuel thieves have risen 55% this year reaching almost 500 per month.
(SFC, 12/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 14, Nigerian
prosecutors charged former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki
(60) with corruption. He pleaded innocent to embezzling $2.1 billion
meant to purchase arms to fight Boko Haram, and said some of the
money was diverted on the order of former Pres. Goodluck Jonathan to
try to get himself re-elected.
(AFP, 12/14/15)(AP, 12/14/15)(SFC, 12/15/15,
2015 Dec 14, Palestinian Abed
Almohsin (21) drove a car into Israelis at a Jerusalem bus stop
injuring eight people before being shot dead.
(AFP, 12/14/15)(SFC, 12/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 14, Romanian lawmakers
voted to ban all advertising of prescription drugs and radio and
television advertising of over-the-counter medicines in a bid to
stop what they say is harmful self-diagnosis.
2015 Dec 14, President Vladimir
Putin signed a law allowing Russia’s Constitutional Court to decide
whether or not to implement rulings of international human rights
2015 Dec 14, South Africa's
third finance minister in less than a week reassured the country
that the economy will be steadied, which saw the currency stabilize.
2015 Dec 14, Spanish police
wrapped up an operation in which they seized 3,000 kg (3.3 tons) of
cocaine and arrested 11 people, including Spaniards, Britons and
2015 Dec 14, A Swedish court
sentenced two men to life in prison on terrorism charges over their
role in two "cruel and brutal" murders in Syria in 2013. Hassan
al-Mandlawi (320 and Al-Amin Sultan (30) both Swedish nationals,
were convicted after graphic videos showed them taking part in the
killing of two men in the northern city of Aleppo.
2015 Dec 14, Syrian troops
recaptured Marj al-Sultan and its airport east of Damascus, more
than three years after they were overrun by rebel groups.
2015 Dec 14, In southeastern
Turkey 2 protesters were killed in clashes with police in the mainly
Kurdish city of Diyarbakir amid growing tensions over a days-long
2015 Dec 14, In Tunisia a
lawyer said a court last week sentenced six students to three years
in jail each on charges of homosexuality in a judgment condemned by
2015 Dec 14, Turkey said it
withdrew some of its soldiers from a camp in Iraq, days after Iraq
had demanded that Turkish troops immediately leave its territory.
2015 Dec 14, In Yemen fierce
fighting was underway between forces loyal to the internationally
recognized government and the country's Shiite rebels just hours
before an agreed-on truce was supposed to start at midnight. Saudi
Col. Abdullah Mohammed al-Sahyan and Emirati officer Sultan Mohammed
Ali al-Ketbi were killed in Taiz.
2015 Dec 15, The United States
and its allies staged a fresh round of air strikes against Islamic
State, with six in Syria and 11 in Iraq.
2015 Dec 15, In Arizona a
medical helicopter crashed outside Phoenix killing 2 crew members
and seriously injuring a third.
(SFC, 12/17/15, p.A12)
2015 Dec 15, In Colorado a
storm dropped up to two feet snow in the mountains before hitting
the plains prompting airlines to cancel 425 flights at the Denver
(SFC, 12/16/15, p.A8)
2015 Dec 15, In New Jersey
three men were charged in a computer hacking and spamming scheme
that federal prosecutors said compromised the personal information
of 60 million people and netted more than $2 million in profits.
(SFC, 12/16/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 15, A task force led
by northern Ohio's US Marshal arrested manslaughter convict Ramon
Flores (64) in, San Juan, Puerto Rico. He’s been on the run since
2015 Dec 15, Brazil's federal
police carried out sweeping raids in the homes and offices of top
political figures ensnared in a massive corruption investigation.
2015 Dec 15, British police
arrested a man (21) on hacking-related charges linked to the
November hacking of children’s technology maker VTech, which
compromised the personal information of some 6.4 million children
(SFC, 12/16/15, p.C2)
2015 Dec 15, In China smog in
Shanghai hit its highest level since January, prompting schools to
ban outdoor activities and authorities to limit work at construction
sites and factories as polluted air spreads around the country.
2015 Dec 15, Ethiopia's
government said 5 people had died in weeks of protests sparked by
land grab fears in the country's Oromia region, dismissing
opposition reports of dozens dead and scores arrested.
2015 Dec 15, The EU unveiled
plans for a new border and coast guard agency that can intervene
even without the host country's consent, saying it had to restore
security threatened by the migration crisis.
2015 Dec 15, French police
arrested two men and a woman in connection with deadly Islamist
militant attacks on Paris last month and in January.
2015 Dec 15, The French air
force used its first cruise missiles against Islamic State group
targets. The jets targeted buildings in the Al-Qaim area of western
2015 Dec 15, Thomas Fabius, the
son of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, was taken into
custody as part of a probe into forgery, fraud and money laundering.
2015 Dec 15, France's
competition regulator fined 20 package delivery companies, including
the French operations of FedEx and DHL, a total of 672 million euros
($740 million) for colluding on price increases over a period of six
2015 Dec 15, German Islamist
preacher Sven Lau (35) was arrested for recruiting fighters for a
militant group in Syria and purchasing and delivering military
2015 Dec 15, Iran’s the health
ministry said an outbreak of swine flu has claimed 57 lives since
mid-November. Hundreds of people have been diagnosed with the virus.
2015 Dec 15, Ivory Coast’s
national action plan against child labor (PFTE) said that 23 people
had been brought to trial as part of a bid to cut the number of
children exploited in the cocoa sector by a third by 2017. Some
4,000 child victims of "slavery and exploitation" were removed from
cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast from 2012 to 2014.
2015 Dec 15, Japan-based
SoftBank said SB Energy, a three way joint venture of Japan's
SoftBank Group, Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn Technology Co Ltd,
has won an order to develop a solar plant in India, marking
SoftBank's first foray into renewable energy there.
2015 Dec 15, In Kazakhstan Tim
Peake (43), the first British astronaut to travel to the
International Space Station, blasted off from the Baikonur
cosmodrome with Russian space veteran Yury Malenchenko and Tim Kopra
of NASA for a six-month mission.
2015 Dec 15, Mexican
prosecutors said they have caught the leaders of a drug gang that
stole at least 41,400 gallons (157,000 liters) of fuel from
government pipelines. Two men and a woman arrested last week in
Reynosa with 53 small bags of heroin.
2015 Dec 15, Mongolia’s Oyu
Tolgoi copper and gold mine in the Gobi desert signed a new
financing package worth $4.4 billion. Rio Tinto controlled the mine.
Mongolia’s government held a 34% stake.
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.53)
2015 Dec 15, Nigerian police
opened fire on unarmed Shiite Muslim protesters in the northern city
of Kaduna, leaving 3 dead. Activists accused soldiers of having
killed hundreds of Shiites in "a massacre" in a nearby town in
2015 Dec 15, Philippine troops
clashed with Islamist militants on Basilan Island and 15 rebels and
3 soldiers were killed as security forces step up an offensive
against rebels who beheaded a Malaysian captive.
(Reuters, 12/15/15)(AP, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 15, Typhoon Melor left
wide areas without power as it crossed over the central Philippines.
The category 3 typhoon died out on Dec 17 leaving at least 41 people
(AP, 12/15/15)(Reuters, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 15, Polish geology
experts said they have found no traces of a train at a site
allegedly hiding a World War II Nazi train.
2015 Dec 15, In Romania
thousands of angry shepherds engaged in a tense standoff with riot
police outside the parliament building in protest at a law that
restricts the number of sheepdogs they can use and bans them from
grazing sheep during the winter. The law was introduced by
supporters of hunting, a popular pastime among Romania's elite.
2015 Dec 15, Romanian lawmakers
approved a ban on smoking in public places, one of the last
countries in the European Union to do so.
2015 Dec 15, Saudi Arabia
announced the formation of the military coalition. Saudi Foreign
Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the new "anti-terrorism" military
coalition of 34 Muslim countries would share intelligence and deploy
troops if necessary. The coalition did not include Iran, or Syria
2015 Dec 15, A spokesman for
South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority said the country's
High Commissioner to Australia has been charged with corruption.
Sibusiso Ndebele appeared in a Durban court and was released on $655
2015 Dec 15, In northern Syria
airstrikes on a fuel market in a rebel-held village killed and
wounded dozens and destroyed several tanker trucks. Warplanes also
struck a market in Maskaneh killing at least 18 people.
(AP, 12/15/15)(SFC, 12/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 15, In Thailand
Chayapa Shokpornbudsri (49) was found guilty of defaming the
monarchy on Facebook at a hearing held without her lawyer's
presence. She was handed a 19-year sentence which was cut to 9½
years after she pleaded guilty.
2015 Dec 15, In Turkey 8
Kurdish militants were killed in Cizre after they shot at the
soldiers during an operation. A roadside bomb ripped through an
armored vehicle and killed 3 policemen in the southeastern province
2015 Dec 15, The UN nuclear
watchdog's 35-nation board decided to close its investigation into
whether Iran once had a nuclear weapons program.
2015 Dec 15, The UN Yugoslav
war crimes court quashed the acquittals of two top figures from the
late Slobodan Milosevic's regime, ordering them to be retried on
charges of running Serbian death squads in the 1990s. Judge Fausto
Pocar said former intelligence chief Jovica Stanisic and his deputy
Franko Simatovic must be retried on all counts of the indictment.
2015 Dec 15, In Yemen a
ceasefire took effect as warring sides began UN-brokered peace talks
in Switzerland. Rebel artillery and tanks killed 7 civilians in
residential districts of Taez. The World Health Organization
outlined plans to take advantage of a ceasefire to distribute
medical supplies across the crisis-hit country.
2015 Dec 16, The Obama
administration announced the approval of a $1.83 billion arms deal
2015 Dec 16, The US central
bank raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
Fed officials voted unanimously to raise the key federal funds rate
— the interest banks charge each other overnight — to a range of
0.25 percent to 0.5 percent, up from near-zero for the first time
since December 2008.
2015 Dec 16, The United States
and its allies conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State in
Iraq and Syria.
2015 Dec 16, In Baltimore a
judge declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict in
the trial of Officer William Porter, the first of six defendants in
the Freddie Gray case.
(SFC, 12/17/15, p.A14)
2015 Dec 16, New York announced
a major overhaul in the way solitary confinement is administered in
the state’s prisons as part of a far-reaching legal settlement.
(SFC, 12/17/15, p.A15)
2015 Dec 16, In Oklahoma a man
began firing randomly from a pickup truck and killed 2 people on
I-40. A suspect was arrested the next day following a 25-mile chase.
(SFC, 12/18/15, p.A9)
2015 Dec 16, Total Trib Media
said it is closing the Valley Independent in Monessen and the Daily
News in McKeesport, western Pennsylvania on Dec 31, putting 87
employees out of work.
(SFC, 12/17/15, p.A12)
2015 Dec 16, Austria said two
people were arrested over the weekend at a refugee center in
Salzburg on suspicion of being connected to last month's Paris
2015 Dec 16, Fitch became the
2nd of three big credit-rating agencies to downgrade Brazil’s debt
to junk states. Standard & Poor’s soon followed Fitch. On Dec 18
finance minister Joaquim Levy resigned in despair after a year on
(Econ, 1/2/16, p.7,14)
2015 Dec 16, British lawmakers
voted in favor of the use of fracking to extract shale gas under
national parks, weakening a decision against fracking in national
parks made earlier this year and giving shale gas explorers access
to more resources.
2015 Dec 16, In Cambodia
garment workers in eastern Svay Rieng province went on strike to
boost their monthly wages to $148.
(SFC, 12/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 16, As many as 69
Canadian special forces took part in a 17-hour counteroffensive east
of Mosul. Two CF-18 fighter jets, along with US, British and French
warplanes, launched airstrikes.
2015 Dec 16, In France the wife
of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi accepted the European
Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on his behalf,
urging Arab countries to abandon theocratic diktats and embrace free
2015 Dec 16, Germany introduced
a new police unit that officials said will be better armed,
outfitted and trained to deal with terrorism.
2015 Dec 16, India's top court
ordered a temporary ban on the sale of large diesel cars in New
Delhi to combat toxic smog in the city, prompting concern in the
auto sector as some carmakers say they may reconsider investment
plans in the country.
2015 Dec 16, In India a
maintenance technician was accidentally sucked into an aircraft
engine at an airport in Mumbai.
(SFC, 12/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 16, The World Bank
said it has approved a $1.5 billion loan for a state-led sanitation
program in India, where millions of people have no access to
2015 Dec 16, The embattled
speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives resigned over his
involvement in one of the biggest political scandals in years. Setya
Novanto allegedly sought kickbacks from a giant US-owned gold and
copper mine in exchange for helping it extend its operating
2015 Dec 16, Indonesia deported
49 Taiwanese and one Chinese citizen who were members of a
cross-border telephone and Internet fraud ring.
2015 Dec 16, In southern Iraq
gunmen kidnapped at least 26 Qatari hunters, the second high-profile
abduction of foreigners in the country in three months.
2015 Dec 16, PM Matteo Renzi
said Italy will deploy 450 troops near the front line with Islamic
State militants in Iraq to protect workers carrying out repairs to
the Mosul hydro-electric dam, the country's biggest.
2015 Dec 16, A team of
sanctions monitors said Iran violated a UN Security Council
resolution on October 10 by test-firing a missile capable of
delivering a nuclear warhead.
2015 Dec 16, Japan's Supreme
Court ruled that requiring married couples to have the same surname
is constitutional, dealing a blow to a longtime effort for gender
equality in choosing names.
2015 Dec 16, Jordan said it
plans to deport about 800 Sudanese men, women and children to Sudan,
after troops tore down a makeshift tent camp for the displaced in a
2015 Dec 16, In Kenya al-Shabab
militants attacked a convoy on the Mpeketoni-Lamu road burning
vehicles and driving another police vehicle to Somalia. 2 people
were shot dead, including a police officer, in the coastal Lamu
2015 Dec 16, Nepal's parliament
approved new laws to allow the government to spend billions of
dollars pledged by foreign donors on reconstruction for hundreds of
thousands of people who lost their homes during a devastating
earthquake earlier this year.
2015 Dec 16, Dutch police fired
warning shots and arrested 14 demonstrators when a protest by
hundreds of people against the opening of a refugee center turned
violent, leaving several injured.
2015 Dec 16, North Korea's
Supreme Court sentenced Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim to life in
prison with hard labor for what it called crimes against the
2015 Dec 16, President Vladimir
Putin ordered his government to suspend Russia's free trade zone
with Ukraine from Jan. 1, making good on Moscow's threats to Kiev
which seeks closer ties with the European Union.
2015 Dec 16, Russia said its
air force made 59 sorties in Syria in the past 24 hours and hit 212
Islamic State targets in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Idlib,
Latakia, Hama, Homs, Khaseke and Raqqa.
2015 Dec 16, Sweden said it
would send a transport plane and logistical support to Mali and
other parts of Africa to free up French forces stationed there and
let them join the fight against Islamic State.
2015 Dec 16, Syrian government
forces captured the strategic Noba Mountain, inching closer to a
rebel-held stronghold in the coastal province of Latakia.
2015 Dec 16, Turkey's
ambassador to Qatar said Turkey will establish a military base in
Qatar as part of a defense agreement aimed at helping them confront
2015 Dec 16, Turkish security
forces stepped up operations targeting Kurdish militants in
southeastern towns, as pro-government media detailed plans for a
10,000-strong force to restore state control in the region.
2015 Dec 16, Ukraine accused
Russia of looting two of its oil rigs after Crimea-based oil and gas
firm Chornomornaftogaz moved the equipment off the coast of the
annexed peninsula into Russian waters.
2015 Dec 16, In Yemen clashes
were underway along several front lines, claiming at least 42 lives
and undermining a day-old cease-fire and peace talks between the
internationally recognized government and Shiite rebels taking place
in Switzerland. Saudi-led air strikes hit positions of the
Iran-allied Houthi group in two conflict zones. Warring parties
agreed to exchange hundreds of prisoners in a move aimed at
supporting UN-sponsored peace talks.
(AP, 12/16/15)(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 17, The United States
and Cuba said they have agreed to restore scheduled commercial
airline service between the two countries, the first anniversary of
the Cold War foes' announcement they would normalize relations. The
deal would allow as many as 110 regular flights a day.
(Reuters, 12/17/15)(SFC, 12/18/15, p.A8)
2015 Dec 17, The United States
and its allies conducted 22 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Dec 17, US Defense
Secretary Ashton Carter acknowledged making a "mistake" when he used
his personal email for government business in the early part of his
2015 Dec 17, In Los Angeles the
FBI arrested Enrique Marquez (24) on charges of conspiring with Syed
Rizwan Farook to commit terrorist attacks in 2011 and 2012. Marquez
was also charged with illegally purchasing two assault rifles used
by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, to kill 14 people on Dec 2.
(SFC, 12/18/15, p.A9)
2015 Dec 17, In Louisiana the
New Orleans City Council voted to remove prominent Confederate
monuments along some of its busiest streets.
(SFC, 12/18/15, p.A12)
2015 Dec 17, In Syracuse, NY,
Stephen Howells (40) and girlfriend Nicole Vaisey (26) were
sentenced to 580 years in prison for sexually abusing six children.
(SFC, 12/31/15, p.A12)
2015 Dec 17, In Albania
anti-government protesters pelted police with tomatoes, eggs, and
smoke flares during a rally near parliament. The opposition has
launched a protest campaign against Socialist PM Edi Rama's
government, accusing it of corruption and ineffective leadership.
2015 Dec 17, Argentina's
currency sharply devalued against the US dollar as the new
administration lifted deeply unpopular limits on the buying of
2015 Dec 17, Austria’s Univ. of
Salzburg said it has posthumously stripped 1973 Nobel Prize-winning
scientist Konrad Lorenz of his honorary doctorate due to his fervent
embrace of Nazism.
2015 Dec 17, Brazil's Supreme
Court ordered the release of billionaire financier André Esteves,
who has been in jail since Nov. 25 on suspicion he sought to
obstruct a corruption investigation.
2015 Dec 17, The popular
WhatsApp smartphone messaging application came back to life in
Brazil as a court threw out a two-day suspension that had infuriated
millions of users. A judge had suspended it because the
Facebook-owned service failed to disclose information requested by
prosecutors as part of a criminal investigation.
2015 Dec 17, British Judges
upheld a ruling that Britain's Mirror Group Newspapers must pay
record damages to phone-hacking victims, saying the papers' staff
engaged in "disgraceful conduct."
2015 Dec 17, Britain cut more
renewable energy subsidies, putting jobs at risk and drawing
criticism for losing credibility in tackling climate change.
2015 Dec 17, A Quebec court
upheld Canada's first assisted dying law, ruling against doctors who
argued it conflicts with federal criminal law an could see doctors
jailed for helping someone die.
2015 Dec 17, China’s
environment ministry said police have detained 10 company officials
for fabricating pollution data, as the government steps up
inspections of businesses amid growing public discontent over
2015 Dec 17, China's biggest
airline said it is buying more than a hundred Boeing 737 jets in a
deal worth about $10 billion that comes just months after the US
plane maker announced plans to build a Chinese finishing plant for
the aircraft type.
2015 Dec 17, The Danish cargo
ship Thorco Cloud collided with the chemical tanker Stolt Commitment
and sank off western Indonesia. Six Filipino crewmen were missing.
2015 Dec 17, A legal source
said International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde has
been ordered to stand trial over her handling of a massive state
payout to French tycoon Bernard Tapie during her time as finance
2015 Dec 17, In Hong Kong the
film “Ten Years" was released. Its five vignettes portrayed how
China has explicitly or overtly taken control of Hong Kong, where
autonomy had been guaranteed for 50 years in 1997.
(Econ, 3/5/15, p.42)
2015 Dec 17, Indian defense
ministry sources said the Defense Acquisition Council has cleared
the purchase of five S-400 air defense systems from Russia.
2015 Dec 17, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu signed a major natural gas deal with a
consortium, that includes US firm Noble Energy, aimed at tapping
large deposits in the Mediterranean, but a court challenge was
expected over the contentious agreement.
2015 Dec 17, Israel's most
famous model Bar Refaeli (30) was arrested and questioned for
allegedly evading taxes on millions of dollars of income from abroad
by lying about her residency.
2015 Dec 17, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed a Palestinian in the West Bank after he charged at
them with a knife.
2015 Dec 17, In Mali a gunman
killed 3 people outside a Christian radio station in the city of
Timbuktu. Radio host Joel Dicko, a local contractor with the UN and
a student were killed. Authorities later arrested two people in
connection with the shooting.
(AFP, 12/18/15)(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 17, Montenegro police
detained Svetozar Marovic (60), who served as president of
Serbia-Montenegro before Montenegro split from the union in 2006, on
suspicion of abuse of power and embezzlement of millions of euros.
2015 Dec 17, In the Moroccan
coastal town of Skhirat delegates from Libya's warring factions
signed a UN-brokered agreement to form the Government of National
Accord (GNA), a deal that Western powers hope will bring stability
and help fight a growing Islamic State presence.
(Reuters, 12/17/15)(Econ, 4/9/15, p.47)
2015 Dec 17, Niger's President
Mahamadou Issoufou said several arrests had been made in the army
ranks and of a former chief of staff because of a coup attempt.
2015 Dec 17, In Nigeria
insurgents killed 14 people, some of whom were decapitated, when
they raided Kamuya village.
2015 Dec 17, Rwandans abroad
voted in a referendum to amend the constitution allowing President
Paul Kagame to rule until 2034, a day ahead of the main vote inside
2015 Dec 17, Residents in the
Indian Ocean archipelago of the Seychelles voted on the second day
of three days of polls. Incumbent president James Michel (71) faced
the first serious challenge to his decade-long rule. President James
Michel won a third term in power by the narrowest of margins of just
(AFP, 12/17/15)(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 17, National Electric
Vehicle Sweden, the electric vehicle company born out of the ashes
of Swedish automaker Saab, said it has inked a $12 billion deal with
Chinese leasing firm Panda New Energy Co.
2015 Dec 17, The Syrian
opposition hosted by Saudi Arabia elected former PM Riad Hijab as a
coordinator of a body that is expected to lead future peace talks.
2015 Dec 17, Tanzania sentenced
four Chinese men to 20 years in jail each after they were convicted
of smuggling rhino horns.
2015 Dec 17, Turkey said its
security forces have killed 25 Kurdish militants this week as they
battle suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) in the two flashpoint towns of Cizre and Silopi.
2015 Dec 17, Finance ministers
from the 15 UN Security Council nations adopted a plan aimed at
disrupting outside revenue that the Islamic State extremist group
gets from oil and antiquities sales, ransom payments and other
2015 Dec 17, The UN Security
Council's Central African Republic (CAR) sanctions committee added
Haroun Gaye and Eugene Barret Ngaikosset to a UN blacklist for
attempting to undermine the transitional government. They are now
subject to an international travel ban and assets freeze.
2015 Dec 17, Participants at
Yemeni peace talks hosted by the United Nations in Switzerland
agreed on the full resumption of humanitarian aid to the city of
2015 Dec 18, The United States
and its allies staged 20 strikes against Islamic State militants in
Iraq and Syria, including one near the Iraqi city of Fallujah that
is being investigated as a possible friendly fire incident. The
Iraqi Defense Ministry said an Iraqi officer was killed and nine
injured by a coalition air strike near Amariyat al-Fallujah.
(Reuters, 12/19/15)(SFC, 12/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 18, The US Congress
passed a bill barring citizens from 38 mainly European countries
from traveling to the United States without a visa if they have
previously visited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan since 2011.
2015 Dec 18, The US Senate
approved a bill that would phase out the use of plastic microbeads
starting in 2017. The House approved the bill a week earlier.
(SFC, 12/19/15, p.A8)
2015 Dec 18, In NYC some 20
foreign ministers gathered for the latest conference on Syria's
civil war. The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution
endorsing an international road map for a Syria peace process, a
rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed
more than a quarter million lives.
(AP, 12/18/15)(Reuters, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 18, The United States
government announced $88 million to help feed hungry people in
drought-stricken areas of Ethiopia, bringing the total amount of
humanitarian aid to the country in 2015 to more than $435 million.
2015 Dec 18, In NYC some 20
foreign ministers gathered for the latest conference on Syria's
civil war, hopeful about arranging a cease-fire and launching peace
negotiations in the new year.
2015 Dec 18, Martin Shkreli
(32), the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, resigned from Turing after
being arrested on unrelated charges of securities fraud at a hedge
fund. On Dec 21 biotech firm KaloBios announced that Shkreli had
been terminated as its CEO.
(SFC, 12/19/15, p.D1)(SFC, 12/22/15, p.D1)
2015 Dec 18, Afghan forces
drove Taliban militants out of the center of a district in the
southern province of Helmand, as they fought back against insurgents
who have threatened a series of districts over recent months.
2015 Dec 18, The African Union
said it will send a 5,000 strong force to stop violence in troubled
Burundi, giving Bujumbura a four-day deadline to agree but warning
it would send troops anyway.
2015 Dec 18, In Bangladesh at
least six naval personnel were seriously wounded in explosions at
the end of prayers at a mosque inside a naval base in Chittagong.
Two people were arrested and police said they had confessed to being
members of banned militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh.
2015 Dec 18, A judge in
Brazil's state of Minas Gerais froze the Brazilian assets of mining
giants BHP Billiton and Vale SA after determining their joint
venture Samarco was unable to pay for damage caused by the bursting
of a dam at its mine last month.
2015 Dec 18, Britain's
Kellingley Colliery in Yorkshire, the country’s last deep coal mine,
2015 Dec 18, China's capital
Beijing issued its second smog red alert of the month on Friday,
triggering vehicle restrictions and forcing schools to close.
2015 Dec 18, Costa Rica
partially pulled out of SICA, a regional body promoting Central
American cooperation, after neighboring nations refused to help
handle a growing Cuban migrant crisis. Costa Rica said it will
suspend visas to Cuban migrants trying to head north to the US after
yet another failure to broker a deal with neighbors.
(AFP, 12/19/15)(AP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 18, Cuban President
Raul Castro urged the US government to halt radio and television
broadcasts aimed at the island and other programs that Cuba
2015 Dec 18, EU leaders in
Brussels pledged an uncompromising fight against terrorism and
called for wide-ranging countermeasures including beefed-up
immigration controls and a crackdown on illicit weapons trafficking.
(SFC, 12/19/15, p.A5)
2015 Dec 18, French livery
drivers protested a drop in their rates, again striking out against
what they say an unfair decision by Uber and other companies to
drive down their earnings.
2015 Dec 18, In Haiti several
government buildings were set ablaze in scattered sections of the
country and one demonstrator was killed in violent protests ignited
by the release of final legislative election results.
2015 Dec 18, Japan executed two
people by hanging, including one who was convicted in a jury trial
for the first time under a new system that began six years ago.
2015 Dec 18, Mali officials
said a gunman killed 3 people outside a Christian radio station in
the city of Timbuktu overnight.
2015 Dec 18, A Mexican
environmentalist said studies have found that illegal loggers
clear-cut at least 24 acres (10 hectares) in the monarch
butterflies' wintering grounds in central Mexico this year.
2015 Dec 18, NATO and US
officials certified an anti-missile defense site in southern Romania
that is scheduled to become operational next year.
2015 Dec 18, A Dutch appeals
court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell may be held liable for oil spills
at its subsidiary in Nigeria, potentially opening the way for other
compensation claims against multinationals in the Niger Delta and
2015 Dec 18, Pakistan's army
said it has killed 23 suspected militants in early morning strikes
in Shawal valley in North Waziristan and in the Khyber tribal
2015 Dec 18, Two Palestinian
drivers tried but failed to run down Israeli security forces in the
occupied West Bank, with one attacker shot dead and the other
wounded. Troops later shot dead Nashat Asfour (33) in clashes at
Sinjil village northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
2015 Dec 18, Rwandans voted in
a referendum to decide if President Paul Kagame should be allowed to
extend his time in power. More than 98% from 21 out of 30 districts,
representing 70% of registered voters, voted to lift term limits for
2015 Dec 18, Turkish security
forces pressed on with a relentless operation to root out Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) rebels from two urban centers in the troubled
southeast that has left at least 55 militants dead and angered
2015 Dec 18, A Turkish
government official said authorities at Istanbul's main airport have
detained two people suspected of attempting to smuggle 148 blank
European passports concealed in pizza-making equipment.
2015 Dec 18, Ukraine PM Arseny
Yatseniuk said the government has imposed a moratorium on the
repayment of a $3 billion Eurobond held entirely by Russia, after
Moscow refused to accept the terms of a restructuring of the debt.
2015 Dec 18, Yemeni troops
loyal to Pres. Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi gained control of Al-Hazm,
capital of the northwestern al-Jawf province. Peace talks in
Switzerland were halted after the country's Shiite Houthi rebel
delegation suspended all meetings.
(Reuters, 12/18/15)(AP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, In California 5
people died when their single-engine plane crashed south of
(SFC, 12/21/15, p.C2)
2015 Dec 19, In Connecticut
German conductor Kurt Masur (b.1927) died. He is credited with
helping prevent violence after the collapse of communism in East
Germany and later reinvigorated the New York Philharmonic during an
11-year stint as music director.
2015 Dec 19, An off-duty
Baltimore policeman shot and killed a man he says appeared to be
holding him at gunpoint in the suburbs of Linthicum Heights.
Detectives surveyed the crime scene and realized the would-be robber
was wielding a toy gun.
2015 Dec 19, The leaders of
Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Switzerland to discuss their
long-running dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
2015 Dec 19, In Canada Dennis
Oland (47), the son of a wealthy Canadian brewer, was found guilty
of murdering his father following a long and sensational trial in
the eastern province of New Brunswick. Richard Oland (69), part of
the family that owns Moosehead Breweries, was found dead in a pool
of blood in his office on July 7, 2011.
2015 Dec 19, Ten of Chile's
airports remained closed as striking workers tied to the civil
aviation authority and officials failed to reach an agreement.
2015 Dec 19, Beijing was
enveloped in eye-watering, throat-irritating smog as the second red
alert of the month went into effect.
2015 Dec 19, In China Spain's
Mireia Lalaguna Royo (23) was named the winner of the Miss World
2015 competition in the southern island resort of Sanya.
2015 Dec 19, Human Rights Watch
said at least 75 people have been killed during weeks of protests in
Ethiopia, which have seen soldiers and police firing on
demonstrators protesting a government plan to incorporate some rural
areas into the capital city, Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 12/19/15)(SFC, 12/24/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 19, In France an
attack plot targeting representatives of state forces was foiled and
two men were arrested in the region of Orleans, southwest of Paris.
2015 Dec 19, In Iran residents
of Tehran were warned to stay at home as a thick smog of pollution
hung in the air.
2015 Dec 19, An Israeli air
strike killed Samir Qantar, a Hezbollah militant leader, in
Damascus. Kantar, a Lebanese who was convicted of carrying out one
of the most notorious attacks in Israeli history, had spent nearly
three decades in an Israeli prison.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)(AP, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 19, In Japan about 20
anti-Christmas protesters calling themselves "Losers with Women"
marched through Tokyo's streets, bashing the upcoming holiday as a
capitalist ploy that also discriminates against singletons.
2015 Dec 19, Libyan medical
sources said at least 14 people have been killed and 25 wounded
during clashes between armed groups loyal to official government and
Islamist groups. The fighting had erupted Dec 17 and was ongoing in
the eastern town of Ajdabiya.
2015 Dec 19, Niger said nine
military officers involved in allegedly planning an attempted coup
have been arrested and will face a military tribunal.
2015 Dec 19, Nigeria said its
military has commuted the death sentences handed to 66 soldiers for
mutiny over claims they refused to fight Boko Haram Islamists.
Instead, each soldier will serve a 10-year prison term.
2015 Dec 19, In Nigeria Boko
Haram gunmen launched a dawn raid on Buratai, Borno state, the
hometown of the army chief, triggering a fierce gunbattle with
2015 Dec 19, In Norway a man
was killed when an avalanche hit the town of Longyearbyen, the
biggest settlement on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The
avalanche engulfed about 10 houses in the town, which has some 2,000
2015 Dec 19, A Palestinian man
(20) stabbed three Israelis in the central city of Raanana,
seriously wounding one of them, before being shot and then arrested
by Israeli security forces.
2015 Dec 19, In the Philippines
heavy rains pummeled the entire country, flooding more areas as the
government declared a "state of national calamity".
2015 Dec 19, In Poland
thousands of people took part in demonstrations across the country
to protest moves by the new right-wing government to neutralize the
Constitutional Tribunal as a check on its power.
2015 Dec 19, Polish police
seized a record amount of cocaine worth around $27 million that
arrived via Belgium in a shipment of bananas from Colombia.
2015 Dec 19, In Saudi Arabia
shelling from Yemen killed a Saudi citizen and two Indian workers.
2015 Dec 19, In Somalia a gun
attack on a government official in Mogadishu was followed shortly
afterwards by a car bombing that left at least 4 people killed and
2015 Dec 19, Karin Soder (87),
Sweden’s first female foreign minister (1976-1978) and party leader
(1985-1987), died in Stockholm.
2015 Dec 19, Turkey said 69
Kurdish insurgents and two Turkish soldiers have been killed in four
days of fighting across the southeast as security forces ramp up
operations against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
2015 Dec 19, Turkey said it
would "continue" to pull its troops out of northern Iraq after US
President Barack Obama urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to do so
in order to de-escalate tensions with Baghdad over the deployment.
2015 Dec 19, Turkish media
reported that 18 people drowned overnight when their boat sank in
the Aegean Sea as it was heading for the Greek island of Kalymnos.
2015 Dec 19, Yemeni negotiators
in Switzerland taking part in UN-sponsored peace talks agreed to
form a committee to oversee a fragile ceasefire after fresh fighting
imperiled their efforts to end Yemen's civil war. Yemeni security
officials said clashes in Hajjah Province near the Saudi border
between rebel-allied units and pro-government Yemeni forces have
killed more than 75 over the past three days.
(Reuters, 12/19/15)(AP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, The United States
and its allies conducted 15 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Dec 20, In Nevada Lakeisha
Holloway, with a toddler in her car, swerved multiple times onto a
busy sidewalk on the Las Vegas Strip, leaving one dead and 30
2015 Dec 20, In Nevada
Colombian contestant Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo was already wearing
this year's Miss Universe crown when host Steve Harvey returned to
announce on live television that he had mistakenly read from a cue
card, and that Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, the contestant from the
Philippines, was actually this year's winner.
(AP, 12/21/15)(SFC, 12/22/15, p.E6)
2015 Dec 20, In Afghanistan the
deputy governor of Helmand said the province could fall to the
Taliban after months of heavy fighting, with 90 members of the
security forces killed over the past two days.
2015 Dec 20, Burundi's
government said it would not agree to the deployment of African
Union peacekeepers, warning that they would be seen as an invasion
2015 Dec 20, Cameroonian troops
killed at least 70 residents while chasing Islamic insurgents in the
Gwoza area of Borno state in northeastern Nigeria.
2015 Dec 20, In southern China
a landslide swept through an industrial park and triggered a gas
explosion in the city of Shenzhen. 33 buildings were buried in a sea
of mud. 76 people were left missing. Migrant worker Tian Zeming was
pulled out alive on Dec 23 after he was buried for more than 60
hours. On Jan 9 charges were brought against 16 people who owned or
helped operated the landfill. On Jan 18 state media said a dozen
government officials were charged in the tragedy that left at least
69 dead and eight people missing. In July, 2016, 53 people were
detained for the tragedy that left 73 people dead.
(AFP, 12/20/15)(AP, 12/21/15)(AP, 12/22/15)(AP,
12/23/15)(SFC, 1/19/16, p.A3)(Reuters, 7/15/16)
2015 Dec 20, Rescuers pulled
out 39 survivors and three dead from the Marina Baru 2B passenger
boat that sank in central Indonesia. By Dec 24 the death toll stood
at 63 as more bodies were recovered leaving 15 still missing.
(AP, 12/20/15)(Reuters, 12/22/15)(AP, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 20, Iranian
authorities closed all schools and kindergartens in the capital for
two days beginning today, saying air pollution had reached dangerous
2015 Dec 20, Iraqi military
planes dropped leaflets on Ramadi, asking residents to leave within
72 hours the western city which is under the control of Islamic
2015 Dec 20, Three rockets
fired from Lebanon landed in Israel. No injuries or damage were
2015 Dec 20, French forces in
Mali killed about 10 extremists over the last 24 hours and recovered
arms and explosives after heavy fighting in the country's north.
2015 Dec 20, Police in southern
Nepal opened fire on ethnic Madhesi protesters who were attempting
to attack a police station, killing one. Ethnic Madhesis have been
protesting for months against a new constitution, which they say
unfairly divides the country into seven states with borders that cut
through their ancestral homeland.
2015 Dec 20, In Nigeria 3 young
suicide bombers set off explosions that killed six others and
injured at least 24 people in Benisheikh, northeastern Borno state.
A military spokesman said troops have killed 12 Boko Haram fighters
and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition from the hardline
Islamist group whose six-year insurgency has claimed thousands of
(AP, 12/21/15)(AFP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 20, A Palestinian
woman tried to stab Israeli soldiers in the flashpoint West Bank
city of Hebron before she was shot and arrested.
2015 Dec 20, A Philippine army
commander said troops killed 26 Abu Sayyaf gunmen and possibly a
Malaysian militant in a weeklong counterterrorism offensive on
Basilan Island that ended today with the capture of a major jungle
training camp where bombs and bomb-making components were found.
2015 Dec 20, Slovenians held a
referendum on whether to allow same-sex marriage and become the
first former communist nation in Europe to do so. More than 60
percent of the voters opposed the measure in a referendum marked by
(AP, 12/20/15)(AFP, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 20, Spain held general
elections. Neither outgoing PM Mariano Rajoy's PP conservatives nor
left-wing parties won a clear mandate to govern. Two newcomers -
leftist anti-austerity Podemos ("We can") and liberal Ciudadanos
("Citizens") - entered the mainstream for the first time in the
parliamentary vote. The country faced weeks of uncertainty that cast
doubt on the durability of its flagship economic reforms and
unnerved financial markets
(AP, 12/20/15)(Reuters, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 20, Spanish
firefighters battled around 100 wildfires in the northwestern
Asturias region, as flames fed by strong winds forced the closure of
roads and a rail line.
2015 Dec 20, The Syrian army
with the backing of Russian air power said it had seized the rebel
held town of Khan Touman in southern Aleppo. In northwest Syria air
strikes believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes
killed 58 people in the center of the rebel-held city of Idlib. At
least 10 people were wounded in an explosion that hit a military bus
in the Mazzeh residential district of western Damascus.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)(AFP, 12/20/15)(AFP, 12/23/15)
2015 Dec 20, In northern
Thailand 12 Malaysian tourists and a Thai guide were killed after
their bus crashed in the Doi Saket district, near the city of Chiang
2015 Dec 20, In southeastern
Turkey armed clashes persisted, where an operation by Turkish forces
intensified on the sixth day of a campaign that security sources
said had resulted in the death of 110 Kurdish militants. Turkish
police fired tear gas to disperse several hundred protesters in
Istanbul's main Taksim square demonstrating against security
operations and curfews in the southeast.
2015 Dec 20, Yemeni peace talks
concluded in Switzerland without an agreement to end nine months of
civil war and foreign intervention. Rival factions will resume
negotiations on Jan 14.
2015 Dec 21, The Obama
administration announced a move to make it harder for American
big-game hunters to bring a lion head or hide into the country.
(SFC, 12/22/15, p.A7)
2015 Dec 21, At Cape Canaveral,
Florida, SpaceX successfully landed its powerful Falcon 9 rocket for
the first time, a major milestone in the drive to cut costs and
waste by making rockets as reusable as airplanes.
2015 Dec 21, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber attacked a joint NATO-Afghan patrol near Bagram air
base killing 6 NATO service members, all Americans.
(Reuters, 12/21/15)(Reuters, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 21, Austria's Vice
Chancellor said that Austria could not accept much more than the
roughly 100,000 asylum seekers it expects to receive this year.
2015 Dec 21, Azerbaijan let its
currency float freely, leading to its sharp depreciation as global
oil prices hit new lows. Following the move, the manat fell by 32
2015 Dec 21, Burkina Faso said
it has issued an international warrant for ousted leader Blaise
Compaore, who is living in exile in the Ivory Coast, for his
suspected role in the 1987 killing of his former comrade,
ex-president Thomas Sankara.
2015 Dec 21, Cambodian police
made dozens of arrests and used water cannon to break up a strike by
garment workers protesting over low pay.
2015 Dec 21, China's top
prosecutor said prosecutors in eastern Shandong province filed a
lawsuit last week against a county-level environmental protection
department, accusing it of "failing to fulfil its regulatory duties"
in its supervision of a local sewage firm. This marked the first
time prosecutors had sued a government department in a public
2015 Dec 21, China’s government
said it ordered 2,100 factories to suspend or reduce production as
part of its "red alert" measures to deal with smog in Beijing.
2015 Dec 21, The Central Bank
of Cyprus revoked the operating license for the local branch of
Tanzania's FBME Bank Ltd. In July the US Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network, or FinCen, concluded that FBME was used by
customers involved in money laundering, fraud and terrorist
2015 Dec 21, In Djibouti at
least 7 civilians were killed and scores of people wounded in
clashes when police broke up a traditional religious ceremony in
Buldhoqo district. The opposition Union for National Salvation (USN)
party claimed 19 people died.
2015 Dec 21, The EU extended
sanctions against Russia for six months for fueling the separatist
war in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea.
(SFC, 12/22/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 21, Japan’s
scandal-plagued manufacturer Toshiba Corp. said it is cutting 6,800
jobs after projecting a net loss of 550 billion yen ($4.5 billion)
for the fiscal year through March 2016.
2015 Dec 21, The unmanned
Progress cargo spacecraft blasted off from Russia's space launch
complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a journey to the International
2015 Dec 21, In Kenya witnesses
said 2 people died in the attacks in northern Mandera County when
gunmen believed to be Somalia's al-Shabab rebels shot at a bus and
truck headed for Mandera town.
2015 Dec 21, Two migrants
trying to reach Europe by boat drowned off Libya, another 10 were
missing and more than 100 were rescued by the Libyan coastguard.
2015 Dec 21, Mali's government
announced a state of emergency that will last for 10 days through
2015 Dec 21, Panama’s Supreme
Court ordered the detention of Pres. Ricardo Martinelli for
allegedly intercepting communications of at least 150 people during
his 2009-2014 administration. Martinelli said he would stay outside
the country while fighting the charges.
(SFC, 12/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 21, In Poland a
chemist was convicted of a bomb plot against parliament and other
government buildings, and he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Brunon Kwiecien, an agricultural university teacher in Krakow, was
arrested in 2012 in a much publicized case in which prosecutors said
a "terrorist" attack was foiled.
2015 Dec 21, Saudi Arabia
intercepted multiple missiles fired before dawn by Houthi rebels
from Yemen towards its southern border region.
(AFP, 12/21/15)(SFC, 12/22/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 21, In Saudi Arabia
journalist Zuhair Kutbi was found guilty of inciting public opinion,
fomenting sedition, defaming state institutions and harming the
government’s prestige. He was sentenced to four years in prison with
two years suspended.
(SFC, 12/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 21, Sweden's
state-owned railway operator SJ said it would halt its passenger
services to and from Denmark because it was unable to carry out the
identity checks demanded by the government to stem an influx of
2015 Dec 21, Thailand's
government said it is not ignoring the slavery and forced labor in
its lucrative shrimp industry.
2015 Dec 21, Ugandan police
arrested 20 supporters and security guards at the headquarters of an
opposition candidate vying to end the nearly 30-year rule of
President Yoweri Museveni in elections next February.
2015 Dec 22, Clarence Moses-El
(60), who spent 28 years in prison after being convicted of a rape
he says he didn’t commit, was released from the Denver County Jail
on bond after a judge threw out the guilty verdict in the case.
2015 Dec 22, In Afghanistan
British military advisers were deployed to the Helmand region.
Military planes dropped supplies to besieged Afghan forces in Sangin
after Taliban insurgents captured large swathes of the opium-growing
2015 Dec 22, Belgium police
detained a 9th man, identified as Abdoullah C. (30), in connection
with the Nov 13 attacks in Paris.
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A3)
2015 Dec 22, Burundi's
government rejected a proposed African Union peacekeeping mission
already dubbed an "invasion force" by parliament.
2015 Dec 22, An Egyptian
military court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie to
10 years in prison over deadly clashes following the 2013 ouster of
Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
2015 Dec 22, Greece's
parliament approved a resolution calling on the government to
recognize the state of Palestine.
2015 Dec 22, India passed
legislation lowering the age at which someone can be tried for rape
and other crimes to 16, spurred into action by an uproar over the
release of a minor convicted in a 2012 fatal gang rape of a
23-year-old woman on a Delhi bus.
2015 Dec 22, India’s media
reported that Alam Khan, the son of an murder victim, has confessed
to stabbing his father's killer to death and chopping his body into
12 pieces, one for every year since his father was slain.
2015 Dec 22, A small Indian
paramilitary plane crashed just outside New Delhi's main airport,
killing all 10 people on board.
2015 Dec 22, Indonesia’s
Forestry Ministry's investigations director said the government has
punished 23 companies for causing forest fires that spread thick,
smoky haze around Southeast Asia.
2015 Dec 22, Iraq's armed
forces stormed the center of Ramadi, in a drive to dislodge Islamic
State militants from their remaining stronghold in a city they
captured in May.
2015 Dec 22, The Italian
coastguard more than 650 people have been plucked to safety in the
Mediterranean and one body recovered.
2015 Dec 22, Malawi’s justice
minister said the government it will not arrest or prosecute gay
citizens while lawmakers review existing anti-gay laws.
2015 Dec 22, In Nepal a group
of ethnic protesters rejected a proposal from the government to end
months of conflict that has resulted in shortages of fuel and other
supplies and the deaths of 50 people. The group said the proposal
does not address their concerns and that the government was not
serious about their demands.
2015 Dec 22, Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu agreed in a phone
call to coordinate their two countries' actions to fight terrorism
in the Middle East.
2015 Dec 22, An appeals court
in Saudi Arabia commuted a sentence of death by stoning for a Sri
Lankan maid convicted of adultery. The sentence was commuted to
three years in prison.
2015 Dec 22, In Spain the
Madrid city council announced it would rename 30 streets that pay
tribute to heroes of Francisco Franco's brutal dictatorship.
2015 Dec 22, In Syria Islamic
State group jihadists killed 9 students when they shelled a school
in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.
2015 Dec 22, Tanzanian
authorities said they have seized tusks from about 45 elephants and
arrested two suspects at their home in Dar es Salaam.
2015 Dec 22, Tunisia extended
for another two months a state of emergency imposed after a deadly
November bus bombing claimed by the Islamic State group.
2015 Dec 22, Turkish tanks
pounded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Cizre. The army
said it has killed 127 Kurdish militants in a week.
2015 Dec 22, Turkish police
killed two female "terrorists" in a pre-dawn raid on a cell of
suspected militants in Istanbul.
2015 Dec 22, Eleven migrants
bound for EU member Greece, including 3 children, drowned off the
2015 Dec 22, Uruguayan
authorities said flooding caused by heavy rains has killed at least
two people and forced nearly 1,000 from their homes.
2015 Dec 22, Yemeni officials
said a Saudi-led coalition has launched more than a dozen airstrikes
against anti-government rebels in Taiz province, killing at least
2015 Dec 22, In Yemen
unidentified gunmen shot dead resistance leader Jalal al-Awbali in
the Dar Saad district of northern Aden.
2015 Dec 22, Most of Zambia was
plunged into darkness following a problem in the network. Power was
restored around midnight after an about five-hour outage.
2015 Dec 23, The US Department
of Justice announced that Puerto Rico will spend $77 million to
upgrade its water infrastructure in a settlement with the federal
government. Storm water systems in San Juan were currently
releasing, daily, an estimated 6 million gallons of untreated sewage
into waterways in and around San Juan in violation of the Clean
2015 Dec 23, The United States
and its allies conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State in
Iraq and six in Syria.
2015 Dec 23, A storm system
packed high winds and triggered more than 20 tornadoes in Arkansas,
Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. At least 15 people
were killed including at least 8 people in Mississippi, 6 in
Tennessee and one in Arkansas.
(Reuters, 12/24/15)(AFP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 23, The Afghan defense
minister said the military has rushed reinforcements to a southern
district threatened for days with takeover by the Taliban.
2015 Dec 23, Argentina's new
government fired the country's chief media regulator, saying the
head of the AFSCA television and radio watchdog commission was
openly acting against the country's new center-right President
2015 Dec 23, In Bosnia Sarajevo
authorities said they are closing down schools because of high
pollution mixed with fog, and volunteers have begun distributing
face masks to those who still decided to get out of the house
despite warnings to reduce movement.
2015 Dec 23, In Brazil gunmen
opened fire in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown killing two boys ages 11
2015 Dec 23, Burundi's rebels
came together for the first time as a force aimed at ousting
President Pierre Nkurunziza, after months of bloodshed in the
troubled central African country. The rebels have called themselves
the Republican Forces of Burundi, or "Forebu" from its name in
French, Les Forces Republicaines du Burundi.
2015 Dec 23, In Chad 3
militants were killed when they detonated suicide bombs after being
found out by a group of local people as they sought to embark from
an island to a lakeside market in Bol. A fourth set off his bomb but
2015 Dec 23, In Chile both
houses of Congress approved a law granting free university education
to many of the South American country's students.
2015 Dec 23, Croatia's
conservatives and a small pro-reform party reached an agreement to
form a new government.
2015 Dec 23, It was reported
that the European Commission has more than doubled its assistance to
Papua New Guinea as El Niño-related drought and frost have triggered
severe food and water shortages.
2015 Dec 23, German
investigators in North Rhine-Westphalia state arrested a 40-year-old
Italian man, who wasn't identified, in Gelsenkirchen as he left his
hiding place. Investigators later said he was a member of the Sacra
Corona Unita group, based in southeastern Italy, and will soon be
extradited to Italy.
2015 Dec 23, Organizers said
Pope Francis will accept next year's Charlemagne prize, a prominent
annual German award for promoting European values.
2015 Dec 23, Georgian PM Irakli
Garibashvili (33) said he is resigning. President Giorgi
Margvelashvili now has seven days to name a candidate for the prime
minister's post, who then must be approved by parliament.
2015 Dec 23, Greece's
parliament approved a bill granting same-sex couples the right to a
civil union, becoming one of the last European countries to give
them legal recognition after years of opposition from the
influential Orthodox church.
2015 Dec 23, Greek police said
least 13 people including seven children, drowned when their
overloaded boat capsized overnight in the Aegean.
2015 Dec 23, Guinea's PM
Mohamed Said Fofana stepped down in order to make way for a new
administration after President Alpha Conde (77) was sworn in for a
controversial second five-year term.
2015 Dec 23, Indonesian police
in Bekasi, West Java, arrested two suspected militants, including
Arif Hidayatullah, a member of China’s ethnic Uighur minority who
was allegedly preparing to be a suicide bomber.
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 23, Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said a new US law putting visa
restrictions on Iranians and those who had visited Iran would, if
implemented, breach a nuclear deal Tehran struck with world powers
earlier this year.
2015 Dec 23, In Iraq a wave of
attacks across the country killed at least 15 civilians as
government forces pressed on with their offensive to dislodge
Islamic State militants from a major city west of Baghdad.
2015 Dec 23, Israeli security
forces shot dead 2 Palestinians who had gone on a stabbing spree
along a popular walkway in Jerusalem. One Israeli was stabbed and
killed and a 2nd Israeli died after apparently being mistakenly shot
(Reuters, 12/23/15)(SFC, 7/5/16, p.A2)
2015 Dec 23, In Mali a
pro-government armed group accused the French military of killing
four of its fighters during a weekend clash with an Al-Qaeda-linked
movement in the country's restive north.
2015 Dec 23, In Niger suspected
Boko Haram militants killed 5 people in an overnight raid in the
third suspected attack by the group in less than 24 hours.
2015 Dec 23, Human Rights Watch
said Nigerian soldiers fired on unarmed Islamic Shiite children with
no provocation in Dec 12-14 raids in Zaria that killed hundreds of
the minority group.
2015 Dec 23, The World Bank
approved a $500 million loan to help the Philippines deal with
natural disasters. It can access the new credit line following "a
state of calamity" declared by the president.
2015 Dec 23, Russian Pres.
Vladimir Putin welcomed Indian PM Narendra Modi. Their planned talks
were expected to focus on defense, nuclear and space cooperation.
2015 Dec 23, Russia's Defense
Ministry said its air force has carried out 302 sorties in Syria
between Dec. 18 and 23, hitting 1,093 Islamic State targets.
2015 Dec 23, Investigators said
Russia has issued an international arrest warrant for Mikhail
Khodorkovsky on suspicion of ordering a contract killing, prompting
the former oil tycoon to declare the Kremlin had gone mad.
2015 Dec 23, Saudi King Salman
said he has ordered economic reforms to diversify sources of income
and reduce high dependence on oil following a sharp drop in crude
2015 Dec 23, The government of
Somalia issued a ban on Christmas and New Year's celebrations in the
Muslim country, saying the festivities have nothing to do with
2015 Dec 23, Spanish PM Mariano
Rajoy suffered a setback in his bid to stay in office as the
Socialists refused to back his attempt to form a new government
following an inconclusive general election.
2015 Dec 23, In Spain a
helicopter battling a fire crashed, killing the pilot in a forest in
a rural area in the northwestern region of Asturias.
2015 Dec 23, In Syria clashes
and suicide attacks by the Islamic State group killed at least 26
pro-government fighters in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.
(AFP, 12/23/15)(AFP, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 23, In Turkey a female
cleaner was killed and another wounded after an explosion near a
plane at Istanbul's second international airport. A mortar attack
was the cause of a deadly incident at Sabiha Gokcen airport.
(AFP, 12/23/15)(AFP, 1/7/16)
2015 Dec 23, Ukrainian
authorities and pro-Russian rebels accused each other of violating a
holiday ceasefire, just hours after it came into force.
2015 Dec 24, The United States
and its allies conducted 31 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Dec 24, In Afghanistan
senior army commander General Abdul Wodud said a joint Afghan and
NATO operation backed by air support had driven the Taliban back
from central areas, killing 60 Taliban fighters and wounding 40. The
interior ministry said security forces had killed a senior Taliban
commander it identified as Mullah Nasir.
2015 Dec 24, In northern
Afghanistan at least 24 people were killed when a passenger bus
plunged into a ravine after a head-on collision with a truck in
2015 Dec 24, Argentina
authorities said that 10,000 people were evacuated in Entre Rios
province after rains swelled the Uruguay River to its highest level
in nearly a century. Flooding caused by heavy rains also has led to
the evacuation of an estimated 100,000 people in Paraguay and more
than 4,000 in Uruguay.
2015 Dec 24, The Churches of
England and Scotland said they have reached an historic agreement to
work more closely together.
2015 Dec 24, China’s state
media reported that more than 100 million people have been warned to
stay indoors after at least 10 Chinese cities issued red alerts for
2015 Dec 24, In China Shen Hao,
the former chairman of the company that publishes one of the
country’s most prominent business newspapers, was sentenced to
prison for coercing companies into paying to avoid negative
coverage. Former chief financial officer, Le Bing, was convicted of
embezzlement and given a suspended two-year sentence.
2015 Dec 24, In central Congo
DRC an air cargo plane overshot the runway in Mbuji-Mayi, hitting
homes and killing at least 7 people on the ground.
2015 Dec 24, In Egypt a
roadside bomb struck a police vehicle near a town in the Sinai
Peninsula, killing a policeman and wounding two others.
2015 Dec 24, Egyptian border
guards reportedly opened fire killing a mentally disabled Gazan who
tried to get across the border between Egypt and the coastal strip.
Hasan Izhaq was harmless and naked and trying to cross the coastal
2015 Dec 24, In India Delhi's
firebrand Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called on residents to
cooperate with his ambitious plans to clean up the toxic air of the
world's most polluted city.
2015 Dec 24, In Iraq US-led
coalition warplanes pounded positions held by Islamic State in the
western city of Ramadi.
2015 Dec 24, In Israel 3
Palestinian attackers were shot dead as they carried out stabbings
and a car ramming and another killed in clashes with soldiers.
2015 Dec 24, Japan's Cabinet
approved a record-high military spending plan, endorsing proposals
to purchase pricey US surveillance drones and F-35 fighter jets as
Tokyo steps up cooperation with Washington amid China's increasingly
assertive activity in regional seas.
2015 Dec 24, Kenya's police
chief said about 200 Islamic extremist fighters have split from
Somalia's al-Shabab rebels, who are allied to al-Qaida, and have
instead pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
2015 Dec 24, In northeastern
Mali 6 former fighters were killed in the Kidal region in an attack
claimed by an Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda.
2015 Dec 24, In Nigeria blast
at a gas plant engulfed the southeastern industrial city of Nnewi. 9
people were killed and three others remained in critical condition.
(AFP, 12/25/15)(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 24, In the southern
Philippines guerillas from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
(BIFF) captured nine farmers and shot them dead on Mindanao. The
BIFF also launched an attack on a village in Pigcawayan town, some
900 km (560 miles) south of Manila, that left a district official
dead. Six guerillas were killed and eight wounded in fighting that
lasted 3 days.
2015 Dec 24, In Saudi Arabia a
fire tore through the intensive care unit and the maternity ward of
a hospital in the southwestern port city of Jazan before dawn,
killing at least 24 people and injuring 123.
(Reuters, 12/24/15)(Reuters, 12/25/15)
2015 Dec 24, South Sudan's
President Salva Kiir made a Christmas Eve decree dissolving the
nation's 10 states and creating 28 new ones. Critics said it
threatens the peace deal signed in August to end the country's
two-year civil war.
2015 Dec 24, Syria's regime
said it was ready to take part in new talks in Geneva aimed at
ending the war but appeared to make its participation conditional on
which opposition groups will attend.
2015 Dec 24, In Syria air raids
by government warplanes killed 20 civilians, including 7 children,
in an area southeast of Damascus. A US-backed alliance of Syrian
Kurds and Arab rebel groups advanced toward a dam in northern Syria
held by Islamic State fighters, in an assault aimed at capturing the
militants' stronghold of Raqqa.
(AFP, 12/24/15)(Reuters, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 24, In Syria French
national Charaffe al Mouadan (26) was killed in a US-led coalition
air strike. He had "direct" ties to the alleged mastermind of the
Nov 13 Paris attacks.
2015 Dec 24, Turkey said
another 19 people, including 6 children, drowned in the waters of
the Aegean off the coast of the Turkish city of Izmir after their
2015 Dec 24, Turkish Internet
servers suffered a powerful cyberattack, slowing banking services
and fanning fears that it could be a politically motivated attack
2015 Dec 25, The United States
hit Islamic State group targets in Iraq and Syria with 17 airstrikes
on Christmas Day.
2015 Dec 25, Gun violence today
in the US killed 27 people and left 63 injured. The US averaged 36
fatalities each day this year.
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A6)
2015 Dec 25, A tornado struck
Birmingham, Alabama, damaging houses, uprooting trees and injuring
at least three people in the state's largest city.
2015 Dec 25, In Afghanistan and
Pakistan a 6.3 earthquake jolted the Hindu Kush just before
midnight. At least 12 people were injured in eastern Nangarhar
province. A pregnant woman was killed when a boulder fell on her
house in Peshawar.
2015 Dec 25, In Algeria Abu
al-Hassan Rachid al-Bulaydi, head of the Sharia Committee, was
killed in an ambush by government soldiers.
2015 Dec 25, In Australia more
than 100 homes burned down along parts of Victoria state's
picturesque Great Ocean Road in bushfires and the situation
continued to remain dangerous.
2015 Dec 25, Bangladesh's
state-run Atomic Energy Commission signed a deal with Russia to set
up two nuclear power plants, each with 1,200 megawatt capacity.
2015 Dec 25, In northwest
Bangladesh a bomb attack on a mosque during prayers killed one
person and wounded at least a dozen. The mosque was run by the
minority Ahmmadiya Muslim community in Rajshahi.
2015 Dec 25, In Bolivia 12
people were killed and nine more injured as a result of a crash
between a bus and a truck.
2015 Dec 25, In Brazil police
in Rio de Janeiro tortured five young people, aged between 13 and
23, on Christmas night, allegedly burning them and sexually
molesting them after demanding extortion money.
2015 Dec 25, In China Wan
Qingliang, a former top official for the prosperous city of
Guangzhou, wept in court as he confessed to taking $ 17 million in
2015 Dec 25, In China’s eastern
province of Shandong a gypsum mine owned by Yurong Commercial and
Trade Ltd. Co. caved in. All 29 workers were accounted for. One
person was killed and 17 remained trapped at two sites and could not
be immediately rescued. On Dec 27 the owner of the mine drowned
after jumping into a well in an apparent suicide. On Jan 29 four
miners were rescued after spending 36 days trapped underground.
(AP, 12/26/15)(AP, 12/27/15)(AP, 1/30/16)
2015 Dec 25, Colombia's top
security official said authorities have captured eight members of
the National Liberation Army (ELN) and rescued a minor who also
belonged to the guerrilla group.
2015 Dec 25, In Corsica a crowd
vandalized a Muslim prayer room a day after an ambush injured two
firefighters responding to an emergency in a housing project.
2015 Dec 25, Georgia's
president nominated vice premier Giorgi Kvirikashvili as the new
head of government after the surprise resignation of Irakli
2015 Dec 25, Indian PM Narendra
Modi made a surprise "goodwill" visit to Pakistan to meet his
counterpart Nawaz Sharif, both reaffirming to resume high-level
2015 Dec 25, Israeli border
police shot dead a Palestinian woman who tried to ram them with her
car in the West Bank.
2015 Dec 25, In Japan local
authorities on Okinawa sued the central government in an attempt to
stop the relocation of a US air base.
2015 Dec 25, Malawi media said
that the government has suspended 63 civil servants who allegedly
stole millions of dollars of US funds sent for fighting HIV and
2015 Dec 25, Mexican forces
clashed with suspected organized-crime figures in the hometown of
fugitive drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, killing two and
netting 4.5 tons of marijuana in Badiraguato, Sinaloa state.
2015 Dec 25, Moroccan and
Spanish news agencies said over 200 migrants tried swim to Spain's
North African enclave of Ceuta and although 180 made it, two
drowned, 12 were injured and others were intercepted.
2015 Dec 25, In northern
Myanmar dozens of people were missing and feared dead after a
landslide struck a remote jade mining region in Kachin sate, the
second such incident in a month.
2015 Dec 25, In northeastern
Nigeria at least 14 people were killed and several others injured by
Boko Haram gunmen in an attack on Kimba village, Borno state.
2015 Dec 25, Russia’s
environment ministry said the country is warming more than twice as
fast as the average for the rest of the world, sounding an alarm on
the rise in floods and wildfires nationwide.
2015 Dec 25, Rebel sources in
Syria said Zahran Aloush (44), the head of Jaysh al Islam, one of
the most powerful insurgent groups in the rebel-held suburbs of
Damascus, was killed in a Russian aerial raid that targeted his
group's headquarters. Abu Hammam al Buwaidani was soon chosen as the
group’s new leader.
2015 Dec 25, In Syria Islamic
State militants released 25 more Assyrian Christian hostages they
had held captive for 10 months.
2015 Dec 25, In northern Syria
fierce clashes between regime loyalists and rebels including
Al-Qaeda fighters left more than 70 dead.
2015 Dec 25, In Turkey a
three-month-old baby and her grandfather were killed when they
became caught in the crossfire between security forces and Kurdish
rebels in Cizre.
2015 Dec 25, In Yemen
assailants shot dead Commander Jarallah Salhi, a senior intelligence
officer, in Marib city east of the capital Sanaa.
2015 Dec 26, The United States
and its allies conducted 28 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
and five in Syria. Abdul Qader Hakim, who facilitated the militants'
external operations and had links to the Nov 13 Paris attack
network, was killed in Mosul by a US-led coalition air strike.
(Reuters, 12/27/15)(Reuters, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 26, Chicago police
shot and killed 3 people, including a mother of five who they said
was shot "accidentally" when officers responded to a domestic
2015 Dec 26, In Texas at least
11 people were killed in the Dallas area from a storm system packing
torrential rains and unleashing a string of tornadoes that toppled
homes, cut power lines and snarled transport for people returning
from the Christmas holidays.
2015 Dec 26, Britain's
Meteorological Office issued two of its most severe weather warnings
after days of torrential rain in northern England caused rivers to
burst their banks and flood several villages.
2015 Dec 26, In Burundi
thousands of supporters of the president protested against the
African Union's plan to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to quell the
country's escalating unrest.
2015 Dec 26, Guinea's President
Alpha Conde appointed mining executive Mamady Youla as the West
African country's new prime minister.
2015 Dec 26, Israeli policemen
shot and killed a Palestinian as he tried to stab them in Jerusalem.
A Palestinian motorist rammed his car into a checkpoint and lightly
wounded a soldier stationed there. Troops on the scene opened fire
at the attacker and seriously wounded him.
2015 Dec 26, Japanese
authorities said that for the first time, an armed Chinese coast
guard vessel entered its territorial waters off islands claimed by
2015 Dec 26, A Kenyan police
official said an Islamic extremist died in the north when a roadside
bomb he was planting exploded in Mandera.
2015 Dec 26, Serbian police
arrested 80 people including a former minister on graft charges,
stepping up an anti-corruption drive days after opening talks on
joining the European Union.
2015 Dec 26, Syrian government
forces booby trapped a cluster of farm buildings in the southern
Daraa province and detonated the explosives as several Islamic rebel
factions gathered at the venue, killing 17 militants.
2015 Dec 26, A US-backed
alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups, backed by US
coalition planes, captured Tishreen Dam from Islamic State.
2015 Dec 26, Yemeni officials
said overnight fighting between Shiite rebels and pro-government in
southwestern Taiz province has killed 31 people, including 8
civilians. Yemeni loyalists killed at least 20 Iran-backed rebels in
a pushback against insurgents seeking to retake positions to the
northeast of the capital they control.
(AP, 12/26/15)(AFP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 27, The United States
and its allies conducted 37 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Dec 27, Ellsworth Kelley
(b.1923), American abstract painter, sculptor and printmaker, died
in Spencertown, NY.
2015 Dec 27, Meadowlark Lemon
(83), “clown prince" of the Harlem Globetrotters, died in
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.C2)
2015 Dec 27, An Afghan official
said the local Islamic State affiliate and a rival militia
controlled by a prominent lawmaker have killed 8 fighters from both
sides, captured a day earlier, in a brutal killing spree in the
eastern border province of Nangarhar.
2015 Dec 27, In western
Australia a train was carrying around 200,000 liters (53,000
gallons) of the sulfuric acid when it derailed near the small town
of Julia Creek in Queensland state.
2015 Dec 27, Burkina Faso said
authorities have arrested around 20 soldiers for plotting to free
from prison a prominent general who has been charged with staging a
2015 Dec 27, Rival Burundi
factions traveled to Uganda ahead of talks aimed at ending months of
violence, as the African Union pushed the government to accept a
2015 Dec 27, China officially
ended its one child policy with the signing into law of a bill
allowing all married couples to have a second child as it attempts
to cope with an ageing population and shrinking workforce.
2015 Dec 27, China's
rubber-stamp national legislature approved the country's first
anti-terrorism law, amid concerns that its requirements that tech
companies share information with the government could hurt business
interests and further infringe upon human rights.
2015 Dec 27, China’s ruling
Communist Party announced that Chang Xiaobing, chair of China
Telecom, has been placed under investigation on suspicion of
2015 Dec 27, China's
legislature approved the country’s first national anti-domestic
violence law. It will take effect in March.
2015 Dec 27, In China Xu
Yuan'an, head of the City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement
Bureau for Shenzhen's Guangming New District, where a Dec 20 huge
landslide left scores of people missing, killed himself.
2015 Dec 27, An Egyptian
military spokesman says that security forces chased two militants as
they fled on a motorcycle, killing one and injuring another in the
provincial capital of el-Arish. In another incident military forces
pursued a third militant near Mount Halal, leading to his death amid
2015 Dec 27, In Egypt an
explosion in Cairo's twin city of Giza killed 3 people, including a
senior judge, and injured 11 believed to be the result of a gas
2015 Dec 27, France banned
demonstrations in part of the Corsican capital Ajaccio following two
days of anti-Arab protests and sectarian tensions.
2015 Dec 27, In Indonesia a
group of about 15 gunmen attacked a police station in Sinak town,
Papua province, killing 3 officers and wounding two others.
2015 Dec 27, Iran postponed two
premier league football matches, as air pollution more than twice
the acceptable level persisted in Tehran.
2015 Dec 27, Iraqi forces took
control of the government complex in central Ramadi, the last
Islamic State stronghold in the western city.
2015 Dec 27, Israeli ministers
endorsed contentious draft legislation to toughen rules on rights
groups receiving funds from abroad. Left-wing NGOs called the move a
2015 Dec 27, Israeli forces
shot dead two Palestinians who stabbed and wounded an Israeli
soldier in the occupied West Bank.
2015 Dec 27, In northeastern
Kenya gunmen killed 2 policemen and wounded two others in Mandera
2015 Dec 27, In northeastern
Nigeria an attack blamed on Boko Haram killed 21 people in
Maiduguri, Borno state.
2015 Dec 27, In Turkey 3
soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing by the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) in the town of Cizre in the Kurdish majority
2015 Dec 27, In Turkey Naji
Jerf, a Syrian journalist and filmmaker who documented atrocities by
the Islamic State, was killed in Gaziantep. On Jan 10 state media
reported the arrest of three people in relation to the killing.
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A2)(AFP, 1/10/16)
2015 Dec 27, Ukraine said at
least 3 people were killed over the last 24 hours as government
forces and pro-Russian separatists clashed in the first violation of
a holiday truce.
2015 Dec 28, The United States
and its allies targeted Islamic State with 31 air strikes in their
latest daily operations against the militant group in Iraq and
2015 Dec 28, Ian "Lemmy"
Kilmister (70), the hell-raising frontman of pioneering British
heavy metal band Motorhead, died of cancer in Los Angeles, bringing
to an end the story of a band dubbed the loudest in the world.
(AFP, 12/29/15)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.78)
2015 Dec 28, In Afghanistan two
gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed a female polio vaccination
campaigner and seriously wounded her granddaughter. A suicide car
bomb attack killed at least one civilian near the Kabul
(Reuters, 12/28/15)(AP, 12/28/15)
2015 Dec 28, Burundi's
government and opposition kicked off peace talks in Uganda.
2015 Dec 28, In northern
Cameroon two female suicide bombers blew themselves up while trying
to carry out attacks for Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
2015 Dec 28, China fined seven
foreign shipping companies that carry vehicles for automakers a
total of $65 million on price-fixing charges in its latest effort to
end anti-competitive behavior in the auto industry.
2015 Dec 28, In eastern Cuba 13
people were killed and 34 more injured when two trucks retrofitted
as passenger buses collided in Santiago de Cuba province.
2015 Dec 28, France opened
police and legal archives from the collaborationist Vichy regime
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 28, In France DNA
traces helped police identify and arrest a Frenchman (40) suspected
of 33 rapes or attempted rapes in a suburban Paris forest from 1995
2015 Dec 28, Gambian lawmakers
passed a bill criminalizing female circumcision and introducing
prison terms of up to three years for anyone flouting the ban.
2015 Dec 28, Greek police in
Thessaloniki said they have arrested Simon Dutton (39), a man wanted
in Britain on suspicion of running a large cocaine trafficking ring.
2015 Dec 28, Iran media
reported that a swine flu outbreak has killed 112 people since
mid-November and the country's first medical worker has died of the
2015 Dec 28, Milan, Italy,
began a 3-day ban for six hours per day in a bid to alleviate
(SFC, 12/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 28, In western Mexico
the bullet-ridden bodies of 4 people including the co-founder of a
violent drug cartel were found early today on a highway. The
prosecutors' office later confirmed in a statement that one of the
victims was Carlos Rosales Mendoza (53) alias "El Tisico." Rosales
was considered one of the founders and leaders of La Familia
Michoacana cartel and the Knights Templar.
2015 Dec 28, Authorities in
Mexico detained a wealthy Texas teenager sought in the United States
after he disappeared while serving probation for killing four people
in a high-profile drunk-driving case. Ethan Couch (18) and his
mother Tonya were arrested in the Pacific resort city of Puerto
Vallarta. On April 13, 2016, Couch (19) was sentenced to 180 days in
jail for each of the four deaths in the June 2013 crash.
(AFP, 12/29/15)(SFC, 4/14/16, p.A10)
2015 Dec 28, A Myanmar court
jailed a woman for six months for a Facebook post "ridiculing" the
country's army chief and the color of a new uniform.
2015 Dec 28, In Nigeria Boko
Haram Islamic extremists struck Maiduguri for the first time in
months with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers.
At least 50 people were killed and the death toll could go higher.
Another twin suicide bombing killed at least 30 people in Madagali,
a town 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Maiduguri.
2015 Dec 28, Poland's President
Andrzej Duda approved controversial legislation that regulates the
Constitutional Tribunal. This required the tribunal to approve all
verdicts by a two-thirds margin.
(AP, 12/28/15)(Econ, 1/2/16, p.41)
2015 Dec 28, A Puerto Rico
policeman fatally shot two high-ranking officers and a policewoman
following an argument at the station where they worked in Ponce.
2015 Dec 28, South Korea and
Japan reached a landmark agreement to resolve the issue of "comfort
women", as those who were forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels
were euphemistically known.
2015 Dec 28, In Syria at least
32 people were killed and 90 wounded in two bomb explosions in Homs.
It was the second major attack in the city since a ceasefire deal
took effect earlier this month. Homs-based activist Bebars Al-Talawy
later said Abu Bilal al-Homsi most likely carried out one of the
(Reuters, 12/28/15)(AP, 1/1/16)
2015 Dec 28, In Syria buses and
ambulances carrying around 450 fighters and civilians evacuated from
two besieged areas crossed into Turkey and Lebanon.
2015 Dec 28, A Turkish court
remanded in custody a 17-year-old construction worker on charges of
"insulting" Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Facebook.
2015 Dec 29, The United States
and its allies staged 28 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq
2015 Dec 29, Reporters Without
Borders (RSF) said a total of 110 journalists were killed around the
world this year, noting that while many died in war zones the
majority were killed in supposedly peaceful countries.
2015 Dec 29, Bahrain said two
of its soldiers attached to a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in
Yemen have been killed in Saudi Arabia.
2015 Dec 29, Bahrain handed
down sentences ranging from five years to life in prison to 29
people found guilty of attempting to murder policemen in a bomb
attack last year. The sentences were linked to a bomb blast in a
Shiite village on December 19 last year that authorities said left
three policemen slightly wounded.
2015 Dec 29, In Burkina Faso
Roch Marc Christian Kabore (58) was sworn in as president,
completing a transition from the 2014 overthrow of longtime ruler
2015 Dec 29, In northern China
Wei Pengyuan, a low-ranking energy official accused of hiding more
than $30 million in cash at home in one of the country's most
sensational corruption cases, admitted his guilt during a court
2015 Dec 29, In Dagestan one
person was killed and 11 injured in a shooting near the UNESCO
heritage citadel site in Derbent, which claims to be Russia's oldest
city and celebrated its 2,000th anniversary this year.
2015 Dec 29, Egypt, Ethiopia,
and Sudan signed an agreement finalizing the two firms tasked with
carrying out studies on the potential impact of Ethiopia's $4.8
billion Grand Renaissance Dam on the flow of the Nile.
(Reuters, 12/29/15)(Econ, 1/16/16, p.49)
2015 Dec 29, Egyptian judicial
officials said a court has reduced the jail term for Islam
al-Behairy, a controversial Muslim scholar convicted of insulting
Islam on his television show from five years to one.
2015 Dec 29, In England and
Wales a law became effective that said coercive or controlling
behavior can now be prosecuted as a crime punishable by a fine and
up to five years in prison.
(SFC, 12/30/15, p.A5)
2015 Dec 29, A German court
sentenced former Rwandan mayor Onesphore Rwabukombe (58) to life in
prison, convicting him after a second trial of participating in
genocide for helping organize the killing of some 400 members of the
Tutsi minority in 1994.
2015 Dec 29, Georgian lawmakers
approved former foreign minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili as the new
head of government after the surprise resignation of Irakli
(SFC, 12/31/15, p.A3)
2015 Dec 29, In Haiti 2 UN
police officers from Rwanda were fatally shot at their residence in
2015 Dec 29, Israel's top court
upheld a bribery conviction against former premier Ehud Olmert,
which will make him the country's first ex-prime minister to serve
jail time. The Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 18 months in
prison, and acquitted him of one of the charges.
2015 Dec 29, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a government office, killing at
least 26 people and wounding 45 in Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province. A Pakistani Taliban faction claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 12/29/15)(SFC, 12/30/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 29, Russian
investigators filed an indictment against four men accused of
involvement in the Feb 27 murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov,
a brazen killing which sent shockwaves among the opposition earlier
2015 Dec 29, In Saudi Arabia
Filipino murder convict Joselito Lidasan Zapanta was publicly
beheaded after failing to meet the demand of the Sudanese victim's
family for payment of $1 million to save him from the death penalty.
2015 Dec 29, In southern
Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents attacked police and a
government office, killing one official as they seized hostages in
2015 Dec 29, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the leader of the main Kurdish party
Selahattin Demirtas (42) of "treason" over his call for autonomy for
the country's Kurdish minority.
2015 Dec 29, In Turkey a former
soccer referee won a court case against Turkey's football federation
which he has accused of outing him as a homosexual and stripping him
of his license to referee games because of his sexual orientation.
The court ordered the federation to pay Halil Ibrahim Dincdag 23,000
lira (US$8,000) in compensation.
2015 Dec 29, Uganda police said
at least 13 people drowned in Lake Victoria, when sudden waves
swamped them as they celebrated the Christmas holiday.
2015 Dec 29, The UN's health
agency declared Guinea's Ebola outbreak over two years after it
2015 Dec 30, The US-led
coalition carried out 24 strikes against Islamic State militants, in
Iraq and Syria.
2015 Dec 30, Missouri Governor
Jay Nixon said at least 13 people have died since the weekend, when
days of downpours from a massive winter storm system triggered the
state's worst flooding in two decades.
2015 Dec 30, In London a
husband Mohammed Rehman (25) and his ex-wife (Sana Ahmed Khan (24),
convicted of planning a major attack to mark the 10th anniversary of
the London suicide bombings, were both sentenced to life in prison.
The couple were accused of planning their attack for around May 28.
2015 Dec 30, Thousands in
Central African Republic's capital voted in national elections with
hope that a new president will lead to greater stability after years
of violence. Anicet-Georges Dologuele won 23.74 percent of votes
cast followed by Faustin-Archange Touadera with 19.05 percent.
(AP, 12/30/15)(Reuters, 1/25/16)
2015 Dec 30, Chinese rescuers
in Shandong province using infrared cameras to peer into darkness at
a wrecked mine found eight surviving miners who were trapped for
five days after a collapse so violent it registered as a seismic
event. Nine others remained missing.
2015 Dec 30, A China-Taiwan
hotline went into service connecting the heads of the two
Cabinet-level agencies responsible for their relations.
(SFC, 12/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 30, In Egypt a program
that had been giving free basic Internet services to over three
million Egyptians was shut down. Facebook said it hoped to "resolve
this situation soon" so the program, which it had launched with
Etisalat Egypt some two months ago, could be restored.
2015 Dec 30, Guyana's
parliament approved anti-terrorism legislation that includes the
death penalty for certain offenses and would allow rendition of
suspects to other countries.
2015 Dec 30, In Hong Kong Lee
Bo (65), chief editor of a publisher which produces books critical
of the Chinese government, went missing. He was a colleague of the
four others who had also disappeared last autumn. Bo returned to
Hong Kong on March 24, 2016, but did not provide thorough
information about his undocumented departure.
(AFP, 1/1/16)(AP, 3/24/16)
2015 Dec 30, India asked
authorities in and around its capital to crack down immediately on
overloaded trucks, illegally parked cars and vehicles emitting
visible smoke in the world's most polluted city.
2015 Dec 30, Italian
prosecutors said Apple has agreed to pay Italy about $350 million in
taxes for years 2008-2013.
(SFC, 12/31/15, p.A5)
2015 Dec 30, An Italian
parliament-mandated health survey confirmed higher-than-normal
incidents of death and cancer among residents in and around Naples,
thanks to decades of toxic waste dumping by the local Camorra mob.
2015 Dec 30, Palestinian police
said Islamist group Hamas has banned public New Year's Eve parties
in the Gaza Strip because they offend the territory's "values and
2015 Dec 30, Philippine troops
clashed with about 100 Abu Sayyaf gunmen suspected of plotting
attacks on New Year's Eve, leaving 8 militants and one soldier dead.
2015 Dec 30, A Russian court
sentenced blogger Vadim Tyumenstev (35), from the Siberian region of
Tomsk, to five years in jail for what it said was his extremist
activity on the Internet after he urged people to attend a protest
against high transport fares and criticized Russian intervention in
2015 Dec 30, Russia said its
air force made 121 sorties and hit 424 targets in Syria during
2015 Dec 30, Rwanda's high
court said Pastor Jean Uwinkindi (64), accused of leading and
coordinating attacks on minority Tutsis during Rwanda's 1994
genocide, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
2015 Dec 30, A Spanish judge
named Jordi Pujol (80), former longtime leader of Spain's powerful
northeastern Catalonia region, as a suspect in a money-laundering
2015 Dec 30, Syrian authorities
arrested Ahmad al-Asrawi and Munir al-Bitar, prominent members of
the country's domestic opposition, as they traveled to Riyadh to
meet other regime opponents.
2015 Dec 30, In northeastern
Syria two restaurants were bombed in a predominantly Kurdish city of
Qamishli. The attack killed at least 16 people and wounded more than
2015 Dec 30, Syrian troops
fought their way into a rebel-held town in the southern province of
Deraa in an assault which rebels said was supported by the heaviest
Russian aerial bombing campaign so far in the south.
2015 Dec 30, Venezuela’s
Supreme Court barred four recently elected lawmakers from taking
their seats in the National Assembly. No legal justification was
(SFC, 1/1/16, p.A4)
2015 Dec 31, The United States
and its allies conducted 24 air strikes against Islamic State in
2015 Dec 31, In Arizona retired
California police officer Frank Pascua (52) was shot and killed in
the parking lot of the Gila River Casino in Phoenix. Suspect John
Campos Sr. (47) was arrested the next day.
(SSFC, 1/3/16, p.A8)
2015 Dec 31, The largest
container ship to visit the US passed under the Golden Gate Bridge
in San Francisco before arriving at the Port of Oakland. The nearly
quarter-mile-long megaship named the Benjamin Franklin can hold up
to 18,000 20-foot shipping containers.
2015 Dec 31, Natalie Cole
(b.1950), Grammy-winning daughter of Nat King Cole, died in Los
Angeles of complications from health issues.
(SFC, 1/2/16, p.A7)
2015 Dec 31, Wayne Rogers, TV
actor who played Trapper John on MASH (1972-1975), died in Los
Angeles from complications of pneumonia.
(SFC, 1/2/16, p.A7)
2015 Dec 31, Midwest
floodwaters began receding. Three days of torrential rain, that had
begun on Dec 26 across a wide swath of Missouri and Illinois, left
25 people dead.
(SFC, 1/1/16, p.A7)(Econ, 1/9/16, p.25)
2015 Dec 31, General Electric
announced that it had won a contract worth nearly $1 billion from
the Saudi Electricity Company to build and supply a power plant in
northern Saudi Arabia.
2015 Dec 31, A court in
Bangladesh sentenced two people to death and six others to prison
for killing atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in 2013, the first
verdicts since suspected Islamist militants began targeting secular
2015 Dec 31, Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff signed the so-called LDO law overruling
more than 50 amendments made by lawmakers in the nation's budget
guidelines law for this year, including reductions to her flagship
social program and a ban on state foreign financing for some
2015 Dec 31, Ursula Gauthier,
the China correspondent for France's L'Obs news magazine, left
Beijing. She was obliged to leave for criticizing government policy
in violence-wracked Xinjiang. She had questioned official
comparisons between global Islamist violence and unrest in the
homeland of the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.
2015 Dec 31, Democratic
Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila pardoned nine members of
the Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK) separatist group as he pursues a policy of
national dialogue ahead of elections later this year.
2015 Dec 31, In Egypt a couple
and their 3 children, including a five-year-old girl, were killed
when shelling hit their house in Rafah, North Sinai. It was unclear
who fired the projectile.
2015 Dec 31, In Egypt a small
ferry boat sank late today in the Nile Delta province of Kafr
el-Sheikh. At least 15 people were killed and two remained missing.
2015 Dec 31, In southern
Ethiopia a hand grenade attack killed two students and injured six
at Dilla University in the SNNPR region.
2015 Dec 31, In Germany dozens
of apparently coordinated sexual assaults took place against women
on New Year's Eve in the western city of Cologne. "Arab-looking men"
were blamed. The port city of Hamburg also reported around 10
similar attacks against women on New Year's Eve. By Jan 19 the
number of complaints had risen to over 800.
(AFP, 1/4/16)(SFC, 1/20/16, p.A2)
2015 Dec 31, In Guatemala a
fight at an overcrowded prison in Puerto Barrios, killed at least 8
prisoners and wounded 20.
2015 Dec 31, Officials said
Israel's Education Ministry has ruled against the inclusion of a
novel about a romance between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man
in the Hebrew high school curriculum because it feared it could
raise tensions among pupils. The plot of Dorit Rabinyan's novel
"Borderlife" takes place in New York.
2015 Dec 31, Israeli troops
shot and killed a Palestinian who rammed them with his car in the
occupied West Bank, as a wave of violence approached its fourth
2015 Dec 31, Ivory Coast's
President Alassane Ouattara announced in his New Year's address that
he had reduced the sentences of 3,100 prisoners held over bloody
2015 Dec 31, Rights campaigners
said a Mauritanian court has remanded in custody two men accused of
keeping women and children as slaves, during a crackdown on the
deeply rooted practice.
2015 Dec 31, The Russian
finance ministry said it will file a lawsuit against Ukraine after
Kiev failed to repay a $3 billion Eurobond and $75 million of
interest due today.
2015 Dec 31, In southwestern
Saudi Arabia 3 civilians including two children were killed in
cross-border missile attacks from Yemen on a residential area.
2015 Dec 31, In Sweden at least
15 young women were reportedly groped by groups of men on New Year's
Eve in the city of Kalmar.
2015 Dec 31, In Turkey hundreds
of flights were cancelled from Istanbul's two main airports after
the city was hit by a picturesque but troublesome snowfall.
2015 Dec 31, Electricity from
Ukraine to the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula was cut again after
the collapse of a power pylon.
2015 Dec 31, In Yemen a
drive-by shooting killed top pro-government militia leader Ahmed
al-Idrisi and five of his companions in the southern city of Aden,
just hours after he reluctantly handed over control of the city's
strategic port to government troops.
(AP, 12/31/15)(AP, 1/3/16)
2015 Dec, In Nevada the family
of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson acquired control of the Las Vegas
Review Journal, the state’s largest newspaper. Adelson was a major
benefactor of the Republican Party.
(SFC, 12/30/15, p.C3)
2015 Dec, In Texas three former
officials at Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) pleaded guilty
under seal to conspiracy to commit money laundering. They were
charged with violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
2015 Dec, In Afghanistan a new,
nearly $100 million Afghan National Assembly building was
2015 Dec, Brazil declared a
national public health emergency due to the mosquito-born Zika
(Econ, 1/23/16, p.73)`
2015 Dec, Egypt cancelled the
results of student council elections in the country’s
universities after pro-revolution candidates won across the
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.39)
2015 Dec, In Kosovo Slobodan
Gavric (b.1968), a Serbian man, was arrested after police found 12.2
kilos of explosives in his car in an area where the United States
and other Western embassies are located. On June 29, 2016, a court
sentenced Gavric to 13 years in jail on charges of preparing a
2015 Dec, Madagascar held
senatorial elections. On Jan 9 preliminary results said President
Hery Rajaonarimampianina's HVM party won more than 60 percent of the
vote in each of the country's seven provinces.
2015 Dec, Sudan's powerful
National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) suspended the
independent Al-Tayar newspaper after it published a series of
editorials criticizing the government over subsidy cuts on fuel and
electricity. On May 2 the country's Constitutional Court ordered
that the ban on the daily be lifted.
2015 David Abraham authored
“The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns and the Struggle for a
Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age."
(Econ, 1/16/16, p.90)
2015 George Akerlof and Robert
Shiller authored “Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation
(Econ, 9/19/15, p.82)
2015 Ayaan Hirsi Ali authored
“Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now."
(Econ., 4/18/15, p.74)
2015 Anthony Atkinson authored
“Inequality: What Can Be Done."
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.74)
2015 David Bainbridge authored
“Curvology: The Origins and Power of Female Body Shape."
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.75)
2015 Michael Barber authored
“How to Run a Government So that Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers
Don’t Go Crazy."
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.87)
2015 Elmira Bayrasli authored
“From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs,
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.88)
2015 Mary Beard authored “SPQR:
A History of Ancient Rome."
(Econ, 10/17/15, p.85)
2015 Daniel Bell authored “The
China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy."
(http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10418.html)(Econ, 9/5/15, p.50)
2015 Ben Bernanke authored “The
Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath."
(Econ, 10/17/15, p.88)
2015 Thor Bjorgolfsson,
Iceland’s first billionaire, authored “Billions to Bust: How I Made,
Lost And Rebuilt a Fortune, And What I learned on the Way."
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.78)
2015 Irina Borogan and Andrei
Soldatov authored “The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s
Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries.
(Econ, 9/12/15, p.78)
2015 Ian Bostridge authored
“Schubert’s Winter Journey: An Anatomy of an Obsession." Shcubert’s
“Winterreise" cycle of 24 songs was written in 1827-1828 set to a
collection poems by Wilhelm Muller.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.80)
2015 H.W. Brands authored
“Reagan: The Life."
(SSFC, 5/24/15, p.N3)
2015 Steven Brill authored
“America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the
Fight to Fix our Broken Healthcare System."
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.79)
2015 David Brooks, NY Times
columnist, authored “The Road to Character."
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.73)
2015 Edward Brooke-Hitching
authored “Fox Tossing and Other Forgotten and Dangerous Sports,
Pastimes, and Games.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.78)
2015 Bill Browder authored “Red
Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man’s Fight for
Justice." Browder’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in 2009 in a
Russian prison, had pieced together how corrupt officials had taken
over Browder’s assets and treated themselves to a $230 million tax
refund paid out in a single day.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.73)
2015 Jason Burke authored “The
New threat From Islamic Militancy."
(Econ, 8/29/15, p.69)
2015 Bryan Burrough authored
“Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the
Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence.
(SSFC, 4/12/15, p.N1)
2015 Liz Carlisle authored
“Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.N1)
2015 Nicholas Carlson authored
“Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!"
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.79)
2015 Michael Casey and Paul
Vigna authored “The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital
Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order."
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.77)
2015 Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya
Phillips authored “The Misfit Economy: Lessons in Creativity from
Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters and Other Informal Entrepreneurs."
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.74)
2015 Marc Clifford authored
“The Greening of Asia: The Business Case for Solving Asia’s
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.77)
2015 Matthew Cobb authored
“Life’s Greatest Secret: The Story of the Race to Crack the Genetic
(Econ, 8/8/15, p.71)
2015 Gordon Corera authored
“Intercept: The Secret History of Computers and Spies."
(Econ, 7/18/15, p.70)
2015 David Crystal authored
“Making a Point" a history of punctuation.
(Econ, 3/12/15, p.80)
2015 Lawrence A. Cunningham
authored “Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values."
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.78)
2015 In China Wang Daqi (30)
authored “Burden of Wealth" in which he profiled several of his
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.36)
2015 Christine Desan authored
“Making Money: Coin, Currency and the Coming of Capitalism."
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.74)
2015 Alex de Waal authored “The
Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of
(Econ, 10/17/15, p.86)
2015 Pedro Domingos authored
“The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning
Machine Will Remake Our World."
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.86)
2015 Don Doyle authored “The
Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.73)
2015 Lanny Ebenstein authored
“Chicagonomics: The Evolution of Chicago Free Market Economics."
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.80)
2015 Joseph Ellis authored “The
Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution: 1783-1789."
(Econ, 5/9/15, p.79)
2015 Mark Essig authored
“Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig."
(Econ, 5/2/15, p.75)
2015 Lillian Faderman authored
“The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle."
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.81)
2015 Jonathan Fenby authored
“The History of Modern France: From the Revolution to the Present
(Econ, 7/25/15, p.68)
2015 Niall Ferguson authored
“Kissinger: The Idealist, 1923-1968." This was the first volume of
Ferguson’s two-part Kissinger biography.
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.85)
2015 Ronald Fierstein authored
“A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak patent
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.86)
2015 Jean-Pierre Filiu authored
“From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and
its Jihadi Legacy."
(Econ, 8/8/15, p.70)
2015 Paul Fischer authored “A
Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped
Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator’s Rise to Power."
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.N3)
2015 Eric Foner authored
“Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.N5)
2015 Gavin Francis, a Scottish
doctor, authored “Adventures in Human Being".
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.80)
2015 Barney Frank authored his
memoir “Frank: A Life in Politics From the Great Society to Same-Sex
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.N5)
2015 Peter Frankopan authored
“The Silk Roads: A New History of the World."
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.70)
2015 Dan Gardner and Philip
Tetlock authored “Superforcasting: The Art and Science of
(Econ, 9/26/15, p.83)
2015 Gilbert Gaul authored
“Billion Dollar Ball: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.82)
2015 Robert Gildea authored
“Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance."
(Econ, 8/29/15, p.67)
2015 Paul Ginsborg authored
“Family Politics: Domestic Life, Devastation and Survival
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.75)
2015 Ted Gioia authored “Love
songs: The Hidden History."
(Econ., 2/14/15, p.76)
2015 Charles Glass authored
“Syria Burning: ISIS and the Death of the Arab Spring."
(Econ, 7/11/15, p.73)
2015 Leon Goldsmith authored
“Cycle of Fear: Syria’s Alawites in War and Peace."
(Econ, 7/11/15, p.74)
2015 Philip Glass authored
“Words Without Music."
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.88)
2015 Misha Glenny authored
“Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio."
(Econ, 9/12/15, p.78)
2015 Marc Goodman authored
“Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and
What We Can Do About It."
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.N1)
2015 Robert Goodwin authored
“Spain: The Center of the World 1519-1682."
(Econ, 7/25/15, p.67)
2015 Robert Grenier, former CIA
station chief in Pakistan, authored “88 Days to Kandahar."
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.76)
2015 Chen Guangcheng authored
“The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man’s Fight for Justice and Freedom in
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.83)
2015 Blaine Harden authored
“The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the
Tyrant who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole
His Way to Freedom." (see South Korea Sep 21, 1953).
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.78)
2015 Journalists Hassan Hassan
and Michael Weiss authored "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror." The
authors spoke to dozens of fighters and members of the group to
understand its allure and how it justifies its brutal tactics.
2015 Daisy Hay authored “Mr.
and Mrs. Disraeli: A Strange Romance."
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.87)
2015 Sudhir Hazareesingh
authored “How the French Think: An Affectionate Portrait of an
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.79)
2015 Zackeray Hearn authored
“The Emergence of Modern Shiism: Islamic Reform in Iraq and Iran."
(Econ, 7/25/15, p.69)
2015 Sarah Helm authored
“Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.84)
2015 Revecca Hercig authored
“Plucked: A History of Hair Removal."
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.79)
2015 Catherine Hickley authored
“The Munich Art Horde: Hitler’s Dealer and His Secret Legacy."
(Econ, 9/19/15, p.81)
2015 Cesar Hidalgo authored
“Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to
Economies." His aim was to lay out a universal theory of
(Econ, 7/25/15, p.66)
2015 Dilip Hiro authored “The
Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan."
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.81)
2015 Bruce Hoffman authored
“Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.74)
2015 Henry Holt authored
“Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel."
(Econ, 7/18/15, p.72)
2015 British journalist
Alistaire Horne authored “Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the
(Econ, 11/7/15, p.79)
2015 Roel Janssen authored “The
Art of Audit: Eight Remarkable Government Auditors on Stage."
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.73)
2015 Morten Jerven authored
“Why Economists Get It Wrong."
(Econ, 7/25/15, p.67)
2015 Josh Karp authored “Orson
Welles’ Last Movie: The Making of the Other Side of the Wind."
(SSFC, 5/10/15, p.N3)
2015 Pamela Katz authored “The
Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women, and Germany on the Brink."
(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.N7)
2015 John Kay authored “Other
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.69)
2015 Andrew Keen authored “"The
Internet is Not the Answer."
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.N3)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.81)
2015 Thomas Kidd and Barry
Hankins authored “Baptists in America".
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.80)
2015 Nick Lane authored “The
Vital Question: Why Is Life the Way It Is?"
(Econ, 5/2/15, p.75)
2015 Thomas Laqueur authored
“The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains."
(Econ, 11/28,15, p.76)
2015 Erika Lee authored “The
Making of Asian America: A History."
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.88)
2015 The novel “Go Set a
Watchman" by Harper Lee (89) was published. The original manuscript
had preceded her classic “To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960).
(Econ, 7/18/15, p.71)
2015 John Leigh authored
“Touché: The Duel in Literature".
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.81)
2015 Jill Leovy authored
“Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America."
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.N1)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.86)
2015 Steve LeVine authored “The
Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World."
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.76)
2015 Dominic Lieven authored
“Towards the Flame: War and the End of Tsarist Russia."
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.76)
2015 Bobby Lo authored “Russia
and the New World Disorder."
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.73)
2015 David Lough authored “No
More Champagne: Churchill and His Money."
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.77)
2015 George Makari authored
“Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind."
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.117)
2015 Noel Malcolm authored
“Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Late
Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World."
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.73)
2015 David Maraniss authored
“Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story."
(Econ, 10/10/15, p.84)
2015 William J. Maxwell
authored “F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed
African American Literature."
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.N4)
2015 William McCants authored
“"The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of
the Islamic State."
(Econ, 9/26/15, p.86)
2015 Sean McFate authored “The
Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.75)
2015 Lisa McGirr authored “The
War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State."
(Econ, 1/30/15, p.77)
2015 Sean McMeekin authored
“The Ottoman Endgame: War Revoloution and the Making of the Modern
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.80)
2015 Ted Merwin authored
“Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish
(Econ, 12/12/15, p.79)
2015 Charles Moore authored
“Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume Two: Everything
(Econ, 10/17/15, p.86)
2015 Taggart Murphy authored
“Japan and the Shackles of the Past."
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.74)
2015 Donald Murray authored
Herring Tales: How the Silver Darlings Shaped Human Taste and
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.83)
2015 Willie Nelson with David
Ritz authored “It’s a Long Story: My Life."
(SSFC, 5/24/15, p.N4)
2015 Joseph Nye authored “Is
the American Century Over?"
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.86)
2015 Francis O’Gorman authored
“Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History."
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.72)
2015 John Plender authored
“Capitalism: Money, Morals and Markets."
(Econ, 8/15/15, p.75)
2015 Serhii Plokhy authored
“The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine."
(Econ, 1/2/16, p.64)
2015 Sam Quinones authored
“Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic."
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.72)
2015 Eric Rauchway authored
“The Money Makers: How Roosevelt, and Keynes Ended the Depression,
Defeated Fascism and Secured a Prosperous Peace."
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.78)
2015 Robin Renwick, former
British ambassador to South Africa, authored “The End of Apartheid:
Diary of a Revolution."
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.85)
2015 J.J. Robinson authored
“The Maldives: Islamic Republic, Tropical Autocracy."
(Econ, 11/28/,15, p.76)
2015 Richard Rhodes authored
“Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World It
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.74)
2015 Eugene Rogan authored “The
Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East."
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.85)
2015 Sharon Rotbart authored
“"White City, Black City: Architecture and War in Tel Aviv and
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.78)
2015 Simon Carnell and Erica
Segre translated Carlo Rovelli’s work “Seven Brief Lessons on
Physics" from Italian to English.
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.79)
2015 Jonathan Sacks authored
“Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence."
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.82)
2015 Brent Schlender and Rick
Tetzeli authored “Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless
Upstart into a Visionary Leader."
(Econ., 4/4/15, p.77)
2015 Bruce Schneier authored
“Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and
Control Your World."
(Econ., 4/4/15, p.80)
2015 Delphine Schrank authored
“The Rebel of Rangoon: A Tale of Defiance and Deliverance in
(Econ, 8/8/15, p.72)
2015 John Seabrook authored
“The Song Machine," a history of the past 20 years of pop music.
(Econ, 11/14/15, p.81)
2015 Brian Seibert authored
“What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.80)
2015 Steve Silberman authored
“Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.68)
2015 Adam Sisman authored
authored “John le Carre: The Biography." John le Carre’s real name
is David Cornwell (b.1931).
(Econ, 10/31/15, p.77)
2015 Andrew Small authored “The
China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics."
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.74)
2015 Mike Smith authored “Boko
Haram: Inside Nigeria’s Unholy War."
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.85)
2015 Timothy Snyder authored
“Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning."
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.80)
2015 Susan Southard authored
“Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War."
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.74)
2015 Nicholas Stargardt
authored “The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945."
(Econ, 9/26/15, p.86)
2015 Gloria Steinem authored
“My Life on the Road."
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.77)
2015 Paul Strohm authored “The
Poet’s Tale: Chaucer and the Year that Made the Canterbury Tales."
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.79)
2015 Dana Thomas authored “Gods
and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.88)
2015 Levi Tillemann authored
“The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future."
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.76)
2015 Adair Turner authored
“Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit, and Fixing Global
(Econ, 11/14/15, p.84)
2015 Ashlee Vance authored
“Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future."
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.72)
2015 Thomas de Waal authored
“Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide."
(Econ., 4/18/15, p.75)
2015 Edmund de Waal authored
his personal history of porcelain: “The White Road: A Pilgrimage of
(Econ, 9/26/15, p.84)
2015 Leif Wenar authored “Blood
Oil: Tyrants, Violence and the Rules that Run the World."
(Econ, 12/12/15, p.80)
2015 Jay Winik authored “1944:
FDR and the Year that Changed History."
(Econ, 9/19/15, p.81)
2015 David Wooton authored “The
Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution."
(Econ, 10/24/15, p.78)
2015 Xue Xinran (b.1958),
British-Chinese journalist, authored “Buy Me the Sky: The Remarkable
Truth of China’s One-Child Generation." It was translated to English
by Esther Tyldesley and David Dobson.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.75)
2015 Andrew Zimbalist authored
“Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and
the World Cup."
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.74)
2015 In the United States 49
people were sentenced to death this year, the lowest total in modern
(Econ, 12/19/15, p.33)
2015 The US federal government
owned 60% of the land in Alaska. The state owned 28%.
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.36)
2015 Saint-Gobain Performance
Plastics, part of a Paris-based global conglomerate, conducted tests
in the summer of 2015 and reported a PFOA level of 18,000 ppt in
groundwater under its plant, 500 yards from the main water wells in
Hoosick Falls, NY. The EPA has a non-enforceable guidance level of
400 parts per trillion. In 1999 the company had become the fifth
owner of the plastics factory.
2015 The population of West
Virginia was about 1.9 million.
(SFC, 6/22/15, p.33)
2015 In the US there were an
estimated 35,200 traffic deaths this year, making it the deadliest
driving year since 2008.
(SFC, 7/2/16, p.A6)
2015 Muslims reportedly
represented less than 1% of America’s population, yet accounted for
10% of America’s doctors.
2015 In Afghanistan at least
3,545 noncombatants died and another 7,457 were injured by fighting
this year in a 4-percent increase over 2014.
2015 An estimated 395,000
Africans died of malaria this year, compared to 764,000 deaths in
2000 according to the World Health Organization.
(Econ, 3/12/15, p.23)
2015 The population of Angola
was about 15 million.
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.44)
2015 Azerbaijan devalued its
currency two times this year after its central bank burned through
some $10 billion of foreign currency reserves in an effort to defend
(Econ, 5/21/16, p.45)
2015 The documentary film
“Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll," was
directed by John Pirozzi.
(SFC, 5/8/15, p.E5)
2015 It was estimated that some
3,000 tons of rocket debris were in orbit around Earth.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.75)
2015 Britain gained 333,000
people through immigration this year — a near-historic high that
fanned the debate about newcomers ahead of a June 2016 vote on
whether the country should remain in the European Union.
2015 Britain’s National Health
Insurance (NHS) employed one in 18 workers.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.54)
2015 The population of Burundi
was over 10 million.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.42)
2015 Chile’s population was
about 18 million.
(Econ, 11/14/15, p.68)
2015 The Hugo Award for the
best science-fiction novel went to “The Three-Body Problem" (2008)
by Liu Cixin of China. A film adaptation of the same name was
scheduled for release in July, 2016.
2015 By the end of this year
China’s total debt reached about 240% of GDP.
(Econ, 3/5/15, p.71)
2015 In China some 20,000
workers at the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone worked to complete a
2nd terminal and runway. Officials expected the planned aerotropolis
to have five runways by 2030 serving some 70 million passengers
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.47)
2015 Wind power in China
tripled since 2010 to 3% of the electricity generation. Coal still
accounted for near two-thirds of the country’s electricity.
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.39)
2015 Shanghai, China, produced
the most household rubbish in the country with 22,000 tons per day.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.42)
2015 China’s contribution to
the UN this year reached $140 million, about the same as Britain or
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.45)
2015 The Czech Rep. accepted
520 Muslim refugees this year.
(Econ, 1/30/16, p.43)
2015 Dec, Ecuador, bowing to
pressure from the Cuban government, imposed a visa requirement on
Cubans, in effect closing off the most popular route to the United
(Econ, 1/16/16, p.38)
2015 Egypt ranked 112th on the
World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business index. In order to start a
business investors needed permits from 78 different agencies.
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.43)
2015 In El Salvador the number
of homicides reached an estimated 6,650 this year, from 3,912 the
year before. The killing of police officers nearly doubled to more
(Reuters, 1/21/16)(SFC, 4/14/16, p.A3)
2015 Equatorial Guinea’s GDP
shrank by an estimated 10.2%.
(Econ, 3/12/15, p.47)
2015 The population of Ethiopia
was about 100 million.
(Econ, 12/12/15, p. 23)
2015 Germany’s car makers
employed one in seven workers nationwide.
(Econ, 11/21/15, p.59)
2015 Germany accepted some 1.1
million refugees this year.
(Econ, 2/13/15, p.51)
2015 Hong Kong’s population was
about 7.3 million.
(Econ, 6/27/15, p.37)
2015 In India fake pesticide
caused brought infestations of whitefly to the cotton crop in the
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.36)
2015 Indonesia’s top clerical
council passed a fatwa condemning homosexuality.
(Econ, 8/13/16, p.28)
2015 Iran’s population was
almost 80 million.
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.44)
2015 Jamaica suffered 1,207
murders this year, almost ten times the rate in the US.
(Econ, 2/20/15, p.30)
2015 Reporters without Borders
ranked Japan in 61st place this year, a fall of 50 places in five
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.37)
2015 A record 19.7 million
people visited Japan this year, up from 13.4 million in 2014.
Travelers from China topped the list.
(SSFC, 1/24/16, p.A4)
2015 In Jordan incoming Syrian
refugees now made up a fifth of the population.
(Econ, 7/4/15, p.40)
2015 Mauritania ordered
preachers at Friday prayers to publicize a fatwa by the country’s
leading clerics declaring that slavery has no foundation in sharia
(Econ, 8/22/15, p.51)
2015 The population of
Mauritania was about 3.5 million.
(Econ, 10/17/15, p.57)
2015 The UN estimated that
opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar has nearly tripled over the past
six years, making it the world’s second-largest producer of heroin
and the region’s leading supplier of methamphetamine.
(SSFC, 6/7/15, p.A17)
2015 In the Netherlands the
flow of refugees rose to a record 59,100 this year.
(SFC, 1/9/16, p.A2)
2015 The population of New
Zealand was about 4.5 million.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.56)
2015 Nigeria’s population was
estimated at about 183 million.
(Econ, 6/20/15, SR p.5)
2015 The World Economic Forum
(WEF) rated Nigeria 124th out of 140 countries on the quality of its
institutions; 133rd for its infrastructure and last out of 140 on
its primary education.
(Econ, 4/16/15, SR p.11)
2015 Northern Ireland’s public
sector employed nearly one in three of its workers. This compared to
less than one in five for Britain as a whole.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.50)
2015 The population of the
Palau archipelago numbered about 21,000.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.L4)
2015 Peru’s spy agency
purchased commercial spyware from Verint Systems, an
Israeli-American company, and engaged in a $22 million program
capable of snooping on thousands of citizens at a time. This took
place despite the March 30 congressional sacking of PM Ana Jara over
alleged spying against lawmakers, reporters, business leaders and
(SFC, 8/3/16, p.A4)
2015 Transparency Int’l.‘s
corruption index ranked the Philippines in 95th position up from
134th in 2010.
(Econ, 5/14/16, p.16)
2015 Puerto Rico’s population
numbered about 3.5 million. Another 5 million lived on the US
(Econ, 7/11/15, p.34)
2015 In Russia the total number
of registered HIV cases exceeded one million this year, with
authorities struggling to contain an epidemic that experts say could
be curbed by increased funding and more awareness campaigns.
2015 The population of Saudi
Arabia was about 30 million.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.39)
2015 In Scotland a package of
changes, contained in a Land Reform Bill, defined land as a finite
resource that must be protected in law for the common good and in
the public interest. The third stage of a detailed, 10 part Bill
passed in March, 2016, paved the way for a new Land Register to
ensure greater transparency of land ownership and improvements to
community rights to roam common land. Centuries-old traditions had
led to 430 people owning half of Scotland's privately held land.
2015 In South Africa Zulu King
Goodwill Zwelithini received $4.8 million this year for the upkeep
of his household, which included seven palaces, six wives and at
least 28 children. King Goodwill and nine other traditional kings
and one queen received a yearly public stipend of about $110,000.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.42)
2015 The population of South
Africa was about 54 million.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.44)
2015 In South Africa 1,175
rhinos were killed by poachers this year, a slight decrease on 2014,
but another year of carnage fueled by Asian-led demand for their
2015 The population of
Swaziland numbered about 1.3 million.
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.49)
2015 The population of Vanuatu
was about 281,000 spread over 65 islands.
(Econ, 11/7/15, p.37)
2015 In Zimbabwe at least 50
rhinos were poached this year, up from 20 a year earlier.
(SFC, 1/13/16, p.A2)