Monday

April 25, 2016

Armed conflicts and attacks

Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)

Two Turkish soldiers are killed and four are wounded in an attack by Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey. (Daily Mail)

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) warns Turkey it is preparing to intensify its fight. (BBC)

Syrian Civil War

At least eight people are reportedly killed as a car bomb explodes at a checkpoint south of Damascus. (Xinhua)

American-led intervention in Syria

The President of the United States Barack Obama announces that the U.S. will send an additional 250 troops to fight ISIL in Syria. (The Guardian)

Burundian unrest (2015–2018)

A senior Burundian Army general, Athanase Kararuza, an ethnic Tutsi and security advisor to Burundi Vice-President Gaston Sindimwo, is shot dead by heavily armed men in the capital Bujumbura. (AFP via Daily Mail)

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights announces that the International Criminal Court will conduct a preliminary examination of the violence in Burundi over the past year that has killed hundreds, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee abroad. (The Washington Post)

Mexican Drug War

Mexican police come under attack in a two-hour gunfight in the city of Acapulco, killing one gunman. At the same time, a separate group of gunmen attacked a federal police base in the city. (BBC)

Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)

Yemeni and Saudi-led coalition forces recapture the port city of Al Mukalla from al-Qaeda militants. (BBC)

Moro conflict

Abu Sayyaf militants, who threatened to kill three foreigners kidnapped from a "high-end" Philippine resort in September 2015, unless they were paid 900 million pesos (17 mil Euros) by midnight today (15:00 UTC), have beheaded one of the hostages, Canadian John Ridsdel. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III had ordered an all-out effort to rescue the hostages, including a Philippine woman, kidnapped by the Daesh-linked group. (Straits Times) (Journal of Turkish Weekly) (Reuters via EuroNews) (BBC)

Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh

Xulhaz Mannan, a Bangladeshi employee of a U.S. charity (USAID), who is also an editor for the country's only LGBT magazine, and a friend are hacked to death in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by suspected Islamist militants. Guards at the building were also injured. (NBC News with Reuters) (Al Jazeera)

Business and economics

British department store chain British Home Stores (BHS) collapses into administration after a last-minute rescue deal fails. The collapse of the retailer, which employs 11,000 people, is the biggest failure on the UK's high street since the collapse of Woolworths Group in 2008. (The Guardian)

Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers announces a broad-based economic reform plan, known as Vision 2030, which will help the oil-reliant state to diversify its economy over the next 14 years. (Al Jazeera)

In the United States, Gannett Company, Inc., announces that two weeks ago it made an unsolicited, $815 million takeover bid for the Tribune Publishing Company, whose holdings include a number of major newspapers, such as the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Gannett, the publisher of the national American daily USA Today as well as 107 daily newspapers, made the offer public since Tribune had not yet responded. Last month, Tribune Publishing's winning bid for the Orange County Register was blocked by the U.S. Justice Department because of an antitrust challenge. (Reuters) (Chicago Tribune) (Orange County Register)

Goldman Sachs, the American multinational investment banking firm, launches an FDIC-insured, Internet-based savings bank. The Wall Street institution, whose investment banking account minimums are in the millions, sets a minimum deposit of $1 dollar for GSBank.com. (TechCrunch) (GS Bank website)