Saturday

December 5, 2015

Armed conflicts and attacks

A bombing of people gathered at Kantajew Temple in Bangladesh leaves 10 injured. (India Today)

Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)

The Government of Iraq calls on Turkey to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq, near the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul. Iraq's Foreign Ministry said Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory without the knowledge of the central government in Baghdad. (AFP via Yahoo), (Reuters)

Islamist insurgency in Nigeria

Three suicide bombers at Lake Chad kill at least 30 people and injure at least 80 others. Three women carried out the attack at a weekly market on an island on the Chadian side of the lake. No group claims responsibility; officials suspect the attacks were carried out by members of the Boko Haram militant group from neighboring Nigeria. (Al Jazeera), (BBC)

Terrorism in the United Kingdom

Scotland Yard advises that it will be treating three non-fatal stabbings at the Leytonstone tube station in London as a terrorist incident. (BBC)

Arts and culture

America's largest seven-day newspaper, The New York Times, breaking with the tradition that front pages belong to the news department, publishes Saturday morning's edition with the first front page editorial since 1920. The editorial calls for tighter gun control laws after the shootings in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and San Bernardino, California, over the past eight days. (The New York Times), (The Washington Post), (The Guardian)

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announces the discovery of the Spanish galleon San José which sunk off that country’s coast over 300 years ago. The discovery was a joint venture between Colombia and U.S. firm Sea Search Armada, which filed a lawsuit when Colombia claimed the wreck as a heritage site. The wreck’s cargo is placed somewhere in the $4 to $17 billion range. (NPR)