Africa
Somalia: US air-strikes on Shabaab camp
US drones and warplanes killed more than 150 al-Shabab militants in Somalia, with the Pentagon citing an "imminent threat" to US and African Union forces.
Tag: arms traffic
Greater Middle East
Yemen: use of cluster bombs may be war crime
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the use of cluster bombs by the Saudi-led coalition against residential neighborhoods in Yemen may amount to a war crime.
Greater Middle East
Rights groups criticize arms sale to Saudi Arabia
Human Rights Watch called on the US to cancel a pending arms sale to Saudi Arabia in the absence of serious investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations in Yemen.
Greater Middle East
US sells Turkey ‘smart bombs’ (to use against Kurds)
The Pentagon announces the sale of 900 "smart bombs" to Turkey just as Ankara is preparing to move against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.
Europe
Obama’s nuclear upgrade: Euro-missiles redux?
Revelation of Washington's plan to station missile-capable nuclear warheads in Germany was met with a Russian threat to deploy ballistic missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: Amnesty demands halt to arms transfers
Citing "damning evidence" of war crimes, Amnesty International is calling for the suspension of transfers of certain arms to the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen.
North America
Another day, another massacre…
In the wake of the latest campus shoot-up, calls are raised for pre-emptive restraint on the "mentally ill," but it is verboten to ask why so many people are driven to this pathology.
Africa
Boko Haram war spills into Chad
Authorities in Chad announced the arrest of key Boko Haram leaders amid a wave of deadly suicide bombngs in the capital, N'Djamena.
Greater Middle East
Yemen war fuels dope-for-guns trade
Both sides in Yemen's bitter Sunni-Shi'ite divide—equally intolerant of hashish-smokers and khat-chewers—are turning to the dope trade to fund their arsenals.
Mexico
Latin America: cartels build own arms industry
Mexican authorities busted another Zetas "narco-tank factory" in Nuevo Laredo on the Texas border—days after Brazilian police made a similar find in Sao Paulo.
Africa
Sahara drug trade funds Boko Haram insurgency
Traffickers have established a dope-for-guns pipeline across the Sahel and Sahara, integrating Boko Haram into drug-smuggling networks that stretch to Asia.
Southern Cone
Argentina: many are suspected in AMIA cover-up
It's not clear that anyone in Argentina's political class really wants the AMIA case solved. Israel and the US don't look much better. And suspect suicides are nothing new in Argentina.