Portal:Current events/2016 July 8

July 8, 2016 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Insurgency in the North Caucasus
- At least eight unidentified militants and one security officer are killed in ongoing clashes in rural Dagestan, Russia. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Boko Haram insurgency
- According to a Nigerian Army spokesman, a Boko Haram suicide bomber kills six people inside a mosque in the town of Damboa, Borno State. A second suicide bomber attempted to enter the same mosque but failed to gain entry and detonated his belt, killing only himself. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Airstrikes hit Darkush in Idlib Province near the Turkish border, killing at least 23 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least 25 died when rebels shelled government-held areas of Aleppo. Friday is the last day of a 72-hour Syrian Army-sponsored ceasefire. (Reuters) (Reuters²)
South Sudanese Civil War
- Five soldiers between the two rival Sudan People's Liberation Army factions are killed in clashes in the capital Juba, with reports of heavy gunfire continuing, despite President Salva Kiir Mayardit and rebel leader Riek Machar having reached a peace deal back in April. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Nepartak hits eastern Taiwan causing three deaths so far, 124 injuries, thousands of people to be evacuated, disrupting transport and power supplies. (Reuters) (CNN)

Health and medicine

Zika virus epidemic
- The death of an elderly Utah woman with a Zika virus infection in late June is the first reported Zika-related death in the continental United States. The woman had traveled to an area where Zika is spreading. The exact cause of death has not been determined; the lady had an underlying medical condition. (NBC News) (Time)

International relations

Law and crime

Human rights in the Philippines; Philippine Drug War
- The left-wing political party, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, which is part of the current government, asks Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to investigate the recent vigilante killings of suspected drug pushers. (GMA News)
- Opposition senator and human rights lawyer Leila de Lima has condemned the killings and urged the Philippine Congress to investigate. (Channel News Asia)
2016 shooting of Dallas police officers
- Police kill Micah X Johnson, the gunman believed responsible for the killing of five police officers and shooting of seven more in Dallas, Texas following a standoff. (Los Angeles Times)

Politics and elections

2016 Zimbabwe protests
- Protests in Harare and elsewhere in the country continue despite police intimidation and pleas by President Robert Mugabe for them to stop. (Voice of America Zimbabwe)
- President Mugabe, in a live national television broadcast from a stadium in Bindura, blames Western sanctions for his country's inability to pay government workers on time. (AP via The Washington Post) (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- #ThisFlag protest leader Pastor Evan Mawarire says the movement, which uses WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter, will hold a two-day strike next week if demands, that include sacking corrupt ministers, payment of delayed salaries, lifting of roadblocks that residents say are used by police to extract bribes, etc., are not met. A drought has aggravated the country's situation as have banks that have a daily withdrawal ceiling as low as $50. (Reuters via CNBC Africa) (Ventures Africa)