Portal:Current events/2015 November 13

Current events of November 13, 2015 (2015-11-13) (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
  • The United States conducts airstrikes targeting Kuwaiti-British militant Jihadi John. Later, the U.S. says it is "reasonably certain" a drone strike in Syria killed Jihadi John, né Mohammed Emwazi. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • November 2015 Sinjar offensive
    • Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed by U.S. airstrikes seize control of Sinjar in northern Iraq. Sinjar has been under Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant occupation since August 2014. (Reuters)
  • Multiple bombings in Baghdad targeting Iraqi Shiites kills at least 26 people. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility. (AP via Yahoo)
• November 2015 Paris attacks
  • French police report multiple blasts and gunfire in Paris with at least 26 dead in a restaurant in the 10th arrondissement and an explosion near the Stade de France. (Daily Beast) (AP) (Washington Post)
  • Hostages have been taken at an Eagles of Death Metal concert at the Bataclan theatre in the 11th arrondissement. (The Daily Beast)
  • The President of France François Hollande declares a state of emergency across France. (The Guardian)
• 2015 Beirut bombings
  • A day of mourning is held in Lebanon following two suicide attacks in the capital Beirut which killed at least 43 people. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

• The Anne Frank Fonds in Basel, Switzerland, announces that Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank, is editor and legally the co-author of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” (New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

• The U.S. Geological Survey reports a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the southwest coast of Japan. The quake occurred at 5:51 a.m., Saturday local time, 119 miles (191 km) west-southwest of Kagoshima. The Pacific Tsunami Center reports there is no threat of a tsunami from the quake. (Reuters) (AP via Marysville Appeal-Democrat)
• The bodies of eight babies are found wrapped in towels and inside plastic bags in an apartment in the town of Wallenfels in Germany's state of Bavaria. Authorities are looking for the apartment's most recent occupant, Andrea G, a 45-year-old woman. (CNN) (Irish Times)

International Relations

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • The first major survey in five years of the attitudes of British Jews toward Israel shows deep support of Israel as the Jewish state but heavy criticism of its politics and on the issue of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: 75% see the expansion of settlements as a major obstacle to peace; 73% believe Israel’s approach to peace is damaging its standing in the world; 70% back Israel’s demand that the Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state; and, 59 percent, down from 72% in 2010, describe themselves as Zionist. (The Guardian) (Haaretz)
• U.S. diplomats, amid growing international concern the violence could spiral into an ethnic conflict, push for peace talks in Burundi. The European Union advises non-essential staff to evacuate the Central African nation amid rising violence and an uptick in political rhetoric. The head of the opposition UPRONA group urges the United Nations to send peacekeepers quickly. Yesterday, the UN Security Council called on the Burundi Government to protect human rights and cooperate with regional African mediators to immediately convene “an inclusive and genuine inter-Burundian dialogue” to find a peaceful resolution of the crisis. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters) (UN)

Politics and elections

• Myanmar general election, 2015
  • Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) wins an absolute majority with 348 seats taken in the country's parliament, 19 seats more than the required 329, marking Myanmar's first democratically-elected government since the 1962 Burmese coup d'état. (The Economist) (The Guardian)

Science and technology

• WT1190F, an artificial satellite orbiting the Earth since before June 2009, impacts the Earth south of Sri Lanka. (CBC)

Sport

• The International Association of Athletics Federations votes overwhelmingly to ban Russian athletes and the All-Russia Athletic Federation from international competitions following overwhelming evidence of widespread state sponsored doping in a World Anti-Doping Agency report. (Reuters via Sydney Morning Herald)