Portal:Current events/2015 September 21

• Syrian Civil War, Russia's role in the Syrian Civil War
  • Government forces target al-Shaar neighborhood in eastern Aleppo city with surface-to-surface missiles, hitting a crowded public market, killing more than 30 civilians and dozens wounded. (Ara News)
  • U.S. officials say Russia has begun flying drones on surveillance missions over Syria in what would be Russia's first military air operations in the country since the recent military build-up at a Syrian airbase in Latakia. (Reuters)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • A car bomb in Somalia kills at least six people at the gates of the presidential palace in Mogadishu. (BBC)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
  • An Islamic State car bomb kills at least 12 people in Baghdad. (Reuters)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • A Saudi-led military coalition bombardment in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, kills at least 50 people. (Reuters)
• Moro conflict
  • Gunmen abduct a Norwegian resort manager, two Canadians, and a Filipino from a resort in the southern Philippines. (AP)

• Pope Francis, on the second day of his journey in Cuba, leaves Havana for Holguin. He says a Mass at Revolution Plaza, blesses Holguin from the Loma de la Cruz area, arrives in Santiago de Cuba, flies to Santiago de Cuba, meets with the Cuban Bishops at Saint Basil the Great Seminary, and says a prayer with them at the Minor Basilica of the Basílica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre (Shrine of Our Lady of del Cobre). (CNN)

• French regulator Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) rejects Google, Inc.'s appeal of their order that the company remove 'Right to be forgotten (RTBF)' search results worldwide. Failure to comply could subject Google to sanctions, from €300,000 (US$460,000) to 5 percent of global operating costs. The Guardian, (PC World)
• Apple Inc announces that it will speed up work on an electric car to be ready by 2019. (Wall Street Journal), (VentureBeat)
• Many Skype users are unable to access the service. The Microsoft-owned company acknowledges the problem. (Reuters), (Skype)

• The toll of homes destroyed by Northern California wildfires reaches 1,600. (AP)

• European migrant crisis
  • Hungary's parliament passes a law allowing the Hungarian military to help handle the migrant crisis at its borders with Serbia and Croatia, including the right to use non-lethal force such as rubber bullets, pyrotechnical devices, tear gas grenades or net guns. (Reuters)
  • The United States White House announces the U.S. will give $419 million more in humanitarian aid to assist Syrian refugees and the countries that are hosting them. (The Washington Post)

• In Auckland, New Zealand, an extradition hearing for Kim Dotcom, former owner of a file sharing website, for alleged copyright infringement, racketeering, and money laundering begins, seeking to bring him to the U.S. (BBC)
• At least eight people are killed and 45 wounded in shootings over the weekend across Chicago. (Fox Chicago)
• A Denver, Colorado federal jury convicts Harold Henthorn of murder in the death of his wife Toni Henthorn, who fell off a cliff as they hiked in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate their wedding anniversary. His previous wife had also died in suspicious circumstances. (AP)
• Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell is sentenced to 28 years for Salmonella typhimurium-tainted peanut butter, the most severe punishment ever handed out to a producer in a foodborne illness case. In late 2008 and early 2009, nine people died and at least 714 people in 46 states, half of them children, fell ill. Parnell and his brother were convicted in September 2014 of 71 criminal counts. His brother Michael Parnell is sentenced to 20 years, and the plant's former quality control manager Mary Wilkerson is sentenced to five years. (LA Times), (USA Today)

• Political parties in Northern Ireland hold talks to save a power-sharing agreement following claims that Irish nationalist militants were involved in the murder of a former operative. (Reuters)
• 2016 United States presidential election
  • Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker quits his campaign for the Republican Party nomination. (The New York Times)
• 2015 Burkinabe coup d'état
  • The coup leader General Gilbert Diendéré says that he is ready to hand over power to transitional authorities as the army marches on the capital Ouagadougou. (BBC)