Portal:Current events/2021 October 16

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Afghanistan conflict
  • 2021 Kandahar bombing, 2021 Kunduz mosque bombing
    • The Taliban says that they will step up security at Shi'ite mosques after ISIS–K bombed mosques in Kunduz and Kandahar this month, killing over 120 people in total. (Reuters)
• Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
  • Two workers are killed by gunmen in Srinagar and Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, in a spike of civilians being killed by rebels in the area. (Greater Kashmir)
  • A Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and another militant are killed during a gunfight with security forces in Pulwama. The killed commander, who was involved in the murder of two policemen, was among the top 10 targets of Jammu and Kashmir police. It is also announced that two more rebels, involved in the recent killings of civilians, were killed yesterday during a gunfight in Srinagar. (India Today)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Twenty Boko Haram militants and three Nigerian Army soldiers are killed during a gunfight as the military has tried to recapture the Nigerian town of Maiduguri. (Sahara Reporters)
• Murder of David Amess
  • Yesterday's killing of MP Sir David Amess, who was stabbed to death in a Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, is declared as a terrorist incident by police. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2021 Bali earthquake
  • Three people are killed and seven are injured as a 4.8 earthquake hits Bali, Indonesia. (Al Jazeera)
• Eleven people drown during a school outing for a river clean-up in West Java, Indonesia. (Al Jazeera)

Health and environment

• COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
    • COVID-19 pandemic in Tasmania
      • Southern Tasmania, including the state capital of Hobart, enters a lockdown after an increase in locally transmitted COVID-19 cases. (The Guardian)
  • COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
    • Russia reports a record for the fourth consecutive day of 1,002 deaths from COVID-19, which is the first time that the country has reported more than 1,000 COVID-related deaths in a single day since the pandemic began. Only 32% of the population has been fully vaccinated, amid wide distrust in vaccines. (France 24)

Law and crime

• Hong Kong national security law
  • Seven activists are sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to twelve months' imprisonment for protesting against the national security law in July 2020. Among those sentenced are Leung Kwok-hung and Figo Chan. Leung is currently serving two sentences of 18 months' imprisonment for other charges and Chan is currently serving a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment for unauthorized assembly. (Al Jazeera) (RTHK)
• Argentine federal judge María Romilda Servini indicts post Franco-era Spanish minister Rodolfo Martín Villa on four counts of homicide. Villa, who resides in Spain, says that he will appeal the decision of the Argentine judge. (SwissInfo)
• An unidentified armed gang kidnaps 15 American missionaries and their families in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (AFP via Barron's)
• Colombian businessman Alex Saab is extradited to the United States from Cape Verde ahead of an initial court appearance in Florida on October 18 over his alleged money laundering for the Venezuelan government. (AFP via Deccan Herald)

Politics and elections

• French president Emmanuel Macron condemns the Paris massacre of 1961 on the eve of its 60th anniversary, but does not issue a formal apology. Macron is the first French president to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims. (AFP via WION)

Science and technology

• Chinese space program
  • Shenzhou 13 launches on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia, for the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station, where the crew will stay for six months. It will be China's longest crewed mission to date. (AFP via NDTV)
• Discovery Program
  • Lucy, a NASA spacecraft that will visit Jupiter's trojan asteroids in twelve years, launches at 05:34 EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (CNN)