News Watch

A bombing at a marketplace in Davao, Mindanao, Philippines, killed 15 people and wounded more than 60 others on Sept. 2. The bombing coincided with a visit to the city by the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, but he was not targeted. Davao is Duterte’s home city, and its mayor is his son. 

Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility for the bomb. Known for kidnapping and targeting civilians in attacks, Abu Sayyaf has been fighting a civil war in the...

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In Italy, about 500 Venetians wheeled shopping carts and wheeled chairs through the streets of Venice on Sept. 12, protesting mass tourism.

On Sept. 25, hundreds of protesters in boats blocked cruise ships from entering the Venetian Lagoon, claiming that the large ships and the enormous influx of tourists damage the city and the local environment. 

It is estimated that 60,000 tourists visit Venice, a city with a population of 55,000, each day.

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In the city of Bautzen in eastern Germany on Sept. 15, at least 80 people associated with far-right groups fought with 20 asylum seekers, resulting in minor injuries. Twenty asylum seekers, described as youths who had come to Germany as minors, fled to a shelter and were protected by police.

On Sept. 9, a Portuguese train traveling from Vigo, Spain, south to Oporto (Porto), Portugal, began to sway and then hit the side of a bridge, derailing and killing four people, including one American. Forty-seven people were injured. 

The train derailed just before reaching the station at the city of O Porriño, Spain. Investigations of the train’s black box recorder show that excessive speed may have led to the crash.

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In Indonesia, an explosion on a speedboat carrying travelers on a tour from the island of Bali to the island of Lombok killed two people and injured 19 others on Sept. 15. The ship did not sink but was left without working engines. There were 35 passengers on the boat, all from Europe. Investigators believe that a fuel leak was to blame for the explosion.

More than 1,000 cases of chikungunya were reported in Delhi, India, in September, though many more cases are likely to have gone unreported. Though the disease is not lethal, complications arising from it are suspected of killing 10 people. 

Chikungunya is a viral disease that is spread by the Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus mosquitoes. Symptoms include fever and, especially in the hands and feet, aching joints. Symptoms usually last a few days, but they can last for more than a...

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The US Department of State warns of the risk of arrest and detention of travelers to Iran, most particularly dual national Iranian-Americans, who continue to be detained or prevented from leaving Iran, in some cases for months, when traveling there for personal or professional reasons.

The US government does not have diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and cannot provide protection or routine consular services to US citizens there. The Swiss government, through its...

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A peace accord that would have ended more than 50 years of armed conflict, signed on Sept. 26 by the Colombian government and the leader of the rebel group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People’s Army), was denied by Colombian voters in a referendum on Oct. 2.

Under the terms of the peace accord, FARC fighters, numbering 7,000, would have turned in their weapons to UN inspectors within six months; any FARC leaders accused of war crimes who confessed before...

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