After weeks of touring Central Asia, my friend Scott and I stopped in fascinating Istanbul for a 3-day visit on our way home.
Despite gray skies and intermittent rain, on Oct. 25, 2017, we enjoyed our visits to the usual tourist sights, finishing with the Topkapı Palace complex. Afterward, Scott wanted to explore the Galata area while I wished to revisit the Grand Bazaar. Both of us are experienced travelers, so we split up.
In early April 2018, at the age of 80, I completed an 8-day drive from Perpignan, France, into northern Spain and back into France to Bordeaux (having rented a car over the Internet, without question, from Europcar). During the trip, due to my own inattention, I allowed two credit card purchases to go through in dollars on my Barclay Aviator® American Airlines AAdvantage® card.
I bought a jacket in Barcelona on March 24, and the charge of €49.44 was converted to $64.95 at an exchange rate of $1 = €0.761144 (€1 = $1.313812).
At least 140 people were killed and many more were injured when massive dust storms struck the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on May 2. Most of the deaths and injuries were caused when buildings collapsed onto occupants due to the high winds.
The storms, which included rain and hail, caused widespread power outages and killed livestock and crops.
The country’s capital, Delhi, is just north of Uttar Pradesh and was also hit, but the storm had weakened by that point and caused little damage there.
A suicide bomber detonated a bomb beside a line of people waiting to register to vote in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 22, killing at least 57 and injuring 119. Islamist militant group Daesh (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack. Voter registration for national elections opened on April 15, and, over the next week, four registration offices were attacked. Legislative elections are set to occur in October, with presidential elections to be held in 2019.
Palestinian protests that began on March 30 at the Gaza/Israel border continued past the originally scheduled end date of April 15.
On April 20, in clashes with the Israeli military positioned at the border, four Palestinians were killed, including a 15-year-old.
On April 27, hundreds of Gazans attempted to force their way through the border fence by pulling it down or using wire cutters. In response, the Israeli military opened fire on the group, killing at least three people. More than 800 people were reported injured, 174 from gunfire.
Two suicide bombings occurred near a mosque in the city of Mubi in eastern Nigeria on May 1, killing at least 24 people. The first bomb was detonated in a group of worshipers arriving for afternoon prayers, while the second occurred at a nearby market as people fled the first bomb.
As of press time, no group had claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamist militant group Boko Haram is active in the area and has used suicide bombers in Mubi in the past.
