Portal:Current events/2016 January 17

Current events of January 17, 2016 (2016-01-17) (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks 2016 Jakarta attacks The confirmed death toll from this week's attacks rises to eight. (Reuters via Jerusalem Post) War in Afghanistan (2015–present) A suicide bomber kills at least 13 people and injures 14 in the Afghan city of Jalalabad. (Reuters via LBC Australia), (AFP via Yahoo! News) Syrian Civil War Deir ez-Zor massacre ISIL militants abduct at least 400 civilians from the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor. (Sky News) Iraqi Civil War (2014–present) At least 13 civilians have been killed by a roadside bomb while fleeing from fighting between Iraqi security forces and ISIL near Ramadi. (Al-Jazeera) Three Americans are missing, feared kidnapped, in Baghdad. Several unconfirmed reports claim that they were kidnapped by a shi'ite militant group. (Washington Examiner) Yemeni Civil War (2015–present) A suicide-bomb attack outside the police chief's house in Aden, southern Yemen, leaves at least 7 people dead. (AP via ABC News) Disasters and accidents At least five people are killed and ten injured in a microbus crash in Egypt's New Valley Governorate. (Ahram Online) Health Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa Sierra Leone imposes quarantine on hundreds of people following a recent death from the Ebola virus. (AFP via ABC News) Politics and elections Iran–Saudi Arabia relations Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Raheel Sharif will visit Riyadh on Monday and Tehran on Tuesday to launch mediation efforts between Iran and Saudi Arabia for normalization of relations and to ease the tensions in the region after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr and an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. (DAWN) (Pakistan Today) (India Times) Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Europe and the United States lift sanctions imposed on Iran regarding its nuclear programme, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action begins to be implemented. (BBC) Sports Buzzfeed and the BBC report there is evidence of alleged widespread match-fixing by "16 players who have ranked in the top 50" of world tennis involving Northern Italian, Sicilian, and Russian betting syndicates "at major tournaments including Wimbledon." (Buzzfeed) (BBC)