Portal:Current events/2015 August 7

• Suspected Islamist militants stormed two hotels in central Mali where UN peacekeepers were housed, seizing at least ten hostages and killing three Malian soldiers and a U.N. peacekeeper. (The Times of Oman), (Reuters)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • A truck bomb explodes in Kabul leaving at least fifteen people dead and 400 more injured. (BBC)
  • A bombing outside the Kabul police academy kills at least 20 people with the Taliban claiming responsibility. (AFP via ABC News)
• Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
  • Tadmur offensive (July–August 2015), Syrian Civil War
    • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that ISIL has kidnapped at least 230 people, including at least 60 Christians, from Al-Qaryatayn in the Homs Governorate. (Reuters), (RFERL)
  • Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants execute 19 women in Mosul, Iraq, for refusing to have sex with the group’s fighters.

• North Korea will change its time zone to UTC+08:30 on August 15, returning to the time used by the Korean Empire until Japanese occupation in 1910. (BBC)

• 2015 Pacific typhoon season
  • Taiwan evacuates hundreds of people ahead of Typhoon Soudelor (2015). (Reuters via WA Today)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution aimed at identifying those responsible for deploying chlorine and other chemical weapons in attacks in Syria. (The Hindustan Times), (VOA)

• Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh
  • A Bangladeshi blogger known for his atheist views is hacked to death by a gang armed with machetes, the fourth such incident this year, in the capital Dhaka. (BBC), (The Telegraph), (The Hindu)
• 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting
  • The jury in the penalty phase of the trial of Aurora theater shooter James Holmes reaches a verdict to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. (Reuters), (AP), (WABC)

• 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup
  • FIBA announces that China will host the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. China is chosen over the Philippines, the only other candidate nation, for the hosting rights of the tournament. (The Japan Times)