Boko Haram releases 21 school girls

  Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group that has been waging war against Nigerians for years, kidnapped over 200 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria on April 14, 2014. After over two years of captivity, Boko Haram finally released 21 of about 270 Nigerian girls on October 13, 2016. The release of these 21 girls is the biggest breakthrough yet, as negotiations with the terrorist group have fallen apart many times. Negotiations between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram will continue, according to the president of Nigeria, to try and retrieve all the girls who were taken. The Nigerian Government plans to not only retrieve all the girls, but also gain support from other local governments and officially end the reign of Boko Haram.

U.S. leads Iraqi forces to retake Mosul

  U.S. Troops have been inching closer and closer to Mosul, a city in northern Iraq. Mosul is the last major city under the control of ISIS in Iraq, and it is the next target for the U.S. to defeat ISIS. The U.S., leading the Iraqi force, has used air strikes as a form of attacking the city and the surrounding towns. However, the Humans Rights Watch is investigating one of the air strikes, which hit a mosque filled with civilians, killing approximately a dozen people. Nevertheless, airstrikes will continue to happen so that the troops can keep marching toward Mosul. The next target is the town of Hammam al-Alil, which just south of Mosul.

New developments on missing Malaysian Air flight

  Until now, nobody could locate Flight MH370 of Malaysian Airlines, which disappeared on March 8, 2014. Scientists found some of the plane’s debris, and these discoveries help scientists to figure out what happened to the plane and the 239 people on board. Seven of the twenty pieces of debris that were found have been classified as definitely or likely from the missing plane. Among them, the two wing flaps have been recovered, and the analysis of these objects found that they were not in landing position when the plane went into the Indian Ocean. This new information also indicates that the plane was increasing its speed when descending in the air, and it also begs the question of whether or not someone was actually in control of the plane when it fell to the ocean. The search for other parts of the plane in the Indian Ocean will continue until early next year.