Portal:Current events/2015 January 17

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Current events of January 17, 2015 (2015-01-17) (Saturday)

Terrorism in Yemen
- Gunmen abduct the chief of staff to Yemen's president in the center of the capital, Sanaa. It is uncertain if Shiite Houthi rebels or Al-Qaeda militants kidnapped Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak. (AP)
Violence surrounding various protests against Charlie Hebdo leaves five protesters dead as well as some churches set ablaze in Niger. (BBC), (Telegraph)
Islamist insurgency in Nigeria:
- Following the January 16 Chad authorities decision to send troops to Nigeria and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram militants, the Russian ambassador to the country pledges to supply Cameroon with more modern weapons to combat the Islamist insurgents. (Economic Times)
2013–15 Ukrainian crisis:
- Clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia rebels over Donetsk International Airport intensifies. (Al Jazeera)

2015 Papal visit to Sri Lanka and the Philippines
- Pope Francis celebrates mass at Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda)-hit city of Tacloban with an audience of half-a-million people. (BBC)
- The Pope cuts his Tacloban trip short as an approaching typhoon threatened the city in the Philippines. This cyclone may also affect Francis's scheduled closing Mass on Sunday in the capital, Manila.(CNN) (AP via U-T San Diego)

The rescue and recovery efforts at the wreckage of the January 15 capsized tugboat on China's Yangtze River near the city of Jingjiang finds that twenty-one people are dead while three are rescued. (Straits Times)
A shark attack injures a boy and kills some dolphins in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. (USA Today)

A murder and suicide in a Melbourne, Florida mall leaves one person dead and another wounded followed by the suicide of the gunman. (FOX News)

In football, the Africa Cup of Nations gets underway in Equatorial Guinea. The tournament was scheduled to be hosted by Morocco, but they refused to act as host because of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. (AAP via SBS)