This ground intervention by Chad, which has the backing of the African Union, is significant for the fact that its the first time a neighboring country is so directly taking the fight to Boko Haram in Nigeria. The swift victory also portends well. “Chadian forces scored a key victory over Nigeria’s Boko Haram on Tuesday, wresting control of the border town of Gamboru within hours of launching a ground offensive against the jihadist group. Around 2,000 Chadian troops backed by armoured vehicles crossed the border into Gamboru from the Cameroonian town of Fotokol after days of clashes with the insurgents.” (AFP http://yhoo.it/18Ky386)
US Drone Strike Targets Shabab Leader in Somalia…“US drone aircraft targeted a senior figure in Somalia’s Shebab militia, the Pentagon said Tuesday, in the latest bid to take out leaders of the Al-Qaeda-linked group. US special operations forces “using unmanned aircraft and several Hellfire missiles” carried out the strike on Saturday against Shebab’s chief of external operations and planning, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.” (AFP http://yhoo.it/1u55pIi)
USAID released a fact sheet containing the international development portions of President Obama’s Budget request. Here it is: http://1.usa.gov/1u57GTL
Africa
A bomb blast that went off just minutes after Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan left an election campaign rally was the work of a female suicide bomber, police said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1DtBCZn)
Some 150 journalists and civil rights activists in Burundi demonstrated Tuesday to demand the release of a radio station boss accused of complicity in the murder of three Italian nuns. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1DtBsRS)
South African education and human rights authorities said Tuesday they had launched investigations into racism at private schools after parents at one school complained that black and white pupils were segregated. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1DtBGbB)
The Zimbabwe government used violence and restricted humanitarian aid to force about 20,000 flood victims to resettle on tiny plots earmarked for a sugarcane plantation, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/18Kyhfn)
Hundreds of teachers in northern Kenya bordering Somalia have refused to return to work, fearing attacks by Islamic extremists, a union official and teachers said Tuesday. (AP http://yhoo.it/18KybED)
Weeks after floods deluged a swath of southern Africa, the full extent of the devastation in hardest-hit areas of Mozambique and Malawi is only now becoming clear. (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/16tZeTZ)
A spate of kidnappings in the Central African Republic illustrates the continuing levels of insecurity and instability in the country as it strives to turn the page on almost two years of extreme political violence. (IRIN http://bit.ly/1HV8UqY)
Britain’s Wellcome Trust said that clinical trials it was funding for a new Ebola vaccine in Liberia were halted on Tuesday due to a fall in new cases. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1u4j16t)
South Africans social entrepreneurs have come up with inventions aimed at curbing deadly fires and floods in the country’s crowded informal settlements. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1BTlTAR)
A unit of the African Union said on Tuesday it was developing outbreak and epidemic insurance for African sovereigns following the Ebola outbreak. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1BTm0wb)
MENA
WFP has declared itself “extremely concerned” by photographs showing its food parcels being handed out in Syria with Islamic State logos on them. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1zbaOh8)
Canada’s foreign minister said the release of Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy from a prison in Egypt is “imminent.” (AP http://yhoo.it/18Kycsd)
A United Nations inquiry into possible war crimes in the Gaza conflict will produce its report on time next month despite the resignation of its chairman, officials said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1BZ5ygC)
Israel called Tuesday for the shelving of a UN inquiry into its war last summer in the Gaza Strip after the probe’s head quit over Israeli accusations of conflict of interest. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1zbaUoZ)
The U.N. Security Council is condemning the apparent burning to death of a detained Jordanian pilot by the Islamic State extremist group as a “heinous and cowardly act.” (AP http://yhoo.it/16vbiUX)
Asia
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos says the organization is trying to increase aid activities in Ukraine to help more than 5 million people affected by the conflict between the government and Russia-backed rebels. (AP http://yhoo.it/18KBID1)
In Pakistan, where just a third of married women use contraception, half of all pregnancies – 4.2 million each year – are unintended, according to the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1D9Pk5W)
Opposition activists in Bangladesh trying to enforce a transport boycott threw petrol bombs at a bus early on Tuesday setting off a fire that engulfed the vehicle killing seven people, a fire department officer said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1DtBmK5)
Indonesia’s government says it is preparing to execute eight convicted drug smugglers, including seven foreigners. (AP http://yhoo.it/1BZ8xFC)
At least eight people have been killed and many more rescued from high winds and flooding caused by a huge storm that has battered Turkey since Sunday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1BZ5CNg)
Already the world’s largest, China’s online population grew last year but drifted away from Twitter-like microblogs, with the number of microblog users falling by 32 million. (AP http://yhoo.it/1BZ8ucZ)
The Americas
Cuban state media released the first photographs of former president Fidel Castro in nearly six months in a bid to quiet rumors that his health is failing. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1DtBoBA)
The parents of Mexican students believed murdered by a drugs gang appealed to the United Nations for help in seeking justice, saying they had no faith in the government’s ability to investigate the crime. (VOA http://bit.ly/1Dv70XD)
A strike by bus drivers in Haiti that brought traffic to a halt in much of the country ended a day early Tuesday after the government agreed to further reduce the regulated price of fuel. (AP http://yhoo.it/16vbvr4)
The United Nations’ new human rights chief is making an official visit to the United States, the first such visit by the high commissioner since 2007. (AP http://yhoo.it/16vakb8)
The Colombian government lashed out at leftist FARC guerrillas Tuesday for failing to actively work to dismantle minefields present in half the country’s municipalities. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1BTlDSj)
Opinion/Blogs
The invisible lesson of Invisible Children (IRIN http://bit.ly/1BSWoj4)
12 routes to more effective civil society in India (The Guardian http://bit.ly/1DCArHm)
4 Things You Probably Know About Poverty That Bill and Melinda Gates Don’t (Fast CoExist http://bit.ly/1u4yqUg)
Why You Shouldn’t Really Care that Robert Mugabe is President of the African Union. (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1CsOzWD)
Ebola Both a Health & Development Crisis (Inter Press Service http://bit.ly/16vbjs3)
Research/Reports
Water scarcity could lead to conflict between communities and nations as the world is still not fully aware of the water crisis many countries face as a result of climate change, the head of the U.N. panel of climate scientists warned on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/18Kyf7c)