World Tour

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: This week’s World Tour. Here is WORLD Radio Africa correspondent Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Nigerian health worker killed—We start today here in Nigeria, where ISIS-linked militants killed a second health worker. Earlier this year 24-year-old Hauwa Mohammed Liman was working as a midwife in a refugee camp when the militants snatched her and two other women.

Liman’s mother spoke to TVC Nigeria:

MOTHER: I still can’t come to terms with my daughter’s death. All her captives wanted was money…These are women and aid workers, who should have been spared…

The militants killed Liman’s co-worker last month and announced plans to keep the third as a slave. They also plan to keep Leah Sharibu alive as a slave. She’s the Christian schoolgirl abducted from the town of Dapchi in February.

The group calling itself Islamic State West African Province is an offshoot of the terror group Boko Haram.

UN report on Yemen famine—Now to the Middle East. The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi isn’t the only global controversy involving Saudi Arabia. This week the UN warned that more than 12 million people are in danger of starvation in Yemen over the next three months.

Lise Grande spoke with the BBC.

GRANDE: I think many of us felt, as we went into the 21st century, that it was unthinkable that we could see a famine like we saw in Ethiopia, that we saw in Bengal… and yet, the reality is that in Yemen that is precisely what we are looking at.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized much of Yemen in 2015, but a Saudi-led coalition has fought back with relentless air strikes. Saudi Arabia has ignored calls to back down amid the humanitarian disaster.

Afghans head to the polls—The Taliban is calling on its fighters to target security forces in Afghanistan ahead of Saturday’s elections. Voters will head to the polls to choose 249 representatives from among nearly 2,600 candidates.

AUDIO: [Sound of victims brought to hospital]

Violence has already marred the campaign: 13 people died Saturday when a motorcycle bomb exploded during a rally in a northeastern province. And one political candidate died last week when a suicide bomber targeted his office. He was the sixth candidate killed in a targeted attack.

The Taliban has continued to fight for control of Afghanistan despite ongoing talks to end the country’s 17-year-long war.

AUDIO: [Sound of Angela Merkel speaking]

Fallout from German election—German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to restore confidence in her coalition government ahead of another regional election this month.

The Christian Social Union is Merkel’s conservative ally in Bavaria. It lost its absolute majority in that state during an election last Sunday.

Voters in Hesse, a central state that includes Frankfurt, head to the polls October 28th. Another regional election defeat could put Merkel’s long political career in doubt. She’s led Germany since 2005.

Canada makes recreational pot legal—Here’s a bit of trivia for you. What do Canada and Uruguay have in common? As of today, they’re the only two nations in the world to fully legalize marijuana.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

TRUDEAU: The reason we are choosing to legalize and control marijuana is because the current system is not protecting our kids.

After Uruguay legalized pot in 2013, Canada’s legislature voted to do the same this past June. Sales began today.

Half the world is middle class—And finally, good news for all global citizens. Two World Data Lab researchers say that half of the world’s population is now middle class.

They estimate that 3.2 billion people are financially vulnerable but still able to purchase durable goods such as refrigerators. That’s a first in human history. And it also provides a thread of stability: People who have something to lose are less likely to take up arms in a bloody conflict.

That’s this week’s World Tour. I’m Onize Ohikere.

(Photo/International Committee of the Red Cross) Hauwa Mohammed Liman

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.