Globe Trot 08.27

Awaiting the real start of the GOP convention in Tampa, Foreign Policy ranks the 50 most powerful Republicans on foreign policy.

Whatever happened to the abstinence rally in Uganda? World Journalism Institute fellow Eddie Ssemakula comments on what Africans see when the global AIDS-fighting community loses its way.

Kenya's quiet tech boom: Wanna race matatus on your cellphone?

Japanese journalist Mika Yamamoto is killed in Aleppo, Syria.

U.S. journalist Austin Tice is still missing in Syria. His last tweet was posted on Aug. 11.

Deadly U.S. deceit on Nigeria: Why are American diplomats insisting on calling Nigeria the "second largest Muslim state" in Africa and saying it's set to become the largest? The CIA World Factbook lists Nigeria's population of 170 million at 50 percent Muslim and 40 percent Christian. Operation World, which I suspect has better reach into the country's Christian community than the CIA, lists the breakdown as 51 percent Christian and 45 percent Muslim. Writes U.S.-based Nigerian lawyer Emmanuel Ogebes:

"[Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie] Carson apparently did not heed my advice in April when he appeared before Congress in July, but what was most disturbing of all is that his official statement was supposed to read Nigeria has "the sixth largest Muslim population in the world, and Nigeria is the world's largest country to have approximately equal number of Christians and Muslims." For whatever reason, Carson has consistently read something entirely different from what was contained in his official policy remarks. He has progressively called Nigeria a 'Muslim country' and a 'Muslim state' with very worrisome connotations for a U.S. diplomat."

Yet for all its importance to the State Department as a rising Muslim state, Nigeria was not included on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent Africa itinerary. She did stop there, though, for four hours.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the Boko Haram attack on UN headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, which killed 25. The latest large-scale attack killed 19 Christian worshipers at a Monday night Bible study on Aug. 6.

It's 1996 all over again: Insurgents beheaded 17 Afghans in a Taliban-controlled area of Helmand Province, allegedly because the Afghans attended a dance party.