Globe Trot: Gaza death toll climbs

ISRAEL AND GAZA: Health officials in Gaza say the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has reached 100, as Israel pressed its campaign to shut down rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli territory. By nightfall Thursday, more than 350 rockets had been fired at Israel, about 90 of them intercepted by Iron Dome, and the Israeli Air Force had carried out almost 900 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. This map depicts what it would look like on the East Coast if Gaza rocket launchers were your neighbors.

CHINA: In China, abortion is “as common as drinking water,” one woman told reporter June Cheng—and few people, including Christians, know about life inside the womb or understand the abortion procedure. Leaders in China’s growing Christian movement are speaking out, even as the actual number of abortions soars to a likely 30 million a year. This is an exclusive, undercover report in the latest issue of WORLD.

LIBERIA: A record Ebola outbreak continues to rage in West Africa, with 44 new cases and 11 deaths reported in just three days this week. Samaritan’s Purse has assumed responsibility at one of the lead medical facilities treating the deadly virus, which has no vaccine and has a mortality rate between 60 and 90 percent. A new team of medical personnel from North America is joining the effort, and the virus poses high risks also for those treating it.

INDONESIA: Police in Jakarta prepared for a crackdown on potential unrest after Wednesday’s presidential elections ended in an apparent deadlock. Jakarta governor Joko Widodo led in immediate counts with 52 percent of the vote, but other polls showed ex-army Gen. Prabowo Subianto ahead. A formal count could take two weeks.

SOUTH SUDAN: The EU has followed the United States today in imposing sanctions on two leading South Sudanese military figures accused of spawning fighting within the fledgling government that has killed thousands and displaced more than 1 million since it erupted in December. Rebel commander Peter Gadet and army commander Santino Deng also have been linked to atrocities.

EL SALVADOR: Gang warfare on one recent weekend in the capital San Salvador resulted in 31 deaths, as an OAS-negotiated truce between rival gangs has fallen apart. “The control the gangs hold over their territories has never been so complete. It is without precedent,” said Carlos E. Ponce, a criminologist and former adviser to the National Civilian Police.

WORLD CUP: Ahead of Sunday’s finale between Germany and Argentina, 200 fans from Ghana, part of an entourage sponsored by the Ghanaian government, have requested asylum in Brazil—claiming to be Muslims fleeing religious conflict.

AMERICANS IN PARIS: The American who took Paris by storm wasn’t a painter or a writer, but a dentist.

"Today when we think of Americans in Paris during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the figures that come to mind are mostly Left Bank creative types: John Singer Sargent, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway. But Thomas Evans was just one of many who came from the land of the free to the City of Light not to write or paint but to work."