1. Thousands break Ebola quarantine

    Thousands of people in Sierra Leone* have been forced to violate Ebola quarantines* to find food because deliveries are not reaching them.

    The government, with help from the United Nation’s World Food Program, is tasked with delivering food and other services to those people. But there are many “nooks* and crannies” in the country that are being missed, Jeanne Kamara, Christian Aid’s Sierra Leone representative, said on November 4.

    2. U.N. to blacklist Libya’s Ansar al-Sharia

    Britain, the United States and France have proposed that Islamist extremist group Ansar al-Sharia in Libya be blacklisted* under the United Nations al-Qaida sanctions regime*, diplomats said on November 4.

    If all 15 members of the U.N. Security Council’s al-Qaida sanctions committee agree, the group will be added to the list on November 19.

    Ansar al-Sharia is blamed by Washington for a 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in the city of Benghazi that killed the American ambassador.

    3. Mexico hopes to find missing students

    Authorities sought to finally solve the five-week-old disappearance of 43 students that has outraged* Mexico after catching a fugitive* ex-mayor and wife suspected of ordering police to attack them.

    After a month on the run, Jose Luis Abarca, the former mayor of the southern city of Iguala, and Maria de los Angeles Pineda were captured by federal police early on November 4 in Mexico City’s working-class district of Iztapalapa.

    Officials voiced hope the arrests would yield new clues about the whereabouts of the students.

    4. Bag of meth found in Halloween candy

    American police in the San Francisco Bay area were seeking clues on November 4 as to how a plastic bag of methamphetamine* turned up in the Halloween candy of an 8-year-old girl.

    The girl’s father found a pinkish-colored bag containing a powdery substance* while checking his daughter’s trick-or-treat collection on November 3 and called authorities, police said.

    5. Russia pulls out of Nuke Security Summit

    Russia has informed the United States that it will boycott* the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, U.S. diplomats said.

    Officials had revealed on November 3 that Moscow was absent from a week ago’s initial summit planning session in Washington. On November 4, two diplomats said the boycott applied to the 2016 meeting as well.

    6. Obama picks new attorney general

    U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday nominated Loretta Lynch as his next U.S. attorney general*, describing the two-time U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York as a “tough, fair and independent” lawyer.

    The first African-American woman to hold the nation’s top law enforcement post, Lynch vowed to “wake up every morning with the protection of the American people my first thought.”

    The nominee, when confirmed by the Senate, will replace Eric Holder, who announced his plans in September to step down*.

    7. Airstrikes hit IS militant leaders in Iraq

    The fate of the Islamic State (IS) group’s enigmatic leader remained unclear on Sunday after the U.S.-led coalition unleashed* airstrikes near the Iraqi city of Mosul targeting top jihadist militants.

    Claims swirled that hard-line* IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed in the attacks on November 7, but U.S. officials could not confirm if he had even been present.(SD-Agencies)