Top of The World: Two suspected militia leaders from the Central African Republic on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of war crimes. And, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that an independent commission, shaped like the 9/11 Commission, will further investigate the deadly Jan. 6. insurrection. Also, according to a new poll as part of the “State of Hate: Far-right extremism in Europe” report released on Tuesday, “[a]t least a quarter of Europeans have negative feelings toward Muslims."
Pope Francis is on a pilgrimage in Africa, which he calls “the continent of hope.” But hope is something that’s been in short supply for many people of the Central African Republic. Francis plans to visit CAR, despite the shaky security situation.
When you don't have enough teachers in a town, state, or country, what do you do? Find and train a person, one expert says, “who’s really committed, and has a sense of caring, a sense of conviction to impart knowledge. If they have certain basic knowledge in terms of the content, I think we can give them the skills to make them" effective teachers.
Kony 2012 captured millions of eyeballs and about as much controversy. Two years on, the organization behind the video is still operating and still focused on capturing Joseph Kony — but the group's leaders say they've learned a lot from their experience with their viral video.
Is Iran expecting relations with the US to go south again? US officials say Iran is building a replica of the aircraft carrier the USS Nimitz — seemingly as a propaganda ploy. An imam who spoke for al-Qaeda after 9/11 says he became the terrorist organization's spokesman by accident. And the pope breaks with Italy's mafia, in today's Global Scan.
Many of the Central African Republic's Muslims have either fled to neighboring countries or been the victims of ethnic cleansing by extremist Christian militias. But a Catholic priest is protecting about a thousand Muslims at his church, with peacekeepers at the gate and militiamen just beyond.
Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has written extensively on how the US should respond to humanitarian atrocities. She's had some success putting that into practice in the Central African Republic — but not so much in Syria.
Sudan and South Sudan were locked in a civil war for decades. Now, as violence erupts in the new country of South Sudan, Sudan is bracing for the consequences.
Associated Press photographer Jerome Delay chose to stay in the Central African Republic when many of his peers went to South Africa to cover the death of Nelson Mandela. He felt he needed to show the world what was going on in the chaotic African nation.
French troops, as part of a UN-approved peacekeeping mission, are in the Central African Republic and have just suffered their first casualties. While the violence there seems motivated by religious differences, journalist Eliza Griswold says the deeper issues involve politics, diamonds and gold, and identity.
World leaders and regular people gathered Tuesday in South Africa to honor Nelson Mandela — a man who was labelled a terrorist by the US until 8 years ago, a friend of China and Cuba, and now a symbol of hope and reconciliation for millions. We also look at Saudi Arabia's interest in its own human genome project, one of the most extreme zipline rides in the world, and a video game where the villian is alcoholism. All that and more, in today's Global Scan.