Street Art can become a credible vehicle for peace in violent spaces, as International Alert's Talking Peace Festival and the story of one of its exhibiting artists shows, says Alex Matchett. [...] On whether street art can change the world Westergard points at its political heritage: 'In theory a lot of propaganda has been 'street art' - think of those Bolshevik posters plastered everywhere in old Russia.

 When Islamic State militants posted a video over the weekend showing the grisly killing of a Japanese journalist, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reacted with outrage, promising “to make the terrorists pay the price.”Such vows of retribution may be common in the West when leaders face extremist violence, but they have been unheard of in confrontation-averse Japan — until now.. 

The revered voice of Ugandan priest John Ssenyondo has gone quiet in his old parish in the Mexican town of Nejapa. His body was found in a mass grave last October, six months after he was abducted in broad daylight, while preaching against drug gangs. But his parishioners in Guerrero state continue to remember a man who stood for reconciliation.

BOKO Haram has massacred scores of children, gloated about the kidnap and enslavement of more than 200 teenage girls and killed thousands more in a brutal five-year uprising to create a strict Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. But the Islamist rebels’ latest video showing an unidentified community happy to be under their control is a departure for a group whose trademark has been brutal hit-and-run attacks against civilians.

The United States and its partners are focusing their military might on stopping the spread of the group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and on disrupting IS operations in Syria. Behind the scenes, however, efforts also are underway to prevent the violence from spreading back to Europe and the United States.  

At least nine Libyan soldiers were killed in the early hours of Friday morning, and dozens injured, after clashes broke out between Ansar al Sharia militants and other Islamist militants. In addition, three Libyan soldiers were killed Tuesday morning, and two others injured, after a suicide bomber blew up his car at the entrance of an army brigade headquarters in the city of Benghazi.