Residents in South Carolina's Lowcountry were warned that water from days of flooding across the state was moving in their direction and was going to have major impacts. Already seventeen people have died since the rain began a few days ago. Eleven dams have failed and thirty-five dams are being monitored. 400,000+ state residents are under a ‘boil water advisory’ affecting sixteen water systems. Now Lowcountry residents are sandbagging homes, businesses and tourist attractions as they prepare for the surge of water heading their way. Though some areas have already dealt with flooding from the initial event, authorities said some areas that didn't see flooding may get swamped before all the water moves out to sea. High waters are still a very dangerous reality. Rescue crews went door-to- door in the capital city of Columbia as officials freed residents trapped by floods that swamped virtually the entire state. See also http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/06/us/south-carolina-flooding/

The country has been in the grips of violence and political problems since the majority-Muslim Séléka group drove out President Francois Bozizé in a coup two years ago. About three-quarters of CAR is Christian. Thousands have been killed and thousands more displaced since 2013 and now extremists have attempted to murder a Christian in CAR who is heavily involved in civil war peace efforts there. The attackers looted and burned down the house of Revd Nicolas Guerekoyame-Gbangou, the chairman of CAR's Evangelical Alliance. The chairman wasn't in at the time and his family managed to escape before they were attacked. The armed gunmen murdered two other people taking refuge in the house. The attack was part of ongoing sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims in the country, after the body of a Muslim man was found in Bangui earlier this year. 100+ people have died in the fighting and around 30,000 are currently displaced as the result of current and previous political and religious fighting.

A series of explosions on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja killed at least 18 people last Friday. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reported a further 41 people were wounded by the blasts. The first two struck Kuje township; one by a suicide bomber near a police station, the other a bomb at a market. Another bomb exploded at a bus stop in Nyanya. More than 40 people were injured in the blasts, which security officials described as co-ordinated. This year, security forces have managed to reclaim most of the territory captured by Boko Haram fighters and have freed a number of people kidnapped, but militant attacks have intensified. The victims would have been normal working-class people who were going about their business in the streets, in the market-place or waiting for a bus.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance. They met on 5 October for consultations on the potential implications of the dangerous military actions of the Russian Federation in and around Syria. On 8 October NATO defence ministers gave further considerations to the implications for NATO's own security of the ‘troubling escalation of Russian military activities’ in Syria. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, said NATO is ready to deploy forces, if needed, to defend alliance member Turkey. ‘NATO is able and ready to defend all allies, including Turkey, against any threat,’ the secretary-general said on Thursday. He said NATO had already increased its capacity, ability and preparedness to deploy forces, including to the south, including in Turkey, if needed.