December 5, 2015 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
- The Government of Iraq calls on Turkey to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq, near the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul. Iraq's Foreign Ministry said Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory without the knowledge of the central government in Baghdad. (AFP via Yahoo), (Reuters)
- Islamist insurgency in Nigeria
- Three suicide bombers at Lake Chad kill at least 30 people and injure at least 80 others. Three women carried out the attack at a weekly market on an island on the Chadian side of the lake. No group claims responsibility; officials suspect the attacks were carried out by members of the Boko Haram militant group from neighboring Nigeria. (Al Jazeera), (BBC)
- Terrorism in the United Kingdom
- Scotland Yard advises that it will be treating three non-fatal stabbings at the Leytonstone tube station in London as a terrorist incident. (BBC)
- A bombing of people gathered at Kantajew Temple in Bangladesh leaves 10 injured. (India Today)
Arts and culture
- America's largest seven-day newspaper, The New York Times, breaking with the tradition that front pages belong to the news department, publishes Saturday morning's edition with the first front page editorial since 1920. The editorial calls for tighter gun control laws after the shootings in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and San Bernardino, California, over the past eight days. (The New York Times), (The Washington Post), (The Guardian)
- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announces the discovery of the Spanish galleon San José which sunk off that country’s coast over 300 years ago. The discovery was a joint venture between Colombia and U.S. firm Sea Search Armada, which filed a lawsuit when Colombia claimed the wreck as a heritage site. The wreck’s cargo is placed somewhere in the $4 to $17 billion range. (NPR)
Disasters and accidents
- 2015 South Indian floods
- Floods cut off power to the intensive care unit of a Chennai hospital leaving eighteen patients dead. (AP via ABC News)
- Residents in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu grapple with the aftermath of the worst deluge in decades, a disaster that claimed 280 lives, according to the official death toll. More than half of Chennai's 859 city areas remain under water in the flat, coastal city of six million. The National Disaster Response Force's Rekha Nambiar said, “Rescue work is over. We are focused on relief now." (The Malay Mail), (The Gulf Today)
- Storm Desmond
- The fourth named windstorm of the season makes landfall across the United Kingdom and Ireland, bringing high winds and serious flooding. (BBC)
- A person blown into the path of a bus by high winds in London dies. (BBC)
- Authorities declare a state of emergency in the Greek town of Tripoli after the garbage has not been collected for three months. (The International New York Times)
- An offshore oil platform operated by Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR catches fire in the Caspian Sea killing 32 workers. (CBC News), (The Daily Mail)
International relations
- 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- The United Nations advises that Yemeni peace talks will start on December 15. (Reuters)