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<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Harouna Traore</span></p><p class="caption">People run to flee from the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, Mali, Friday, Nov. 20, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div>BAMAKO (Reuters) - Security forces have stormed a hotel in Mali where gunmen shouting Islamic slogans have killed at least three people and are holding another 170 people hostage.</p><p>At least three hostages, one French and two Malian, have been killed in the siege after gunmen stormed the building shouting "<span>Allahu Akbar</span>," <a href="https://twitter.com/JFXM/status/667653454085664769">according to AFP.</a></p><p>The raid on the Radisson Blu hotel, which lies just west of the city center near government ministries and diplomatic offices in the former French colony, comes a week after Islamic State (IS) militants killed 129 people in Paris.</p><p><span>The gunmen have taken the hotel floor by floor, and according to a report in </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/12006988/Mali-Bamako-terrorist-attack-170-hostages-Paris-live.html">The Telegraph</a><span>, are freeing hostages if they can recite verses from the Qur'an.</span></p><p><span>A spokesperson for the Malian forces told AFP that they were able to free "around a dozen people."</span></p><p>The identity of the Bamako gunmen, who entered the building with rifles and grenades, is not known. It is not clear if they are affiliated with a terrorist organisation. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Harouna Traore</span></p><p class="caption">Onlookers gather near the Radisson Blu hotel after gunmen stormed the building in Bamako, Mali, Friday, Nov. 20, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Northern Mali was occupied by Islamist fighters, some with links to al Qaeda, for most of 2012. Although they were driven out by a French-led military operation, sporadic violence has continued.</p><p>The 190-room hotel is popular with western business people, diplomats, and politicians. Among those inside the hotel were six Turkish Airline personnel, three of which managed to escape, and three UN employees, all of which were evacuated. The hotel was also hosting a massive international mining conference meaning the hotel was likely hosting several executives from the industry.</p><p>The US embassy in Mali has urged American citizens in the country to follow orders from local authorities and remain sheltered.</p><p>The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said several Chinese tourists were among those trapped inside the building.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Google Maps</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"According to our information, two people are holding 140 clients and 30 employees," it said in a statement quoted by the BBC.</p><p>A senior member of the hotel's security detail said two private security guards had been injured in the early stages of the attack, which began at 7 a.m. (0700 GMT).</p><p>Witnesses in the area said police had surrounded the hotel and were blocking roads leading into the neighborhood. One local tweeted the below: "Some images of the panic in the streets near the hotel."</p><p>The U.S. Embassy tweeted that it was "aware of an ongoing active shooter operation at the Radisson Hotel."</p><p>An Islamist group claimed responsibility for the death of five people last March in an attack on a restaurant in Bamako that is popular with foreigners. </p>

Gunmen have killed 3 people and are holding another 170 hostage in a hotel in Mali

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Army Special Operations Command</span></p><p class="caption">Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar was killed June 4 in Bamako, Mali.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>A US Army Green Beret was found strangled to death in his hotel in Bamako, Mali.</strong></li><li><strong>The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating two Navy SEALs who were flown out of the country just after the killing and placed on administrative leave.</strong></li></ul><p><br />After Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar of the US Army's elite Special Forces turned up dead at his hotel in Bamako, Mali, military criminal authorities launched an investigation into two Navy SEALs who were flown out of the country just after the death, and placed on "administrative leave," <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/29/us/politics/navy-seals-team-6-strangle-green-beret-mali.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to The New York Times</a>.</p><p>Melgar, who was found dead on June 4, belonged to the same unit that lost four soldiers in an ambush in Niger earlier in October. The SEALs in question belonged to SEAL Team 6, the same unit that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011.</p><p>Military medical examiners ruled Melgar's death "a homicide by asphyxiation," and the two SEALs who were staying at the same hotel have gone from being referred to as "witnesses" to "persons of interest," according to the Times.</p><p>The incident took place just a few months before it dawned on many in the US, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/niger-ambush-special-forces-what-happened-2017-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">including members of Congress</a>, that the US has a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/niger-ambush-timeline-special-forces-joe-dunford-2017-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">large, wide-ranging military presence in Africa</a>.</p><p>Melgar, and the SEALs in question, worked in Mali gathering intelligence and helping local forces train and conduct counterterrorism missions, according to the Times.</p><p>Outside of tragic mistakes and friendly fire episodes, US servicemembers rarely kill each other, prompting wild speculation about why the SEALs may have acted against Melgar. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is on the case.</p><h2>Read the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/29/us/politics/navy-seals-team-6-strangle-green-beret-mali.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">full report from the New York Times here »</a></h2>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/4th-fighter-wing-f-15e-strike-eagle-paint-job-time-lapse-2017-10">Watch this F-15E Strike Eagle receive a special paint job in this incredible time-lapse</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

2 Navy SEALs are 'persons of interest' in real-life NCIS case after Green Beret strangled and killed in Mali

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Scores of people&#xa0;are <a href="https://twitter.com/AAhronheim/status/688126121213181952">reportedly</a> trapped <a href="https://twitter.com/AAhronheim/status/688127257399836672">inside</a> the Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, after gunfire and multiple explosions went off nearby.<p>The West-African hotel is popular with Westerners, witnesses said. Reports also surface that an assault&#xa0;from government security forces on the hotel is "<a href="https://twitter.com/ImadMesdoua/status/688128056620257280">imminent</a>."</p><p>An Associated Press reporter near the scene said that several cars were also ablaze outside the four-story Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou and that sporadic gunfire could still be heard two hours after the attack began.</p><p>It was not immediately clear who was behind the violence, though jihadists have attacked hotels before in neighboring Mali, including a devastating attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in November that left 20 people dead.</p><p>The U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou tweeted: "We are closely following the situation downtown."</p><p>While Burkina Faso has largely been spared the violence wracked by Islamic extremist groups in Mali, a Romanian national was abducted last April.</p><p>Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country, has been in turmoil since its longtime president was ousted in a popular uprising in late 2014. Last September members of a presidential guard launched a coup that lasted only about a week. The transitional government returned to power until Burkina Faso's November election ushered in new leaders.</p><p><div></div></p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;<div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;<div></div></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>

Scores of people reportedly trapped in a hotel after gunfire, explosions in Burkina Faso's capital

<ul class="summary-list"><li>French <keyword id="11908125" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="journalist" source="Orion">journalist</keyword> Olivier Dubois hasn't been seen for nine months.</li><li>He was kidnapped in April 2021 when he was set to interview a jihadist leader in <keyword id="6360719" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mali" source="Orion">Mali</keyword>.</li></ul><p>A French journalist has been missing for nine months since appearing in a kidnap video apparently released by the jihadist group he sought to interview.</p><p>On April 8, 2021, Olivier Dubois had flown from Mali's capital, Bamako, to Gao, on an arrangement made by his fixer, <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/mali-un-journaliste-francais-enleve-par-un-groupe-jihadiste-05-05-2021-2425127_23.php">Agence France-Presse reported</a>. The fixer had secured him an interview with JNIM's leader Abdallah Ag Albakaye, the agency reported.</p><p>But on May 5, a 20-second video was posted to social media showing Dubois sitting in a tent, saying that he was in the custody of the al-Qaeda-affiliated group, Jamaa Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). </p><p>Having lived in Mali since 2015, Dubois is well-connected — particuarly in jihadist circles, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr./afrique/article/2021/05/05/comment-le-journaliste-olivier-dubois-a-ete-enleve-au-mali_6079266_3212.html">according to Le Monde</a>. Libération, the French newspaper he had been working with, <a href="https://www.liberation.fr/international/afrique/notre-correspondant-olivier-dubois-otage-au-mali-20210505_FXI3DPDPGFDYTKLZV6D6TX2GRQ/">reported that it declined the interview</a> with the group on the grounds that it was too dangerous, but Dubois set out anyway. </p><p>Two days later, when he was expected back from Gao, he did not show up at the airport, AFP reported.</p><p>The French embassy in Mali did not immediately announce his disappearance as it worked behind the scenes to secure his release, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/05/french-journalist-olivier-dubois-kidnapped-mali-alqaeda/">The Washington Post reported</a>. But on May 5, after the video was released, <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/dossiers-pays/mali/evenements/article/situation-d-olivier-dubois-q-r-extrait-du-point-de-presse-05-05-21">the embassy confirmed the kidnap</a> and said it had been trying to verify the video as genuine. </p><p>His disappearance was initially kept secret in order to aid negotiations, <a href="https://cpj.org/2021/05/cpj-calls-for-immediate-release-of-kidnapped-french-journalist-olivier-dubois-in-mali/">the Committee to Protect Journalists reported</a>.</p><p>The embassy did not return Insider's request for an update on the situation.</p><p>The video was posted by a pro-al-Qaeda media outlet, Wareeth al-Qassam, according to the CPJ. Wareeth al-Qassam did not take responsibility for the kidnap, the CPJ reported. It is unclear if the footage has since been verified.</p><p>The Post reported that in the video, which it viewed, Dubois appeared to be wearing a traditional garment and sitting cross-legged on the floor. </p><p>"I'm Olivier Dubois. I'm French. I'm a journalist. I was kidnapped in Gao on April 8 by the JNIM," The Post reported him as saying. "I'm speaking to my family, my friends and the French authorities for them to do everything in their power to free me."</p><p>The JNIM is the largest jihadist alliance in the Sahel, the region comprising Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and have caused widespread fear among journalists, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20210508-journalists-in-the-sahel-sick-with-fear">according to France24</a>.</p><div type="image" title="Friends and family of journalist Olivier Dubois,gather for a solidarity march in Bamako on July 17, 2021. They wear white t-shirts that read: &quot;Free Olivier Dubois.&quot;" height="1000" width="2000" msid="88762293" hostid="261"></div><p>On the day Dubois was kidnapped, his fixer saw him leaving his hotel and entering his car with several men, AFP reported. </p><p>Every time he headed on a dangerous assignment, Dubois handed his partner Deborah Al Hawi Al Marsi a discreet set of contacts to call in case he did not return, according to the CPJ, which is campaigning for his release.</p><p>That sheet of paper was usually destroyed as soon as he returned from those trips — but Al Marsi used it for the first time on April 10, when Dubois did not board his plane home, the CPJ reported. </p><div type="image" title="Cannelle Bernard delivers a speech on June 8, 2021 in Paris, during a gathering for her step-brother French journalist Olivier Dubois," height="1000" width="2000" msid="88762294" hostid="261"></div><p><a href="https://cpj.org/2021/10/partner-of-journalist-missing-in-mali-says-shell-only-be-at-peace-when-he-returns-home/">In an interview with the CPJ in October</a>, Al Marsi said that she is told very little about the process of negotiations between Malian and French authorities, but said she understands the need for secrecy. </p><p>"We deeply miss Olivier every day," she told the organization. "We can't pass even one minute without thinking of him. Yesterday my five-year-old son asked me: 'Mum, when we go to Disneyland with Dad, will we take the subway?'</p><p>"It's a simple question, but for me it means everything," she continued. "Olivier is still a part of our lives. Our life plans still include him and we never doubt that he will come back to us."</p>

A French journalist bagged an interview with a jihadist leader in Mali. What got released instead was his own kidnap video, and nobody has seen him since.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino </span></p><p class="caption">Fans celebrate as Corinthians win the Brazil Serie A soccer championship title, following their match with Vasco, in Rio de Janeiro, November 19, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Good morning. Here's what you need to know.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-gunmen-attack-luxury-hotel-in-mali-capital-take-hostages-2015-11"><strong>Terror in Mali</strong></a>. American and French military forces have stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali, where gunmen have reportedly killed at least three people and are holding 170 hostage.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mario-draghi-is-preparing-the-market-for-the-european-qe-bazooka-2015-11"><strong>Draghi tells the world the ECB's monetary bazooka is loaded</strong></a>. "<span>We will do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible," European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said in Frankfurt. The language is similar to his famous "</span><a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2012/html/sp120726.en.htmlhttp://www.businessinsider.com/european-market-update-26-2012-7">whatever it takes</a><span>" line from 2012, which came from a speech credited with bringing the euro crisis off the boil.</span></p><p><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/abn-amro-ipo-dutch-government-sell-stake-2015-11"><strong>ABN Amro goes public</strong></a>. Dutch bank ABN Amro raised 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) in an initial public offering (IPO). The Dutch government spent 22 billion euros rescuing and taking over the bank in 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis.</span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nike-boosts-buyback-and-dividend-splits-stock-2015-11"><strong>Nike is buying back $12 billion worth of itself</strong></a>. After the market closed on Thursday, Nike announced a $12 billion stock repurchase authorization, a 14% dividend hike, and a 2-for-1 stock split, which will go into effect on December 24.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gap-earnings-q3-2015-11"><strong>Gap slashed its outlook</strong></a>. Gap announced sales fell 3% year-over-year to $3.86 billion. Comparable store sales across the companies brands - Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy - fell 2%. Earnings came in at $0.63 per share, which was right in line with expectations. <span>"With a challenging third quarter behind us, we are sharply focused on holiday execution across all channels," CEO Art Peck said in the earnings </span>statement<span>. </span></p><p><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-hires-diane-greene-to-run-cloud-2015-11"><strong>Google makes a high-profile hire</strong></a>. Google hired VMware cofounder Diane Greene to head its cloud-computing business. "<span>Greene will lead a new team combining all our cloud businesses, including Google for Work, Cloud Platform, and Google Apps," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said. "This new business will bring together product, engineering, marketing, and sales and allow us to operate in a much more integrated, coordinated fashion."</span></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-tyson-foods-to-close-two-plants-cut-880-jobs-2015-11"><strong>Tyson is shutting down two meat plants</strong></a>. "Tyson Foods Inc, the biggest US meat processor, said it would stop operations at two of its plants in the United States, affecting about 880 employees," Reuters' Ramkumar Iyer reports. "The company said it expects to cease operations at a pepperoni plant in Jefferson, Wisconsin and a prepared foods facility in Chicago, Illinois during the second half of the year ending Oct. 1."</p><p><strong>RBC forecasts the S&amp;P 500 to gain 10% from here through 2016</strong>. In a note to clients on Friday, RBC Capital's Jonathan Golub writes that he sees the S&amp;P 500 rallying to 2,300 by the end of 2016. "Our constructive 2016 outlook is predicated upon stabilizing commodity prices, and an incrementally higher dollar and rates. All of this should result in a substantially higher earnings trajectory as well as a modest re-rating of stocks," Golub wrote.</p><p><strong>Markets aren't doing much</strong>. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 1.1%. Europe is mixed with Britain's FTSE 100 flat, Germany's DAX up 0.1%, France's CAC 40 down 0.3%, and Spain's IBEX 35 down 0.5%. US futures are up with Dow futures up 53 points and S&amp;P futures up 4 points.</p><p><strong>Not much d</strong><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>ata</strong>. At 11:00 a.m. ET, we'll get the Kansas City Fed's Manufacturing index. Economists estimate this regional activity index improved to 0 in November from -1 in October.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/october-jobs-report-rate-hike-employment-unemployment-fed-2015-11">The killer jobs report could mean a rate hike in December </a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NpZTZveDr5kj9fJjDyZxGtBo86FNesmZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

10 things you need to know before the opening bell

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters/David Johnson</span></p><p class="caption">An aerial view of around 10,000 public bicycles seen under plastic rain cover before being put into use in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, March 20, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Good morning! Here's what you need to know on Tuesday.</p><p><strong>1. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-se-photos-specs-features-2016-3" target="_blank">Apple unveiled its latest iPhone, the iPhone SE, at an event on its Cupertino, California, campus on Monday.</a><span> </span></strong>The SE has a similar body to the iPhone 5S, but with updated components.</p><p><strong>2. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/andy-grove-of-intel-dies-2016-3" target="_blank">Andy Grove, Intel's former CEO, died on Monday at the age of 79.</a><span> </span></strong>The exact cause of his death was not disclosed, but he had battled Parkinson's disease for years.</p><p><strong>3. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/markit-ihs-to-merge-2016-3" target="_blank">The UK financial data giant Markit is merging with its US rival IHS to create "a global leader in critical information, analytics, and solutions" headquartered in London.</a></strong></p><p><strong>4. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-tournament-chief-moore-resigns-over-controversial-comments-2016-3" target="_blank">Raymond Moore has stepped down as CEO and tournament director of the BNP Paribas Open following controversial comments he made about women's tennis. </a></strong>Moore said top-level women's players rode "on the coattails of the men" and were "very, very lucky" to have equal prize money.</p><p><strong>5. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-south-korea-confirms-first-case-of-zika-virus-2016-3" target="_blank">South Korea reported its first confirmed case of the Zika virus on Tuesday in a 43-year old male who have traveled to Brazil,</a><span> </span></strong>its centre for disease control said.</p><p><strong>6. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/gunmen-attack-eu-military-base-bamako-mali-2016-3" target="_blank">Unidentified gunmen attacked a hotel in Mali's capital Bamako on Monday that had been converted into a base for a European Union military training mission in the West African nation,</a><span> </span></strong>a Defence Ministry official and a witness said.</p><p><strong>7. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-and-wife-talulah-riley-file-for-second-divorce-2016-3" target="_blank">Billionaire Elon Musk and actress Talulah Riley are making another attempt to end their second marriage.</a></strong> Riley filed to divorce Musk on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.</p><p><strong>8. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-australia-arrests-two-over-alleged-islamic-state-financing-police-2016-3" target="_blank">Australian police said on Tuesday they had arrested two people, including a 16-year-old girl, on suspicion of raising funds to support the operations of Islamic State.</a></strong></p><p><strong>9. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/tunepics-and-innovate7-shut-down-2016-3" target="_blank">Tunepics, the London-based photo and music sharing app founded by the former chief marketing officer of Topshop has shut down,</a><span> </span></strong>alongside the Innovate7 consultancy he left the retailer to start in 2013.</p><p><strong>10. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/fbi-moves-to-vacate-apple-hearing-2016-3" target="_blank">The FBI says it has discovered a new way to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone without Apple's help.</a> </strong>Previously, the FBI said the only way it could access the iPhone was to order Apple to rewrite iOS to allow it to bypass the iPhone's security passcode.</p><p><strong>And finally ... <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/cheap-european-city-breaks-2016-3" target="_blank">Here are the 13 cheapest European cities for a weekend break.</a></strong></p><div id="content" class="content"><div class="post-top"><div class="flex byline"></div></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/james-altucher-credit-card-debt-banks-collection-agencies-money-2016-3">James Altucher makes an argument for not paying back your credit card debt</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BkcXMxMjE6Bup_Af4Q_V_Mw61FafoNfk" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The 10 most important things in the world right now

Niger's desert north is a glimpse into the destructive brilliance of Gaddafi's 42 years in power

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Feisal Omar/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Security forces stand at the SYL hotel that was partly destroyed following a car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Humanity as a whole may be enjoying the healthiest, most peaceful period it's ever seen, but that doesn't mean every city is in great shape.</p><p>According to Robert Muggah, global security expert and research director at the think tank <a href="https://igarape.org.br/en/">Igarapé Institute</a>, there are a total of 66 cities dealing with such rapid urbanization, high unemployment, and risk of natural disaster and violence that they're highly vulnerable to physical or economic collapse.</p><p><span>Muggah calls this a city's "fragility."</span></p><p><span><span>"All cities are fragile to some degree," he tells Business Insider. But what separates a city like New York from one like Mogadishu, Somalia is generally the extent to which a city's government delivers basic services to its citizens. Fragile cities don't promote equality, safety, affordable access to health care, or adequate resources during environmental disaster.</span></span></p><p><span><span>Earlier this year, the <a href="http://igarap.org.br/">Igarapé Institute</a> teamed up with the </span><a href="http://www.unu.edu/">United Nations University</a><span>, the </span><a href="http://www.weforum.org/communities/global-agenda-council-on-fragility-violence-conflict">World Economic Forum</a><span>, the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/brief/resilient-cities-program">World Bank</a>,<span> and SecDev to analyze data related to those factors. They ended up with a picture of global fragility (and stability), which has since been assembled <a href="http://fragilecities.igarape.org.br/">into an interactive map</a>. Cities are ranked on a scale from 0-4, with 4 as the most fragile.</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>Out of the 66 cities whose scores fall between 3-4, the 20 most fragile include:</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>Mogadishu, Somalia - 4<br />Kismaayo, Somalia - 3.<br />Merca, Somalia - 3.9<br />Kabul, Afghanistan - 3.7<br />Al-Mawsil (Mosul), Iraq - 3.7<br />Aden, Yemen - 3.6<br />Kirkuk, Iraq - 3.5<br />Juba, Republic of South Sudan - 3.5<br />Ibb, Yemen - 3.5<br />Kunduz, Afghanistan - 3.4<br />Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo - 3.4<br />Al-Basrah (Basra), Iraq - 3.4<br />Baaqoobah, Iraq - 3.4<br />Hargeysa, Somalia - 3.4<br />Al-Raqqah, Syrian Arab Republic - 3.4<br />Sana'A, Yemen - 3.4<br />Al-Mukalla, Yemen - 3.4<br />Ta'Izz, Yemen - 3.4<br />Herat, Afghanistan - 3.3<br />Kandahar, Afghanistan - 3.3</span></span></span></p><p>As the list indicates, many of the most fragile cities are located in Africa, the Middle East, Central America, and Southeast Asia. Unemployment in these regions can range from modestly high (6.8% in Bamako, Mali) to severe (66% in Mogadishu, Somalia).</p><p>Other factors that the most fragile cities share are exposure to environmental risks like floods and droughts, high rates of urbanization - often more than 4% population growth per year, Muggah says - and extremely high rates of terrorism and murder.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/how-fragile-are-our-cities">February report</a> for the World Economic Forum, Muggah explains how fragility can fluctuate over time. Some cities may stay relatively stable or fragile, but most will naturally respond to social, economic, and environmental pressures, either falling or rising in the rankings.</p><p>One factor seems to hold constant, however: small- to medium-sized cities are the most vulnerable in Muggah's model. Only three megacities (populations over 10 million) and three very large cities (5-10 million) are highly fragile. But there are dozens more between 250,000 people and 5 million that qualify (partly because there are more cities in that range overall).</p><p>Cities can reduce their fragility score by strengthening the systems that help people stay safe and healthy. In war-torn areas or those at risk for hurricanes and earthquakes, that means ramping up security measures and offering access to shelter and first-aid. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/floating-autonomous-city-concept-design-2016-6">Here's what floating cities could look like in the future</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="44NzMwNDE6uB-FlwKLKvUcF7INV9Ug1A" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The 20 cities most likely to fall apart, according to a global security expert

The long, strange decline of one of America's most influential brands

<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Schlumpy, baby-faced and given to wearing tie-dyed shirts that weren't always laundered or properly sized, Steven Joel Sotloff, 31, hardly fit the classic profile of the dashing war correspondent. He also stood out for another reason: Sotloff was Jewish, and held dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, facts that added a distinct additional element of danger to his efforts to report from war zones throughout the Arab world.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Are you a member of the tribe?"</p>
<p dir="ltr">That was Sotloff's way of asking - over glasses of whisky or tins of tuna fish - if colleagues shared his background. A few did, though like him, they tended to keep quiet about it. At one point before his capture, a friend said, he changed his Facebook profile to "Steve Sotty" to avoid any tip-off his last name might have offered.</p>
<p dir="ltr">When Sotloff was taken captive shortly after entering Syria in August 2013, colleagues and family members decided to request a media black-out in hopes of simplifying his release.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Those efforts were thwarted on August 19, when the Islamic State released its gruesome snuff film, "A Message to America," which showed a masked British-accented fighter murdering a handcuffed James Foley and then threatening Sotloff's life should the U.S. continue its bombing campaign. Most references tying him to Israel, where he emigrated in 2004, including his studies at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, and his extraordinary reporting for the Jerusalem Post, had been scrubbed from the Internet following his kidnapping in August 2013. A colleague who'd been held captive with Sotloff <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4567005,00.html">told the Israeli daily Yehiot Aranoth</a> that Sotloff prayed secretly, attempting to determine the direction of Jerusalem by watching his captors pray to Mecca, and even claimed to be ill in order to observer the Yom Kippur fast.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Last night, an Israeli government spokesperson <a href="https://twitter.com/paulhirschson/status/507096468121845761">Tweeted</a> that Satloff was, in fact, an Israeli citizen.  </p>
<p dir="ltr">Concealing his background was a necessary precaution. "We were all hiding," says one fellow journalist, who met Sotloff in Libya. "Any of us who were based in Tel Aviv or Jewish certainly weren't going to run around letting anyone know. We kept that very secret, but it was a bond we had."  </p>
<p dir="ltr">"I met a handful of young Jewish reporters like Steve," said his friend Jeremy Relph, who covered Libya for the Toronto Star and Vice, among others. "They invested a lot of time in learning the language and seeking to understand, putting themselves in a little more harm's way than the rest of us."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Though he wasn't yet a star, Sotloff's reporting for Time, Foreign Policy, World Affairs, the Jerusalem Report, the Christian Science Monitor and other outlets together constitute a truly extraordinary body of work. His pieces are notable for the quality of their prose, the subtlety of Sotloff's analysis and most of all the unfailing empathy he brought to his interviews with everyday citizens.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"I remember being struck by the quality of his turns of phrase and the structuring of his stories," said Tom Coghlin, foreign correspondent for The Times. "There were a bunch of people around, some better than others. And Steven was one of the best."  </p>
<p dir="ltr">Not one to relay press releases or print canned quotes from high-level sources, Sotloff made it his mission to report the story through the eyes of people on the ground, from an adolescent boy cutting down trees in an Aleppo park to provide firewood for his family to a Cairo cell phone store owner in his 20s, complaining about the Muslim Brotherhood's strict rule, from a pharmacology student in Tahrir Square to an accountant in Doha.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>In a interviews with Business Insider, those who had worked alongside him described a thoughtful journalist, who displayed a sharp sense of humor in his off hours but showed rare courage and resourcefulness in pursuit of the most nuanced and multi-hued stories he could find.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"He didn't typically use fixers - he had his own contacts," said a close acquaintance, who traveled with Sotloff in several war zones and asked not to be identified. "He could speak to people." As a result, his stories displayed considerably more depth than most of the news reaching Western audiences.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"What happens is a lot of reporters will land in the region and go to Tahrir Square and find the people who can speak English," the acquaintance explains. "And most of the people who speak English are educated and know what Western values are, so they just start spouting 'em."</p>
<p dir="ltr">"He was really intrepid and adventurous," says Portia Walker, who has reported for the BBC among other organizations. "It is not an easy thing to go to these places and try to get these stories, and Steven seemed to be one who was really committed to doing that. He was serious about learning about the places he was in, and he found really interesting angles."   </p>
<p dir="ltr">"He was ballsy," says CCTV correspondent Stephanie Fried. "He could get in there and sit down and smoke a hookah with these tribal guys.'"</p>
<p dir="ltr">When many reporters flocked to the front line, eager to witness history in the making, Sotloff was just as often drawn to the fringes, where he felt the story could be seen with more subtlety. "It was about the person, before the event," recalls Muneef Halawa, a former stringer for the Wall Street Journal. "He had a connection with the locals and an understanding of what was really happening, sometimes more than what the editor might want or the direction of the news."</p>
<p dir="ltr">"His work so much less obvious than what other people were filing," Relph recalls. He mentions Sotloff's <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2091723,00.html">Time piece</a> about Libyans in the Tripoli neighborhood of Gargaresh reacting to the fall of Gaddafi, a story that quotes a guest worker from Mali picking up garbage, a doctor, a firefighter and a police officer - residents who might not typically make the news, but whose willingness to return to work would be critical in determining whether the revolution had a chance of success.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"It's not sexy. It's not, 'I'm on the front line getting hammered,'" Relph adds. "The front line is the siren's call - you want to be there because that's history. But Steven really got that that's not the entire story, and if you spend the entire time there you'll be blind to all the other changes that are taking place."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sotloff went to great lengths to tease out the various angles on a conflict and present events in their full complexity. It's an all-too-rare gift, and an increasingly necessary contribution. Had there been more journalists like Sotloff reporting from the region in the years before the invasion of Iraq, we might well have avoided some of the catastrophic blunders that have led to the rise of ISIS.  </p>
<p dir="ltr">As revolution raged in Libya in 2011, Halawa says, "Steve was more pessimistic than I was about what might happen. I was more fooled in the beginning."<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Trouble in Tahrir Square</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Some of that pessimism no doubt grew out of Sotloff's experience in Cairo, where he covered the jubilant uprising against Hosni Mubarak's decades-long rule. Not available online, his dispatch for the Jerusalem Report, published on February 28, 2011, makes for gripping reading, as Sotloff - careful to maintain his objectivity despite becoming a target of protesters - described the chaos unfolding before his eyes.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Though millions of Egyptians are frustrated with the lack of free speech and political rights in the age of the Internet, many others believe the movement against the regime is a foreign conspiracy promulgated by the foreign media," he wrote, going on to note almost off-handedly that "this reporter encountered the prevailing hostility towards Westerners."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Stopped at a checkpoint, Sotloff was interrogated and forced to enter a covered pick-up truck full of what seemed to be police officers. Taken to a military installation, he was handcuffed and held for hours, often with a Kalashnikov pressed to his head. "Egyptians outside yelled 'Israeli' and 'Jew,'" he wrote. "They told me I would be executed."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Later in the same piece, Sotloff described another attack, in which protesters and reporters were trampled by camels and horses. "This reporter was able to reach the square on the side where pro-Mubarak supporters had positioned themselves," he wrote. "They hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails against pro-democracy protesters as the military hunkered down in tanks."</p>
<p dir="ltr">And the following day, Sotloff was on hand when Mubarak supporters attacked a building housing several news organizations. "With the army unable to offer protection, the Western journalists inside were forced to evacuate the building through fire escapes," he wrote coolly.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Later, when he recounted the event for colleagues in Libya, Sotloff admitted he'd been deeply shaken by the experience.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left" style="width:400px"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>"It was terrifying to him," says Stephanie Fried. "People pulled his beard and accused him of being Hamas. That stayed with him. Literally at times he felt like he was running for his life. It could get so out of hand there."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Even so, Sotloff ended his account with a characteristically sober and clear-headed analysis. "Once the wave of euphoria passes and the stones stop flying," he wrote, "Egyptians will be faced with perhaps the toughest questions of all: not just who comes after Mubarak, but how to build the Egypt of their dreams."</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">A Spiky Sense of Humor</h2>
<p dir="ltr">The seriousness with which Sotloff approached his work gave way in his off hours to a considerably lighter side. Relph says he originally bonded with Sotloff in Libya over their shared love of the Larry Sanders Show. "We were trading movies, and he found out I had the entire run of the show and was thrilled," Relph recalls. "He was a fan."</p>
<p dir="ltr">He was also a sports lover, often staying up late into the night to catch Miami Heat games airing in the states.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Many of Sotloff's friends mentioned his wit. "He had a spiky sense of humor," Coghlin recalls, "distinctly Jewish in tone."</p>
<p dir="ltr">"He had the heart of a 15-year-old boy," Halawa says. "Such a childish sense of humor, but in a nice way. I would laugh my ass off every night."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Despite filing stories constantly - and rarely taking breaks between warzones - Sotloff was a freelancer, which meant he was usually short of funds. He had the bad luck to be practicing his trade at a time when media organizations were in dire straights, and budgets were disappearing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"People like Jim [Foley] and Steve were still willing to do it," Coghlin marvels. "And they were making peanuts, absolute peanuts, for what they were doing. They made half of what I made as a freelancer on stories 10 years ago."  </p>
<p dir="ltr">"He never had any money," Freid says, recalling the way he used to load up his plate with seconds at the hotel buffet. "They hated that he would do that," she says, chuckling. "And he would argue back, 'I have low blood sugar!'"</p>
<p dir="ltr">Halawa remembers returning one night to Bengazi's Ouzo Hotel where he was staying, and finding Sotloff preparing to bunk out on a couch in the lobby. "I was like, 'Dude, what the hell?'" Halawa says. "I told him, 'Come, crash at my place and when you get your money, you're good.' I didn't realize he was down to $6 in his pocket."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Halawa also remembers teasing Sotloff about his "hippie shirts," to which Sotloff generally replied, "Fuck you guys, I look good!"  </p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<h2 dir="ltr">A Last Trip to Syria</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Sotloff was part of a generation of reporters who came of age in an especially precarious and heady time for war reporters. Though young reporters generally had to work on a shoestring - without funds for decent accomodations, much less fixers and security - and were often asked to sign contracts indemnifying their news organizations back home, the Arab Spring was an irresistible story and a career-making opportunity.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"He was an ambitious kid," says Halawa. "He wanted his name out there. He wanted more action. He wanted to be taken more seriously, and achieve greatness in a short period of time."</p>
<p dir="ltr">"A bunch of young journalists did the Arab Spring and made their names," Coghlin says. "It was the most optimistic story since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a great time to be doing journalism."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Then things began to change. In one country after another, hope gave way to a more complicated and dark reality, as the power vacuums left behind by deposed tyrants were filled by a host of competing militant groups.  </p>
<p dir="ltr">Syria, where Bashar al-Assad had managed to hold onto power only through a brutal military campaign, quickly became the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, with 74 reporters killed since 2011, according to the <a href="http://cpj.org/killed/mideast/syria/">Committee to Protect Journalists</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Syria gave a lot of us pause," Relph says. "The stakes were higher, and it was more expensive to operate."</p>
<p dir="ltr">"A lot of people poured in at first," says Halawa, who has since quit journalism altogether and is working at a health club. "Then things started to switch and all these crazy fanatics came along. I think the tide switched just when Steven got in."</p>
<p dir="ltr">"It's such a great tragedy to me," Coughlin says of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and so many of their colleagues. "A generation of young reporters that has disappeared into this nightmare."</p>

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