• Human Rights Watch has a new report on the killing of 190 civilians in early August by members of five Islamist rebel groups:  Ahrar al-Sham, Islamic State of Iraq and Sham,  Jabhat al-Nusra,  Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, Suquor al-Izz
• Congratulations to Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on the Nobel Peace Prize.  They won’t have much time to celebrate given a mid-2014 timeline to destroy all of Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities.  Here’s a link to this week’s OPCW press conference on the latest from Syria with Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü and members of the Syria Advance Team.
• Conditions for Syria’s refugees in Jordan and Lebanon are deteriorating — UNHCR estimates that there will be more than 5 million refugees by the end of 2014; UNICEF reports that children are facing early marriage, child labor, and domestic violence; food aid has been reduced in Lebanon.
• With all of the focus on the Westgate attack in Nairobi, Kenya faces a large, neglected challenge.  According to the NGO Maisha e.v, one of every three women in Kenya has experienced gender-based violence — a far higher percentage than the 1 in 10 worldwide.
• The situation between Sudan and South Sudan is deteriorating. Jerome Tubiana provides excellent perspective from the borderlands between the two countries.
• Malawi President Joyce Banda dissolved her entire 25 member cabinet amid a massive corruption scandal.  Kim Dionne at haba na haba sets the context and challenges in the run-up to next May’s elections.

And,

• A view of Mogadishu — Tristan McConnel narrates a phenomenal slide show of Pete Muller’s photographs from a recent trip to the city.