Ethiopia, Israel-Palestine, Nigeria.

Today's three stories you should know.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s army executed dozens of civilians and committed other war crimes while battling a militia in the country’s Amhara region earlier this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report. Fighting erupted last August between government forces and a local armed group known as Fano. “Civilians are once again bearing the brunt of an abusive army operating with impunity,” Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at HRW, said. “The Ethiopian armed forces’ brutal killings of civilians in Amhara undercut government claims that it’s trying to bring law and order to the region.” The government has yet to comment.

More from Human Rights Watch here.

Israel-Palestine

Israel has gone on high alert - cancelling all leave for soldiers serving in combat units, calling up reservists, and blocking GPS to disrupt missiles and drones - after Iran said it would retaliate for a strike on its consulate building in the Syrian capital Damascus. Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack in which 13 people were killed, including senior general Mohammad Reza Zahedi. But why does Israel launch regular attacks in Syria? It’s been going on since long before the Gaza war and Al Jazeera today published a useful explainer on the topic.

More from Al Jazeera here.

Nigeria

Bizarre story out of Nigeria today. A hugely well-known celebrity, a transgender woman known as Bobrisky, has been arrested for “spraying” banknotes at a film premiere. Spraying is the practice of throwing banknotes in the air and is commonly seen at weddings and other celebrations in the country. The charge against her is “mutilating banknotes,” which is a crime in Nigeria though rarely prosecuted, on the basis that they could have been trampled on.

More from BBC here.