Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali pirates release four Thai hostages after nearly five years of captivity. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Avijit Roy, an American writer and blogger from Bangladesh, is hacked to death by unknown attackers in Dhaka. (The Telegraph)
• A gunman kills seven people then himself in a spree shooting in Tyrone, Missouri. (NBC News)
• Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
  • In Moscow, an unidentified attacker assassinates leading Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the former Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and current member of regional parliament of Yaroslavl Oblast. (euronews) (BBC)
• An elderly man shoots and kills three people and then himself in the South Korean city of Hwaseong. (The Korea Herald) (Los Angeles Times)
• Mexican security forces arrest drug lord Servando Gómez Martínez in Morelia, Michoacán. (AP)