Kayla Mueller, the American woman taken hostage by the self-declared Islamic State, has died, her family and the White House said in separate statements. On February 6, the Islamic State said Mueller, 26, died after Jordanian airstrikes against the militant group targeted the building in Syria where she was being held. Kayla Mueller wrote her family a heart-wrenching letter nearly a year ago before her death, possibly from the bowels of a Raqqa, Syria, building that U.S. special forces raided on July 4, 2014, only to learn Mueller - and at least three other hostages who were later killed - had been moved days earlier. "If you could say I have 'suffered' at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through," wrote Mueller. 

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With the upcoming national election in sight in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced on February 7th that voting would be postponed until March 28th in place of its original date of February 14th. Local church leaders are hopeful that the decision was made with the right intentions and that the election will take place in a fair and safe manner on the newly scheduled date. 

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President Barack Obama is expected to ask Congress to approve of new war powers aimed at fighting terror group ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Members of the House and Senate will subsequently be faced with the first war vote in Congress in 13 years, since the last Iraq war. The last time Congress faced a war vote, it authorized in 2002 former President George W. Bush to use force against the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, who at the time was suspected of harboring weapons of mass destruction.

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