Emboldened by the government's lack of action, the extremists will eventually expand their attacks on liberals, politicians, journalists, writers and anyone who disagrees with their views and approach.

The operative words are extremism and terrorism; so what's in a name, terrorism is terrorism. The threats have always been there and to be fair to ourselves some of the major terrorist acts have not seen handing out of convictions to the perpetrators.

Despite a commendable initiative by the government to combat militancy by targeting schools, madrasas and mosques, lethargic implementation has reduced it to a forgotten official circular.

The redeeming feature in these bleak circumstances though, is the Zimbabwe national cricket team's firm indication that they are visiting us next year.

The nature of the crimes tells us one thing for sure, that these are the work of professional men. Whether those men acted on their own, or on behalf of an extremist group, or a political cartel is critical because that can give us an idea at what rate the fuse is burning to set off explosion.

IS executes 19 women for refusing to have sex with its fighters, reports the dailymail online.