‘Jihadi John’: US air strike targets Isis terrorist Mohammed Emwazi
Pentagon has not confirmed death in Raqqa, Syria, of British terrorist believed responsible for beheadings in gruesome Islamic State propaganda videos
British and US military worked “hand in glove” to launch an airstrike against notorious Islamic State extremist “Jihadi John”, sources have said, adding that there is a “high degree of certainty” the Briton was killed in the attack.
The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that US forces carried out an airstrike in Syria targeting Mohammed Emwazi, the Isis terrorist known as “Jihadi John” after appearing in several gruesome propaganda videos depicting the beheadings of several hostages.
David Cameron is expected to make a statement from Downing Street on the attack later on Friday following reports from the US that the American military was 99% certain that he had been killed in a drone strike.
No 10 and Ministry of Defence sources were marginally less certain in their response to the reports of his death than US sources, but added there was a “high degree of certainty that he has been killed”.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Britain pitches to sell security advice to Japan after safe London 2012 Games
Exclusive: Ministers have already held talks as UK firms prepare bids for contracts to guard Tokyo Games
Britain is pitching to sell security advice to Japan to help keep the 2020 Olympics safe from terrorist attacks, after the successful operation at the London Games in 2012.
Ministers from the two governments have already held talks as UK companies prepare to bid for lucrative contracts to guard the Tokyo Olympics and secure its computer systems.
Japan is seeking British help to foil bomb plots and protect Olympic sites and Tokyo’s transport network from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks.
Whitehall sources said the Government had been approached because Japan had been impressed by the smooth running of the London Olympics, which involved the largest peacetime security operation in British history.
Muslim woman donates $1 to UNICEF every time she gets trolled on Twitter
An Australian woman has pledged to give $1 to the children’s charity every time she receives an attack about her religion on Twitter. Thus far, she has donated more than $1,000 in Australian currency.
Instead of indulging her trolls, one Muslim woman has pledged to give $1 to UNICEF for every hateful message she receives on Twitter.
Susan Carland, an academic lecturer from Australia, has donated more than $1,000 in Australian money to the United Nations’ children’s charity since she made the promise two weeks ago.
“I regularly get tweets and Facebook messages from the brave freedom-fighters behind determinedly anonymous accounts telling me that, as a Muslim woman, I love oppression, murder, war, and sexism,” she writes in an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald. “And so the idea of donating $1 to UNICEF for every hate-filled tweet I received came to me.”
The children that UNICEF helps, she explains, are the perfect beneficiaries for her cause because their troubles are the direct consequence of hate – “war, poverty due to greed, injustice, violence.”
Inside Assad’s Syria
For the past month, Russian bombs over Syria have further complicated the civil war, a conflict that has been tearing the country apart for almost five years. What is the situation like for those still living in Syria? FRANCE 24’s Ksenia Bolchakova was able to report from the cities held by the regime. This is her exclusive report.
Filming a report in areas controlled by the Syrian regime is not easy. First of all, you must obtain a visa. In my case, the procedure took three-and-a-half months. I had lost all hope when on September 30, I finally received the phone call to tell me that I had obtained the precious sticker.
September 30, 2015, was the first day of the Russian intervention in Syria. My Russian passport no doubt considerably helped the employees of the Syrian Ministry of Information in making their decision…
Once inside Syria, journalists are always accompanied by an assigned translator. This person officially helps you to obtain filming permits, which you need everywhere you go, but he or she is mainly there to watch you. In other words, your translator is the eyes and ears of the regime.
People smuggler payment scandal: Captain asked Australian official for ‘help’
November 13, 2015 – 5:50PM
Rote Island: The captain allegedly paid by Australia to return asylum seekers to Indonesia said he begged an Australian official for help because he would not receive money from a people smuggling agent unless the boat reached New Zealand.
“I told the officer, we haven’t been paid, all those days sailing, all our efforts for nothing. Can you help us?” Yohanis Humiang told Fairfax Media in an interview in his cell.
“The officer said: ‘Yes we can help you’. He also said: ‘Never ever do this work ever again’.”
Mr Yohanis also revealed Australian authorities had not believed the boat of 65 asylum seekers was headed for New Zealand when they intercepted it on two occasions earlier this year.
Myanmar election: Suu Kyi’s NLD wins landslide victory
Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy has won a landslide election victory, officials say.
With more than 80% of seats declared from Sunday’s poll, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party has more than the two-thirds it needs to choose the president, ending to decades of military-backed rule.
But a quarter of seats were assigned uncontested to the military, meaning it remains hugely influential.
Under the constitution Ms Suu Kyi cannot become president herself.
Despite this, the election was seen as the first openly contested poll in Myanmar – also known as Burma – in 25 years.
The Burmese like their numbers. So just maybe Myanmar’s Union Election Commission waited for an auspicious day.
Five days after polls closed, and exactly five years to the day since Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, her party’s majority in parliament was confirmed.
This historic outcome had been clear, but unofficial since early results on Monday and Tuesday.