A spy stole ISIS leader Baghdadi's underwear for DNA test, Kurds say

 

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A spy for Kurdish forces in Syria stole Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's underwear in order to obtain a DNA sample of the ISIS leader and help lead the US military to his location, Kurdish officials have claimed.

Officials from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) described how they tracked the elusive Baghdadi from one end of Syria to the other in the months leading up to this weekend's operation แจกเครดิตฟรี which left the world's most wanted terrorist dead.

"Through our own sources, we managed to confirm that Al Baghdadi had moved from Al Dashisha area in [Deir Ezzor] to Idlib. Since 15 May, we have been working together with the CIA to track Al Baghdadi and monitor him closely," Polat Can, a senior adviser for the SDF, tweeted on Monday.

"One of our sources was able to reach the house where Al Baghdadi was hiding. Al Baghdadi changed his places of residence very often. He was about to move to a new place in Jerablus. Our own source, who had been able to reach Al Baghdadi, brought Al Baghdadi's underwear to conduct a DNA test and make sure (100%) that the person in question was Al Baghdadi himself."

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the SDF, confirmed Can's account, telling CNN that an informant had obtained Baghdadi's underwear and a blood sample that was used for the DNA test which confirmed his identity before the raid took place.

CNN could not confirm the Kurds' claim, but their cooperation with the US in the runup to the Baghdadi raid took place as the Trump administration was abandoning the SDF in northern Syria.

Baghdadi "blew himself up" after he was cornered by US forces during a daring, two-hour nighttime assault on his compound in Idlib, northern Syria on Saturday, US President Donald เล่นบาคาร่าออนไลน์ Trump announced on Sunday.

A senior State Department official told reporters Monday that the SDF "played a key role" in the Baghdadi raid, and that the US has been "in close touch" with SDF Commander Gen. Mazloum Abdi "about all aspects of what we're doing."

"He, his people, and his intelligence sources, played a key role in all of this," the official said. "It's a very, very important role. Nobody should underestimate how key the SDF was in all of this."

The latest victims of overtourism? Huskies

 

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The nights are drawing in and temperatures are dropping in the Northern Hemisphere. And in Finnish Lapland, that means one thing: tourists are on the way, and they want husky rides.

That's becoming a problem. In 2016, the top tourist activity in Finnish Lapland was snowmobiling. Three years on, it's husky รูปแบบการแทงยอดนิยม sledding. Around 4,000 huskies work in the tourism industry -- compared with just 660 reindeer.

But the sudden rise in husky rides is leading experts to warn that there are hidden costs to the popular travel activity, from animals flown in temporarily from Southern Europe, to poor animal welfare standards and dogs being put down when they reach retirement age.

What's more, the short season means that dogs are essentially out of work for eight months of the year. And with demand exploding, farms cannot afford to breed more dogs, leading to "pop-up" groups flying in from other countries, who are not monitored for welfare standards as the local breeders are.

As with many issues currently arising from tourism, the problem is the increasing demand, says José-Carlos García-Rosell, senior lecturer in responsible tourism business at the University of Lapland, and project leader at Animal Tourism Finland, which monitors animal welfare.

"Snowmobile tours had been the most popular tourist activity since the mid 1980s, but two years ago, husky rides became top," he tells CNN.

"Now, both the number of tourists is growing and the popularity of husky tours is growing -- it's something they expect to do when coming to Lapland.

"Conditions [for the animals] tend to be good, here, but they could always be better."

Every single person who travels to Lapland with Finnish tour operator Skafur-Tour takes a husky ride, according to founder Riitta Kiukas. People can book their trips months in advance. "It's now impossible to สูตรการพนันบอล book for the 2019-20 season," she told CNN in early October.

But because tourist numbers to Lapland are concentrated over just a few months of the year, huskies are in high demand from December to February -- and local suppliers cannot keep up.

To fill the gap, says García-Rosell, husky hobbyists -- people who train the dogs to race, but don't devote their lives to breeding the dogs -- fly up to Lapland to run "pop-up" husky safaris during the winter months, often moving around the region.

Baghdadi is gone, but ISIS isn't dead yet and could be poised for a resurgence

Baghdadi is gone, but ISIS isn't dead yet and could be poised for a resurgence

 

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The head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is dead. The man who led the state that called itself Islamic -- first capturing Raqqa in Syria and then leading a blitzkrieg through Iraq, rampaging through Mosul, Tikrit, to the gates of Baghdad -- is no more.

ISIS established a horrifying standard of brutality, re-establishing slavery, practicing what amounted to genocide against the Yazidis, carrying out mass executions and beheadings -- all caught on camera -- and demolishing religious sites and antiquities.

The United States, with the help of its coalition allies, Iraq and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), destroyed the Islamic State and killed Baghdadi.

ISIS, however, is far from finished. It operates in West Africa, Libya, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Afghanistan and the Philippines, and has แทงบอลออนไลน์789 followers in Europe and elsewhere. That, in addition to as many as 18,000 fighters still on the loose between Syria and Iraq, according to a report issued by the Pentagon's Inspector General in August.

There is no reason to conclude that the threat from ISIS' far-flung network of affiliates and sympathizers has disappeared with the passing of Baghdadi. He may have excelled in his evil mission, but he was at the top of a pyramid of power and others will come forward to claim his mantle of leadership and perhaps learn from his demise.

Baghdadi never had a cult of personality. He did stress that he was a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad to burnish his Islamic credentials, but he never rose to the level of al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, who was recognizable the world over.

Bin Laden first came to fame during the 1980s, when he led the so-called Arab mujahideen in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In the 1990s, from Sudan and then Afghanistan, he gave interviews to the Western media, including CNN, and even after the 9/11 attacks แทงบอล789 on the United States he issued statements and put out videos.

As khalifa, or caliph, of the Islamic State, Baghdadi never granted an interview to anyone. Yet in the end the Americans found him, and killed him, "whimpering, screaming and crying," according to US President Donald Trump.

ISIS is not going to disappear. It may morph into something else, just as Osama bin Laden's Arab mujahideen morphed into al Qaeda, which gave birth to al Qaeda in Iraq, which transformed into ISIS.

Lebanon is at a crossroads between a new start or a return to unrest

 

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Beirut, Lebanon Daylight filters through a large gap at the back of an abandoned cinema in central Beirut. The silhouetted figures of protesters gather on the steps to listen to a political talk by Charbel Nahas.

For days, the two-time former minister and progressive party leader has attracted large crowds, as he shares his ideas for a political เกมส์ยิงปลา pantip transition to a non-sectarian government. Today, he takes center stage in the crumbling amphitheater.

"The regime has already fallen!" says Nahas in a rousing 20-minute speech. "I want you all to look around you and see that the state hasn't always been this bad, and it will change."

The protesters cheer. Calls for "revolution" bounce off the walls of the structure, known as The Egg. The moustachioed Nahas stands against the backdrop of graffiti that says: "Black. Poor. Black. Gay. Trans."

It's a scene that is emblematic of Lebanon's so-called October Revolution -- people from across Lebanon's deep socioeconomic divide banding together in the country's dwindling public spaces to protest the country's financial crisis and political elite. The working class and เกมส์ยิงปลาออนไลน์ educated middle class have been reclaiming empty property long shut off to the public. Same-sex couples have been marching next to more conservative women in headscarves. Street vendors and university students have been joining hands to dance the traditional Dabke.

But the country is standing at a political crossroads, activists and analysts say. Prominent figures in the protests say the political elite have two options: continue to preside over further chaos and face imminent economic (and even state) collapse, or undergo a peaceful transition from sectarian leadership to civil governance to rescue the country.

Deadly protests roil Ethiopia as Nobel winner's backers and critics clash

 

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At least 67 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in protests in Ethiopia over the last few days, the police commissioner for the Oromia region told CNN on Saturday.

Nineteen people were killed in direct clashes with security forces, Kefyalew Tefera said, while the others were killed in clashes between supporters of Prime Minister and   Nobel Peace สล็อตออนไลน์ มือถือ Prize winner Abiy Ahmed and supporters of Jawar Mohammed, an independent media owner and a prominent critic of the premier.

The ongoing protests in the Oromia region -- which includes part of the capital, Addis Ababa -- erupted after a Facebook post by Mohammed.

In the post, Mohammed, who has more than 1.75 million social media followers, alleged that police were conspiring to attack him at his home after government officials told his  security detail to leave เล่นสล็อต เว็บไหนดี pantip his side. Police officials have denied his claim.

Abiy is the country's first leader to come from the Oromo group, the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia. Earlier this month, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the 20-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Mohammed, who belongs to the same ethnic group, accused Abiy of acting like a dictator in the major institutional reforms and policies that he has implemented since coming to power in April 2018.

Hong Kong China and India desperately want to improve their trade relationship. But it seems whenever the countries' leaders meet, the Himalayas get in the way.

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When Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2018, it came after a tense, months-long military standoff over Doklam, a disputed region in the "trijunction" between India, China and Bhutan, high in the Himalayas. That standoff at times appeared poised to spill over to outright conflict, a repeat of the brief border war the two countries fought in 1962.

As Xi lands in the coastal city of Chennai Friday for a two-day visit to India, it's the Kashmir Valley at the northwestern tip of the mountain range that's poised to spoil efforts to improve Sino-Indian ties.

At least this time, Beijing isn't directly involved in the conflict. While it เว็บพนันบอล ต่างประเทศ claims parts of eastern Kashmir as its territory, tensions were recently raised when New Delhi scrapped the special status of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, ending its autonomy and setting the stage for mass Hindu migration to the Muslim-majority area.

Both India and rival Pakistan claim sovereignty over all of Kashmir, and Islamabad swiftly declared the move -- which was followed by a major crackdown by Indian security services -- as illegal.

Beijing is a longtime ally of Islamabad, and New Delhi is keen to keep China out of the dispute. According to the Hindustan Times, Indian officials said the recent change in status for Jammu and Kashmir "won't be up for discussion" when Xi and Modi meet this week, with talks expected to focus on trade issues.

On Wednesday, however, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan threw a spanner into the works with a visit to Beijing, where he met with Xi in an apparent attempt to shore up support ahead of the Modi summit. Following talks, Xi said that "China supports Pakistan to สล็อตออนไลน์ safeguard its own legitimate rights and hopes that the relevant parties can solve their disputes through peaceful dialogue."

In response, Indian foreign affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar said New Delhi's position "has been consistent and clear that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India. China is well aware of our position. It is not for other countries to comment on the internal affairs of India."

West is paying the price for supporting Hong Kong riots, Chinese state media says

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Hong Kong The Chinese government and state-run media have accused Western countries of hypocrisy in their attitude to violent FUN88  protests in Spain, Chile and Hong Kong over the past week.

Some articles even allege that demonstrations in Europe and South America are the direct result of Western tolerance of Hong Kong unrest, now in its 20th week.

Speaking to reporters on Monday night, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman UFA88  Hua Chunying said that the response by Western countries to the protests showed "democracy and human rights are only a pretentious cover for Western interference in Hong Kong affairs."

"More and more people have come to realize that 'human rights', 'democracy' and 'beautiful sights' preached by some Western politicians are just illusory as a mirage in the desert," she said.

In a commentary published in the state-run Beijing News on Sunday, former Chinese diplomat Wang Zhen wrote "the disastrous impact of a 'chaotic Hong Kong' has begun to influence the Western world."

Over the past week, protesters have clashed with authorities in all three W88 locations for different reasons, but Chinese state media alleged that demonstrators in Chile and Spain were taking their cues from Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's protests have become increasingly destructive in the past month, with widespread vandalism and trashing of stores seen as pro-Beijing during demonstrations.

On Sunday a march in the popular shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui quickly deteriorated into violence as petrol bombs were thrown and fires were lit in subway stations and outside shops.

According to Wang, protesters in Spain had begun to adopt Hong Kong tactics, including UFA888  the "Be Water" slogan to avoid police.

Protesters have been gathering on the streets of Barcelona to call for Catalonia independence after pro-independence politicians were imprisoned with lengthy sentences. More than 200 police officers have been injured and 171 vehicles damaged since the protests began last week.