Japan: No word from ISIS on hostages as deadline draws nearer
Japan says it has had no contact with ISIS as the Islamic militant group's deadline nears for Tokyo to pay a $200 million ransom to spare the lives of two hostages.
Japanese officials have said they are doing their best to communicate with ISIS, which threatened in a video released Tuesday to kill two Japanese citizens it's holding within 72 hours if it doesn't receive the huge sum it's demanding.
But Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday that Tokyo had so far heard nothing and doesn't know what situation the two hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, are in.
Former French soldiers among Islamic State recruits
France unveils measures two weeks after Paris attacks, including €725m in new spending
Lara Marlowe
About a dozen former members of the French armed forces, including soldiers from the French foreign legion and paratroopers, have joined jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, particularly Islamic State, Radio France Internationale revealed today. The report was confirmed by defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who nonetheless said such cases are “extemely rare”.
One former soldier is using skills acquired in the French army to train jihadis in the Deir Ezzor region of Syria. He is reportedly the emir, or commander, of a unit of 10 young Frenchmen.
The former soldiers are considered more dangerous than other French jihadis, because of their inside knowledge of the army. Commentators evoke the risk of a Fort Hood-style attack. In 2009, a Muslim US army psychiatrist killed 13 people at a US army base in Texas.
Planet hunting: the search for Earth-like worlds gains momentum
The recent discovery of Earth-like worlds, and a new planet-hunting telescope have given momentum to the search for other life in the universe. Some scientists say we will find new life very soon.
While hunting on Earth is often frowned upon - hunting in space is all the rage. In fact, some scientists say that with recent developments, we may find other life in the universe during our lifetimes.
This month, scientists working with the Kepler mission announced the discovery of eight more Earth-like planets.
Kepler's announcement, combined with European efforts, could turn the discovery of other life in the universe from science fiction into science fact.
New Earth-like planets
The planets discovered by Kepler are all relatively small, and are all orbiting stars that are smaller or cooler than the sun, says Doug Caldwell, a scientist working on the Kepler mission.
Change may be on the way for China's justice system
Chris Buckley
Hong Kong: The Chinese Communist Party has demanded an end to arrest and conviction goals for the police, prosecutors and courts, the state-run news agency said on Wednesday.
The order to end secretive performance standards are part of the government's efforts to reduce the pressure for guilty verdicts. The pressure has led to a nearly 100 per cent rate of convictions in criminal trials - and with that miscarriages of justice, which have been exposed by a string of overturned convictions, including one in which the defendant was executed for murder.
"These cases include some that were shaped by a presumption of guilt," a report from Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, said. "There has been a stress on confessions, giving less weight to evidence, and even the use of torture to secure confessions," it said.
The Saudis are every bit as sickening as Islamic State
Paul McGeough
Chief foreign correspondent
Washington: We're all braced for another grotesque video clip from the fundamentalist nutters of the so-called Islamic State, because they've released a primer on the likely beheading of two Japanese hostages – unless Tokyo will hand over a $US200 million ransom in the coming days.
IS's video production values are sickeningly creepy – the prisoners in orange jumpsuits; their would-be executioner in black, wielding a knife and spewing bile.
But in matters of jurisprudence, the Saudis are every bit as sickening as IS. They share the same Saudi-sponsored, ultra-conservative strain of Sunni Islam. And they think alike on crime and punishment – they both want to kill, kill, kill.
Soutik BiswasDelhi correspondent
Why India should not get complacent over its tiger population
How good is the news that India has almost a third more tigers than it did four years ago?
Experts say tiger numbers are the most reliable indicators of the health of the population. But they also warn that it is more important to monitor individual tiger populations every year to really get a handle on their health. "Once-in-four-years country-wide estimates do not have much practical use. But everyone, including politicians and conservationists, seems to set much in store by these numbers," says Dr K Ulhas Karanth, one of India's top conservation experts.
According to the latest tiger census, the tiger population rose from 1,706 in 2011 to 2,226 in 2014. The latest tiger estimation identified 1,540 tigers through images collected from 9,735 camera trap locations in 18 states. "Because of the extensive survey effort and camera trap results, which identified nearly 70% of the estimated tiger number; these figures are most accurate ever," claims WWF India, one of the country's top conservation organisations.
No comments:
Post a Comment