28 hours: Leading the Mosul attack, under fire, then trapped
Updated 2204 GMT (0604 HKT) November 5, 2016
For more than 28 hours, CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon and photojournalist Brice Laine were with Iraqi special forces during their push into ISIS-held Mosul. It was a new phase of the liberation operation -- switching from villages and open terrain to a dense city that a well-equipped ISIS is determined to defend.
Their convoy was leading the attack Friday when it came under attack multiple times.
Vehicles were destroyed, soldiers were hurt. Troops and journalists sought shelter in a succession of houses, calling for backup again and again.
Inside the armored vehicles, hiding with families in houses, Arwa Damon kept notes amid the heat of the battle. Here is her account, with occasional strong language. It has been lightly edited for clarity.
Hong Kong's pro-independence MPs a 'grave threat' to security, says China
The standing committee of China’s legislature says Beijing cannot afford to do nothing in the face of challenges to its authority, the Xinhua agency reportsSunday 6 November 2016 07.19 GMT
Beijing must intervene in a Hong Kong political dispute to deter advocates of independence for the city, China’s top legislative panel said, calling their actions a threat to national security.
The standing committee of China’s rubber stamp legislature, the national people’s congress, said in a statement that Beijing could not afford to do nothing in the face of challenges in Hong Kong to China’s authority, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Saturday.
The dispute in Hong Kong centres on a provocative display of anti-China sentiment by two pro-independence MPs, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, at their swearing-in ceremony last month.
A view of the Syrian war from the Golan Heights
One Syrian lieutenant described to me how he directed his artillery fire onto an Israeli jeep in the Jabhat al-Nusra occupied town of Al-Hamidiya inside Syria and destroyed it. The jeep might have been a gift or borrowed from Israel
From Colonel Saleh’s forward position on his front line north of Quneitra, he has a unique and exclusive view of the Syrian war. To his west and south is a vast area of his country which is occupied by Jabhat al-Nusra Islamist fighters – their earthen ramparts and supply roads are scarcely half a mile away. Then, another couple of miles away, Israeli soldiers are inside their concrete positions on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, above the old and Nusra-held Syrian city of Quneitra.
“You see that mosque over there, just to the right of the water tower?” the colonel asks. “Well, Nusra is there. And you see the triangular hill beyond? The Israelis are there.” It’s what you call a politically intriguing battlefield – yes, shells do come whizzing in towards the Syrians from Nusra and also from the Israelis. The Syrians concentrate their fire on Nusra but Nusra’s casualties are often taken through the Israeli lines for hospital treatment in Haifa.
Clinton Versus TrumpThe Script of a Real-Life Tragedy
Trump versus Clinton will go down in American history as the dirtiest campaign of all time. It seemed at times as though script writers had let their imaginations run wild. But the consequences for democracy in the United States will be long lasting. By SPIEGEL StaffOne could imagine the pilot episode for this series beginning with a fast-paced time-lapse video from the Hudson to the Potomac, music rising dramatically in the background. The flight would start over New York, Manhattan bathed in morning mist, before shooting up Fifth Avenue, banking over the 58-floor Trump Tower and heading out over the countryside to the southwest. The route would take us over New Jersey, past Philadelphia and then Baltimore, where the battle that inspired the US national anthem was fought -- land of the free, home of the brave. Finally, we would reach Washington D.C., the river, the Watergate building, the proud Mall with its monuments, the dome of the Capitol and then, the center of power, the White House.
It would make for a dramatic beginning of the series with the working title of "Dirty Duel" or "Sad!" or perhaps, more prosaically, "The Next President." Or simply "Trump versus Clinton." It would ultimately be a tragedy, but one with so many twists and turns, sudden mood swings, absurd side stories and crazy coincidences that it could pass as fiction. It would feel like a television docudrama written by screenplay writers who let their fantasies run wild.
Palestinians mourn final Cremisan Valley olive harvest
Extension of Israel's separation wall will soon cut Palestinians off from the valley's distinctive olive groves.
Sheren Khalel
Bethlehem, occupied West Bank - The rocky terraces of the Cremisan Valley are mostly overgrown and wild these days, as local landowners say they have lost all hope of keeping control over the more than 300 hectares of olive trees and orchards along the sloping mount, confiscated by the Israeli government earlier this year.
"I haven't been here at all this year. Look how the weeds have grown over, and trash from the street has piled up," Ricardo Jaweejat said, motioning towards the vast olive grove that has belonged to his family for generations.
"What's the point? When we learned the Israelis were taking the land, I avoided doing anything with it. It's a little bit dangerous to be here now."
Street protests in Seoul: A push to remove President Park
Saturday's protest, the largest anti-government demonstration in the capital in nearly a year, came a day after President Park apologized on live television after she allowed a mysterious confidante to manipulate power from the shadows.
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Tens of thousands of South Koreans poured into the streets of downtown Seoul on Saturday, using words including "treason" and "criminal" to demand that President Park Geun-hye step down amid an explosive political scandal.
The protest, the largest anti-government demonstration in the capital in nearly a year, came a day after President Park apologized on live television amid rising suspicion that she allowed a mysterious confidante to manipulate power from the shadows.
Holding banners, candles and colorful signs that read "Park Geun-hye out" and "Treason by a secret government," a sea of demonstrators filled a large square in front of an old palace gate and the nearby streets, singing and thunderously applauding speeches calling for the ouster of the increasingly unpopular president.
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